The Ovruch St Basil Monastery is a women’s community in the town of Ovruch in the Zhytomyr region, restored in 1991 . Its heart is the renowned St Basil Church — a unique monument of pre-Mongol Rus, built around 1190 by…
The Transfiguration Tryhirskyi Men’s Monastery is one of the oldest monasteries of the Zhytomyr region, situated on the rocky bank of the Teteriv river in the village of Tryhiria . Its history spans more than four centu…
The Zhytomyr Monastery of St Anastasia of Rome is a stauropegial women’s monastery on the outskirts of Zhytomyr, in the Maliovanka district. Opened in 1999 , it became the first women’s monastery in the city’s history .…
An Akathist (Greek Ἀκάθιστος ὕμνος — “hymn not sat through”) is a distinct genre of Orthodox hymnography: a song of praise to Christ, the Theotokos or a saint, which the…
The prayer Our Father (also called the Lord’s Prayer; Greek Κυριακὴ προσευχή, Latin Pater Noster) is the principal prayer of Christianity. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself gave it: in the…
The Basilian Monastery of the Sacred Heart of Christ in the village of Zvanivka , Bakhmut district, Donetsk Oblast, is the only Greek-Catholic monastic house of the Order of Saint Basil the Great (OSBM) in Donbas. Found…
The Holy Dormition Mykolo-Vasylivskyi Monastery is a unique monastic complex in the village of Mykilske , in the Volnovakha district (now near Vuhledar) of Donetsk Oblast. It consists of two communities : the men’s St N…
The Holy Sergiyevsky Women’s Monastery is a community in the village of Serhiivka , in the Sloviansk (now Kramatorsk) district of Donetsk Oblast, 10 kilometres from Kramatorsk. It arose in 2002 from a parish church cons…
The Holy Iberian (Iverska) Women’s Monastery is a community in Donetsk, founded in 2002 at the church in honour of the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God on the city’s Orthodox cemetery. It grew out of a dependency (meto…
The Monastery of the Kasperivska Icon of the Mother of God is a women’s community in the settlement of Hruzko-Lomivka in Donetsk Oblast, founded in 1997 . It is dedicated to one of the most venerated wonder-working icon…
Every day millions of believers ask an important question: what holiday is today in the Church calendar, what are the folk signs and customs, what is strictly forbidden on this…
The Ternivka Holy Ascension Women’s Monastery is the youngest community of the Dnipro diocese, opened in 1998 around a unique wooden church of 1908 built without a single nail . The church, which survived the revolution…
The Holy Znamensky Women’s Monastery in the village of Verbivske was one of the wealthiest and most powerful communities of the 19th century in southern Ukraine. Founded by the noblewoman Kateryna Vasylenko in the early…
The Monastery of St Joseph the Betrothed in Mariivka is the only monastic community in Ukraine dedicated to this quiet guardian of the Mother of God. The modest monastery on the bank of the Samarchyk river counts nearly…
The Holy Tikhvin Women’s Monastery in Dnipro is the only monastic community standing right in the regional capital, on the site of the old Katerynoslav women’s community of 1866. Its story is one of Abbess Maria, who bu…
The Samar St. Nicholas Desert Monastery is the oldest monastic community of the Dnipro region and the former principal shrine of the Zaporozhian Cossacks . It stands near Novomoskovsk, on an island formed by the Old and…
The Monastery of Saint Basil the Great (UGCC) in Lutsk is Volhynia’s oldest Basilian cloister, whose roots reach back to princely times: after the decline of Kievan Rus’ from 1240, a monastery of Saint John the Theologi…
The Basilian Monastery of Saint Josaphat in Volodymyr is a UGCC cloister that grew up on the site of the ancient church of Saint Paraskevia, where the hieromartyr Josaphat Kuntsevych received the Sacrament of Baptism. T…
The Zahoriv Monastery of the Nativity of the Mother of God is an ancient Volhynian cloister near the village of Novyi Zahoriv in the Lokachi district, whose history reputedly reaches back to the 12th century; its first …
The Monastery of the Nativity of Christ in Volodymyr is a community gathered around the former Jesuit cathedral of 1755–1770 in the heart of Volhynia’s ancient capital. The masonry church has survived a Jesuit mission, …
The Zhydychyn St Nicholas Monastery is one of the oldest cloisters in Ukraine, standing in the village of Zhydychyn of the Kivertsi district of Volyn Oblast, a few kilometres from Lutsk. Its first written mention is fou…
The Skete of the Nativity of Saint John the Forerunner in Verbka is a small men’s monastery on an island amid the floodplains of the Turiya river, on the site of a 16th-century cloister forever linked with the name of P…
The Holy Trinity Starosilskyi Women’s Monastery is a young convent of the Volyn Eparchy that grew on the ruins of a former missile-forces base and an abandoned farmstead. Founded in 2006 by the first sisters of the Mykh…
The Holy Cross (Khrestovozdvyzhenskyi) Chartoryiskyi Men’s Monastery is a monastery on a hill above the river Styr in the village of Staryi Chartoryisk of the Kamin-Kashyrskyi district, whose masonry walls remember the …
The Holy Presentation (Stritenskyi) Mykhnivskyi Women’s Monastery is a convent on the Mykhnivka homestead of the Kamin-Kashyrskyi district, gathered around a wooden church of 1642 — one of the oldest wooden sacral monum…
