Monastery of Kosma and Damian. Kosmo-Damianovo Monastery. Healing spring Savlukh-Su

In Crimea, among picturesque rocks and dense forest, towering above the sea, there is a modest but beautiful monastery. The Cosmo-Damianovsky Monastery in Crimea is located on the territory of a nature reserve, where it is pleasant and calm to walk, contemplating the nature that only God could create. On the territory of the monastery there is a holy spring, Savlukh-Su, the water from which is considered healing. Getting to this place is quite difficult.

Kosmo-Damianovsky Monastery

History of the formation of the community

The history of this monastery is not like others; the path of its formation is complex and very interesting. A spring with healing water in this place, near the Konek ridge, has existed since ancient times.

Legends before Tatar times said that the healing spring, whose name translated means “healthy water,” had a connection with the holy healers Cosmas and Damian. The day of veneration of those Saints is July 14, on this day at all times crowds of believers flocked to the source.

The middle of the 19th century was the time of construction of the monastery. By order of Archbishop Innocent, near a famous spring, they began to develop a place for a monastery. Unfortunately, the Crimean War interfered with the archbishop's plans. After the fighting ended, construction resumed.

About other Crimean churches and holy places:

• Inkerman St. Clement Cave Monastery
• Monastery in honor of St. Apostle Luke in the village of Laki
• Bakhchisarai Holy Dormition Cave Monastery

The first rector was Hegumen Macarius, who served in his post for many years. The territory of the monastery turned out to be small; two churches, utility buildings, a chapel, and a living vestibule were built .

Interesting! The abbot and brethren carried building materials from Simferopol itself on their shoulders on foot. Everything that was built on the territory of the monastery was done by them independently; there was no talk of any workers then. In addition, the brethren later built a road 8 km from the monastery.

The state did not allocate money for the construction of the community; everything was built with money collected from Orthodox people. It was difficult to live in such a place, there was little land, all the local land was occupied by mountains and forests.

Abbot Macarius held the entire monastery in his hands, strengthened himself and encouraged the small brethren. But after his death due to illness, the community began to wither until it was completely empty. In 1900, the authorities resettled the male fraternity. The men's monastery existed in these places for exactly 43 years.

The healing spring of Cosmas and Damian

The further fate of the monastery

After the dissolution of the monks, local authorities began to establish a nunnery on this territory. Young criminals were sent there for re-education with nuns.

At the beginning of the 20th century, despite poverty, the community began to flourish again. The first abbess was nun Barsanuphia, who came from the Trinity-Paraskevievsky Monastery with 25 sisters. Even Tsar Nicholas came to the service with his family, with his sick son, who was brought to the waters of the spring. In 1911, a protected area for royal hunting appeared around the monastery.

In those days, the walls of the monastery contained two shrines:

• the icon of the Mother of God of Jerusalem - it was brought from Athos with a monk who lived there and was moved to the Crimean monastery; the image was painted specifically for the monastery;
• icon of Saints Cosmas and Damian with particles of relics.

The cruel times of Soviet power did not spare the women's monastery, hidden in the forest. The community was closed, the nuns were kicked out into the street, and the Great Patriotic War caused enormous damage to the territory. The Nazis razed all the buildings that were in the monastery; only the chapel near the source survived.

Restoration of the monastery began in the 1990s. It was very difficult to restore the monastery, since the lands had long been given to the Crimean Nature Reserve, and local businessmen did not want to share their profits with the monks. As a result, the monastery was built in the village of Partenit.

Current state of the monastery

The Cosmo-Damianovsky Monastery in the village of Partenit is still not fully equipped. Two temples were built on the territory:

• in honor of John of Goths;

The monastery has a second courtyard in the village of Zaprudnoye; a temple in honor of the Hieromartyr Porfiry is just being built on the territory.

Temple at the monastery of Cosmas and Damian, Crimea

From public life, pilgrimage trips are carried out in the community. The program includes: morning worship, a prayer service, and a tour of the monastery. Those who wish can take a dip in the holy spring or draw water from it. At the end of the day, the pilgrims have a meal, the brethren treat the guests to tea from the collected Crimean herbs.

