The temple in honor of St. Gregory of Neo-that is in Moscow on Polyanka, has a very ancient history. Originally it was felled from a tree on the orders of Prince Vasily II, nicknamed the Dark One. According to legend, this was done in gratitude to Heaven for deliverance from the Tatar captivity.
Today from that wooden structure is notthere is also a trace. In its place stands a majestic stone church. But even when this place was a wasteland, Prince Vasily, staying in the Horde, swore to God that in the place from which the Moscow Kremlin would see, he would build a temple and consecrate it in honor of that saint whose memory would be celebrated that day. On November 30, 1445, he was to see the fortress walls of the capital. According to the Orthodox calendar, this day the memory of St. Gregory the Wonderworker from New Caesarea is celebrated. This circumstance determined the fate of the future church, now known as a church on the Glinka of Neo-Sasaria.
The wooden church stood until the 17th century.In 1669-1679, near it a stone church grows. It happened on the initiative of the tsar's confessor, the priest Andrei Savinov, with the help of sovereign donations. Church patronarch Nikon gave a church blessing to the building, but the patriarch Joachim had already consecrated the finished church of Gregory of Neoecasary. Construction was led by the best architects, which were found at that time. History preserved for posterity their names: Karp Guba and John the Grasshopper.
Architecturally in the church of St. GregoryNeo-Caesarea reflected the standard for the time Moscow practice of church construction, suggesting the five-domed and tent-type bell tower. The temple was decorated with tiles and floral ornament. Their authorship belongs to a person whom we also know by name. They were famous at that time potter Stepan Polubes.
To the development of the temple project with respect to the fact thatnow would be called a design, the hand of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich himself put his hand. It was he who ordered the painting of the temple of Gregory of Neoecasary in red for brick, and the tent covered with whitewash and turquoise. As a result, the church turned out so beautiful that the people called it the Red Church. The iconostasis was painted by royal artists and icon painters, led by the well-known Simon Ushakov. His authorship in this project belongs, for example, to the image of the Mother of God "Eleusa-Kikkskaya". Of course, now he is not in the temple, but among the exhibits of the Tretyakov Gallery.
In the same church, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was marriedwith Natalia Naryshkina in 1671. In it, they baptized an infant, who would later become emperor Peter the Great. Even today, at the temple of Gregory of Neocaesarea, a font is kept, in which the future sovereign reformer was baptized. In principle, such attention to the temple of the royal family was fully understandable, since his abbot was traditionally the confessor of the tsar, and the temple itself had the status of a courtier.
During the events of 1812 the church in PolyankaGrigory Neoecasary also distinguished himself. If, with respect to other churches, the French allowed themselves acts of vandalism and burned many religious buildings on a par with ordinary houses, in this case they behaved unprecedentedly. Namely: in the church of Gregory of Neocaesarea, soldiers were on duty, whose task was to protect the building from looting and from fire. French fighters carried water in buckets to protect it from damage by a fire that devastated the capital. On this occasion, Napoleon lamented, saying that if only it were possible, he would put this church in his hand and drove to Paris.
But what did the interventionists-French do not dothe success of the Russian communists. For 22 years after the revolution of 1917, divine services continued to be performed in the church of St. Gregory of Neo-Jesara. But in 1939 it was closed and half destroyed. The last abbot was killed on the Butovo landfill.
In the hands of the faithful, the church returned only in 1994.At the same time, divine services were resumed. By 1996, the temple was restored to a sufficient degree, so that it could be sanctified, which happened with the participation of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II. The relics rest, according to official sources, the patron of the church - St. Gregory of Neocaesaria. They were handed over to the parish community by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh in 1998.
At the present time, apart from this shrine, in thisthe temple contains particles of the relics of many other saints, which is of some value in the eyes of believers. In addition to the main throne in honor of this father of the church, there are two more - in memory of St. Gregory the Theologian and in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "Bogolyubsky". The rector of the church at the moment is the bishop at rest, Jerome (Chernyshov).
The easiest way to get to the temple from the metro station "Polyanka". The full address of the parish is as follows: Moscow, Bolshaya Polyanka street, 29A.
As for the timetable, worship services in the church are performed on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.
On Saturday:
On Sunday:
A more detailed schedule of the church of Gregory of Neocaesaria must be specified in the church, as it is updated monthly.
