- Vydubychi Monastery
Vydubychi Monastery ( _ua. Видубицький монастир, "Vydubyts'kyi monastyr") is an historic
monastery in the Ukrainian capitalKiev .The monastery was established between 1070 and 1077 by Vsevolod, son of
Yaroslav the Wise . It was a family cloister of Vsevolod's sonVladimir Monomakh and his descendants.The monastery, and the neighbourhood in present-day Kiev where it is located, was named after an old Slavic legend about the pagan god
Perun and theGrand Prince Vladimir the Great of Kiev. The word "Vydubychi" comes from the word "Vydobychi" → "Vydobych" → "Vydobech" ( _ua. Видобичі → Видобич → Видобеч) which means "to swim up", "emerge from water".The legend has it that Vladimir ordered the wooden figures of Perun (the Thunder God) and other pagan gods dumped into the
Dnieper River during the massBaptism of Kiev . The disheartened Kievans, though accepting the baptism, ran along the Dnieper River calling for the old gods to emerge from water ("Перуне выдуби!"). Accordingly, the area down the river stream where Perun emerged was named "Vydubichu" or "Vydubychi" in modern Ukrainian.The monastery operated the ferry across the Dnieper River and many of the best scholars of that time lived and worked there. Among them, chroniclers
Sylvestr of Kiev and Moisey made a great contribution to writing the "Story of Bygone Days".From the 1596
Union of Brest the Monastery was an official seat of the first three metropolitans of theGreek Catholic Church in Ukraine - Mykhailo Rohozha, Ipatii Potii and Yosyf Rutskyi. In 1635 it was returned to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. [http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/1999/159928.shtml THE VYDUBYTSKYI MONASTERY:A KYIV LANDMARK WORTHY OF ATTENTION, Ukraine Weekly] ]The monastery was continuously protected by Ukraine's
hetman s and aristocratic families. HetmanIvan Mazepa in 1695 forbade the Vydubytskyi Monastery's neighbors to "do injustice to the monastery" and placed it under the guard of Starodub Regiment Col. Mykhailo Myklashevskyi, who established theBaroque -style Church of St. George and newTransfiguration Refectory. HetmanDanylo Apostol subsidised construction of the monastery's bell tower. In 18th century the help of HetmanKyrylo Rozumovsky 's ensured the new properties for the Vydubychi. [http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/1999/159928.shtml THE VYDUBYTSKYI MONASTERY:A KYIV LANDMARK WORTHY OF ATTENTION, Ukraine Weekly] ]Only a few churches of this monastery have survived over the centuries. One of these is the Collegiate Church of Saint Michael, which was built on behest of
Vsevolod I and partly reconstructed between 1766 and 1769 by architect M. I. Yurasov. TheUkrainian baroque structures include the magnificent 5-domed St George Cathedral, Saviour Church, and refectory, all dating from 1696-1701. A belltower, commissioned by the HetmanDanylo Apostol , was erected in 1727-33 and built up in 1827-31.Many distinguished individuals are buried there, including:
* Y. Handzyuk - Commander of the
First Ukrainian Corps (1918), exectuted by theBolsheviks
*Bogdan Khanenko (1848-1917) - collector and patron of the arts, his collection was moved to theKiev Museum of Art and Industry after his death
*Konstantin Ushinsky (1823-1871) - pedagogue, advocate of teaching in Ukrainian (which was prohibited in the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th century according to theEms Ukase .)
*Vladimir Alekseyevich Betz (1834-1896) - anatomist famous for his discovery of giant pyramidal motoneurons which are now calledBetz cell s.
*Lev Mikhailovich Yashvil (1768-1836) - artillery general during theNapoleonic Wars .Since the late 1990s, the monastery is administered by the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate References
*ru icon [http://www.sobory.ru/article/index.html?object=00352 Sobory.ru] - Vydubitskiy Monastery
*ru icon [http://www.vgd.ru/CEMETRY/vydubits.htm Necropolis of the monastery]
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