For information! You can find out more about pilgrimage trips on the official website of the monastery.

Water from the source is considered healing for the kidneys and liver; this property has been experimentally proven by scientists. Science also confirms that water has a special structure and composition. This place is saturated with God’s grace and you can feel it only by being there.

Shrines

In the heart of the Crimean mountains, in a deep forest gorge between the giants Babugan and Sinabdag, a small monastery hid from the world. Among other monastic monasteries of the Crimean Mountains, the Kosmo-Damianovskaya monastery is especially remarkable - not only for its amazing isolation and pristine wildness of the place, but most of all for its wonderful source.

The monastery is built along a mountain slope around the source of Saints Cosmas and Damian; Its water, always cold and clear, like crystal, has been famous for its healing power since ancient times - since the time of the first Christians.

From the biography of the holy unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian, in whose name this small monastery was built, it is clear that these two brother doctors, having become Christians and devoting themselves to free healing and helping suffering humanity, lived in Rome, were killed there by their envious teacher and buried "by the flow of waters." But among the inhabitants of Crimea, since ancient times, there has been a tradition that Cosmas and Damian, expelled from Rome, were killed in Crimea and buried precisely at the very source at which a monastery now founded in their name now exists. And therefore the legend about the lives of these saints is told here differently, namely in this way:

Two brothers, Cosmas and Damian, being skilled doctors and having become Christians from pagans, were exiled for their faith to the Crimea under the Roman emperor Diocletian. Here they were killed in the mountains by one of their enemies, who was jealous of their virtue and the skill with which they knew how to heal all the sick by laying on of hands. The killer buried them at a source of water in the mountains.

A long time passed after their death when it happened that one of the city residents of the country hated his wife, took her to the mountains, gouged out her eyes there and let her wander among places unknown to her, far from any habitation. The unfortunate woman was already dying of hunger when two people unknown to her appeared to her; they said that they were two brother doctors, Cosmas and Damian; They brought her to the source and told her to wash herself in its waters. When she did this, her vision suddenly returned.

After returning to her village, she told there about what had happened. Then some other resident of the country, wanting to experience the healing properties of the water in the source, threw a dead ram into it. The ram immediately came to life. Since then, all the inhabitants of the surrounding villages believed in the healing properties of water, and this faith later passed from Christians to the Tatars, who named the source of Kosma and Damian - Savlakh-Su, which means “living”, “healing” water.

Great silence reigns in these mountains and in this transcendental monastery. Once a year, on July 1, on the day of memory of Cosmas and Damian, a great pilgrimage is made to the monastery: many people flock here from all corners of Crimea to seek healing in the Holy Spring from all possible ailments. Both old and young come here, both the sick and the healthy make their way - without distinction of nationalities and religions: Christians and Muslims, Russians and Greeks, Ukrainians and Tatars, Karaites and Jews... Everyone goes to the source of Cosmas and Damian - with faith and hope to receive healing from your ailments. The miraculous power of the healing spring does not dry out, and the legend of the miracles of the holy brother-healers is alive among the people. And that is why today a prayer is offered here for healing from mental and physical illnesses: - Holy unmercenaries and miracle workers Cosmas and Damian, visit and heal our infirmities!

The monastery is located at the foot of Chatyr-Dag, between the slopes of the Chuchel and Chernaya mountains. The spring of Saints Cosmas and Damian has long been considered healing. At the end XIX century, a monastery was built here with donations from pilgrims. From 1856 to 1899 The monastery was a male monastery, and then was converted into a female one. Now he has become a man again.

In 1911, Nicholas visited the monastery II, prayed at the spring and drank holy water. In 1923, the monastery was closed and a biological station and a nature museum were placed here, and in the chapel above the holy springthere was a hatchery for hatching trout fry.

