The fame of the monastery started to spread under Kirill's disciple, Saint Martinian, who was to become a father superior of the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra in 1447.

All the interior walls are covered with invaluable frescoes by the great medieval painter Dionisius.

At that time the monastery enjoyed special privileges conferred upon it by Ivan the Terrible, and possessed some 60 villages in the vicinity.

As the monastery gradually lost its religious importance, it was being turned into a place of exile for distinguished clerics, such as the Patriarch Nikon.

It was abolished by Emperor Paul in 1798, reinstituted as a convent in 1904, closed by the Bolsheviks 20 years later, and turned into a museum in 1975.