The convent was originally a place of exile for the unwanted wives of tsars — among them Solomonia Saburova, first wife of Vasily III, who was sent here in the 1520s because of her supposed infertility. The story goes that she finally became pregnant too late to avoid being divorced. A baby boy was born in Suzdal but, fearing he would be seen as a dangerous rival to any sons produced by Vasily's new wife, Yelena Glinska, Solomonia secretly had him adopted, pretended he had died and staged a mock burial. This was probably just as well for the boy since Yelena did indeed produce a son - Ivan the Terrible.