The monastery was dedicated to the miracle (chudo in Russian) of the Archangel Michael at Chonae (feast day: September 19 [O.S.

It was traditionally used for baptising the royal children, including future Tsars Feodor I, Aleksey I and Peter the Great.

Sergius Lavra, the Chudov Monastery was the biggest center of the Muscovite book culture and learning.

Prominent monks of the monastery, who dedicated their lives to translating and correcting ecclesiastic books, include Maximus the Greek, Yepifany Slavinetsky and Karion Istomin.

Gennady, who as Archbishop of Novgorod, patronized the first complete codex of the Bible in Slavic in 1499, was hegumen of the monastery prior to his archiepiscopate.

On the site of the destroyed Chudov Monastery and the nearby Ascension Convent the Soviet government built the Red Commanders School.