The Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery commemorates the second consecration of the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God today.

On this memorable day, the early-morning Divine Liturgy was served at this church.

The Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God was built in 1830. Soon after the church was consecrated in 1829, Venerable Seraphim called on Mikhail Manturov, his close confidant, and told him: “Not good, batiushka, we did not do too well, for we have built the church honoring the Nativity of our Lord and Savior whereas we have no church honoring His Most Holy Mother! So, the Queen of Heaven, batiushka, has become bitter towards me, the lowly Seraphim, and told me: “You honored My Son but you forgot about Me!” So I have an idea, batiushka, how we could fix that; why don’t we add another church underneath our newly constructed one? See to it that we have two churches.”

That was how the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God was founded. It was small and had a low-vaulted ceiling that could not hold on its own without the support of the ceiling pillars. Father Seraphim later explained the spiritual meaning of the pillars: “Four pillars: well, that means we will have four holy relics resting there! We will have our own shrine there, batiushka! What a joy it will be for all of us to behold.” In 2000, his prophecy was fulfilled: it became a shrine for the holy relics of venerable women saints of Diveyevo, Alexandra, Martha, and Elena.

The construction of the church was completed in the summer of 1830 and, by the feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God on September 8/21 of the same year, Archimandrite Joachim, abbot of the Annunciation monastery, consecrated its altar.

After the monastery’s closure in 1927, the church building was used to store vegetables. On July 22, 1991, the church was returned to the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery. On October 21, 1992, Metropolitan Nikolay (Kutepov) of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas has celebrated the second consecration of the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God. After the decades-long interruption, the never-ceasing oil lamp was lit again in front of the main icon of the church and the unceasing Psalter readings were resumed again.