Excursion to the Nativity of the Theotokos Sanaksar Monastery

In the middle of the XVII century, during the reign of the "quietest" Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and during the sorrowful patriarchate of His Holiness Nikon, there lived in the city of Temnikov a certain Luka Evsyukov, a scribe and a serving nobleman, whose position, as it is said in the old book, was such: in summer, on horseback with a saber, in winter — in a Command hut. He was a prayerful man, had love and zeal for the monastic order, as evidenced by the good fruit of his life. For owning land two versts from the city, behind extensive hayfields on the opposite floodplain left bank of the Moksha, at a beautiful bend and the Sanaksar backwater that branched off from the riverbed, in a pine forest that approached along the hill, he decided to found a monastery here, finding this place very convenient for a solitary monastic life. Luka Evsyukov invited elder Theodosius from the Old Kadoma Trinity Monastery in 1659, who, having come and captivated by the beauty of this place, decided to stay here forever. With the help of Luka Evsyukov and, probably, the brothers who came from the Old Kadoma monastery, as well as the local desert lovers who joined, elder Theodosius cut down first of all a chapel to perform the daily prayer rule, and then they cleared the forest in moderation, equipped simple dwellings, dug up and planted a vegetable garden for food. Everything is as usual... The small brotherhood gathered about the Lord lived in this way in squalor for about ten years.
The city Temnikovsky and district people of various ranks and ranks, God-loving people, seeing the humble pious life of the Sanaksar ascetics and the multiplication of the brethren, beat their foreheads to His Holiness Patriarch Joasaph II for blessing and permission to build them a church in the name of the Most Pure Theotokos in the Sanaksar desert, the Presentation of the miraculous Icon of Her Vladimir, and to be a monastery deserted for monks here, exposing in their request there is also the reason that there are no male or female monasteries nearby and there is nowhere for those who want to take the veil to fulfill this desire.