Dnipro, September 8, 2026
inok.info
The St. Nicholas Samara Hermitage Monastery in southeastern Ukraine celebrated its 450th anniversary this weekend.
The celebration on Saturday, September 5, the Leavetaking of the feast of the Dormition and the feasts of the Samara Icon of the Mother of God and St. Irenaeus of Lyons, was led by His Eminence Metropolitan Irenei of Dnipropetrovsk, the local diocese reports.
The feast day service was held at the monastery's church of the Great Martyr George the Victorious. Metropolitan Irenei concelebrated with His Eminence Archbishop Evlogy, monastery abbot Archimandrite Dosifei (Savelov), and other clergy.
eparhia.dp.ua
After the reading of the Holy Gospel, Metropolitan Irenei delivered a sermon. Prayers were offered for peace in Ukraine, and a cross procession followed the Liturgy.
***
The monastery was founded in 1576 by two hermit monks on an island formed by the Samara River and its tributary, the Samarchyk, and it became a Zaporozhian Cossack shrine, with a wooden church dedicated to St. Nicholas where the Cossacks sent their wounded and sick for care. The fortress became a formal monastery in 1602 under Hieromonk Paisy of the Kiev Mezhigirya Monastery, and Cossacks came to regard it as a “paradise of God on Earth.”
eparhia.dp.ua
The monastery was plundered repeatedly through the 17th and 18th centuries, including a period under Ottoman control after 1711, but it also flourished at times, growing into a major complex with five churches, a nearly 315-feet bell tower, and a hospital and school, serving as a key outpost during the Russo-Turkish wars. It came under the Kiev Mezhigirya Monastery’s authority in 1780 and lost much of its land in 1794, then was shut down entirely in the 1930s.
The monastery was revived at the end of the 20th century and has been under restoration since. It has four active churches, and the Samara Icon of the Mother of God remains its principal treasure. On August 21, 2025, Metropolitan Irenei consecrated a chapel there dedicated to the Icon of the Mother of God of Pochaev.
Follow OrthoChristian on Facebook, Twitter, Vkontakte, Telegram, WhatsApp, and MeWe!
