St. Lawrence of Chernihiv's Convent

The house in memory of St Lavrentii of Chernihiv arose in 2001 in the buildings of an abandoned hospital, put up in the 1960s on ground where, according to the village's old inhabitants, a church of the Holy Martyr Paraskeva stood before the revolution¹.

Schema-archimandrite Nykyfor (Akhromeiev) and Archimandrite Feodosii (Mishchenko) said in their time: "You will see it - there will be a monastery at Veresoch"¹.

The hospital on this spot, in the quiet and away from the village, was built in 1964; it lasted thirty years and closed for want of means to keep its patients. In 2001 Metropolitan Antonii gave his blessing for the beginning of the monastery's revival, and the Kulykivka district council gave the house the disused buildings and the hospital grounds. In the middle of April 2001 three sisters settled here, and the first hard work began¹.

On 1 January 2002 the ruling archbishop tonsured four novices, on 24 November of the same year the house church of St Lavrentii was consecrated, and at that time the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church blessed the opening of the house. On 31 January 2003 the monastery received its statute¹.

On 15 July 2007 a moleben was served for the beginning of the building of a stone church, and on 20 October of the same year the ruling archbishop laid its foundation¹. At the end of 2012, in December, an outdoor church was solemnly opened, and on 11 January 2013, on the very day of St Lavrentii, the church was consecrated and the first Divine Liturgy served in it². On 31 December 2013 a church of the Novodvorska icon of the Mother of God was consecrated at the house¹. On 17 May 2015 the ruling hierarch came to the monastery and served the Divine Liturgy³. And on 7 March 2024 one more new church was consecrated here⁴.

Among the holy things the house names are the image of the Mother of God "Novodvorska"; relics - part of the right hand - of St Lavrentii and the coffin in which his body rested; the icon of the Mother of God "Look upon Humility", which remained from St Lavrentii; a reliquary with the relics of the saints of God, sixty-eight particles; and old icons of St Theodosius of Chernihiv and St Nicholas⁵.

The house's liturgical day begins at 5.30 with the morning rule, at 7.00 the hours and the Divine Liturgy are served, at 15.00 the evening service, and at 21.00 the evening rule with a procession around the house singing "Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos". On Sundays and feast days the morning rule with the procession is at 6.00, and the hours and the Liturgy at 7.30. The unceasing Psalter is read in the monastery⁶.

The sisters grow practically all their vegetables themselves; in an artificial pond they keep fish, and in the monastery farmyard horses, cows, sows, piglets and turkeys².