Protection of the Mother of God Convent

The Protection of the Mother of God Convent of the Ivano-Frankivsk eparchy stands in the village of Tustan, Halych district, on the left bank of the Dniester, two and a half kilometres from Halych^{1, 2}.

The place is an ancient one. A settlement of the Kyivan Rus period has been found on the village's land, and in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries there was a mooring here for the river craft that plied the Dniester^{1, 2}. Tustan is first mentioned in documents under the year 1621, and the village was then called Khorostkiv, or Tustan^{1, 2}.

The house itself began with services held in a private home. In 1989 the former rector of the village's Protection church, archpriest Ioann Tymyshak, with the blessing of archbishop Makariy (Svystun) of Ivano-Frankivsk and Kolomyia, began to celebrate Orthodox services in his own house in Tustan³.

To support the pastor his own sister came to him, likewise with the blessing of bishop Makariy - the nun Maria, Sofia in the world³.

In 1995 father Ioann and the nun Maria resolved to establish a monastery in Tustan. In the same year father Ioann made over his property by will to the future Protection house, and in the same year the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church blessed its opening³.

On 30 May 1996 the monastery was registered as a religious organisation in the state register of legal entities; its EDRPOU code is 23798816⁴.

On 6 November 2005 archbishop Nikolai ordained Volodymyr Boldin to the diaconate and appointed him to serve at the Tustan house, and on 19 December of the same year ordained him to the priesthood with the same appointment⁵. Father Volodymyr served at the house until 2010, when he became a member of the clergy of the church of the Nativity of Christ in Ivano-Frankivsk; he died on 16 August 2018⁵.

As of 2018, in the list of monasteries that the Ivano-Frankivsk eparchy published on its own site, the Tustan house stood first among the eparchy's three monasteries and was the only women's house in that list⁶.

On 13 May 2019 bishop Serafym of Ivano-Frankivsk and Kolomyia visited the monastery on an archpastoral visit; he spoke with the superior and the sisters of the house⁷.