During the war, all buildings were destroyed; only by miracle did the chapel above the source survive. Currently, the Kosmo-Damianovsky Monastery has resumed its activities. The source, whose water contains a high percentage of silver, is healing and helps with diseases of the liver, kidneys, and stomach. You can get to the source and the monastery from Alushta on foot (approx. 25 km) or by car. To travel/pass to it you must obtain a pass from the administration of the Crimean Nature Reserve (Alushta, Partizanskaya St., 44). It’s better to find out about the cost of the pass yourself on the reserve’s website.

“Among the Tauride Mountains there is still a healing spring, bearing the name of Saints Cosmas and Damian, which was brought out of the earth, according to ... tradition, by their prayers...”-Archbishop of Kherson and Tauride Innocent, July 1, 1855.

20 kilometers from the city of Alushta, at an altitude of about 800 meters above sea level, at the foot of Mount Chatyr-Dag, there is a functioning monastery of the holy unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian. This amazingly beautiful place is surrounded by the forested slopes of Babugan, Mount Chernaya and the Konek ridge. The men's monastery was founded here in the distant 19th century next to the source of the holy brothers Cosmas and Damian of Rome.

According to legend, this holy spring appeared in Crimea through the prayers of the holy unmercenaries themselves. Let us recall that the holy brothers Cosmas and Damian lived in Rome in the 3rd century AD. during the time of persecution of Christians. Their mother Theodotia raised her sons in the Christian faith, and, having learned medicine, Cosmas and Damian successfully healed sick people according to their faith. They knew the words of the Savior addressed to the disciples: “Freely you have received, freely give” and did not take any payment for their help. For their selfless treatment, the brothers were called “unpaid doctors,” and they usually told the sick: “We do not heal illnesses with our own power, but with the power of Christ, the True God. Believe in Him and you will be healthy.” Through the prayers of the holy brothers, the sick received not only physical, but spiritual healing, and many turned to Christ. For their good Christian life, for their confession of Jesus Christ, Saints Cosmas and Damian were exiled by the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Carinus to the Crimea (at that time these lands were called Tauris and were a distant Roman colony, a place of exile for Christians). In Crimea, the brothers continued their ministry to people, healing the sick and preaching the name of the Lord. From the lives of the holy unmercenaries we know that they suffered martyrdom for Christ in 284 at the hands of their former teacher, who was filled with envy of his disciples. He tricked them into the forest and killed them. This is how the holy unmercenaries and miracle workers Kosmas and Damian ended their earthly journey, but even now, through their prayers, many miracles and healings occur.

So, during their stay in Crimea, the holy brothers Cosmas and Damian prayerfully asked the Lord for a source, which has not dried up since then. The water in it tastes very pleasant and is unusually clear. In our time, the Odessa Research Institute of Balneology conducted research that showed that the spring water contains magnesium, potassium, manganese, lithium and silver, which is rarely found in natural sources. For more than 1,700 years, people have been coming to this source with faith and hope to receive healing from their ailments. He is revered not only by the Orthodox, but also by representatives of other faiths: Tatars, Karaites, Catholics. In Tatar, the holy spring of Kosma and Damian is called Savlukh-Su, which translates as “healthy water” or “water of health.”

Kosmo-Damianovsky Monastery

This holy spring has long been famous for its miraculous healings. There is a legend about a local Tatar who took his hated wife to the mountains, gouged out her eyes and left her alone in the mountains. A poor blind woman was dying of hunger, and two strangers came to her and introduced themselves as Saints Cosmas and Damian. The brothers ordered the woman to wash herself in their spring, and her sight returned. Returning to her village, the woman told about what happened to her. Another legend tells how a certain shepherd, sick with leprosy, fell asleep near a holy spring, exhausted by his illness. In a dream, he saw two people who said that they were Cosmas and Damian; the saints ordered the shepherd to plunge into the source. Having awakened from sleep, the patient did everything he was told and fell asleep again. The holy unmercenaries again appeared to him in a dream and said: “You will be completely healthy today, but remember that you must come to our source every year on July 1 to wash your body. Advise your suffering brothers to do the same.”

