Pustynki monastery, Mogilev region

Monastery of the Assumption is a unique XIV century architecture monument in a kilometer away from the village of Pustynki. The founder of the cloister was the Great Prince Olgerd’s son, Lugven, who took the name of Simeon after christening.

There is a legend, according to which the tenth Olgerd’s son got losing his vision. After a while, Lugven saw a dream, in which a strange old man informed the great prince’s heir that a recovery could be found at Pustynki resource. Simeon couldn’t find the miraculous source for a long time, but when the sacred place was found, the prince didn’t take long to wash his face from it. He got his eyesight back after that. Besides, there was an appearance of the icon of Virgin Mary in linden forest. Simeon decided to erect a monastery near Pustynki in honour of miracles came true, and that was done in 1380.

Nowadays there are a lot of structures around the old monastery. The whole complex occupies quite a vast territory, which was walled of brick. There was a church building next to the monastery. The Church of the Assumption was one of the main objects of the complex. Besides, a school, a chapel, a belfry, a couple of household buildings and several dwelling houses were built. There is information, that there was an outpatients’ department and a hospital on the territory of the monastery.

Two centuries after its foundation, the monastery took the place of the largest in its own way on the territory of east Belarus. The religious activity deteriorated since the middle of the XVI century when the most part of monks was killed as a result of Russian and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth war. The monastery fell to desolation at all after the end of the war. Orthodox monks returned to Pustynki in 1839.

The construction of Assumption church was carried out initially under the head of Uniates and lasted for seven years, beginning with 1801. The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was erected in 1864, it was consecrated after a year. A separate belfry building was erected two years after the church had been built. A tent-shaped belfry is of 59 meters high.

After the Soviet authority advent, the monastery ceased to perform its direct functions. In prewar time, a children’s home was arranged there. During the Great Patriotic War, the buildings of the monastery, the church, the belfry and the chapel were not damaged. But postwar period and religious persecutions led the monastery was to be closed and demolished, the architectural ensemble having been formed for centuries was destroyed.

The reconstruction works of the monastery started in 2003. The first service was held there after two years. Nowadays vast religious activity takes place in the monastery.