The SS Peter and Paul Svityaz Men’s Monastery is a young Volhynian monastery that has grown on the shore of Lake Svityaz, Ukraine’s deepest karst lake. It stands on the foundation of the old Svityaz parish, documented s…
The Dormition Men’s Monastery of Nyzkynychi is a gem of Volhynian Baroque, founded in 1643 by the magnate Adam Kisel (Kysil) . Its five-domed Dormition church in the form of an equal-armed cross, its 17th-century walls …
The St Nicholas Men’s Monastery of Milet (Myiets) in the village of Myltsi, Stara Vyzhivka district, is one of the oldest and once wealthiest monasteries of Volhynian Polissia, the former “family monastery” of the Sangu…
The St Nicholas (Sviato-Mykolaivskyi) Men’s Monastery of Sharhorod is one of the best-known Podillian monasteries, its history stretching between a Baroque monastic school that once taught up to 600 students and a Sovie…
The Holy Transfiguration (Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi) Men’s Monastery of Halaikivtsi in the village of Halaikivtsi, Mohyliv-Podilskyi district, is one of the most enigmatic monasteries of Podillia. Its first documentary ment…
The Holy Trinity Stavropegial Women’s Monastery of Nemyriv is an active convent in the ancient Podillian town of Nemyriv, whose roots go back to the 17th century, while local tradition pushes the beginnings of monastic …
The Hranivskyi (Hraniv) Holy Dormition Men’s Monastery in the village of Tyshkivska Sloboda of the Haisyn district is the former spiritual centre of the Haisyn region, whose history reaches back to the times of the Khme…
The Brailiv Holy Trinity Convent is one of the “Seven Wonders of Vinnytsia Oblast” and the most famous shrine of the town of Brailiv in the Zhmerynka region. Its history has two beginnings: the monastery itself was foun…
The Holy Feodorivskyi (St Theodore’s) Men’s Monastery in the Vapniarka town of the former Tomashpil district is the youngest monastery in our catalogue and one of the two monasteries of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in…
The Basilian Monastery of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist in Bar is a monastery of the Order of Saint Basil the Great (OSBM) of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church on Soborna Street, which revived the long tradit…
The Carmelite Monastery in Bar is one of the oldest Catholic monasteries of Podillia and a key landmark of the town of Bar in Vinnytsia Oblast. Carmelite friars settled in Riv (as the town was called before 1537) as ear…
Khreshchatyk Monastery in the Chernivtsi region of the Dniester canyon is called the “second Athos” of Bukovina: a monastery of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross , founded on a karst hill above the river where, by legend…
The Bakota cave monastery is one of the most ancient and most mysterious shrines of Podilia: a monastery carved into the white chalk cliff of Bila Hora, 120 metres above the Dniester, whose history begins, according to …
Hlynska Pustyn (Hlynka Hermitage) of the Nativity of the Mother of God is a women’s stavropegial monastery of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine near the village of Sosnivka in the Hlukhiv region of Sumy Oblast. Amid the le…
Yeletskyi Dormition Monastery is one of the oldest monasteries of Ukraine: according to a legend recorded in the 17th century by the Chernihiv hegumen Ioannikii Galіatovskyi, the monastery was founded in 1060 by the Che…
Kyrylivskyi Monastery (the church of Saints Cyril and Athanasius of Alexandria) is one of the oldest surviving shrines of Kyiv: a princely monastery-mausoleum of the Chernihiv Olhovych dynasty, founded in 1139 in the Do…
Mezhyhirskyi monastery was the pride of the Zaporozhians (Khmelnytskyi, Mazepa, Palii): a hospital and a chronicle. Allegedly burnt in 1786, razed in 1935 for dachas.
Buchach monastery on Mount Fedir — a Basilian centre of learning in Podillia since 1712: the 1765–71 stone church, Pinzel’s sculptures and the gymnasium.
Pidhirtsi monastery of the Basilian order — Galician Baroque in the forests of Podillia: a Pope-crowned icon, the 1583–1729 chronicle and the Plisnesk hillfort overhead.
The Ioninsky monastery was founded by Ven. Iona after a vision of the Theotokos on the Zvirynets hills; once 800 monks, today a Lavra skete.
Kytaiv Hermitage is a skete of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra with 14th-century caves, elders Dosifey and Feofil, and the 1763–67 Trinity church. Visiting guide.
Holosiivska Pustyn — a men’s monastery in Kyiv’s Holosiiv Forest, founded in 1631 by Metropolitan Petro Mohyla; resting place of Saints Parthenius of Kyiv and Alexis of Holosiiv; demolished in Soviet times and revived in 1993.
The Holy Ascension Florivskyi Monastery — the oldest women’s monastery of Kyiv (16th c.) on Podil: the Ascension Cathedral (1722–1732), Abbess Maria-Mahdalyna Mazepa and the relics of St Olena of Kyiv.
St Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv, founded in 1108 by Sviatopolk II: Kyiv’s first gilded dome, the relics of St Barbara, demolition in 1937 and the 1997–1999 rebuilding.
Vydubychi Monastery in Kyiv, one of Ukraine’s oldest monasteries (11th c.): the workplace of the chronicler Sylvester, St Michael’s Church of 1070 and the Baroque St George Cathedral of 1696–1701.
