Uhornyky St. Michael the Archangel's Monastery

St Michael's Monastery of Uhornyky for men stands in the village of Babianka, Kolomyia district, in the Ivano-Frankivsk region^{1, 3}. Historically this is the land of the village of Uhornyky, which now belongs to Babianka¹.

On this land there stands an old church, above whose entrance doors the date of its consecration is carved - 6 May 1752¹. The local old people pass down from generation to generation the account of St Michael's monastery of Uhornyky, later mentioned as the Transfiguration monastery, from the house's great church, and the account that this very church has survived from the monastery's time¹. The monastery's original site lay about half a kilometre from the present church, as a catalogue of medieval monasteries and the church literature of the seventeenth century attest¹.

On these grounds the house is placed in the first decade of the seventeenth century: St Michael's monastery of Uhornyky was founded by the landowner Adam Balaban and set in order by Iov Kniahynytskyi (1550-1621)¹. Balaban wrote to him in a letter the house quotes word for word: "…there is on my estate a small church of the holy Archistrategos Michael. I will provide you with everything needful, only be saved and pray to God for us. And if you should wish to receive brothers of one mind, then my wife and I will give you what is needed, for I wish to have on my estate a man of prayer and a monastery…"¹.

By tradition it was to this monastery that Ivan Zhelizo - later St Iov of Pochaiv - came at the age of ten, asking the hegumen to let him serve the brethren¹. The house calls this place the saint's home country⁵.

Traditions say that the monks of the Uhornyky monastery made their cells in caves on the steep bank of the river Lopushanka, also called the Opryshyna, after the manner of the caves of St Antony of the Kyiv Caves Lavra¹. The truth of the tradition is borne out by the fact that the local inhabitants were once called "kliashtornyky", that is, cave-dwellers¹.

On 26 February 2010 the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church heard the report of bishop Panteleimon of Ivano-Frankivsk and Kolomyia on the opening of St Michael's Monastery of Uhornyky for men in the village of Babianka, Kolomyia district, Ivano-Frankivsk region, and blessed that opening³. The house itself explains that decision by the aim of reviving the life of prayer on the site of an ancient Orthodox shrine¹.

Particles of the relics of Sts Iov and Amfilokhii of Pochaiv, of St Alexius of Carpathian Rus, of St Sergius of Radonezh and of the martyrs of Palestine rest in the house². The relics of the Pochaiv saints were brought here on 24 May 2015: the solemn reception and the festal Divine Liturgy were led by bishop Tykhon, with clergy of the Ivano-Frankivsk eparchy and of the Dormition Lavra of Pochaiv taking part⁴. The choir of the Pochaiv Lavra and the choir of the cathedral of the city of Chernivtsi sang at the celebration, and hundreds of pilgrims who had come from different corners of the eparchy were able to venerate the holy things⁴.

The Orthodox Church remembers St Iov of Pochaiv several times a year, and here the feast is kept with particular honour⁵. The patronal feast of the house was held on 10 September 2016⁵.