Articles
The basic conditions of right prayer
• an article by Archimandrite Alexy (Koval)
15 Sep 2022 Prayer is not only a means for the acquiring of virtue - it is itself a virtue in its living expression. Prayer gives wings to the human soul, makes it light and capable of every good deed, brings down upon it the abundance of the grace of God, and makes human life truly Christian
Our Kirillich
• in memory of Archimandrite Kyryl (Kutsyn)
20 Jul 2022 And how does so much kindness fit into one man? … It is hard to say when Vasyl Kutsyn gave himself over to what was by no means a romantic enthusiasm for monasticism. But when, in the autumn of 2001, he came to the Pochaiv Lavra, he already had eight years of hard work behind him — first in his native Transcarpathia, and then in the Czech Republic and Russia. Without going into the details of that difficult period of wanderings abroad, let us note only how steadily the adolescent ... 
I am a monk from childhood
• a biography of Archimandrite Spyridon (Lukych) 1908-1991
24 Jun 2022 The music of the great composers is hard to understand from the notes alone. In performing a masterpiece every musician adds a particle of something of his own, so that in a melody which sounds, one would think, familiar, there will always be caught the shades both of somebody's view and of somebody's interpretation. Something similar may be said of the "melody" of monastic life. However strict the rule may be, however ancient the traditions that lie at its foundation, the chief part will ... 
Monasticism as the highest degree of love for God
• an interview with Metropolitan Pavel
15 Mar 2022 Monasticism... How many contradictory judgements there are about people who have given their lives over entirely to God. To understand what monasticism really is, is probably not given to those who do not themselves live in a monastery. And yet we decided to try to look, as far as that is possible, into the world of monks. How? Through a conversation with the superior of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Metropolitan Pavel.
Is theology a useless waste of time?
• an article by Bishop Sylvester (Stoichev)
7 Oct 2021 Let us ask ourselves the question: “What is the essence of our Christian life?” The answer is obvious – it is in the knowledge of God: “that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3, King James Version). Let us ask one more question: “What place in this process does theology occupy? And is it obligatory?”
The role and significance of monasticism in the salvation of the human soul
15 Jul 2021 A paper delivered by Metropolitan Pavel at the all-Ukrainian congress of the monastics of the UOC in the Holy Dormition Pochaiv Lavra on 15 July 2021
Memories
• interview with Metropolitan Pavel
19 Apr 2021 An interview on the occasion of the 60th birthday of the abbot of the Kyiv Caves Lavra
Voice customizer
• interview with Lyubov Petrovna Kryzhanovskaya
20 Mar 2021 Liubov Petrivna Kryzhanovska is a singer well known in Ukraine, who for decades gave people her talent on the stages of the National theatres of opera and operetta, and a teacher in the vocal department of the P. I. Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine. Since 1989 she has been a consultant in voice to the students of the Kyiv theological schools, and the unfailing coach and musical mentor of the singers and clergy of many monasteries and, first of all, of the Kyiv Caves Lavra
Problems of the church calendar: the new and the old style
• an article by Bishop Sylvester (Stoichev)
1 Apr 2020 In recent times the problem of the church calendar has been actively discussed in Ukrainian society. Some Christian churches in Ukraine that traditionally used the Julian calendar in worship have decided to move to the so-called new style. The question of the use of the new calendar in the religious life of Ukraine has already passed from the theoretical plane into a purely practical one. In this connection we shall try to review briefly the history of the calendar question in the ... 
Monasticism is blessedness
• an interview with the Primate
2 Mar 2020 An interview with His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy, Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
On the life of the brethren of the Pochaiv Lavra and the skete
5 Jul 2019 A film by Pavlo Tsymbaliuk on the life of the brethren of the Pochaiv Lavra and the Holy Spirit Skete
Kiev Caves Lavra. Millennium photography
• documentary project of "Inter" TV channel
1 Aug 2018 The Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is the first monastery in Kiev Rus', founded by St. Anthony after he returned from Mount Athos and brought the Athos tradition of monastic life to our land. From that moment, a thousand years ago, the history of all monasticism in Kiev Rus' began.
The Lavra will be opened when the chestnuts blossom
• a conversation with Archimandrite Anthony (Novytskyi)
10 Jun 2018 This year marks exactly 30 years since the Kyiv Caves Lavra was returned to the Church. At that time, decades after the desolation of the holy place, even among believers few still believed that such a thing would be possible. And then, on 12 June 1988, on the feast of All Saints who have shone forth in the Russian Land, the principal celebrations marking the great jubilee of our history — the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus — were held throughout the country. On that Sunday ... About this section
The Articles section gathers what the Synodal Commission of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for Monastery Affairs publishes: texts on monastic life and on the monasteries themselves, on the history of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, church documents and addresses, archival photographs, conversations with witnesses of events, and video recordings. Every item carries its own date, and the list on this page runs from the most recent to the older ones.
The three parts of the section
The section has three parts. Publications holds the longer texts: memoirs, conversations, archival material, documents and addresses. News carries short reports on events in church and monastic life. Video holds documentaries, reports and recordings of church events. Each item belongs to one part only. This page gathers the publications and the video; the news has a page of its own.
A note on languages
Most of these materials were written in Ukrainian or in Russian, and they are published as they were written rather than retold. Titles and summaries appear in English wherever a translation exists.
Who publishes this
Monastic Herald of Ukraine is published by the Synodal Commission of the UOC for Monastery Affairs; the site's founder and owner is the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a non-profit religious organisation. The about page describes the Commission and this resource in more detail. If you hold the rights to material published in this section, please contact us as set out on the page for rightsholders.
