Church of the Cathedral of Moscow Saints in Bibirevo
The church of the Cathedral of Moscow Saints was built on the territory of the church of St. Sergius of Radonezh in Bibirevo, Moscow, which construction began in 1893. It is believed that on July 13, 1873, a miracle occurred in the village of Bibirevo. During the cholera epidemic, the miraculous icon of St. Sergius of Radonezh, which was worn by monks, broke out of his hands and flew through the air. After that, the epidemic receded. Since then, the residents of Bibirevo have revered the day of July 13 as a holiday and served a prayer service to St. Sergius. The consecration of the church of St. Sergius of Radonezh took place in 1894. There was a village around the church of Sergius of Radonezh, a pond nearby, and the Oleshenka River flowed in front of the temple. There was a cemetery between the church and the pond. Before the revolution, the temples of the village of Bibirevo were patronized by the nuns of the Kremlin Ascension Monastery (until 1764, the village was in the possession of this monastery). In 1936, the church was closed by the Soviet authorities and transferred to the collective farm — the wooden church of the Annunciation of the Virgin was dismantled for the construction of a cowshed, and a warehouse was arranged in the stone church of Sergius of Radonezh. The church cemetery was already destroyed in the 1960s after Bibirevo was incorporated into Moscow and its subsequent development. In the early 1980s, the bell tower was destroyed. Only in 1989 the church and the adjacent 1.5 ha territory were returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. Divine services resumed in 1990. The construction of the Cathedral of the Moscow Saints in Bibirevo began in 2003 with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II. The church of the Cathedral of Moscow Saints is one-storey with a basement, an attached bell tower with a height of more than 45 meters and a symmetrical belfry, with an extension of the main western entrance and built-in five apses. The temple building is four—pillar, the diameter of the central drum standing on four pillars is 12 meters, the height of the central dome with a cross is 39 meters. The temple has 6 altars: five are located on the ground floor — the main one is dedicated to the Cathedral of Moscow Saints, two extreme chapels are arranged in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God “Recovery of the Dead” and St. Nicholas of Myra, two small ones are in honor of the New Martyrs of Butovo and St. Euphrosyne of Moscow. One dedicated to Equal-to-the-Apostles Nicholas of Japan is located in the basement of the temple. In addition, the church has a side altar with an antimins in honor of Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg.
Address: Moscow, Kostromskaya str., 7
