The monastery is located in the small village of Divevo near the city of Sarov. During the Soviet era, the building was destroyed, but was renovated in the early 2000s. A two meter deep moat surrounds the convent. According to the predictions of St. Seraphim of Sarov, dean of the monastery, this fur will be found by the Virgin Mary and will allow the convent to withstand the disaster. “When the Antichrist comes, he will pass everywhere, but he will not cross this gap,” says the legend. Saint Seraphim of Sarov is said to have said, “There will be a chasm from the ground to heaven, and he cannot come to you, and the chasm will not allow him to go anywhere, so he will leave.”
The beliefs appeal to many members of the Russian elite, who are “hoping for salvation during the apocalypse,” according to the independent Russian media outlet Medusa. “Some have bought land seriously [et autour] of the Abyss, for all things shall perish, and that which is within the Abyss shall rise up. This is how they interpret the sage’s predictions,” a source explains to Medusa.
Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko has already visited the monastery, believing in the saving power of the Virgin's fur. The head of Rosatom Alexei Likhachev, the head of the Legislative Committee of the Council Andriy Klishas, the governor of the Sakhalin region Valery Limarenko and the chief economist of VEB Andriy Klebach are regular residents of the convent and the deputy prime minister. Minister of the Central Government Dmitry Chernyshenko. On its website, the monastery publishes reports of events that bring together prominent businessmen and senior representatives of the Russian political class.
The head of the Russian government, Mikhail Mishustin (equivalent to the rank of prime minister), supported the monastery for many years, which led to him being awarded the order of “patron saint of the monastery”. He would be a “major donor” to the monastery.
President Vladimir Putin is said to have visited Divewo Monastery several times at the invitation of Sergei Kriyenko, Deputy Director of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation and High State Councilor. He would be an influential member of the Divewo brotherhood. According to Medusa, Krienko introduced many influential members to the Brotherhood. “In 2003, he and his team actively participated in the preparation of the celebrations [à l’occasion du centenaire de la canonisation de Saint Séraphin de Sarov], and he remained in Sarov and Diveyo. He did not need to involve officials and merchants in the monastic support group. He has been a part of the association since its inception and has been for over 20 years. It attracted the attention of others,” explains religious expert Sergey Chapnin. Sergey Krienko became a real mediator between the political world and Diveyo.
“In a monastery you can pray, venerate an icon or relics, buy something in a store, walk in nature, admire architecture. To the technocrats of the Nizhny Novgorod region, then to the bureaucracy [de Moscou], Divewo became such a monastery,” explains Nikolai Mitroghin, sociologist and researcher of the Russian Orthodox Church. Many Russian politicians go to the monastery to recharge their batteries or think about some issue. A Medusa source compares the convent to a Masonic lodge.
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