"Prayer for those close to you has a stronger effect on them than words spoken to them: because prayer brings into action the Almighty God Himself, and God does with His creation everything that pleases Him." St. Ignatius Brianchaninov. Film about the monastery - • On the 35th anniversary of the abbacy of Mother Igum... The monastery is located not far from Yaroslavl, on the left bank of the Volga, at the confluence of the small river Tolgobolka or Tolga. White stone walls with high corner towers, monastery churches with a mass of domes, shining with their domes and crosses and a massive bell tower reigning over all this, merge into one majestic slender mass and involuntarily attract the eyes of travelers along the Volga. The Tolga monastery arose during the "fierce" time of the Mongol-Tatar invasion and princely strife as the spiritual center of the Yaroslavl region. In 1314, Bishop Trifon, having completed his inspection of the vast Rostov diocese and returning by water from Belozerye, "did not reach the city of Yaroslavl by six miles and stood on the bank of the river on the Volga, in the mountainous country to spend the night on the 8th day of the month of August." At midnight, the bishop woke up and saw an extraordinary light, then he took his staff and left the tent. And then "there appeared to the bishop beyond the Volga a pillar of light, indescribable from earth to heaven, and a bridge appeared to him across the Volga." Struck by such an extraordinary phenomenon, the saint took his staff and crossed the Volga over the miraculous bridge. Here he saw that the light was coming from the icon of the Mother of God, "not on a tree, not on the ground, but standing in the air." The saint prayed for a long time before the icon, and finally returned to his tent over the same bridge. Before the bishop's departure for Yaroslavl, the servants missed his staff, but "they did not find it anywhere in the camp and informed the bishop that the staff had been in his tent since evening." The bishop, "wanting to glorify the miraculous image of the Most Holy Mother of God," ordered the servants to sail beyond the Volga and take the staff there from the place he indicated with his finger. Here they found the icon of the Mother of God, standing "already on the ground in an ancient forest," between the trees, and there they also found the staff. And then Bishop Tryphon, leaving the path to Rostov, blessed the construction of a wooden church on the site of the appearance of the icon. The bishop and his companions "began to cut down the forest with their own hands and clear the place and prepare wood for a small church." News of the miraculous phenomenon reached Yaroslavl, and many townspeople and residents of the surrounding villages hastened to help the bishop build the church: "and all the great multitude of people ran to that place to the bishop... and assisted in the work being done." They were the first to experience the miraculous power of the icon: "and many healings were then performed on those afflicted with various ailments." The construction of the church was completed in one day, and the discovered icon was transferred to it. Bishop Tryphon, having consecrated the church in the name of the Entry of the Mother of God into the temple, "gathered the brethren and built a monastery and appointed an abbot in it." The monastery began to be called Tolga after the river that flows here into the Volga, and the celebration of the miraculous icon of the Tolga Mother of God was established on August 8, the day of the appearance of the shrine. Information about the early history of the monastery is scant and fragmentary, it is contained not so much in the few surviving documents, but mainly in various editions of the "Tale of the Appearance and Miracles of the Icon of the Tolga Mother of God". One of the reasons for such brevity of information is the fire that occurred in the monastery several decades after its foundation and destroyed all its charters and documents. The miraculous icon was found after the fire, whole and unharmed, "in an oak grove on a tree" near the monastery. The monks, who considered the shrine to be lost, took the image and "joyfully carried it with singing to the former place, where it had been after its appearance". Later, a chapel was built on the site of the miraculous salvation of the icon. On September 16, 1392, the miracle of myrrh-streaming from the icon of the Tolga Mother of God occurred. In one of the later versions of the story, this event is presented as follows: “One day, while the brethren were celebrating matins, suddenly myrrh flowed from the hand of the icon of the Mother of God, which filled the entire church with a great fragrance. And this myrrh became the source of many healings and miracles; it had the blessed power to heal various ailments.” In memory of the miracle, a solemn service was held annually at the monastery. In 1553, Tsar Ivan the Terrible visited the Tolga Monastery and was healed by its miraculous relic. He made a pilgrimage to the northern lands: "he went to the Kirillov Monastery, and at that time his legs were ill, and they traveled from Kirillov by boat along the Volga River, and they arrived at the house of the Most Holy Mother of God to the miraculous icon, and he prayed to the Most Holy Mother of God with the desire to be healed from his illness and became healthy, and went on his way rejoicing." The grateful monarch "ordered the miraculous icon to be greatly decorated with silver and gold and beads and precious stones. Therefore, he ordered a large stone church to be built to praise God and to establish that honorable monastery. He also gave a considerable contribution there." Thus, the first royal visit to the Tolga Monastery turned out to be an especially joyful event, both for the high visitor and his entire retinue, and for the monastery itself.