Yurovichsky monastery

In 1673, in Yurovichy, a Jesuit monk Martin Turovsky founded a wooden chapel to preserve the Yurovich icon of the Mother of God . In 1861, a wooden Jesuit church and a house for 4 priests were built. ^[one]

The main building of the church was built between 1717 and 1757, consecrated in honor of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. A school was opened in 1756, and in 1778 a Jesuit collegium was founded. In 1820, the church and the collegium were transferred to the Catholic Order of Bernardine ^[2] .

The monks supported the uprising of 1830-1831 , for which the monastery and church were temporarily closed, but already in 1840 they resumed work. After the uprising of 1863 - 1864 , the church was finally closed. The monks did not participate in the uprising, however, from a letter from the commander of Mozyr and Rechitsa districts to the provincial authorities it follows: "Although there are no facts about the participation of priests in the rebellion, there is no doubt about their political unreliability." The church and monastery were transferred to the Orthodox Department on the basis of the order of the Governor-General M.N. Muravyov ^[3] .

In 1865, the last Yurovich priest Hugo Godzetskiy, anticipating the imminent closure of the monastery by the Russian authorities, decided to keep the icon for posterity. At his request, an artist from the town of Derechin, Jadwiga Kenevich, wrote an exact copy of the icon, and the priests replaced the original with it. The local landowner Gabriella Horvat took the miraculous icon to Krakow and deposited it in the church of St. Barbara with the condition that “the icon will be returned to the once updated, restored Yurovichi Church ...” ^[4] .

In 1865 , the church was consecrated in honor of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the complex itself became a women's Orthodox monastery. From 1871 to 1873, restoration work was carried out in the church. In 1873 - 1876 years. the baroque building was completed with 12 domes (bulbs) in accordance with the rules invented shortly before that “pseudo-Russian” style.

In the 1920s the monastery was abolished, iconic salaries, liturgical vessels and other religious objects from precious metals were taken from the Yurovichi church; unique buildings, a stone fence and a temple were gradually destroyed. In the spring of 1930 the monastery was closed.

In 1950, the buildings of the former collegium were transferred to the orphanage for further conversion into residential premises.

In 1993 , the state transferred the Yurovichi temple complex of the Turov diocese of the Belarusian Orthodox Church. Then there was established a female Holy Christmas-Mother of God Monastery.

On September 18, 2005, on the basis of the Decision of the Synod of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, it was transformed from Holy Christmas-Theotokos Convent to Holy Christmas-Theotokos Monastery.

The list of the icon of the Virgin was considered lost, but when the monastery was restored, it was found in a neighboring village, stored in a peasant family. After restoration, the Yurovich shrine was first exhibited in the Mozyr St. Michael's Cathedral, and then with a procession from its walls was transferred to the monastery. An exact copy of the icon is stored in the Cracow Church of St. Barbara ^[5] .

According to legend, the city of Yurovichskys once had the city of Yuryev with the Vidolich fortress and an Orthodox monastery, in which there was the eponymous miraculous icon of the Mother of God . Jesuit Francis Colerto points out in his notes that the hetman Stanislav Konetspolsky who fought with the Cossacks had the icon in 1630 . Upon learning of the icon, the Cossacks tried to recapture it and exterminated the entire Polish infantry, but the hetman sent it to Podolia and then to Galicia . Ksenov Martin Turovsky with this icon for 12 years carried out missionary activity among the Orthodox Volhynia , Podolia and Lithuanian Polesye . In 1673 he came to the Yurovichi mountains, where "the miraculous, as it were, chooses a place for her village." The arrival of Torovsky was the beginning of the foundation of a Jesuit monastery here - a chapel was built.

The rumor about the miraculous icon spread far, and in Yurovichi pilgrim pilgrims from different places stretched to worship the shrine. Among them were both Catholics and Orthodox. Already since the 1670s. special prayers, spiritual chants, sermons and poems dedicated to the Yurovich miraculous icon appear, rich gifts are brought to her.

The bulk of the work on the construction of the church and the monastery was carried out in 1710-1746, then they gradually continued until 1825 . The church was consecrated in the name of the Nativity of the Virgin. The stone two-story monastery with 18 residential and 14 non-residential premises was tiled, surrounded by a stone fence 2.8 meters high, 8 round stone towers with tiled roofs in diameter 4.3, 6.6 meters high without windows and doors were erected over the fence. The enclosed territory of the monastery courtyard was further divided by walls into three inner enclosed courtyards. The largest building of the household courtyard was a stone one-story building built in the northern wall of the monastery fence (circa 1763), which connected a barn, a stable, a kitchen with a glacier, a distillery, and a wooden barn. In the area of ​​the household courtyard and along the way to the entrance to the courtyard of the college there was a well with a gate and a canopy ^[6] .

After the Jesuits were expelled, the monastery was handed over to the military department, the church was divided into two floors by ceilings, equipped with furnaces, and used as a barracks. The main artistic advantage of the temple in Yurovichi is the architectural decor of its exterior, which is a three-dimensional figure laid out during the erection of walls with specially molded figured bricks. In RGVIA stored plan and drawing of the monastery with measurements (F. 405. op. 7, unit ridge. 2370).

• Yurovich Icon of the Mother of God

247722, Republic of Belarus, Gomel region, Kalinkovichi district, village of Yurovichi, st. Mountain 9

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  Plan of the Yurovichsky temple and monastery in 1865

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  After perestroika under the Orthodox Church. 1918 year

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  Image of Mother of God Yurovichskaya from an old postcard

1. Isaenka, U.F. Yuravichy over Prypyatstsyu.- Mn., 2000.
2. Pamyats. Kalinkavitsky district. - Mn., 1999.P. 35-95.
3. Kulagin A.M. Katalitsky churches in Belarus. Entsyklapedychny davennik. - Mn., 2001.P. 157-158.

• The history of the monastery on the site of the Turov diocese
• Yurovichsky monastery