Manyava Skete

It played an imported role as an Orthodox spiritual center during the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1628 at the Kyiv church synod Manyava Skete was granted the status of "prot", the principal heading monastery over the monasteries in the Ruthenian, Belz and Podolian Voivodeships. Over 500 monasteries in Ukraine, Moldova and Romania were under its control.

The wooden Church of Raising (Exaltation) of the Holy Cross at Manyava Skete, Ukraine

The Orthodox monastery of Manyava was founded and developed in the period between 1606 - 1785.[1] The founding father of the monastery is Saint Job of Maniava, who was a monk on Mount Athos in Greece for some time before. In 1606, together with Ivan Vyshensky and religious writer Zakhariya Kopystensky of Kyiv Pechersk lavra he organized the first monk community here.

In 1618 there were 40 monks residing in the skete. In 1621 the monastery was granted stauropegic status and that meant its direct subordination to the Patriarch of Constantinople.

Right after its renovation in 1781, it was unexpectedly closed down by Austrian authorities on 1 July 1785. The monastery in Maniava was reestablished with the collapse of communism in Ukraine in the early 1990s, nearly 200 years later.

The clairvoyant hegumen Ioann / John (in the world: Vasyl Hrynyuk), known for his kind-heartedness, was the first head of Manyava Skete after it was reopened. Many Orthodox faithful from Ukraine, Russia and Poland sought his help. Having foreseen his death, he died in 2003 and is buried on the site of the monastery and his grave is much venerated by the Orthodox pilgrims.

In 1652 there was the plague epidemic in the skete and the neighbouring areas. Many monks were dying from it. The remaining monks were pleading to God for mercy. On December 22, 1652, the Manyava hieromonk Filaret had a dream vision of Blessed Theotokos being dressed in a red hegumen's cloak, who came in through the monastery gates and entered the Church of Annunciation of Virgin Mary and having stopped there, said. "The plague will already stop". In remembrance of this event there is an icon "Hegumenia of the Manyava monastery" kept in the skete.

In Manyva Skete there are three churches. The main one of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the second church is of the holy martyrs Borys and Hlib and besides these there is also an underground church dedicated to Archangel Michael.

The second president of Ukraine - Leonid Kuchma visited the place and supported the restoration of the monastery. Other presidents of Ukraine - Viktor Yushchenko, of Georgia - Mikhail Saakashvili and of Russia - Boris Yeltsin all visited the Manyava Skete.

Patriarch Filaret and many of the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv patriarchate visit Maniava Skete on a regular basis.

Manyava Skete is also famous for its "Blessed Stone", regarded as a place of prayer and spiritual purification. The stone reminds a giant cave with the space of 10 x 3 meters, a typical dwelling of the solitary monks, a skete. This was a first place, where the founding monks (the first apostles of the subcarpathian highland) settled in the 13th century.

The spring of healing water emits from underneath the Blessed Stone. It is said that the water has the same healing properties as the waters of Lourdes. The spring ceased when the monastery was closed and miraculously started flowing again with the reopening of Maniava Skete.

Saint Job and Saint Theodosius of Manyava, Postal stamp of Ukraine

• Saint Job of Manyava
• Saint Theodosius of Manyava
• Ivan Vyshenskyi

• Manyava Skete - Official homepage
• Manyava Skete, official site of Ivano-Frankivsk bishopric of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate
• Manjava Skete: Ukrainian Monastic Writings of the Seventeenth Century (Cistercian Studies Number 192) (paperback)
• Sacred places of the monastery (Ukrainian)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Maniava monastery.

48.6561°N 24.3927°E / 48.6561; 24.3927