St. Seraphim's Monastery

The St Seraphim Monastery for men is active in the city of Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region and belongs to the Bila Tserkva eparchy⁴. The house of St Seraphim of Sarov was established in 2011 at the eparchial administration as a brotherhood of monks serving in the cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Saviour².

On 14 June 2011 the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, presided over by His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine, heard the report of archbishop Mytrofan of Bila Tserkva and Bohuslav on the opening of a monastery for men in honour of St Seraphim of Sarov in the city of Bila Tserkva, and blessed that opening¹. By the same Journal No. 36 the ruling bishop of the Bila Tserkva eparchy was confirmed as the superior of the monastery¹.

The cathedral in which the brotherhood serves rises on the eastern side of the city's main square². The church was laid in 1833 and built after the model of the cathedral of the same dedication in Odesa, at the expense of countess Oleksandra Vasylivna Branytska - the only person of the Orthodox confession in the Branytski family². In 1838 the departed foundress was buried in the cathedral by St Innokentii, vicar of the Kyiv eparchy², and in 1839 the church was consecrated by the metropolitan of Kyiv, St Filaret².

In 1851-1860 the rector of the cathedral and dean of the local churches was archpriest Petro Lebedyntsev - a pastor and scholar known throughout the empire; the townspeople said of him, "We had a priest among us such as the prophets once were"². In 1864-1866 a bell tower was added to the cathedral².

After 1917 Branytska's burial was destroyed, and from 1930 the church was used as an NKVD archive². During the war it was damaged by incendiary bombs². In the 1950s the question arose of restoring the damaged bell tower, but the authorities ordered it pulled down - so that the renewed structure would not draw people to the church². In 1962 the cathedral was closed again, from 1983 it was used as a boxing gym, and in 1989 it was returned to the faithful². Since 1994 the church has been the cathedral of the Bila Tserkva eparchy, and in 1997 a new iconostasis was installed in it².

Behind the cathedral's altar stands the church of St Nicholas of Myra - the oldest building of this place². It was laid in 1706 by hetman Ivan Mazepa, after him the building was continued by colonel Semen Palii, and it was finished by the Uniates, who held it for a long time in the eighteenth century². In the course of that finishing the church never took the cruciform shape intended at its laying². At the end of the eighteenth century this church was held to be the oldest of the Orthodox churches of the city - the other five wooden ones that then existed have not survived². When the cathedral was built the St Nicholas church came to be used for weekday services²; in 1852 father Petro Lebedyntsev added a narthex to it². Later those parts of the church that were not used during services were taken down, and part of the building material went into the cathedral's bell tower².

The patronal feasts of the house are the Transfiguration of the Lord, 6 (19) August, and the memory of St Seraphim of Sarov, 2 (15) January and 19 July (1 August)³. The services are celebrated in Church Slavonic⁴.

On 12 March 2016, a Saturday, after the All-Night Vigil led by metropolitan Avhustyn of Bila Tserkva and Bohuslav in the cathedral of the Transfiguration, the monastic tonsure took place of a graduate of the St Petersburg theological academy, the subdeacon Ivan Solohub⁵. At the tonsure the candidate was given the name Ihnatii, in honour of the hieromartyr Ignatius the God-bearer, bishop of Antioch⁵. Metropolitan Avhustyn addressed a word of instruction to the young monk⁵.