Yelizarov or Yeleazarov Convent (Елеазаров монастырь) is a small convent founded as a monastery in 1447 to the north of Pskov

Pskov

Pskov is an ancient city and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, Russia, located in the northwest of Russia about east from the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population: -Early history:...

, along the road leading to Gdov

Gdov

Gdov is a town and the administrative center of Gdovsky District of Pskov Oblast, Russia, situated on the Gdovka River, just from its outflow into Lake Peipus. Population:...

, by a local peasant named Eleazar. He constructed the wooden church of Three Holy Fathers, wherein he was interred upon his death on 15 May 1481. Eleazar was canonized at the Stoglavy Sobor

Stoglavy Sobor

The Stoglavy Sobor was a church council held in Moscow in 1551, with the participation of Tsar Ivan IV, Metropolitan Macarius, and representatives of the Boyar Duma...

 in 1551.

In the mid-16th century, the monastery was heavily fortified and attained a position of great importance and celebrity, owing to its learned hegumen

Hegumen

Hegumen, hegumenos, igumen, or ihumen is the title for the head of a monastery of the Eastern Orthodox Church or Eastern Catholic Churches, similar to the one of abbot. The head of a convent of nuns is called hegumenia or ihumenia . The term means "the one who is in charge", "the leader" in...

, Philotheus of Pskov

Philotheus of Pskov

Philotheus was a hegumen of the Yelizarov Monastery in Pskov in the 16th century. He is credited with authorship of the Legend of the White Cowl and the Third Rome prophecy....

, who is credited with authorship of the Legend of the White Cowl

Legend of the White Cowl

The Legend of the White Cowl is a Russian Orthodox story first recorded by the monk Philotheus of Pskov in 1510. It tells of the passage of a religious relic of great significance through great danger from Rome to Constantinople and finally to Moscow, just as many Russians at the time believed the...

and the Third Rome

Third Rome

The term Third Rome describes the idea that some European city, state, or country is the successor to the legacy of the Roman Empire and its successor state, the Byzantine Empire ....

 prophecy. It was during his hegumenship that the monastery became known for its school of icon-painters and its still-standing cathedral was built. Some scholars believe that the only known copy of the Lay of Igor's Campaign was created by one of local monks at the behest of Philotheus.

After seven decades of Soviet neglect, the monastery was revived as a nunnery patronized by Lyudmila Putina

Lyudmila Putina

Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Putina is the wife of former Russian President and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.She married Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin on July 28, 1983; they have two daughters, Maria, born 1985 and Yekaterina...

 and Lyubov Sliska

Lyubov Sliska

Lyubov Konstantinovna Sliska is a Russian politician.Since January 2000, she has been a deputy of the State Duma and a First Deputy Speaker of it ....

 who commissioned a luxurious guest house for their prolonged stays at the convent. The convent's mother superior supposedly had a portrait of Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...

hanging in her bed-chamber. Both Putina and Sliska attended her funeral in Moscow in 2010.

External links