St. Elizabethan Monastery (Minsk). St. Elizabeth Convent

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Thanks to God's Providence in the main city of Belarus in honor of the holy martyr Princess Elizabeth, the St. Elizabethan Monastery was created. The apostolic work of his sisters brings warmth and light to a place where everything is distorted and riddled with despair and sorrow. It is here that the Lord cleanses, washes and sanctifies human souls crippled by sin with His love. To repent and meet a forgiving and loving God is the calling of every sister.

History of the founding of the monastery

The Holy Elizabethan Monastery (Minsk) was founded on the outskirts of the city, in the Novinki district. Today it is the only functioning monastery in the Belarusian capital. It was founded in the place where there were no churches at the very end of the last century. The Sisterhood of the same name, on the basis of which, in fact, thismonastery, still continues to provide charity in the Republican Psychiatric Hospital and other he alth care institutions, as well as in boarding schools for adults and children with special psychophysical development.

In the beginning, a house church was erected in this boarding school in honor of Xenia of Petersburg. As time passed, some employees of the Sisterhood wished to devote themselves entirely to the service of their neighbors and the Lord. It was at this time that the St. Elizabeth Convent (Minsk) was founded.

Patients of the nearby hospital and ordinary people began to offer their help when the buildings of the monastery and its temples were just beginning to be built. To this day, the sisters help the sick, hold classes and holidays with children, organize their birthday parties and performances. They are always there when their help is needed.

Elizaveta Fedorovna

The St. Elizabethan Monastery (Minsk) is named after Ella (later Elizabeth Feodorovna), daughter of the Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt and an English princess. Parents instilled in their children love and compassion for loved ones, a sense of beauty.

Even in her youth, she met the Grand Duke, a representative of the Russian ruling dynasty, Sergei Alexandrovich. Having married, the young princess helped the destitute, sick and suffering, tried to alleviate their suffering by visiting hospitals, prisons, shelters. And her noble and deeply religious husband supported his wife in all good undertakings. After his death, Elizaveta Feodorovna found solace withthe relics of the miracle worker Alexei, where a marvelous monastery subsequently arose.

During the turmoil that began in our country, the princess continued to help those in need. But one day, on the third day of Easter 1918, she was arrested and taken out of the capital, and six months later she was executed along with nun Varvara. Now her relics are kept in Jerusalem.

Monastery buildings

Today, the St. Elizabethan Monastery (Minsk) has a territory on which eight churches have been erected, a refectory for pilgrims painted with frescoes, a fence with small towers, several buildings with cells, a bell tower, duplicated on the other side by a tower in similar forms. The monastery has a publishing house, several shops.

Monastic churches

Lower monastery church, consecrated in honor of Nicholas the Wonderworker. This is the first temple built on the territory of the monastery, which was consecrated in the last month of the last century. Particles of the relics of the Saint, in whose honor the church was founded, were solemnly brought to the St. Elizabethan Convent (Minsk) at the beginning of our century. A few months later, this shrine was inserted into the temple icon personally by Metropolitan Philaret for general worship. Also in this temple are icons with inserted particles of the relics of Euphrosyne of Polotsk, Seraphim of Sarov, Simeon Vertukhovsky, Gabriel of Bialystok.

Temple in honor of the Resurrection of the righteous Lazarus the Four Days. He is innear the crematorium at the Northern Cemetery, it is here that funerals and memorial services are regularly served. The frescoes of the temple depict the Second Coming and the Last Judgment. Temple in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "Reigning". It is located next to the monastery. The beauty of the upper temple strikes with the incredible beauty of the paintings in the Byzantine style. And the lower one is similar to the early Christian churches. The Sacrament of Baptism is performed here, and the Sacrament of the Wedding and all festive services take place here.

Temple in honor of the Royal Passion-Bearers, located in the script of the aforementioned church.

Temple in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "The Inexhaustible Chalice". It is located not far from the monastery courtyard, in the village of Lysaya Gora, which is in the metropolitan area. Rehabilitation for people with drug or alcohol addiction takes place here, and there are also people who were in prison and had long sentences, people who do not have their own housing.

Monastery activities

The people under the care of the sisters work in gardens, fields and farms, in construction. The St. Elizabethan Monastery (Minsk) also has an icon-painting workshop, which invites creative young people with an artistic education who would like to serve the church and gain experience in the art of icon painting. There are also other workshops here, such as carpentry, ceramics, sewing, wall-mosaic, metalwork-mechanical and many others. And about four years ago, in the center of the main city of Belarus, the monastery opened the Miracle Mill cafe.

HolyElizabethan Monastery (Minsk). Choir

For more than ten years, this creative team has been pleasing not only parishioners, but all lovers of church music with their singing. All singers of this choir have musical education of various speci alties, and some of them are diploma winners and laureates of various international competitions, singers of famous choirs.

The repertoire of the monastic choir is characterized by a complete rejection of author's music, as well as reliance on Byzantine and Znamenny chants. But the main thing is the splendor and beauty of church hymns.

The staff of this monastery is known not only in their own country, but also far beyond its borders. The publishing house has released a number of discs of the choir, the funds from which go to the needs of the monastery.

Choir director

The head of the creative team is nun Juliana, who graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory. She owns the authorship, harmonization and processing of more than one hundred and fifty church hymns. The monastery publishing house published a collection of works by Juliana. And a film about her was released on local television. For her labors, the nun was awarded the Order of Cyril of Turov.