On November 7, 2024, the Kazanskaya Amvrosievskaya Stavropigial Women's Hermitage in the village of Shamordino, Kozelsky district, Kaluga region, was visited by a visiting accreditation team of the Interdepartmental Commission for the Education of Monastics of the Russian Orthodox Church for the purpose of accrediting courses of basic training in theology for monastics.
The accreditation team was led by Hieromonk Pavel (Cherkasov), vice-rector for educational work.
The visiting accreditation team was headed by Hieromonk Pavel (Cherkasov), vice-rector for academic work of the Church Postgraduate and Doctoral School named after Saints Cyril and Methodius. The commission also included: secretary — nun Anuvia (Vinogradova), candidate of historical sciences, secretary of the Interdepartmental Commission on the Education of Monastics, treasurer of the Ioanno-Predtechensky Stavropigial Nunnery in Moscow; nun Feonilla (Kharchenko), assistant secretary of the Interdepartmental Commission on the Education of Monastics, a resident of St. John the Baptist Monastery.
Members of the visiting group were met by the head of the courses of basic training in theology for monastics, abbess of the Kazan Amvrosievsky Stavropegic Monastery of the women's desert higumenius Sergius (Shcherbakov). The final certification of the group of female students of the first set of courses of the 2018-2023 academic years in the discipline «History of Monasticism and Ascetics» took place in a specially equipped one-story building of the monastery school with a classroom for 48 students. The school has the necessary teaching literature, visual aids and other equipment necessary for study. The courses are taught by four nuns of the monastery, who graduated from the Orthodox St. Tikhon's University for the Humanities and have the appropriate higher theological education. The credit for the discipline «History of Monasticism and Ascetics» was taken by the teacher of the course, Nun Animaisa (Komarova), who received the qualification of a teacher-religious scholar at PSTSU in 2014. The test was held orally on 20 tickets consisting of two questions. A total of 24 female students successfully passed the test at this training site, including the abbess of the monastery, Abbess Sergia (Shcherbakova).
In the Kazan Amvrosievskaya Hermitage members of the visiting group checked the documentation of the course, as well as the state of the material and technical base and library collection of basic literature of the course. In the course of their work, the members of the commission handed over to Abbess Sergia (Shcherbakova) educational and methodological complexes for eight basic disciplines of courses, published as a supplement to the magazine «Monastic Bulletin». Members of the commission also donated to the Shamorda Desert and other literature published by the Synodal Department for Monasteries and Monasticism and St. John the Baptist Nunnery.
At the end of the work, Hegumeness Sergia (Shcherbakova) gave the members of the visiting accreditation group a tour of the monastery, which celebrated its 140th anniversary on October 14. The members of the commission visited the main church of the monastery in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, built with the blessing of St. Amvrosy of Optina. The fully restored 15-domed cathedral is made in the Russian style. The temple in honor of the icon of the Mother of God «Quench my sorrows» is located in a two-story building of the monastery almshouse, and the temple of the Monk Amvrosy of Optina — on the site of the house of the elder Amvrosy, in which, coming to Shamordino, lived the elder. Members of the visiting group visited these temples and saw the house-celier of the elder Amvrosy, which by the Providence of God has been preserved and fully restored. In this house-celier the elder went to the Lord on October 10/23, 1891. The members of the commission also visited the resting place of the original founder of the Shamorda monastery and spiritual daughter of the elder Ambrosius Sikhmonakhina Sophia (Bolotova), whose memory is especially honored in the Kazan Amvrosievskaya desert founded by her.
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In the Kazan Amvrosyevskaya Stavropigial Women's Desert, an Orthodox school for the nuns of the monastery has been operating since 2012. On May 23, 2016 on its basis was created a catechetical theological school for sisters. With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, in 2018 the catechetical school was transformed, in accordance with the Church standard adopted at the end of 2017, into courses of basic training in theology for monastics of the Russian Orthodox Church on the basis of the religious organization «Kazan Amvrosievskaya Stavropigial Women's Desert of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)». At the end of 2018, the basic training courses received the submission of the Interdepartmental Commission for the Education of Monastics for the right to implement programs of basic theological training for monastics (Reg. No. 7-2018 dated 29.12.2018, series A, number 007), as well as a certificate of ecclesiastical accreditation for six years, until December 28, 2024 (Reg. No. 7-2018 dated 29.12.2018, series AK, number 007).
The training was conducted in face-to-face format once a week for four academic hours. During COVID-19, due to objective reasons, training was suspended for a year. Training was conducted according to an individual plan and independent work programs, from September 1, 2024 — according to the unified curriculum approved by the Interdepartmental Commission for the Education of Monastics of the Russian Orthodox Church. To study the disciplines of the basic part with an increased number of hours relative to the Church standard, the variable part is represented by an independent work program on the course «Sacraments of the Orthodox Church».
.Synodal Department for Monasteries and Monasticism/Patriarchy.ru
