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The Raifa Bogoroditsky Monastery (The Raifa Monastery of the Mother of God) is one of the first Orthodox monasteries, built on the territory of the former Kazan khanate. The monastery is located on the picturesque banks of Raifa lake on lands of the Volga-Kama nature reserve. The poustinia by the Raifa lake and the Sumka river was based by hieromonk Philaret in 1613. At first he lived in solitude and fervently prayed, but news about the appearance of a holy man on the shores of lake spread around, and coreligionists gathered around him. Soon at the direction of Philaret the chapel was built, where church services were conducted. The consent to build the monastery on the shores of lake was obtained in 1661, 2 years after the death of Philaret. In the same year an exact copy of the Georgian icon of the Mother of God (copied from the Krasnogorsk monastery original) was brought to the monastery. So far, it is the main Shrine of the monastery, it is annually visited by tens of thousands of pilgrims. It is believed that this icon is miraculous.
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