Vladychny Convent

[3] The convent reached the pinnacle of its prosperity and wealth under Abbess Mitrophania [ru] who, being Baron Rosen's daughter, boasted numerous connections at the imperial court.

After ruling the convent for 13 years, she was arrested for faking promissory notes and, after a highly publicized trial, was sentenced to exile in Siberia.

In the 1970s, the major buildings (including the cathedral and the rare tent-like church) were restored with a view to reconstructing their presumed medieval (pre-Petrine) appearance.

The Vladychny Monastery is the site of the first appearance of the highly revered icon called “The Inexhaustible Cup.”[4] According to the legend, in 1878, a retired soldier who had suffered from alcoholism for many years had a vision where he saw a starets (elder) who commanded him to go to the Vladychny Convent to find the Icon “The Inexhaustible Cup” (Russian: Неупиваемая Чаша) and to hold a moleben (service of supplication) before it.

Afterwards, when he saw an icon of St. Varlaam at the convent, the old soldier at once recognized him as the holy elder who had appeared to him in the vision and commanded him to go to the Mother of God for healing from alcoholism.

The original icon of the Inexhaustible Cup was preserved for many years in the convent at Vladychny Monastery until it was lost during the Soviet period, along with other relics.