Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary: description, history, choir, features

Nowadays, when the Orthodox and Catholicchurches in the person of their priests stretched out their hands in search of ways of joint service to the Lord, special attention is attracted to the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Moscow, whose history in many respects resembles the fate of numerous Orthodox churches in Russia.

The Catholic community of Moscow at the end of the XIX century

The end of the XIX century was a period of stormy for Russiadevelopment of capitalism. Like fungi growing countless joint-stock companies, banks, as well as manufacturing and commercial enterprises. All this caused an intensive influx into the country of a large number of foreigners, including those from Catholic countries. They opened their business here and, gradually adapting to the new conditions, remained, nevertheless, adherents of their faith.

In Moscow, and before, was their community, committedservice in the two cathedrals that belonged to them, but by the end of the century it had grown so large that its representatives were compelled in 1894 to appeal to the city authorities to consider the construction of a new church. The Moscow governor went to meet them and signed a document on the basis of which the cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built.

Development of the temple project

By giving their consent to the construction of the CatholicCathedral, the governor put the condition: the place chosen for him should be located away from the city center and its main Orthodox shrines. He also imposed restrictions on the external appearance of the future building, forbidding the erection of towers and the installation of outdoor sculptures. Despite the fact that Moscow has always been characterized by religious tolerance, in this case, the head of the city showed a certain amount of caution.

The development of documentation was entrusted to the architect F.O. Bogdanovich-Dvorzhetsky, and soon his project, executed in the Neo-Gothic style, was approved. Despite the fact that the cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, according to the author's intention, did not comply with the previously stated requirements (the ban on erecting towers was violated), the governor agreed to his construction.

Solving the problems of construction financing

In those years, Malaya Gruzinskaya Street liveda large number of Poles who served on the railway. Their religious community was very numerous, and included about thirty thousand people. It was there that the site for the future cathedral was acquired, and the Poles, who later formed the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, collected a considerable sum for its construction. Missing funds were provided by Catholics of other nationalities who inhabited Russia.

Construction work lasted until 1911 andwere completed by installing a decorative fence. The total amount that was required to pay off all expenses amounted to three hundred thousand rubles, which at that time was quite a lot. However, for another six years, until the revolution, interior decoration of the church was continued. Of course, this required additional funds.

Years of total atheism

In the first years after the consecration of the cathedralThe Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary had the status of a branch church and only in 1919 it was transformed into an independent parish, after which the service in it continued for almost another twenty years. But the wave of general atheistic madness that swept over the country in those years did not pass the Catholic cathedral either. At the end of 1938 it was closed, the community was dissolved, and the property, acquired for donations of thousands of people, was plundered.

During the war years, when Moscow was attacked by hundredsthousands of enemy bombs and shells, damage was received and the former cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. During one of the air raids, he lost several towers and spiers, but, fortunately, the structure itself stood. Already in the postwar years it was transferred to the disposal of one of the Moscow scientific research institutes.

Before settling into the building provided to them,the leadership of the scientific organization carried out the restructuring of its internal premises, finally destroying the remnants of the church interior. In particular, the entire space of the former cathedral was divided into four floors. The changes in appearance also touched, ruthlessly distorting the harmony of its architectural forms.

Attempts to return the cathedral to the sphere of spiritual life

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Most HolyThe Virgin Mary was built in accordance with the laws of acoustics, thanks to which the magnificent sound of the organ and the church choir was noted in his room. It was an unpardonable mistake to ignore such unique features of the building.

In 1976, representatives of creativethe intelligentsia of the capital appealed to the Ministry of Culture with the proposal: after appropriate reconstruction use the cathedral as a concert hall for the performance of organ music. Their initiative was approved, even a corresponding project was developed, but its implementation was never realized.

The difficult way of returning the cathedral to the parishioners

Cathedral of the Roman Catholic ChurchThe Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary found its new life already during the perestroika period, when in 1989 the association, uniting the Moscow Poles in its ranks, appealed to the Moscow government asking for the transfer of the temple building.

The return of the cathedral to believers, held in 1996year, was preceded by long-term bureaucratic ordeals related to the eviction of the institution that had settled in it. Despite the new trends, the thinking of many officials remained at the same level as in the deaf times of stagnation. This caused a lot of annoying procrastination.

However, even before the onset of the desired day, inDecember 1990, the current bishop, and in those years the private priest Janusz Wilski served on the steps of the cathedral, which then belonged to the civil organization, the Mass. From the following year, the cathedral services became regular, but they were performed outside the building.

Consecration of the restored cathedral

After the completion of all formalities, it tookthree more years to give the temple its original appearance, eliminating all the changes introduced over the years. This affected the facade and interior layouts, which had to be repaired. It should be noted that it was not possible to achieve full resemblance to what was the temple in the year of its first consecration due to a number of technical reasons. However, comparing the work of the restorers with the sketch of the cathedral, which is kept in the archive together with other documents related to the project of the late XIX century, it should be noted that they managed to restore the style and return the building to an indescribable spirit, laid by the author.

On the occasion of the solemn consecration of the newly opened cathedral, a delegation of the Vatican, led by its Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, arrived in Moscow.

A peculiar and unusual for the parishionersOrthodox churches were held in this cathedral in 2002. On that day, with the help of a TV bridge, a joint prayer of his rector with the Pope and the heads of some Western European Catholic parishes was held.

Liturgical Cathedral Choir

For a long time it has become a tradition to organize in Moscowconcerts of sacred music timed to one or another of the church holidays, at which the choir of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception enjoys special success. His active concert and liturgical activities began in 1999 with the blessing of Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz.

Today, choral classes are held weekly on Wednesdays in a specially equipped class on the ground floor of the building.