Odesa Holy Dormition Monastery

The Dormition Monastery for men of the Odesa eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church stands in Monastyrskyi Lane in Odesa². It grew out of an archiepiscopal metochion: in 1815, on the initiative of Metropolitan Havryil (Banulesko-Bodoni) of Chisinau and Khotyn, a metochion of the Chisinau metropolia was established on the estate of the Moldovan landowner O. Teutul, and a first monastic community soon formed there — by the metropolitan's order, the monk Pafnutii and four novices came from the Holy Trinity Monastery of Saharna to tend the garden¹.

In 1820 a stone church in honour of the Dormition of the Mother of God was laid down, but building stopped for want of funds. The year 1824 is taken as the monastery's founding, when the first superior was appointed — Archimandrite Feofil (Finikov), teacher of religion at the Richelieu Lyceum¹. In 1825, under Archimandrite Palladii, the Dormition church was consecrated; the following year, funded by the Odesa merchants Kharlamov, work began on a church with a bell tower in honour of the icon of the Mother of God "Life-Giving Spring", consecrated in 1834 under Archimandrite Porfirii (Uspensky); a guest house was built at the same time, and that building now belongs to the Odesa Theological Seminary¹. The Church marked the monastery's 200th anniversary on 29 September 2024, when the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church led the Divine Liturgy there⁴.

In 1880, under Archbishop Platon (Horodetsky) of Kherson and Odesa, a second vicariate was opened: the vicar bishops were to reside at the Odesa Dormition Monastery and serve as its superiors. The brotherhood then consisted of the archimandrite, the treasurer, six hieromonks, four hierodeacons, two sacristans, a prosphora baker, a keyholder and a cellarer¹. In 1896, under the will of the benefactress D. Kharlamova, a church in honour of St Nicholas and the Martyr Alexandra was built at the monastery¹.

In 1922 the monastery was liquidated: all its churches were stripped and closed, and the brotherhood's buildings were turned into dwellings; in 1936 the Dormition church was blown up¹. Revival began in 1942, when the churches of the Life-Giving Spring and of St Nicholas reopened; since the Dormition church had been destroyed, the church of the Life-Giving Spring was consecrated in honour of the Dormition of the Mother of God¹. In 1949 a summer patriarchal residence was set up at the monastery — hence the epithet "patriarchal" — and in 1965 the residence of the ruling bishop of the Odesa eparchy, who was at the same time the monastery's sacred archimandrite, was moved here¹.

From 1960 to 1964 St Kuksha (Velychko) carried out his monastic obedience at the monastery¹. He came here from the monastery in the village of Khreshchatyk in Bukovyna, closed in 1960, to which he had transferred from the Pochaiv Lavra, and from his first days he drew around himself a multitude of people seeking an elder³. In 1962 the future Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), fulfilling the elder's blessing, received holy orders in July and monastic tonsure on 26 August³. Thirty years after the elder's repose, in 1994, his incorrupt relics were found, and the glorification celebrations were led by that same Metropolitan Volodymyr, whose sponsor at his own tonsure St Kuksha had been⁴. Since then, on 29 September, the saint's feast day, the Primate serves the Liturgy at the monastery: in 2023 it was held in the church of the icon of the Mother of God "Life-Giving Spring", and thousands of the faithful came to honour the saint's memory⁵. The brotherhood's daily morning rule begins with a moleben before the shrine holding the saint's relics³.

Over recent decades the monastery has been rebuilt. In 1992 the monastery and the patriarchal residence took on their present form; in 1998 a new cathedral in honour of the icon of the Mother of God "Life-Giving Spring" was laid down; in 1999 the abbot's building and the superior's chambers were raised; in 2003 the church of St Nicholas was restored; in 2008 the gate church and bell tower in honour of the holy martyrs Borys and Hlib were consecrated; and in 2021 a five-storey pilgrims' hostel was completed and the patriarchal residence restored¹. The lower church of the new cathedral was consecrated in 2009 and dedicated to St Kuksha; the cathedral itself has side altars in honour of the Great Martyr George the Victorious and the Martyr Agathangelus³.

The monastery proved to be a seed for other monasteries of the Odesa metropolia: the Panteleimon, Illinsky and Constantine-and-Helen monasteries for men had among their first brethren monks of the Dormition monastery, and the Iviron monastery began as its skete; for a time its skete was also the Holy Protection community in Marynivka³. The brotherhood grew from twenty or thirty monks in the early 1990s to about a hundred³; as of 2022 the encyclopaedia gives eighty men, most of them in holy orders¹.

The monastery's chief shrines are the venerated icon of the Mother of God "the Nourisher" of the late 17th century, reliquaries with the relics of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called and of many saints, and the shrine holding the relics of St Kuksha of Odesa¹. On 10 October 2025 a monk of the house was tonsured into the great schema and received the name Kuksha, in honour of that same saint⁶.