Dormition Monastery (Schyrowizki)

Coordinates: 53 ° 0 '52.9 "  N , 25 ° 20' 39.6"  E

The Uspensky Cathedral of the monastery; left the chapel from 1828

The Dormition Monastery of Schyrowizki ( Belarusian : Жыровіцкі Свята-Успенскі манастыр ; Russian : Свято-Успенский Жировичский монастырь ) is a monastery of the Russian Orthodox Church in Belarus. According to canon law, the abbey is a Stauropegial monastery and is one of the most important centers of the Russian Orthodox faith in Belarus.

location

The monastery complex is located in the village of Schyrowizki (Belarusian: Жыровіцкі; Russian: Жировичи) in the Hrodsenskaja Woblasz about ten kilometers south of the city of Slonim .

history

Founding legend

In the 15th century the area of ​​today's Shyrovitsky was covered with forest belonging to a wealthy Lithuanian named Aleksandr Soltana. In this forest there was a clearing with a pear tree. In the spring of 1470 shepherds became aware of a luminous phenomenon emanating from this tree and found a small stone icon of the Mother of God there. The shepherds brought the icon to Soltana, who put it in a container at home. The next day the icon disappeared from the container and was back on the pear tree. Soltana saw this as a divine sign and first built a simple wooden church on the site. Church and icon soon attracted numerous pilgrims and formed the nucleus of the future monastery and village. 50 years later the church burned down and the icon was initially lost. The next day, children not far from the scene of the fire had an apparition of Mary. The image of Mary was found at the place of the apparition and later moved to the newly built church. The icon (5.5 × 4.6 cm) is still in the Uspensky Cathedral today.

Development of the monastery complex

In 1555, the court marshal of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ordered the construction of a stone church in place of the burned down wooden church. Soon after, a Russian Orthodox male monastery was founded.

In 1629 the foundation stone was laid for the Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary.

The monastery complex was built in its present form in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Minsk seminary has been located in Shyrovitsky since 1989.

Buildings and monasteries

The main church of the monastery is the Dormition Church (Uspenskij Cathedral), built between 1629 and 1650. The building got its current appearance in the second half of the 19th century. The church building is about 55 meters long and 40 meters high. The church combines stylistic elements of the baroque and classicism. Inside, the church has three naves with an apse .

Opposite the cathedral is a chapel with a bell tower from 1828.

Two other church buildings on the grounds of the monastery are the Church of the Epiphany (completed in 1672) and the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross (1769). In the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross there is a copy of the Holy Stairs of the Lateran Basilica.

The buildings of the seminary from the 17th / 18th centuries Century, together with other outbuildings, form an inner courtyard around the apse of the Dormition Church.

There is a sacred spring in the cathedral's crypt . Two other holy springs with plunge pools are just outside the village.

Web links

• Website of the monastery (Russian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ André Böhm, Maryna Rakhlei: Belarus Trescher Publishing, 2016, ISBN 978-3-89794-271-4 , p 333ff.