Maly Ivanovsky monastery, Religious monastery in Kirillov, Russia

Maly Ivanovsky Monastery is the older, smaller part of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery on the shore of Lake Siverskoye in Kirillov. Its walled grounds hold two stone churches — the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist and the Church of Sergius of Radonezh with a refectory — plus small hospital chambers from the 1730s and a stone canopy over the revered cell site of Saints Cyril and Ferapont.

The monastery began in 1397 when Cyril of White Lake and Ferapont settled in a dugout on this hill; the move to the neighbouring hill followed the 1398 Church of the Dormition. The separate community formed in 1532 around the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist, built by Vasily III to mark the birth of Ivan the Terrible. A 1601 inventory records that poor elders lived here and were fed by the larger monastery.

The monastery's cemetery, holding graves from the 17th to the 20th century, occupies most of its grounds, and the 1601 inventory records that its residents were poor elders fed from the larger monastery. The stone canopy over the chapel and cross marks the original site of the cells of Cyril and Ferapont and is venerated by pilgrims.

The monastery sits about 600 kilometers north of Moscow and is best visited during warmer months when access roads are in good condition. The complex sprawls across a large area, so allow time to walk through the different churches and buildings at a comfortable pace.

The stone canopy over the chapel and cross marks the original site of the cells of Saints Cyril and Ferapont, who first dug a dugout into the steep hill here. Pilgrims venerate it as the monastery's founding point, and the grave of much of the monastery cemetery (17th–20th centuries) lies on this territory.