On November 5, 2025, the St. Elisha of Lavrishevo Monastery in the Novogrudok Diocese of the Belarusian Orthodox Church celebrated its 800th anniversary, along with the 775th anniversary of the repose of its founder St. Elisha of Lavrishevo
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After thy departure, protecting our lands from barbarian attack, thou didst send Heavenly cavalry and put their army to flight. And we, marveling at thy prayerful protection, call out to thee thus:
Rejoice, thou who dost deliver our land from enemies visible and invisible;
Rejoice, warrior of Christ, who dost protect us with the shield of peace.
Rejoice, our father Elisha, intercessor and defender of our land
Ikos 12 of the Akathist to St. Elisha of Lavrishevo
Among the Heavenly patrons of the Belarusian land, the founder of the Lavrishevo Monastery, St. Elisha, shines like a bright star from the depths of time. He was a silent man, a man of prayer, a mentor, a healer, a wonderworker, martyr, and defender of his native land. His monastery celebrated its 800th anniversary this year, and many people are drawn to the place of the saint’s labors. In the early thirteenth century, the picturesque bend of the Neman River drew a young nobleman who was seeking salvation from worldly vanity, which abounded at the court of the founder of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Prince Mindaugas.
A few testimonies to the ascetic’s life have come down to us through the passage of time. In ancient chronicles, it says about the future saint that his father was the Lithuanian pagan prince Troiden, who sent his son, when he reached the age of maturity, to “study” with the prince of Galicia. Tradition speaks about the acquaintance of the young prince with Bishop Lavrenty of Turov. The encounter and spiritual conversations with the holy hierarch influenced the young man, who found the Orthodox faith appealing. At twenty years of age, he received Holy Baptism. The grace of God touched him so deeply that, with the thought that “this world means nothing,” he left everything—his father’s court, a high position among the Lithuanian nobility—for the sake of Christ and received the monastic tonsure with the name Elisha.
In the silent beauty of Ponemane, St. Elisha of Lavrishevo carried out his monastic labors
In the forest by the Neman River, at the foot of the mountain, the saint built a wooden church and began to labor ascetically in solitude, laying the foundation for monastic life. Apparently, imitating the labors of the Orthodox Christian ascetics known to him, including Bishop Lavrenty of Turov, named in his troparion as his teacher, St. Elisha, having built a cell, shut himself up in it, lived in silence and strict abstinence, “cutting off various temptations with the tears of his prayer.” Other ascetics seeking solitude began to flock to the saint. Over time, a large number of brethren assembled, and St. Elisha was their first abbot.
The eldest son of the ruler of Lithuania Mindaugas, Voishelk, who was named David in Holy Baptism, also came and joined the monastery brethren. In the chronicles, under 1255, it’s reported that Voishelk, being a “champion of the true faith,” withdrew “from his father, from his family, and from his filthy (pagan) faith,” and was baptized in a monastery, studied literacy, and became a monk, presumably with the name Vasily. Over time, the monastery grew to the size of a lavra and became known as the Lavrishevo Monastery.
This tradition is confirmed by several documents. The most ancient mention of St. Elisha is found in a deed of gift to the Lavrishevo Monastery from 1517 in the name of Alexander Ivanovich Khodkevich, marshal of King Sigismund the Old. Khodkevich transferred his estate in Lychitsy to the monastery, with the following address: “To the Monastery of the Most Pure Mother of God, to the Church of Her Honorable Dormition, to the coenobitic lavra of Venerable Father Elisha.”
Due to the passage of time and difficult historical circumstances, detailed information about the life, labors, and ascetic feats of St. Elisha hasn’t been preserved to our time, and the extant life of the saint contains anachronisms. It’s known that on November 5, 1250, he was killed by a demon-possessed novice who, when he touched the relics of St. Elisha during the funeral, was healed of demonic possession. After that, the saint’s relics rested open in the monastery church, and various miracles took place from them.
