St. Mary Magdalene the-Equal-to-the-Apostles' Convent

The Bila Tserkva convent in honour of St Mary Magdalene, Equal-to-the-Apostles, belongs to the Bila Tserkva eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and stands on Shkilna Street in Bila Tserkva; the services are celebrated in Church Slavonic⁴. The convent lies in Zarichchia, the right-bank part of the city, not far from the river Ros¹.

The house grew out of a parish church. In her lifetime Countess Oleksandra Vasylivna Branytska (Engelhardt) took a vow to build twelve Orthodox churches, and one of them — a stone church of St Mary Magdalene — she laid down in Zarichchia with the blessing of St Filaret (Amfiteatrov)^{1, 3}. The site was chosen because in the middle of the nineteenth century a busy trading and pilgrimage road ran here towards the river crossing and on through the centre of the city to Kyiv¹. Under the countess's will the church was completed by her sons, despite their own Catholic confession¹. The consecration took place on 13 June 1843, and it was performed by that same St Filaret³.

In 1859 the second Orthodox parish school in Bila Tserkva and in the whole Kyiv gubernia was opened at the church — with its own premises, a staff of teachers and a clear curriculum — through the labours of the archpriest of the Transfiguration cathedral, Petro Lebedyntsev¹. In the mid-1860s the church's rectors were Archpriest Petro Orlovsky, formerly rector of the Kyrylivska church in Kyiv, where twelfth-century frescoes were discovered in his time, and Symeon Levytsky, father of the writer Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky¹. Beside the church Archpriest Petro Lebedyntsev buried his wife Oleksandra, and the gravestone survives¹.

In 1899 the church was enlarged by the addition of side galleries³. In the 1920s the autocephalists and the "renovationists" shared the building with the canonical parish community, and in the 1930s the church was attended by many clergy serving their exile in the city¹. In 1938 the church was closed, but already in 1941 it was handed back to the parish community, and since then it has never closed again^{1, 3}. From 1987 to 1990 the building was thoroughly repaired and painted anew¹.

Monastic life began at the end of the twentieth century. In 1994 the Bila Tserkva eparchy was founded, and the question of monasteries arose within it³. In 1996 the walls of the future convent began to rise beside the church¹, and by the decision of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of 15 April 1997 a blessing was given to open a convent on the base of the parish of St Mary Magdalene³. Two months later, on 15 June, at the feast of the Holy Trinity, the first three sisters arrived³; the house opened officially that same year, and the first monastic tonsure was performed in 1999¹.

The life of the house is ordered around the daily cycle of services: on Thursdays and Sundays at the evening services the sisters read the akathists together — to St Mary Magdalene and to the Mother of God before her icon "Joy of All Who Sorrow"³. The sisters carry out obediences at the kliros, in the prosphora bakery and the sewing workshop, grow vegetables, tend the flower beds and prepare the meals; some duties are permanent — precentor, mistress of the typicon, cellarer, steward, sacristan, altar sister and candle sister³. An Orthodox library operates at the convent³. As of 2014 twelve nuns laboured in the house³.

Among the convent's shrines are an icon of St Mary Magdalene with a particle of the saint's relics and icons of the Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow" and "of Iviron"³. A large image of the Saviour is noted separately, set up in the church in memory of the abolition of serfdom in 1861².

The house keeps two patronal feasts — the day of St Mary Magdalene on 4 August and the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women³. On 28 October 2018 the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church led the Divine Liturgy at the convent⁵. On 4 August 2024 a solemn Liturgy was served for the patronal feast, followed by a cross procession⁶, and on 12 January 2025 the house held an evening of Christmas hymns: thirty-two carols were sung, and children's choirs took part in the praise⁷. Building work at the convent continues¹.