Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God female skete

The Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God convent skete stands in the village of Baranovo, Ivanivka district, Odesa region, and belongs to the Archangel Michael convent in Odesa, of which it is a canonical division^{7, 3}.

The village stands on the river Malyi Kuialnyk, and the church's own history names a major Baranov as the founder of the settlement here².

A parish existed in the village long before the present church: in 1795 and 1801 it was served by the priest of the church of the Holy Archangel Michael of the village of Buzovka, and from 1810 by the priest of the small town of Severinovka². The first church in Baranovo was consecrated in 1832².

In 1861 a decision was taken to build the church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God and donations for it were collected, and the laying of the church was consecrated by Bishop Dimitry (Muretov); in 1865 the church was consecrated². The brick church was raised at the expense of the parishioners themselves⁴.

On 21 April 1890 Archbishop Nikanor (Brovkovich) visited the parish and served the all-night vigil in the church, and on 2 September 1896 Archbishop Iustin (Okhotin) came here². In 1902 the parishes of the villages of Ivanivka and Prokhorovo also belonged to this parish².

In 1923 the church was closed by the Soviet authorities^{2, 4}. During the war years it was opened by the parishioners² - by the local-history account, during the German occupation⁴ - and services continued until 1961, when the church was closed a second time, until the years of independence⁴. A warehouse was set up in the church⁴, and in Baranovo itself the central farmstead of a collective farm specialising in cattle raising².

The revival began with the parish: on 9 October 1991 the charter of the village Orthodox community in honour of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God was registered, and on 3 March 2001 the charter of the parish of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was re-registered².

On 2 July 2007 a cross procession with the wonderworking Kasperivska icon of the Mother of God came to the parish². In the summer of 2011, with the blessing of Metropolitan Agafangel of Odesa and Izmail, the same procession went through the villages of the Ivanivka and Shyriaieve districts and on 4 July reached Baranovo, where the pilgrims saw the restored old church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God with a mosaic icon above its entrance².

The church's own history notes that services here are celebrated by candlelight, since there is no electric light, and that a separate monastic building stands beside it². The diocese, describing an archpastoral visit to the skete, names, besides the church, a sisters' block and farm buildings⁶.

On 26 January 2012 the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church considered the report of Metropolitan Agafangel of Odesa and Izmail on the opening, in the village of Baranovo, Ivanivka district, Odesa region, of a skete of the Archangel Michael convent of the city of Odesa in honour of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God, and by Journal No. 13 blessed that opening¹. By the next journal of the same session the Synod blessed the opening of a second skete of the same house, the Ascension skete in Odesa¹.

On 10 June 2012 Metropolitan Agafangel visited the skete and consecrated a spring; addressing the sisters, he said that for a true monk labour and prayer are like two wings for a bird, and that conditions had been created here to combine agricultural work with prayer in the church².

On 1 December 2019 Metropolitan Agafangel of Odesa and Izmail came to the skete again and, with clergy concelebrating, performed the great consecration of the church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God: the holy relics of martyrs were laid in the foundation of the altar table, and the walls of the church were anointed with holy chrism and sprinkled with holy water⁵. On the same day he celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the newly consecrated church, during which a priestly ordination took place, and after the service he gave church awards and archpastoral certificates to the benefactors and ktitors of the church⁵.

The Odesa diocese, listing the sketes of this house, names the Baranovo one among them³; and of the church itself the local-history description of the village says briefly that the church is well repaired⁴.