The beginning of a new prayer life – the first prayer service was served in the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit after almost a century of desolation.
At the end of September, the temple, one of the oldest in the Kremlin, unique in architecture, was transferred to the Ryazan Diocese.
Before resuming spiritual life within these walls, the Orthodox residents of Ryazan organized a clean-up day and put the premises in order.
The official website of the Ryazan Diocese reports: "The Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles in the Ryazan Kremlin has been returned to the Ryazan Diocese! Dukhovskoy Church is one of the oldest in the Ryazan Kremlin. The image of the two-poster church, unique in architecture, is known to all residents of Ryazan and is remembered by guests of the city. At the same time, few people have ever been inside in recent decades."
"The refectory, whose internal appearance has been severely distorted, can now serve as a reminder of the tragedy that befell this and other shrines in the twentieth century," the message says. "It is planned to place an exposition dedicated to the fate of the Ryazan Diocese during the years of the Theophany."
The message also briefly tells the history of the temple, which begins in the XV century. "Even then, at the site of the foundation of the Pereyaslavl fortress, at the confluence of the Lybed and Trubezh rivers, there was a monastery of the Holy Spirit. The Dukhovskaya church was severely damaged in fires in the XVII century, it was later restored, and the authentic chetverik and the embedded slab in the wall were preserved. In the twentieth century, the temple was closed. It is known that the iconostasis was demolished there, boxes were made of icons and sent to Moscow, then their fate is unknown. The altar of the temple was first equipped with a stage, then the building was used as a cinema, and until recently it housed the museum's scientific library."
According to the Kremlin Museum, the Church of the Holy Spirit is an architectural monument of the first half of the XVII century. It was built in 1642 by the famous master from Soligalich, V. H. Zubov. The scientific library of the Ryazan Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve was located here.
It should be added that the transfer of the church to the ROC complies with the law of 2010 "On the transfer to religious organizations of state or municipal property for religious purposes." Most of the buildings of the main attraction of Ryazan have already been transferred to the church.