Marinovka Protection of the Mother of God Monastery

The Holy Protection monastery in the village of Marynivka, Odesa region, came into being by a decision of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church: by journal no. 45 of 27 October 2015, on the report of the Metropolitan of Odesa and Izmail, the Synod blessed the establishment of the Holy Protection skete of the Holy Dormition Odesa Monastery of the Odesa eparchy, and the adoption and registration of its statute¹.

One of the community's first large undertakings was a church social project. On 8 April 2017 the first Orthodox hospice and palliative-medicine centre in Ukraine, "Pokrov", was presented here². On 18 April 2018 the ruling bishop of the eparchy visited the construction site; that day more than sixty-five pines were planted beside the future building, and the opening was planned for the second half of 2019³. The sources differ on the size of the institution: in 2018 they spoke of a facility for about forty people at a time³, and in 2020 of a four-storey building with thirty-six wards where sixty seriously ill people would be cared for⁴.

In 2020 an emergency-medical base with a garage for special vehicles was set up on the monastery's grounds, and on 29 June of that year two ambulances were handed over to the medical service⁴. The following year the eparchy, together with the "Pokrov and Mercy" charitable foundation, supplied that base with a patient vital-signs monitor, sets of uniforms and consumables; it serves Marynivka and the neighbouring villages of the Mizhlymannia area, and its importance grew markedly during the COVID-19 epidemic⁵.

On 21 June 2022 dry grass caught fire in the village, and a strong wind drove the flames right up to three inhabited houses on the shore of the estuary. The superior and the brethren drove out to the fire on the monastery's own fire engine and, together with local residents, contained it and stopped it spreading to the houses; the State Emergency Service crews had almost thirty kilometres to travel from Odesa⁶.

On 29 June 2023 the ruling bishop performed the monastic tonsure of three novices at the skete, who received the names Serafym, Tykhon and Varfolomii⁷. Ten days later, on 9 July, he performed the Great Consecration of the church in honour of the Tikhvin icon of the Mother of God here; bishops from several eparchies of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, clergy and thousands of pilgrims came for the feast, and after the Liturgy a procession went around the monastery grounds⁸. The lower church of the monastery is consecrated in honour of Saint Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra⁹.

In church reports of 2025 and 2026 the community is called the Holy Protection Monastery of the village of Marynivka of the Odesa eparchy^{10, 12}. On 6 July 2025 it marked the tenth anniversary of its foundation: before the festal Divine Liturgy thousands of clergy, monastics and laypeople walked about ten kilometres to the monastery¹⁰. On 14 October of the same year, the patronal feast of the Protection of the Mother of God, the ruling bishop of the eparchy led the Liturgy here with his vicar bishops concelebrating, and afterwards clergy and faithful went in procession around the church¹¹. The eparchy's own reports call the procession to the monastery on the day of the Tikhvin icon a traditional one: on 9 July 2026 it set out from the village of Kovalivka, gathered several thousand faithful, and the wonderworking Kasperivska icon of the Mother of God was brought to the monastery¹².

The village where the community stands also became the site of the eparchy's youth and family festival "Pokrovske Pole": on 29 May 2021 it was held in Marynivka, where the Holy Protection skete is located¹³.