St. Elizabeth's Convent

St. Elizabeth's Convent is a house of the Zaporizhzhia Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the settlement of Komyshuvakha, Orikhiv District, in the Zaporizhzhia region².

Komyshuvakha itself was founded in 1770 as a sloboda that was also called Pavlivka, and it gained the status of an urban-type settlement in 1957⁴.

The community did not begin in Komyshuvakha. On 19 May 1998 the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, by journal no. 29 and on the report of Archbishop Vasyl of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol, blessed the opening of a convent in the village of Zhovtneve in the Zaporizhzhia Diocese¹.

By the house's own account it was founded in February 1998 with the blessing of the same archbishop, in the village of Zhovtneve in what was then Tokmak District, and was named in honour of Grand Duchess Elizabeth; that same account calls it the second convent of the Zaporizhzhia Diocese⁵. Five sisters were chosen for the new house from the Dormition Convent of the village of Prymorske⁵.

The community grew, and by the monastery's account its further development was hindered both by the shortage of living space and by the distance from the regional centre, which made it hard for pilgrims to come⁵. At the archbishop's petition the house was given the building of a district hospital with 120 beds in Komyshuvakha⁵.

In 2001, because the number of sisters had increased, the monastery was moved to the settlement of Komyshuvakha in Orikhiv District, where it was housed in the two-storey building of the former district hospital³. On 21 December 2001 the Holy Synod, by journal no. 35 and on the report of the same archbishop, blessed a change in the monastery's address to the new one, in the settlement of Komyshuvakha in Orikhiv District².

The building was overhauled to designs by architects, and two churches were arranged inside it - one in honour of the icon of the Mother of God "Pantanassa" and one in honour of the Venerable Martyrs Elizabeth (Romanova) and the nun Varvara; the ruling hierarch consecrated them^{3, 5}.

The village council allotted the monastery four hectares of land, on which a garden and a vineyard were laid out⁵.

A copy of the icon of the Mother of God "Pantanassa", which the house described as an exact copy of the wonderworking image from the Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos, was blessed on 3 April 2003 in the Moscow church of St Simeon the Stylite; the rite was performed by an Athonite hieromonk, who also served the first moleben before the icon⁵. The copy was afterwards laid to the venerated copies of the "Pantanassa" in the Novospassky and Novo-Alekseevsky monasteries in Moscow, where molebens were served as well⁵.