Dear Friends!

Take a trip to our virtual museum during your coffee or tea break and make your #quarantinediscoveries!

Admire unique cultural assets of the Museum Fund of Ukraine!

In the framework of the challenge #MuseumFromHome we present to your attention the selection of photos from the Preserve collection “Children in the Lavra”.

Many Lavra photographs of the late 19th - early 20th century show children. These are little pilgrims who visited the Lavra with their parents, students of the Lavra icon-painting workshop, students-singers of the Lavra church choir, or assistants of Lavra printers. There are also photo portraits of children (sometimes in the family circle), whose parents gave them to obedience to the monastery.

There were certain cases in Lavra history when well-known in future church figures began their ministration in the monastery as children. For example, the famous all-knowing St. Olexiy Golosiivsky (his secular name was Volodymyr Shepelev), hieroschemamonk of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. He was born in 1840 into a noble family. His father, the captain of the Kyiv Arsenal, died when his son was three years old. Mute from birth, Olexiy was healed owing to Metropolitan Filaret (Amphitheatrov) and at the age of twelve became a novice of the latter. Professors of the Kyiv Theological Academy took care of the boy's education. In 1856 he was appointed a novice at the printing house, and a year later, immediately after he turned 17, he became a regular novice at the Lavra.

At an earlier age (9 years old) the peasant family from Zhulyany gave their son Mykyta Tugay to obedience to the Lavra. His monastic name was Nestor (1900-1969) and he is known as future Father Superior of the Lavra (1953-1961), Bishop of Kharkiv (1961-1964) and Chernihiv (1964–1969).

Next week in the project “Memories of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” you will be able to see historical photos from the series “Lavra Printing House”.

Let’s #stayathome and discover the beauties of the Preserve’s collection together!

#museumfromhome, #museumcoffeebreak, #museumteabreak