Our Lady’s Church of Joy for All Who Sorrow

Categories / Architecture/Architectural Monuments/Religious Architecture (see also Religion.Church)
Categories / Religion. Church/Places of Worship (see also Architecture and Urban Planning)
OUR LADY’S CHURCH OF JOY FOR ALL WHO SORROW, located at 24 Obukhovskoy Oborony Avenue, was built in 1894-98 in the Muscovite style (architects A.I. von Gogen and A.V. Ivanov) in commemoration of the miraculous renewal of the icon of the same name, which occurred in 1888. The original icon had been held in a wooden chapel, when during a lightening storm the alms-box was struck by lightning sending coins flying through the air and embedding some half-kopeks in the icon. Consequently, the icon was called Our Lady “The Joy for All Who Sorrow (with half-kopeck)” thereafter. Later the sacred icon adorned with a golden frame and precious casing was placed into a chapel built nearby (1907-09, architect von Hogen). The main nave of the church on a high pedestal was decorated with two floors of kokoshniks and crowned with five domes; a tented belfry was built adjacent to the church. S.T. Shelkov did stylized painting of the church interiors in 1913. Our Lady’s Church of Joy for All Who Sorrow could seat 1,200. The revered simpleton Matrenushka the Barefooted was buried in the church-yard. In 1932, the church was closed, and taken down in 1933. The chapel was closed down in 1938 and returned to the faithful in 1991; today it functions as a Metochion of the Zelenetsky Monastery of the Holy Trinity.

References: Антонов В. В., Кобак А. В. Святыни Санкт-Петербурга: Ист.-церков. энцикл. СПб., 1997. Т. 1. С.153-56.

V. V. Antonov. Gogen Alexander Ivanovich von
Ivanov Alexander Vasilievich
Matrenushka-Bosonozhka
Shelkov Sergey Timofeevich
Obukhovskoy Oborony Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 24
Антонов В. В., Кобак А. В. Святыни Санкт-Петербурга: Ист.-церков. энцикл. СПб., 1994