Holy cloister in Minsk

All in good time. You can also say it about the monastery building on the outskirts of Minsk. There wasn’t any temple or monastery on that place, where Holy-Elisabeth monastery is located. The temple appeared in 1999. The monastery was named after Elisabeth Fedorovna, she was a sister of the empress Aleksandra Romanova. Elisabeth was killed by Bolsheviks, as well as her sister. Elisabeth was sanctified in 1992.

Seven temples

At the present day Holy-Elisabeth monastery is a holy cloister in Minsk, where those who have lost faith in life, who have lost their ways or otherwise found their way – a way to serve God, come here. Tourists also don’t pass by. You can pray in silence at seven monastery’s temples. So, there are two temples on the territory of the monastery: Holy-Nikolaevskaya and Holy-Elisabeth Churches.  There is a Church “Inexhaustible Chalice” In the village of Lisaya Gora, Minsk region. There is a Church of Resurrection at the North cemetery in Minsk, also there is a church in honour of Virgin Mary icon called “Sovereign”. A house church for the neuropsychiatric house №3 was opened under the monastery. The seventh temple is Royal Martyrs Church.

Sisters’ Work

Except for prayers, the sisters of Holy-Elisabeth monastery spend their days working. Besides cells, there are also about twenty different workshops on the territory. There are sewing and embroidering, icon painting and candle apprentices. Nuns work at mural painting and mosaic workshops, and at many others. The tourists may visit an opened refectory, that is frescoed and created by the nun themselves.

Have you ever tasted handmade marshmellow or baked bread? You can buy the goods made by nuns: bread, marshmellow, and honey at the monastery stores. By the way, it is all made from natural material and products, grown at their own town church. It is located at the distance of approximately 30 km from Belarusian capital. It must be said that Minsk residents themselves go to the monastery stores especially to buy new bread.

The novices of Holy-Elisabeth monastery are engaged in helping people suffering from mental illness. Beyond that nuns work in city hospitals, care homes for children and adults.

From worldly vanity

The travellers stayed at one of the monastery’s cells can take part in helping the nuns: to work in the monastery vegetable garden, to cook food, to help with tiding up.

Those who have been here just once, pay attention to the silence and tranquillity of this place. Only sometimes it is broken by the sound of the bells, coming from the belfry of the monastery. Thousands of pilgrims and tourists come here to pray in the temples, feel the peace at heart, distract yourself from fussy worldly life. Here people get to know the nuns’ lives, have dinner at the refectory. Here comes the awareness of other life existence, filled with an unselfish help to your neighbour, a desire to assist those who went wrong and a prayer for everything to be good at everyone.