Local people of Olkhovdky region knew about the fact, that near settlement Kamenny Brod on the bank of the river Ilovlya there were some caves with sacred relics, where some hermits had lived. According to the legend a small and secluded male monastery with a very strict order had existed at this place before the invasion of the Mongolesen people. Historian J. V. Poleva of Volgograd thought, that it existed not later than in the 18th century. And it was secretly used in the beginning of the 19th centrury. The female community appeared there at the beginning of the 1860s, when landowner and adviser Peter Ivanovich Persidsky had given some lands with an old oak forest to it. On the northwest edge of settlement Olkhovka there was an old tomb, called Svjataya Gora (Sacred Mountain) or Sacred tomb and there is a spring near it. According to the legend Alexander Nevsky stayed there and asked the Tatar khan to alleviate the burden of the Russian slaves, who had built a stone ford across the river Ilovlya. Old people told, that once there had been a church there, which had gone under the ground because of prays of monks of Kamenno-Brodsky Belogorsky monastery.

The history of the monastery began when landowner P. I. Persidsky went to Moscow, where he bought some icons. When he returned, he said to his wife Serafima, he was going to found a community. His wife decided to help him and she joined him while putting it into practice. She went to Saratov to bishop loanniky and he blessed her to it. He offered Mother-Superior Afanisia (Pelagea Nikolaevna Vodolagina) from Dubovlkaya female community and fourother nuns to help her. Those women went from village to village asking the peasants to help them while building. Thus, they started to build a stone house with two floors for cells. On the first level they built a warm home church near the dining room.

On the 5th of October in 1865 loanniky came to the community and saccritified the church. In 1868 a stone building for monks was finally constructed. Step by step the number of the lay sisters grew. The community became larger. They discovered a curative spring, and later on 9 other springs (even radon and hydrosulphuric springs) were discovered. The water of some of them filled up a special pool. The building process went on – the nuns built a shed for domestic cattle, horses’ stalls, a bakery, a house for cells and a log hut for bakers, a hotel for pilgrims.

Some noble people came to be treated with a pray (Golizyn, Stroganov, Trubezkoy). At the bottom of the cave mountain there are ruins of bricks of so-called «Imperial Road», made for a treatment trip specially for the daughter Elisabeth of Peter the First.

Fruit gardens blossomed there. Two lay sisters started to bake bread and the bakery started to work. Bread in the bakery of the monastry was off high quality, and every morning many people of the whole region came to buy it. Later on the community began to feed beggars. The nunsad their own workshop, where the lay sisters wery busy knitting. A very skillfull nun came from Moscow and began to teach the lay sisters knitting. The lay sisters made cloth hes for local peasants and helped poor families.

The people saw their diligence and supported the monastery financially. For example, in 1871 some peasants made the following donations to Svjato-Troizky female community: peasant Prokopy Lemeshkin gave 450 roubles and materials (370 roubles), peasant Ksenia Valentinovna Semenenkova gave 800 roubles and a wing with a barn (600 roubles).

And on the 8th of December in 1873 the emperor affirmed an order of the Synod about the foundation of the female community in Ramenny Brod. The number of the lay sisters grew, they performed usual peasants" responsibilities: they ploughed, mowed, collected wood and hunted. They opened an asylum and an initial school for girls. After construction of the first buildings they started with construction of Troizky temple according to the project of architect I. I. Gotgart.

The church without a bell tower was constructed on the donations of P. I. Persidsky in 1879 and it was sancritified on the 17th of September in 1895 by bishop Nikolay of Saratov. Mather Susanna ran the monastery from 1894 till 1908. And in 1904 she became Mother-Superior there.

The last Mother-Superior of the monastery became Ennafa. The number of the lay sisters grew to 170 persons. In the monastery there was a hospital chamber and a drugstore. Some lay sisters went to the army after the beginning of the First World War to help the hurt. The monastery made many donations for the soldiers.

The community received the status of a monastery according to the order of the sovereign and the Synod from the 8th of October in 1903. The monastery possessed a lot of lands, a stable economy, a mill and a factory producting bricks. The monastery was considered to be rich enough.

At the Sovjet time the property of the monastery was nationalized. The lay sisters tried to continue the activities of the monastery and organized an agricultural community. But the officers of the finance department of Stalingradsky district wanted to stop the activities of the monastery. So, they made all the 65 lay sisters to sign a document, where they should refuse to live in the monastery and the were obliged to leave it till the 1st of February in 1928.

But there is also another version. The local people said that in 1927 the Sovjet authorities ordered the lay sisters to leave the monastery within three days. Mother Ennafa with the other lay sisters locked themselves in the temple, and when the communists broke the door, they did not find any nuns. Even the church’s largest bell vanished.

Some nuns went to neighbour’s villages, some of them had to go to Astrakhan. It was in November, but the sisters were not allowed to take warm things. So, only 12 of 90 nuns reached Astrakhan. The communists found much food in the curch cellars, but they did not find any church utensils. Some explorers, for example, J. W. Polevykh and K. E. Polevykh thought that those utensils could have been hidden by the lay sisters in the caves.

Old local people told that there had been some underground chalk caves under the temple and under the other buildings of the monastery and it was possible to go through them, because there was a path and even an underground river there. And now pilgrims can go only for a few hundreds meters of those caves. It was possible to close the entrances to the mazes with stones if case of danger. You can see many autographes of hooligans and tourists, of believers and nuns of pre-revolutionary time.

In the 30s the monastery was in a very bad state, but according to the local people some monks lived secretly there. When the communists were there in 1935, they learnt about it. But they did not managed to invade the territory and they could not go over a high church wall and so they had to give up. That’s why they blew up the caves with garnets.

The temple and many other buildings of the monastery were ruined later. On the territory of the monastery there was a parking place for tractors. And in the building of the dining room there was a stall for cattle. During the war there was a hospital, and after that there were state horses’ stalls.

The revival began with arrival of archbishop Herman of Volgograd and of Kamyshinsky on the 20th of August in 1991 there. He brought celibate priest Savva with him. Now the church and 6 buildings of the monastery are restored. There is a famous wonder-working icon there.

One can read the following words on the tombstone near the curch: «There is the relic of nun Afanasia, Abbess of the Kamenobrodsky female monastery under this rock (Marfa Nikolaaevna Filippova)». This nun died at the age of 68 years. Oil company «Lukoil» helped to clean the entrances to the caves, that company built a small chapel to observe the beautiful view.

Many believers come to sacred springs with hydrosol-phuric water. 10 – 20 monks and workers live there nowadays. The monks take care of the ancient oaks’ forest. Celibate Priest Elisey (Fomkin) is Abbot of the monastery. He meets numerous pilgrims with pleasure. You can travel there by bus from Volgograd to Olkhovka.

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Kamenno-Brodsky male monastery is situated at a very beautiful place near Volgograd. It was almost completely destroyed during the Sovjet time. But it can be considered a unique monastery. But some beautiful remarkable buildings survived. The nature is very picturesque there. If you visit this monastery, you can see not only wonder-working icons there. You will see chalk mountains with monks’ caves, you will go for a walk in the old oak’s forest. You will discover some springs there. It could be a very interesting and useful experience for you.