Iberian Icon of the Mother of God Convent

Near Donetsk, by the blessing of Metropolitan Ilarion of Donetsk and Mariupol, in April 1997 the foundation stone was laid for a church in honour of the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God, from which the convent of the same name later grew; an Orthodox cemetery was planned alongside it¹. The convent's own website dates the church's construction to the late 1990s and confirms that a cemetery was arranged next to it².

In 1999 a copy of the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God was brought to the church from Mount Athos². According to a 2007 diocesan news item, the icon travelled in religious procession from church to church for more than half a year before this church became its final destination³.

In October 2000 the church and its surrounding grounds became a metochion of the Svyato-Nikolaevsky monastery in the village of Mykilske, Donetsk oblast¹. On 21 December 2001, by Journal No. 26, the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church blessed the opening of the convent of the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God in the city of Donetsk⁴; the convent's own website likewise dates the emergence of the independent house to 2001², while the diocese's separate historical page gives the year 2002¹.

The first sisters of the newly formed monastery were nuns from the Svyato-Kasperovsky monastery in the settlement of Hruzko-Lomivka near Makiivka, led by senior nun Amvrosiya, who relocated to the new dwelling place by blessing¹.

As of 2004 the convent's ensemble of buildings comprised a church with a bell tower, a residential building and utility structures; in 2005 a gazebo was built, in 2007 construction began on a second residential building, and in 2008-2011 the altar part of the church was expanded².

On 26 October 2007 the Divine Liturgy in the church was led by Metropolitan Ilarion of Donetsk and Mariupol, concelebrated by Bishop Mytrofan of Horlivka and Sloviansk and the city clergy³. In his archpastoral address, Vladyka Ilarion noted that a distinguishing feature of this church is that it stands beside a necropolis which was, at the time, the only Orthodox burial ground in the city³.