Iberian Icon of the Mother of God female community

The Iberian Icon of the Mother of God female community, a house of the Luhansk eparchy, took shape in the village of Staryi Aidar in the Stanychno-Luhanskyi district of the Luhansk region¹, at the village church of the Miracle of the Archangel Michael².

The old church in Staryi Aidar was taken over by the Soviet authorities for use as a village club in 1973¹. In 1989 more than two dozen churches were returned to believers, and among those named in the Voroshylovhrad region was the church in the village of Staryi Aidar¹.

From 2000 the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God was kept in that church².

In July 2008 a women's monastic community was founded there, at the church of the Miracle of the Archangel Michael, by the blessing of Metropolitan Ioannikiy (Kobzev) of Luhansk and Alchevsk². The hierarch performed the first tonsures himself².

Because the sisters held the Mother of God in particular veneration, the house was given its name in honour of the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God².

The Orthodox Encyclopaedia lists it among the working monasteries of the Luhansk eparchy, as the Staroaidar community in honour of the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God, founded in 2008¹.

As of January 2013 the church of the Miracle of the Archangel Michael in Staryi Aidar belonged to the Stanychno-Luhanskyi deanery of the Luhansk eparchy³.