Medieval Slavic principalities on the territory of Belarus in the eleventh—twelfth centuries
The year of the holy ascetic’s repose is perhaps inaccurate. It’s quite possible that St. Elisha reposed much later: There are reports in the chronicles that a Monk Elisha participated in deciding the fate of grand ducal power in Lithuania and assisted in the transfer of the throne of Prince Viten of the Gediminid dynasty. Having a high spiritual authority among the Lithuanian nobility, St. Elisha, if the date of his martyrdom was indicated incorrectly, could have helped resolve the state crisis that arose at the end of the thirteenth century. The saint would have then returned to the monastery, where he continued his monastic labors.
In the thirteenth century, Lavrishevo Monastery was the center of chronicling in Belarus. Around 1329, the Lavrishevo Gospel was written there, which has survived to our day and is recognized as a unique monument of ancient Russian writing. The manuscript is richly illustrated with eighteen miniatures. From the notes made on the pages of the Gospel, it’s clear that the monastery was called Lavrishevo Monastery of the Most Pure Mother of God. The postscript to the Lavrishevo Gospel contains one of the early Russian hymnographic works—the Canon of the Lament of the Theotokos. This treasure is now kept in the Czartoryski private library in Kraków. Unfortunately, attempts to return the monument to Belarus were unsuccessful. In 2018, a facsimile edition of the Lavrishevo Gospel was published by the Gorobets Publishing House in Kiev.
One of the most ancient handwritten spiritual monuments of Belarus, the Lavrishevo Gospel, from the 14th century. It remained in Belarus for five centuries, was removed in the 19th century, and is now in a private collection in Kraków.
In the sixteenth century, the monastery had a school, a rich library, a printing house, and workshops. At that time, the famous center of Belarusian chronicling ended up on a kind of island—the Neman changed its course and began to lap the monastery from three sides, with impassible swamps surrounding it from the fourth.
In 1505, the Lord worked a miracle through St. Elisha that served as a cause for his glorification among the saints. According to tradition, when the Tatars, marching to Europe under the leadership of Meñli Giray, devastated the vicinity of Novogrudok and approached Lavrishevo Monastery, the threat of destruction loomed over the monastery. However, the Lord didn’t abandon it, but worked a miracle through the intercession of St. Elisha: To the Tatars who had approached the monastery walls, it appeared that its courtyard was filled with elite cavalry, though there wasn’t a single soldier there, and the invaders fled in terror. This event served as the impetus for the canonization of St. Elisha by Metropolitan Joseph II of Soltan at the council held in Vilnius in 1514. Among the council participants was the archimandrite of Lavrishevo, whose name wasn’t recorded. In all likelihood, it was Jonah (Protasevich), the future Metropolitan of Kiev, Galicia and All Rus’ (1568–1576). In his service, St. Elisha is glorified as the founder of the monastery who gathered many ascetics.
According to various testimonies, the saints’ relics rested open as early as the mid-seventeenth century. But the holy monastery’s prosperity was short-lived. In the early seventeenth century, it was forcibly seized by Uniates, and during the period of their dominance, the monastic life in the lavra completely faded away. By God’s allowance, during one of the wars, of which there were many on the Belarusian lands (perhaps the Northern War of 1700–1721, when the Swedes sacked Pinsk in 1706), the Lavrishevo Monastery was destroyed. The brethren managed to hide the relics of St. Elisha in the ground, but after the burning of the monastery, they couldn’t be found.
The monastery was revived as Orthodox in 1775–1780, but in 1836, it was abolished, and the monastery church was turned into a parish church. Archimandrite Nikolai reported in the Historical-Statistical Description of the Minsk Diocese in 1864 that St. Elisha’s relics were hidden underground. He also mentions the life of the saint in Slavonic and for the first time indicates 1225 as the year that St. Elisha founded the monastery. Earlier, Albert Koyalovich, professor and rector of Vilnius University, reported on the Slavonic biography of St. Elisha of Lavrishevo in his work, Miscellaneous Matters Pertaining to the Ecclesiastical State in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1860).
