St. Olga the Regal Martyr's Convent

The convent of Saint Olga the Regal Martyr arose in Luhansk from a hospital church: on 12 September 1992 the Church of St Panteleimon was opened on the grounds of the Luhansk regional oncology dispensary, and the initiative for building it came from the dispensary's chief physician in 1975-1996, Yuriy Oleksiyovych Yenenko^{1, 3}.

The first priest to serve there was Vasyl Harkalo, and on 4 April 1995 the priest Andrii Dubyna was appointed rector of the church¹. Yuriy Yenenko died of liver cancer on 30 October 1996¹.

In 1998 the foundation of an extension to the church was laid¹. Under Father Andrii's spiritual guidance a sisterhood of mercy formed at the church, caring for the terminally ill of the oncology dispensary, and on 4 November 2000, with the blessing of Archbishop Ioannikii of Luhansk and Starobilsk, it became a monastic community in honour of the eldest daughter of Emperor Nicholas II, Grand Duchess Olga Romanova; at first it numbered about 12 sisters¹.

On 14 March 2001 the house held its first monastic tonsure: the novice Nataliya Mashchenko was tonsured with the name Olga, in honour of the saint whose name the community bears¹. That same year, 2001, two more altars were added to the main altar of St Panteleimon - in honour of All the Saints who have been pleasing to God from all ages, and in honour of Saint Olga the Regal Martyr¹.

In the course of 2001-2004 several more churches passed under Father Andrii's spiritual care; among them were rural ones that later became monastic metochions: the Presentation (Vvedenskyi) church in the village of Krasne, Krasnodon district (taken in on 14 August 2001), the Sts Borys and Hlib church in the village of Novoannivka (transferred on 15 May 2002, at first in temporary premises, and from 2004 in a house purchased for the community), and the Kazan church in the settlement of Shchetovo, whose derelict building was dismantled and rebuilt anew, the work finishing in 2005¹.

Between 2001 and 2013, on Father Andrii's recommendation, 11 clergymen were ordained¹.

On 25 April 2013, on the recommendation of the ruling bishop, Archbishop (now Metropolitan) Mytrofan of Luhansk and Alchevsk, the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, by journal No. 51, blessed the opening, on the site of the parish of the Great Martyr Panteleimon, of a convent in honour of Saint Olga the Regal Martyr^{1, 2}. All the churches that had been under Father Andrii's rectorship entered the monastery, and metochions of the monastery were established at the rural churches - in the village of Krasne and the village of Novoannivka in Krasnodon district, and in the settlement of Shchetovo in Antratsyt district^{1, 2}.

The Presentation church at the Krasne metochion was built already in the nineteenth century; under Soviet rule it was left half-ruined, and from 1991 services were held only in the altar area, which had been walled off with cinder block^{1, 3}. On 26 March 2004 a main cupola 10.5 metres high, topped with a cross reaching 26 metres above the ground, was installed on the church, and on 4 December 2005, 50 years after the last service held in this church, the first Divine Liturgy was celebrated there¹.

In 2006 two-storey monastic buildings were put up at the metochion, and from 2007 two side chapels began to be added in the Presentation church, in honour of the icons of the Mother of God "She Who is Quick to Hear" and "Pantanassa"¹. In the autumn of 2007 the foundation of a hilltop church was laid, and by August 2008 the Church of the Resurrection of Christ rose on the Krasne hill; at the same time a stairway to the summit began to be built, along with the foundations of chapels and the base of an 11-metre Cross of the Lord¹.

On 29 August 2008 the remains of the last rector of the Presentation church under Soviet rule, the priest Diomyd Vynnyk, killed on 24 July 1955, were found at the metochion, and on 31 August he was reburied behind the altar of the church¹.

In 2009 the lower part of the stairway up to the chapel of Great Wednesday was laid, and the first, lower, level of a two-tiered church in honour of the Passion of Christ was built¹. In 2010 the stairway was completed, and an 11-metre Cross of Christ was set up on the summit of the hill; it was consecrated on 7 November that same year by the secretary of the Luhansk eparchy, Archpriest Vasyl Somyk¹. In 2011 chapel buildings for the days of Holy Week were built along both sides of the stairway¹.

With the blessing of the newly appointed ruling bishop, a house church in honour of the Synaxis of St John the Forerunner was fitted out in the residential building of the metochion by 20 January 2013, and its first patronal celebration was held there¹.