The grave of Ivan Martemyanovich Ganus (F 1552) in the basement of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Smolensk in the Novodevichy Convent

One of the most mysterious burials in Catholicon funerary vault of Moscow Novodevichy Convent belongs to the foreigner Ivan Martemyanovich Ganus, who took the name Alexey in Orthodox baptism. I. M. Ganus was buried in a stone sarcophagus in the prestigious prealtar (eastern transverse) nave, in the same place with representatives of Moscow aristocratic families. There was no information about I. M. Ganus in the synodikons of Novodevichy Convent, or in the documents of other Russian monasteries. The authors believe that the famous German gunsmith Johann Jordan, who emigrated to Russia during the reign of Vasily III in the 1510s, could be hiding under the name of Ivan Ganus. Among the elders who lived in the Novodevichy Convent at the beginning of the 17th century, it was known the nun Kristina (Khristina) Martemyanova, whom the authors tend to identify with the daughter or niece of I. M. Ganus.