An attempt was made in the early twentieth century by Hieromartyr Mitrophan (Krasnopolsky), when he was Bishop of Minsk and Turov, to revive the monastery. On July 27, 1913, St. Mitrophan consecrated a wooden church built by the efforts of Count Konstantin Apollinarievich Khrebtovich-Butenev on the original site of the ancient Lavrishevo Monastery. The church was consecrated in honor of the holy Prophet Elisha. Then the Holy Hierarch celebrated the Divine Liturgy and a moleben in the church.
A bronze monument to St. Elisha in the revived Lavrishevo Monastery
Rejoicing at the start of the revival of the ancient monastery, St. Mitrophan said:
This monastery is unknown to many, yet there was once a lavra here that served as a stronghold of local Orthodoxy. This is a special, grace-filled corner of the land. The people here still live a purely ecclesiastical way of life. This is undoubtedly the legacy of Lavrishevo Monastery’s influence. The Catholic enemies understood its immense importance and tried to destroy it completely, such that not even one stone was left on top of another, leaving no traces of its existence. Moreover, in order to completely erase the very name of the monastery from the people’s memory, the Catholics came up with a name for its ruins that means “Nameless” or “Unknown Place” (Nezvische), and the townsfolk, like trained thrushes, followed the Poles in calling it by this name. Now, thanks to Count Khrebtovich, a small wooden church has been built there. It’s a wonderful place! On the banks of the Neman River rises a cone-shaped hill—this is the site of Lavrishevo Monastery, and now a church stands there! My heart rejoiced when countless people came to the consecration of this church, which I served. Now a hieromonk has been assigned there and the people stream to the monastery in immense crowds; touching scenes of the people’s faith unfold there. I believe that in time there will be a monastery there—not wealthy, but beloved by the people.
The road to the monastery goes across a wooden bridge 230 feet long with wooden pile ice-breakers on the right side, built across the Neman by servicemen of the 557th Engineering Brigade in 2019
The revived monastery was listed as the Lavrishevo Dependency of the Minsk Episcopal House. In July 1913, Hieromonk Donat (Litvinko) was assigned there. In 1914, the First World War began. The front line began to approach Lavrishevo Monastery. In 1915, as a result of the German army’s offensive operations, the church burned down, the buildings were destroyed, and the assembled brotherhood was forced to abandon the monastery. So as not to lose track of where the church had stood, a pious local planted a lilac bush on the smoldering ruins at the spot where the altar had been. He instructed his daughter to remember the spot and reveal in the future, when the monastery would be revived. This bush humbly and quietly bore its “obedience” until 1993, when the historical place was consecrated again and a memorial cross was planted on it.
During the First World War, Russian soldiers and officers died near the monastery, defending their homeland. They were buried in a mass grave not far from the monastery church. The grave has been preserved to our day.
It’s known that Hieromonk Donat reposed in 1924 in the village of Turets, Grodno Province. In 2007, when the monastery was reborn, the nuns of Zhirovichi Monastery reburied the remains of Fr. Donat in the Lavrishevo Monastery cemetery. His gravestone has been preserved, with the following inscription:
Passerby, you walk along,
But you shall lie as I.
Sit down and rest a while
Upon this stone of mine.
Pluck a blade of grass,
Think upon your fate—
I’m at home, and you’re a guest;
Reflect before it’s too late.
St. Elisha of Lavrishevo Monastery today
On November 5, St. Elisha of Lavrishevo Monastery celebrated its 800th anniversary, and prayer ascends to Heaven, as it did hundreds of years ago: “O our Venerable Father Elisha, intercessor for the Belarusian land, pray to God for us!”
O Venerable Father Elisha,
thou didst struggle wondrously with St. Lavrenty.
Emulating thy teacher,
thou didst cast earthly glory and honor beneath the feet of Christ.
Therefore, the Lord hast crowned thee
with the imperishable crown of His glory
Troparion to St. Elisha of Lavrishevo and St. Lavrenty, Bishop of Turov (Tone 3)
