Holy Iveron Convent (Donetsk): life near death
The revival or opening of monasteries speaks ofthe return of the people to the origins of Christianity. Since the times of Ancient Rus, monasteries and churches were built, and they were during the war a hiding place for people, and in peacetime - their comfort. The Holy Iveron Convent (Donetsk) is no exception.
Building a shrine
The Convent in Donetsk leads its history withthe construction of the temple in 1997 on land near the airfield. Later, in honor of the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God, a church was built, and near it a city cemetery was opened.
The Iberian icon of the Mother of God is the famousa shrine that appeared on Mount Athos in the 10th and 11th centuries. Its power helps people to repent of their sins and gain strength to follow the way of life through the righteous. She is also able to pray for the salvation of souls of native people and getting rid of mental and bodily diseases. This miraculous icon attracts the attention of not only Orthodox Christians, but also believers of other faiths.
History of the icon
According to tradition, the Mother of God was to go toIberia, to bear the word of God to the Gentiles, but instead of it went Andrew the First-Called. Sending him on the road, the Virgin washed herself and put a board to write icons for her. Her image with the baby Jesus forever engraved on the blackboard, so the image is called not made by hands. All copies that were written from the icon, received the same force as the original source.
In 1999, the list of the icon of the Mother of God,written in Athos, was carried by the cross through various holy places for six months, until her new home was not the Holy Iveron Convent. Donetsk gave shelter to an Orthodox shrine.
By 2001, the monastery hadbuildings for the economy and a residential building with a small plot of land on which the garden and berry-tree were located. In the same year the monastery gained independence, and the first inhabitants were the novices of the Georgian-Lomovsky Kasperovsky Monastery.
Growing monastery
The descendants who came to the Holy Iberian Women'smonastery (Donetsk), were able to establish the economy in such a way that by 2005 a candle store, belfry and a proscenium were added. The new two-story building housed a monastery library, sisters' cells and a refectory.
Since 2007, construction of anotherThe outbuilding, as the monastery grew. During this time, the monastery was added land and farming. Garden and berry became a gift from the botanical garden of the city of Donetsk.
By 2012, in the Holy Iveron Convent, Donetsk gave to lifelong possession of 1 hectare of land, which the nuns are working on their own.
In 2014, the opening of the monastery dedicated to Turkovitsky image of the Mother of God was held.
Life of nuns
The life of the sisters is spent in works and prayers. Lazers here do not hold, and the labor day begins at 5.30. The first prayers sound from 6 o'clock in the morning, the day ends with evening prayer, which begins at half past nine in the evening.
Each sister knows her daily routine. Some clean and serve in the temple, others prepare and set the tables in the refectory, while others work in the garden and in the garden. A large farm requires a lot of effort, so nuns have weekends only on great religious holidays.
According to the charter of the monastery, novices do notbelongs, but everything is considered common, therefore, for the benefit of the whole community, one should store and multiply what is in the monastery. This applies to both simple nuns and abbesses. All that is received, grown or built at the monastery, belongs to the spiritual "hostel".
Sisters completely live at the expense of subsidiary farming and growing crops, as well as from donations of believers.
This monastery is a shrine, which is visited by people who go on pilgrimage to holy places.
Landscaped with sisters' hands the courtyard and a flower garden invite people to go into the temple to pray, relax and join the great shrine - the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God.
