Jordanville, New York, December 24, 2025
Photo: nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org
The Russian History Museum in Jordanville, New York has completed digitizing 358 historical photographs from the Brotherhood of St. Job of Pochaev at Ladomirová Monastery in Slovakia. The collection is now publicly accessible through the New York Heritage Digital Collections website.
The photographs span from the 1920s through the early 1940s, with additional images from the 1980s and 1990s. They document the monastery’s liturgical life, daily activities, and the surrounding communities in Ladomirová. The collection also includes images from the brotherhood’s evacuation journey during World War II, reports the Eastern American Diocese of ROCOR.
The Monastery of St. Job of Pochaev operated in the village of Ladomirová from 1923 to 1946. The founding monks came from the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra in Ukraine, and more than a dozen members of the brotherhood moved to Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York, in 1946 after a brief stay in Munich. The monastery was known for its active publishing and missionary labors.
A monk and two helpers in the print shop. Photo: nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org
Several members of the local community who joined the brotherhood later became prominent hierarchs in the Russian Church Abroad. These include His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus (Škurla), who served as First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad and abbot at Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, as well as His Eminence Archbishop Vitaly (Maximenko), His Eminence Metropolitan Vitaly (Ustinov), Archimandrite Cyprian (Pyzhov), and His Eminence Archbishop Seraphim (Ivanov).
In Jordanville, the monastery became a significant center for Orthodox life in the Russian diaspora.
The digitization project received support from the Central New York Library Resources Council through their Access and Digitization Grant. John Kurr compiled descriptive metadata and conducted research to identify individuals and locations in the photographs. Museum staff acknowledged assistance from Protodeacon Andrei Psarev and Andrey Lyubimov during various stages of the project.
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