The Convent of St. John of Rila

John of Rila

Saint John of Rila was the first Bulgarian hermit. He was revered as a saint while he was still alive. The legend surrounding him tells of wild animals that freely came up to him and birds that landed in his hands. His followers founded many churches in his honor, including the famous Rila...

(Иоанновский монастырь) is the largest convent

Convent

A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...

 in St. Petersburg, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 and the only stauropegic

Stauropegic

Stauropegic, also rendered stavropegic, stauropegial, or stavropegial is a title or description applied to Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Christian monasteries subordinated directly to a Patriarch or Synod, rather than to their local Bishop...

 monastery in the region. It was established on the bank of the Karpovka River

Karpovka River

The Karpovka is a small river of the Neva basin in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It separates Aptekarsky Island from Petrogradsky Island . The Karpovka flows from the Bolshaya Nevka to the Malaya Nevka and is 3 km long. The Russian name is derived from the old Finnish name of the river, Korpijoki...

 by Saint John of Kronstadt

John of Kronstadt

Saint John of Kronstadt was a Russian Orthodox archpriest and member of the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. He was a striking and somewhat unconventional figure in his personality but was deeply pious and immensely energetic...

 (1900) as a branch of the Sura Monastery of St. John the Baptist

John the Baptist

John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...

. The main pentacupolar church of the Twelve Apostles (1902) was built to a Neo-Byzantine

Neo-Byzantine architecture

The Byzantine Revival was an architectural revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It emerged in 1840s in Western Europe and peaked in the last quarter of 19th century in the Russian Empire; an isolated Neo-Byzantine school was active in Yugoslavia...

 design by Nikolay Nikonov. The ground floor contains the marble tomb of St. John of Kronstadt

John of Kronstadt

Saint John of Kronstadt was a Russian Orthodox archpriest and member of the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. He was a striking and somewhat unconventional figure in his personality but was deeply pious and immensely energetic...

. The convent was disbanded by the Soviets in 1923. It was reopened as a branch of Pühtitsa Convent

Puhtitsa Convent

Pühtitsa Convent is a convent located in Eastern Estonia between Lake Peipus and the Gulf of Finland.-History:...

in 1991.