cathedral of the holy blessed prince alexander. the temple survived the revolution, survived the civil war, but fell under the pressure of the soviet leadership during the fight against god. in 1934, the godless government blew up the temple, razed it to the ground and built a football field in its place. so carefully were the traces of the prayerful presence hidden. may 30 , 2009. bishop seraphim of bobruisk ibykhovsky illuminated the cross erected on the site of the future cathedral of the holy blessed grand duke alexander nevsky, and on september 16, 2010, metropolitan of minsk philoret of islus consecrated the foundation and site of the shrine. after mother raisa igumeni in the monastery, zhon the myrrh-bearer became mother. paraskeva on november 29, 2020, during

the illumination of seraphim, bishop of babruisk , bykhov, in the house church in honor of the icon of the mother of god, the quick-to-be-heard convent of the holy myrrh-bearing women of the city of bobruisk, erected nun paraskeva in san abbess. my spiritual path began from the kiev-pokrovsky monastery, the founder of which is the grand duchess of the romanov family anastasia. mother the great one founded this wonderful monastery on the kiev hills more than 130 years ago. and so the lord, by his divine providence, brought me to kiev. i just visited on a pilgrimage. intercession monastery

wished to stay there for obedience, day after day i asked the lord to reveal his will, because at that moment i had already graduated from the choreographic college in chisinau, where i was born, but somehow a change occurred in my heart, it became difficult for me to combine my profession that i chose and... the temple of god, there was some kind of split. nun paraskeva in the world natalya aleksandrovna elskaya, born in the city of chisinau. she received the sacrament of holy baptism in june 1979 in the church of the transfiguration of the lord in the village of kopys, arshansky district, vitebsk region, where her father is from. in 1997 she decided on

a monastic lifestyle and on september 11 of the same year she entered the holy protection convent in the city of kiev. and so i take advantage of the moment, because in a monastery you are somehow more concentrated, probably the lord really hears you closer, because everything contributes to this. the monastery is very prayerful, there were up to 400 sisters at the time i arrived there, i also found nuns who were caring for the wounded from the front, when the monastery was turned into a hospital during the great patriotic war, and of course, at that time there was also the grand duchess was not glorified, but we all went to her grave and asked...

each for his own thing, so, perhaps, the grand duchess heard me, and something sounded in my heart that i had to leave this social life, just like grand duchess in her time, i left a luxurious, rich, social life and devoted myself to monastic work, and it so happened that i didn’t even go for things, and...

it’s even more difficult, she says: yes, baby, it’s easier to dig your own grave than to change yourself. it's okay, learn, baby, learn. according to mother paraskeva, it is not difficult for her in the monastery of the holy myrrh-bearing women, precisely because 23 years in the kiev intercession monastery gave a strong theological school, and she also believes that the monk loves this life of people so much that for their sake and for the sake of his salvation he chooses secluded life to pray for your salvation and for the whole world. the second one has already started. this is how i carry out this obedience, when i arrived, i was seriously ill, abbess raisa and three kind, sweet sisters greeted me very cordially, and of course, we began our

daily work, soon, 40 days after my arrival, ever-memorable... raisa passed away into eternity, so for the first time i took part in the burial, in all the preparations to bury her in a manner worthy of her title, her rank as abbot, on the territory of our monastery. on today there are already 10 sisters in the monastery, five monastics and five workers. in the first restored building of the monastery there is a house church in honor of the icon of the mother of god of the quick to hear. in honor of the icon of the mother of god, the quick-to-hear, we have two images, which means that the one from jerusalem brought it to us,

its trustee brought it from the city of jerusalem from the city of jerusalem, it was written there in the monastery, nun of the sea, there were a lot of miracles. from this image, most of the miracles of cancer patients are people with cancer, they come, pray with us, we record on maleben, we pray to the canon for the sick, such a podzyal, along with the psalter, and many people are healed, probably, to whom the lord gives healing, and to whom is weak, to whom repentance, this is already the will of god, on kyoto... there are many offerings of the holy image grateful parishioners, and also the mother of god praying in front of this image for the gift of children. shrines donated

from other monasteries and churches in belarus and russia are also kept here. this is a particle of the life-giving cross of the lord, an ark with particles of the relics of the saints of the kiev-pechersk lavra, pochaevsky. optinskikh, glinsky elders, st. nicholas the wonderworker, st. spridon of tremifun, great martyr and healer pantileimon, holy blessed prince alexander nevsky, st. seraphim of sorov, st. mithraphan of voronezh. also in the monastery are kept particles of the relics of belarusian saints, the venerable euphrosyne of polotsk, the holy righteous john of carmian, the venerable manefa of the gomel hieromartyr.

prays, so the monastery is held together by prayer, say, the quick-to-hear, icon, which is the main icon of our monastery, mercy god, it was brought from athos, through the labors of parishioners, i will not say names, surnames, let it be the secret virtue of those people who brought this icon, left it here, so the name of the icon soon the novice says: for itself, she soon hears and will soon fulfill it.

the way of life of the monastery is organized according to the tradition of orthodox monasteries, with the usual communal rules. the obedience is also traditional, a refectory, a bakery, a bell ring, an embroidery workshop. love and respect for each other, the basis of life in the monastery. so, sisters, how are you here? it’s fine. sometimes, when some kind of not just a conflict situation arises, but simply embarrassment, a misunderstanding, i don’t know what to say to my sister, i say, let’s go and have some tea, just drink tea as usual. somehow everything is resolved, balanced, or even when i intend

to say something to my sister, i still pray, wait, then somehow everything is resolved with god’s help, because it is difficult, they have their own experience, they have their own life, the way of life that was here, i came with my own mood, with my own experience different from how they lived here before me, so... although i promised that i wouldn’t move anything for a year, but...