St Macarius Yellow Water Monastery of the Trinity

The Yellow Water Monastery of the Trinity was founded by St Macarius in 1434 on the left bank of the River Volga, not far from the Yellow Lake. In 1439, the cloister was burnt to the ground by Tatars from Kazan, who murdered the monks and led St Macarius off into captivity.

The monastery was restored in the 1620s, when a starets called Abraham founded a new cloister on the site. The miracle-working icon of St Macarius was brought to the abbey and the monks began to hold the renowned St Macarius Fair, contributing to the prosperity of the cloister.

The Yellow Water Monastery of the Trinity produced many fine priests. Both Patriarch Nikon and Protopope Habakkuk served there as lay brothers in the early seventeenth century.

The main buildings were constructed in the second half of the seventeenth century. These were the Trinity Cathedral (1658), Church of the Assumption (1651) and the gateway Church of St Michael the Archangel (1670).

After the St Macarius Fair moved to Nizhny Novgorod in 1817, the monastery fell into decline. The cloister was closed down in 1868. It reopened in 1882, only this time as a convent.