Zhirovichi Holy Dormition Monastery.

Story

The Orthodox monastery arose on the site where, according to legend, in 1470, according to other sources - in 1490, on May 20, the Zhirovitsk Icon of the Mother of God was revealed. First known as an Orthodox monastery, then a monastery of the Basilian Order, founded in the 16th century. At first it was made of wood, but burned down in 1655. Subsequently he gradually recovered.

The union in Zhirovitsy was adopted in 1609 at the request of the Vilna Tribunal. The monastery passed into the hands of the Basilians (monks of the Greek Catholic rite). In the 17th–18th centuries it was the spiritual and administrative center of the Belarusian-Lithuanian Uniates. In 1839, the monastery was returned to the Orthodox Church. Until the 19th century, a handwritten monument from the 15th century, the Zhirovichi Gospel, was kept in the Assumption Cathedral.

In 1921, the Grodno province became part of Poland. In 1934, the Polish authorities located an agricultural school in part of the monastery, which existed until 1939. Despite this, 10 monks lived in the monastery.

Divine services in the monastery took place both after the partition of Poland in 1939 and during the years of German occupation during World War II. In the post-war years, it remained active, and in the early 1960s it gave shelter to the sisters of two closed convents in Belarus - the Nativity of the Mother of God of Grodno and the Polotsk Spaso-Efrosinievsky monastery.

In 1945, theological and pastoral courses were opened on the territory of the Zhirovichi monastery, transformed in 1947 into the Minsk Theological Seminary. In 1963, the seminary “self-liquidated”, but was reopened in 1989 thanks to the honorary patriarchal exarch, Metropolitan Filaret (Vakhromeev). In 1991, the Minsk Theological Seminary was given the status of a higher theological school.

Architecture

As an architectural ensemble, it has an irregular layout, a picturesque volumetric-spatial composition and an expressive silhouette. The center of the composition is the Assumption Cathedral, connected by covered passages to the seminary building and a residential building, on the ground floor of which there is an arched passage. The seminary building forms the front courtyard in front of the apse of the cathedral. Near the eastern wing of the seminary there is a rectangular courtyard surrounded by one-story buildings. To the southeast of the cathedral is the Church of the Epiphany. In the eastern part of the territory of the monastery complex, the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross, which is the dominant feature of the ensemble, rises at the highest place.

Miraculous icon

Zhirovichi Icon of the Mother of God - an icon of the Mother of God that appeared in Zhirovichi, is revered as miraculous in the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. One of the most revered shrines in Belarus. Feast of the icon on May 20. Belongs to the Belarusian school of icon painting.

Nowadays it is located in the Assumption Cathedral of the Zhirovichi Monastery to the left of the Royal Doors. Miraculously depicted on granite, only a few centimeters in size, scorched by fire, slightly cracked by fire and time, the holy icon is the true image of the Most Pure Virgin Mary, the Mother of God.

Holy spring

A kilometer from the monastery - on the territory of the agricultural town of Zhirovichi, on the street. Border Guards (behind building No. 65 in front of the ship stage) - a holy spring. It is located in a picturesque corner, among tall trees that create coolness even on the hottest summer day. There is also a bathhouse here. Those who wish can take water from the source with them.