- Svyato-Alexis Pustyn
The Orthodox Convent of Mercy – Svyato-Alexis Monastery (the Saint Alexis School and Orphanage) is located in the diocese of Yaroslavl on the site of the former nunnery 121 km north of Moscow along the Yaroslavl highway.
In Soviet times the Monastery was plundered and destroyed. Restoration started in the first half of the 1990s by priest Alex Vasilenko (Father Petr) on his own savings and private donations. The Monastery has operated since 1992. There are about 300 people living here permanently, including old men, the disabled, the seriously ill and socially excluded individuals. There are more than 170 children, including those who have suffered misfortune – orphans and children who are without parental care. The Monastery has a farm and also generates income from cultivating 380 hectares of land and from private donations.
The Saint Alexis School and Orphanage is an unusual school. It is both a shelter for orphans and an educational institution providing serious and profound knowledge. In the Monastery there is a system of multileveled education that allows pupils of different ages to receive education according to their capabilities.
The special atmosphere of love and spirituality and the developed educational system provide underprivileged children with a chance to find a family.
There are small male and female monastic communities at the Monastery, a shelter for disabled and elderly people, a children’s centre for orphans, the overall objective of which is to raise a harmonious, comprehensively developed person in the traditions of Orthodoxy. The children are trained in a classical grammar school. There are a cadet corps, a kindergarten and a day nursery for infants.
