In the vicinity of the village of Diveevo, Nizhny Novgorod region, there are two shrines that attract thousands of pilgrims — the Manifested Source near the village of Kremenki and the Holy Canavaka of the Most Holy Virgin on the territory of the Seraphimo-Diveevo monastery. Both objects store centuries-old legends and today are fully equipped for visiting.
The source is located about a kilometer from Kremenok and twelve kilometers from Diveev. Three folk stories are related to it. According to the first, in the autumn of 1670, on the eve of the battle of the royal detachments with the rebels of Stepan Razin, the water in the spring turned red, and the image of the Virgin appeared in it. After that, the source was called “appeared”. The second legend relates to the phenomenon of the Monk Seraphim of Sarov: local peasant women met a gray monk near the water, who told them that the Virgin Mary washes herself from this spring before going through the Holy Canavka. Hence the second name — Serafimovsky. The third story is dated 1903. The inhabitants of Kremenok presented the Emperor Nicholas II with bread and salt and a bucket of spring water, when the Emperor was going to the celebrations of finding the relics of St. Seraphim. The monarch highly appreciated the taste of water and left the peasants an icon of the Sarov miracle worker.
The reliability of the legends is not documented. Localists suggest that the toponym «Opened» can go back to the Mordovian «Yavley» — «spouts».
Today the spring is attributed to the Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery. In 2004, a chapel and baths were built here. The territory is landscaped: there is a spacious free parking lot, refectory, church shop, separate male and female baths with convenient access to the water. The water temperature is kept at the level of plus five or six degrees all year round, believers consider it healing. You can get there by personal car, pilgrimage bus from the monastery or by regular transport to Kremenok with a subsequent walk.
No less revered is the Holy Canava in Diveev himself. This is a ditch deep in human height and 777 meters long, surrounded by a two-meter shaft. According to legend, the Virgin appeared to St. Seraphim and ordered to surround the mill community with a ditch, indicating the way by which She herself circumvented the monastery. The monk marked the route with stones, and the main excavation work of the sister was completed by 1833. It is believed that the groove keeps the traces of the Queen of Heaven. After the death of the monk, the shrine was almost not cared for, later it was destroyed and restored again in modern times. Now the slopes of the ditch are planted with turf and gooseberry, the shaft is paved and fenced with a fence.
Cross processions along the groove with the icon “Tenderance” are performed daily after the evening service during the Bright Week, on Sundays before the giving of Easter, as well as on the day of memory of St. Seraphim. Pilgrims pray here, take with them the clay with which cases of healing are associated.
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How to Get There
The Holy Source of the Appearance of the Mother of God (also called “The Appearance”) is not located in the village of Diveevo, but about 12 kilometers away – in the vicinity of the village of Kremenki.
