Explore Ukraine: Lubny, Mharsky Monastery
For a long time I wanted to tell you about the shrine, the destruction and restoration of which I have observed with my own eyes for many years. We will talk about the Mgarsky Transfiguration Monastery, which is located near the city of Lubny, on the right bank of the Sula River.
Photo of the main entrance to the cathedral
For many years, our family vacationed in the Poltava region, in the city of Lubny. The distance by motorway to Kyiv is 200 km, to Kharkov - 288 km, to Poltava - 141 km. The city is historical and very cozy. The population is about 48 thousand people. Today Lubny is a large industrial and cultural center. It houses the factories "Schetmash", "Lubnyfarm", "Avtomash", a meat processing plant, a dairy plant, the factories "Komsomolets" and "Shlifverst" (formerly "Kommunar"), a furniture factory, a bakery.
The city produces 45 types of ice cream under the Harmony trademark, and Lubny bread is known throughout Ukraine.
The city is believed to be over 1000 years old. Readers of this story will find the city's name familiar, especially to those who have watched Jerzy Hoffmann's film With Fire and Sword.
Photo of the church in the monastery skete photo of 2009
The name of the city of Lubny probably comes from the occupation of its inhabitants - the manufacture of bast products.
In 988 Lubny was founded by Prince Vladimir of Kyiv as one of the fortresses of the Posular defense line to protect Kievan Rus from attacks by nomadic tribes.
Such fortresses were built along the banks of the Sula River and formed a chain of defensive outposts.
History testifies that the city regularly carried out its defensive mission, burned many times, but rose from the ashes like a phoenix.
Photo of the bell tower of the monastery in 2010
The city became most famous under Yarem Vyshnevetsky.
During the years 1639-1648, the city was the capital of the so-called Vyshnevechchina.
The Zadneprovsky, that is, left-bank, estates of Vyshnevetsky included most of the lands of the then Poltava region: the cities of Romny, Priluki, Pyryatin, Lokhvitsa, Khorol, Poltava, Gadyach, Oposhnya - more than 50 settlements in total.
Sunset on Bald Mountain
In the city itself, there are also sights worth seeing with your own eyes, but my story today is not about that.
Bald Mountain
Our recreation center was located in the tract Lysaya Gora. The place is strange and amazing. The remains of a Neolithic settlement (4th millennium BC), settlements and barrows of the Bronze Age (2nd-1st millennium BC), barrows of the Scythian time (5th-3rd centuries BC) were found here.
Now on Bald Mountain they even installed a commemorative plaque, a Scythian woman. . .
. . . and the Wishing Stone.
There is also a legend that the Bald Mountain became because Yarema Wisniewiecki, celebrating his wedding with the first beauty of the Polish capital - Griselda, the daughter of the crown chancellor Zamoyski, decided to surprise eminent guests (and even the Polish king Vladislav arrived at the wedding), and proposed them in July, in the midst of a hot summer, to ride a sleigh from this mountain. Of course, this made an indelible impression on the guests, they praised Yarema, and the salt was ordered not to be removed. Because of such salted land, trees have not been growing on Bald Mountain for many years now.
Bald Mountain
But it is from this place that a beautiful view of the Mgarsky Monastery opens into the distance. To get to the monastery, you need to drive up to Mount Mgar. The name is unusual for the Slavic ear. It has been known since the time of the Tatar-Mongol invasions, and the word means "parking".
Gate to the monastery photo 2009
The Mgarsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery was founded in 1619 by Metropolitan Isaiah (Kopinsky) at the expense of Raina Mogilyanka Vyshnevetskaya, cousin of Peter Mohyla, Metropolitan of Kiev and founder of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy - the first higher school in Russia, which, after the death of her husband, received legacy "the castle and the place of Lubny, with all the farms, as well as other castles and places. "
Princes Vishnevetsky contributed to the strengthening of the Orthodox faith in their possessions. Especially Raina Vishnevetskaya, who died very young at the age of 30.
Raina Vishnevetskaya
Raina founded three Orthodox monasteries on the left-bank lands: Gustynsky, Ladinsky and Lubensky (Mgarsky).
Mgarsky Transfiguration Cathedral
Before her death, she asked her young son Yarem (Jeremiah) to take an oath to observe the parental Orthodox faith and not to convert to the Catholic, like many Ukrainian nobles of that time. But due to a number of circumstances, perhaps the influence of his uncle on the little orphaned Yarema, he nevertheless became a Catholic.
Yarema Vyshnevetsky
Despite this, in 1630 Yarema Vyshnevetsky issued an act to the Mgarsky Monastery confirming his ownership of the Vilsha lands. Perhaps this was facilitated by the proximity to the Mgarsky monastery of such famous Orthodox figures as Metropolitans Peter Mohyla and Isaiah Kopinski. Or perhaps the commandment of the mother and the memory of the ancestors gained strength...
