St. Michael the Archangel's female skete

St. Michael the Archangel's Skete stands in the village of Markivtsi in the Khmelnytskyi region and belongs to Holovchyntsi Transfiguration Convent¹; Markivtsi lies opposite Holovchyntsi, on the other bank of the Southern Buh².

An old church in honour of the Archangel Michael has long stood in the village². In 1935 the future Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), was born in Markivtsi; at that time the church had been closed by decision of the Soviet authorities, so the infant was baptised in neighbouring Holovchyntsi². The church was later reopened, and from the age of seven Viktor Sabodan served in it as a sexton².

In the first week of Great Lent in 1944 people came to the church to arrest the priest: he was reading the Great Penitential Canon of St Andrew of Crete at the time, and the men "from the organs" gave him a sign to get ready, without raising any noise. Calling Viktor over, the priest told him to finish reading the canon and foretold the sexton a great future in the service of the Church².

The opening of St. Michael the Archangel's Skete of Holovchyntsi Transfiguration Convent in the village of Markivtsi was blessed by the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at its session of 5 January 2013, by journal No. 7, on the report of Metropolitan Antonii of Khmelnytskyi and Starokostiantyniv³.

On 11 October 2016 a newly built church in honour of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers was consecrated at the skete; the consecration was performed by Metropolitan Antonii of Khmelnytskyi and Starokostiantyniv⁴.

The skete and its St. Michael the Archangel's church have repeatedly become the site of memorial services of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan). On 5 July 2026, on the 12th anniversary of the Primate's repose, the Divine Liturgy in the skete's St. Michael the Archangel's church was led by Metropolitan Nykodym of Zhytomyr and Novohrad-Volynskyi, concelebrating with Metropolitan Varsonofii of Vinnytsia and Bar and Metropolitan Viktor of Khmelnytskyi and Starokostiantyniv⁵. And on 23 November 2025, on the 90th anniversary of the birth of His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr, a memorial service in the same church was led by Metropolitan Viktor of Khmelnytskyi and Starokostiantyniv⁶.