Sviatohirsk Lavra

The Holy Ascension Monastery of Swjatohirsk ( Свято - Успенська Святогірська Лавра / Swjato - Uspenska Swjatohirska Lavra, from the Russian often Sviatohirsk ) is located in the Donetsk oblast, city district of Slowjansk, Ukraine on the right bank of the river Seversky Donets on a chalk hillside, the immemorial forth the name Holy Mountain ( swjataja gora - Sviatohirsk ) bears. On the opposite side there is the city Swjatohirsk, which in turn belongs to the City Council Municipality of Slowjansk.

Creation and Repeals

One version of the origin of the monastery is associated with Byzantine monks in connection who fled during the time of the icon dispute through the Byzantine imperial power from persecution. Some of the monks settled in the Crimea down, and the other part moved into the Don region with its tributaries the Norddonez. Here the monks founded on the banks of the river cave monasteries, which were preserved until today. According to another version, the monastery was founded in the first half of the 13th century ( 1240) by Kiev monks who were persecuted by Batu Khan.

The first written references to the monastery date from the first half of the 16th century ( 1526). The monastery survived several invasions and destruction caused by the Crimean Tatars in the 17th century. During this time, according to the modern Russian state was created, the Swjatohirsker monastery took in the southwest of the country the value typed in the northeast, the Trinity Monastery in Sergiev Posad.

1787 during the reign of Catherine II the monastery was dissolved. 1844 was restored by donations of the rural population and at the request of the local landowner, Alexander Mikhailovich and Tatyana Borisovna Potemkin. Over the next 70 years, the monastery became one of the most important of Russia until 1914. 1922, the monastery was again canceled and converted into a rest home.

Reopening after 1991

In 1992 the monastery was reopened, and new monastic life began. On December 29, 2003, the ceremony was held for the final handover of the restored buildings and to return the lands which belonged to the monastery. Today the monastic community consists of more than 100 people, which increases with each passing year. In the monastery two hermitages are restored - the " All Saints' hermitage 'and the' hermitage of the venerable Antonins and Feodossij in the cave ."

In the area close to the monastery village Bohorodytschne / Богородичне (Russian Богородичное / Bogoroditschnoje ) is the church in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God "Joy of all victims " ( " Всех скорбящих Радосте ").

At the meeting of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on 9 March 2005 under the chairmanship of the Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine Vladimir the decision to admit the monastery was accepted into the status of Lavra.