In the beginning, most of the buildings of the monastery were built of wood, and during fires they burned down. But in 1692, on the site of a wooden church, at the expense of hetmans Ivan Samoylovich and Ivan Mazepa, a stone cathedral was built according to the project of the architect John Baptista, the author of the Trinity Cathedral in Chernihiv.
Central entrance to the Cathedral photo 2021
Savior Transfiguration Cathedral is considered one of the most beautiful in Ukraine, it combines the features of ancient Russian architecture of the XI-XII centuries, and later - Ukrainian baroque.
Monastic skete, photo of 2010
The most famous shrine of the monastery is the relics of Patriarch Athanasius of Constantinople, who is called the "Seated Saint".
The icon of St. Athanasius of Lubensky the Wonderworker, Patriarch of Tsaregradsky
In those distant times, the Church in Constantinople was very poor, it was oppressed by the Turks, so the patriarch repeatedly turned to the Moscow Tsar for help and support. And then the saint himself went to Moscow, where he visited holy places and performed divine services in monasteries and churches.
In 1654, while returning from the tsar, the patriarch fell seriously ill and stayed at the Mgar Monastery.
Mgarsky monastery photo 2009
The Patriarch of Tsaregrad ended up in Lubny by accident. And chance, they say, is the second name of God. The brethren received him very cordially, as it should be, and the patriarch unexpectedly said: "My soul desires to bury the sinful body in this monastery. "
Mgarsky Monastery photo 2010
After a month in the monastery, the patriarch died. He was buried according to Eastern custom: in patriarchal robes and in a sitting position, in the stone crypt of the monastery's Transfiguration Cathedral. And on February 1.1662, the holy relics of the saint were found incorruptible, and he was glorified in the host of saints. Unusual for Russia, the burial of the saint in a sitting position became the reason for naming him Athanasius Sedentary.
With the advent of the Bolsheviks in 1919, the abbot of the monastery and sixteen monks were shot, and in 1922 in Lubny began the seizure of church valuables and a shrine made of silver, weighing 4 pounds 10 pounds (about 70 kg), and then the relics of the saint were transported to Kharkov. Now the relics are in the Annunciation Cathedral in Kharkov.
In 1930, a patronage for the children of "enemies of the people" was created in the monastery, in 1937 - a disciplinary battalion, and since 1946 - military warehouses, and since 1985 - a pioneer camp.
Mgarsky Transfiguration Cathedral
The monastery was destroyed and shot. The walls of the monastery outside and inside were completely filled with frightening bullet holes.
Photo from 1998
And in 1993, the revival of the monastery began. Coming every summer to Lubny, even from afar, from the side of Bald Mountain, we saw the changes taking place in the monastery. The buildings were plastered, the territory was ennobled, and in 1994, for the first time in many years, a bell rang in the monastery.
This is how the main cathedral looked inside in 2009
Now the frescoes have been restored. . .
Photo of the Cathedral inside 2021
. . . and only one fresco was left "for posterity" in that terrible shot through form.
The shot icon of the Holy Martyr Queen Alexandra
Now the monastery has arable land, a poultry farm. . .
. . . apiary, bakery and publishing house. Every time I visit the monastery, I note to myself how much its economy has grown!
The economy of the monastery photo 2021
Peacocks roam freely around the territory. . .
. . . the aviaries contain rescued Red Book birds.
Here you can try and buy monastery honey, herbal teas and pastries. You can become a novice and stay in the monastery hotel, helping with the housework, whoever can.
In 2008, an iconostasis was erected in the church. Now the iconostasis is finished. It impresses with its beauty and size.
Iconostasis
It is important that local icons in it depict saints associated with the Poltava land - St. Athanasius Lubensky, New Martyr Vasily Zelentsov, Bishop of Pryluky.
Not far from the monastery is the Holodomor-33 memorial of people's grief. This is a bulk mound, a large bell is installed above it, which ends with a Cross.
Photo of 2010
There is an inscription on the bell: “Holodomor-1933 – when one person leaves, the world dies with him. When millions go into the abyss, then the whole Galaxy dies.
Here, on the mountain, halfway to Heaven, earthly things don't have the same power as they do down there. And although you don’t understand much, the soul feels that it is good, quiet and comfortable here.
Mgarsky Transfiguration Cathedral (photo from the Internet)
Be sure to visit the Mharsky Monastery when you go to Poltava or Mirgorod. The monastery stands on a hill and is clearly visible as far as 30 kilometers.
From the series "Know Ukraine"
