"Listener" Icon of the Mother of God Convent

The convent in honour of the icon of the Mother of God "Uslyshatelnytsia" - "She Who Hears" - stands in the village of Fasova, Makariv district, in the Kyiv region, and belongs to the Kyiv eparchy¹.

The village of Fasova was founded in 1640, and the first mention of it is found in the historical books of the St Nicholas church³. The cross on the village's coat of arms stands for that very church³.

The chief holy thing of the house is the icon of the Mother of God "Uslyshatelnytsia", a copy of the image of the same name in the Athonite monastery of Zograf⁴. In 1999 the icon was given to the church by one of the parishioners of what was then the parish of St Nicholas in Fasova: the image had been a family relic passed down by inheritance⁴. After the icon was brought into the church it showed wonderworking power - according to eyewitnesses, the image, darkened by time, was renewed during a service⁴.

On 23 December 2010 the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, presided over by His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine, heard the Primate's information on the establishment in the Kyiv eparchy of a local celebration in honour of the icon of the Mother of God "Uslyshatelnytsia" and blessed it, resolving that the celebration be kept on 22 September/5 October². This is Journal No. 38 of that session².

In 2009 the building began in the village of a church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv eparchy and of a convent in honour of the icon of the Mother of God "Uslyshatelnytsia"³. The building of the church was completed on 27 October 2015³.

On that same day, 27 October 2015, the Holy Synod, presided over by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufrii of Kyiv and All Ukraine, heard the Primate's information on the formation of a convent in honour of the icon of the Mother of God "Uslyshatelnytsia" of the Kyiv eparchy on the site of the St Nicholas parish in the village of Fasova, and blessed the forming of the house and the acceptance and registration of its Statute¹. This is Journal No. 45¹. The date on which the church was finished and the date of the Synod's act come from two independent sources, and in both it is the same day.

The patronal feast of 5 October has repeatedly been led by the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. On 5 October 2020 His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufrii of Kyiv and All Ukraine led the Divine Liturgy for the patronal feast; at the service a special prayer was offered for the ending of the coronavirus epidemic and for the doctors, after the Liturgy the clergy performed the rite of glorification before the wonderworking icon of the Mother of God, the faithful were sprinkled with holy water, and the benefactors of the house were honoured with church awards⁴. On 5 October 2023 the Primate again led the patronal feast: at the little entrance he awarded liturgical distinctions to the clergy of the Makariv and Byshiv deaneries, at the Liturgy prayers were offered for peace in the Ukrainian land, and after it a procession was held⁵. On 5 October 2024 hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the clergy of the monastery and guests in holy orders concelebrated with the Primate⁶.

The house keeps a second patronal feast on 22 May. On 22 May 2026, the day of the memory of St Nicholas, archbishop of Myra in Lycia, the Wonderworker, the vicar of the Kyiv Metropolia, archbishop Kyrylo of Byshiv, celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the monastery for the patronal feast of the house's first church⁸. At the augmented litany special petitions were offered for peace in the Ukrainian land and for deliverance from the enemy, and after the Liturgy the rite of glorification and a procession were held⁸. In this way the monastery's calendar has kept the dedication of the parish on whose site the house was formed.

On 13 April 2024, with the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufrii of Kyiv and All Ukraine, the tonsure into the great schema of a retired cleric of the Kyiv eparchy, archimandrite Anastasii (Omelchenko), was performed in the monastery⁷. The rite of tonsure was performed by the vicar of the Kyiv Metropolia, bishop Arkadii of Hostomel, and in the great schema father Anastasii received the name Khrystofor, in honour of the holy martyr Christopher of Lycia⁷.