Another case of healing occurred on July 1, 1908: a certain Greek Kirill came to the monastery of Saints Cosmas and Damian from Gurzuf, who said that he had been ill for a whole year and almost never got up - the doctors considered him hopeless. At the end of June, he dreamed of four wondrous men and said: “Get up, you will be healthy, just go to the Kosmodamianovsky Monastery, bathe in its source.” The next night the dream repeated itself. The men turned to the patient again: “You thought, why didn’t you ask who we are? We are Cosmas and Damian, and the other two are the apostles Peter and Paul. Go to the monastery and you will be healthy.” On July 1, the Greek Cyril served a prayer service to the holy unmercenaries in the Kosmodamianovsky Monastery, bathed in the spring, after which he became completely healthy.
Patients of different religions from all over Crimea were brought to the holy spring of Cosmas and Damian. On the temple holiday on July 1, a huge number of sick people flocked here, although there were no buildings for pilgrims or worship near the source. Only in the 20s of the 19th century, at the expense of Countess Sofia Pototskaya, a wooden outbuilding for pilgrims was built at the source, and in the 50s of the same century, one Simferopol merchant, having received healing from an illness, erected a log house with images of Saints Cosmas and Damian at the source . The monastery appeared here a little later thanks to the zeal and efforts of the Archbishop of Kherson and Tauride Innocent.

A stone chapel over the holy spring of Cosmas and Damian was erected in 1891 instead of the first wooden one. The new chapel was very beautiful and convenient for holding services. In the center of the chapel there was a small stone reservoir, in which the source was enclosed - here they took water for drinking. Filling the reservoir, the water flowed into a large wooden pool, which served as a bath for pilgrims and was located in a closed room. The bathhouse was divided into two halves: men's and women's. Many pilgrims swam in the pool, despite the low water temperature (+8 degrees), while others were only partially washed. The water in the pool was not stagnant, the excess flowed off. But if necessary, all the water in the pool could be completely changed in just 25 minutes using a special device. On the temple holiday on July 1, a lot of people usually gathered in the monastery, most of whom came from Simferopol. Whole families usually left in advance, stocking up on food and things. Stopping near the monastery, the pilgrims changed into festive clothes and went to the source. The Tatars had a custom: after bathing in holy water, they left scraps of their clothes on the walls of the pool, believing that diseases would remain there with them. After the festive service, food stalls were opened, bonfires were lit everywhere, and trout was caught in the stream. At the end of the prayer, the pilgrims had lunch, collected their things and set off on their way back.

Monastery of St. Cosmas and Damian

For 43 years, from 1856 to 1899, the Kosmodamianovsky monastery was a male monastery, then it was converted into a female one. But it was always a rather poor monastery, existing only on small donations from believers. During the Soviet years, the tragic fate of many monasteries did not escape the Kosmodamian monastery; it was liquidated, and its territory was transferred to the Crimean Nature Reserve. During the Great Patriotic War, all the buildings of the former monastery of Saints Cosmas and Damian were destroyed, except for the chapel over the holy spring.

70 years after the closure of the monastery, monastic life resumed here again in 1994, now the monastery is for men. An ancient monastery shrine returned to the monastery - an icon with particles of the holy relics of Cosmas and Damian, now it is kept in the monastery. Services are held regularly in the chapel. On the day of remembrance of the unmercenary saints Cosmas and Damian (July 14), numerous pilgrims flock to the monastery.

Of course, this is a completely unique and blessed place: the holy wonderworkers Cosmas and Damian themselves lived here, here they healed, here they prayed. And for almost 2000 years this holy spring has not dried up - how many people it has received into its holy waters during this time, how many people have been healed here, how much happiness has poured out here!!! Our ancestors came here with great faith and received what they asked for, and what a great happiness that today we have the opportunity to touch this amazing shrine, pray to the holy free doctors and ask for their intercession and help in our illnesses, both mental and physical.

Address: Crimea, the foot of Mount Chatyrdag (20 km from the city of Alushta).