The Church of the Grebnevskaya Icon of the Mother of God is the oldest church of the 17th century in the city of Odintsovo.
The emergence of the temple
The village of Odintsovo, on the Mozhaisky section of the Smolensk road, at the end of the 17th century acquired by Artamon Sergeevich Matveev, a diplomat and associate of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. At his behest, a wooden church built here in honor of the martyr Artemon, the heavenly patron of the new owner of Odintsovo.
The boyar did not spare funds for decoration, he acquired rich church utensils. Artamon Matveyev, like the ancient saint Artemon, ended his life as a martyr. A supporter of Peter I, he torn to pieces by the archers during the riot of 1682.
In 1797-1801, on the site of the dilapidated wooden Artemonovskaya church in the village of Odintsovo, a stone church was built , dedicated to the Grebnevskaya icon of the Mother of God. The construction paid for by Countess Elizaveta Vasilyevna Zubova, the new owner of Odintsovo.
In November 1801, the Grebnevskaya church consecrated. The image of the Grebnev Icon of the Mother of God brought by the residents of the city of Greben to Dmitry Donskoy, when the prince returned victorious after the Battle of Kulikovo over Mamai from the banks of the Don to Moscow.
The Grand Duke with reverence accepted the icon, arriving in Moscow, ordered to put it in the Assumption Cathedral. Many miracles performed from this icon, the sick healed.
From the history of the Grebnevskaya church
In September 1812, the cavalry troops of the French Marshal Murat, retreating along the Smolensk road, plundered the temple.
Interesting! Despite this, the priests of the Grebnev Church prayed for the sending of victory over the enemy.
In 1898, a refectory with two side-chapels added to the church – in the name of Nicholas the Wonderworker and Sergei of Radonezh, as well as a three-tiered bell tower.
Divine services in the church continued after the 1917 revolution, but the church’s precious utensils completely confiscated. In 1938, the church closed, the wall paintings were painted over, and the iconostases removed. Gradually they destroyed the fence and dropped the bells.
Household warehouses and a soldier’s bathhouse, a hostel and an office set up in the church. In 1989, the temple transferred to the Orthodox Church, and in 2002, with donations from parishioners, new carved mahogany iconostases and icon cases for especially revered icons installed.
Temple architecture
Grebnevskaya Church in Odintsovo is a brick church with white stone details. On a cross-shaped base there an oval rotunda, a round building covered with a massive dome with a small dome, which crowned with a bronze figure of an angel with a cross. In the northeast an ancient chapel, which covered by a rafter tent.
The façades of the temple decorated with twin pilasters and four-column porticoes. Pilasters are vertical protrusions on the surface of walls with a volume of several centimeters.
The four-column portico is a protruding part of the structure in the form of 4 overlapping columns.
The external simplicity of the building “diluted” with panels and medallions of window openings. A panel is a decorative element of a building in the form of a slab, a rectangular frame decorated with decor. The medallion is an oval frame with an artistic image.
The interior of the temple is elegant and beautiful. The niches of the facades decorated with murals of the 19th century. The choir stays on the west side of the building supported by two pairs of marbled columns. White iconostases – with fine gilded carvings.
The central iconostasis, made in the 18th century, consists of three decreasing tiers, completed with a crucifix. The gilded carved frames that frame the icons stand out against its white background. In the altar there a carved canopy and a floor made of metlakh tiles: a ceramic carpet assembled from multi-colored pieces of simple geometric shapes.
Modern life of the Grebnevskaya church
There is a Sunday school at the church, where they study the Orthodox traditions of the lives of the saints, the law of God. Classes for children from 4 years old conducted in a playful way with demonstration of films. Children learn songs and do handicrafts. Classes end with a joint tea party.
For religious holidays, children prepare concerts and stage performances. The guys show their creativity in hospitals, hospitals, orphanages and nursing homes for the elderly.
Interesting! Children play football, table tennis and artistic gymnastics. Children are taught hand-to-hand combat and the basics of Greco-Roman wrestling.
A Youth Club opened, where circles for the manufacture of ceramics and the study of the basics of icon painting work. Young people go on pilgrimage trips. In summer, a youth camp organized at the Grebnevskaya church, which opened in the vicinity of Zvenigorod. The leaders of the camp, the priests of the temple, conduct the Liturgy every day, which is accompanied by the singing of the choir.
The main direction of the Orthodox youth center’s work is participation in divine services, altar and choir obedience, and helping hospitals take care of the sick.
