Feast Day at St. Iver Convent of Donetsk under fire (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

February 25, the St. Iver Convent in Donetsk celebrated its feast day – the day of memory of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God. This year the St. Iver Convent celebrates the 20th anniversary of its foundation, reports the site of the Donetsk Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

With the blessing of Metropolitan Hilarion of Donetsk and Mariupol, the service began with the order for lesser sanctification of the water. It was followed by the Divine Liturgy led by Bishop Barsonophy of Novoazovsk, the vicar of the Donetsk diocese. Vladyka was concelebrated by the clergy of the city. A traditional cross procession and a prayer to Our Lady completed the service.

In his archpastoral word, His Grace Barsonophy congratulated on behalf of the Ruling Archbishop everyone who came to pray to the long-suffering monastery on the Saint Patron’s day.

"When the Lord bowed the heavens, descended to the earth for the salvation of mankind, built His Church and then he said that the gates of hell shall not prevail against It. God wanted the image of the Mother of God accompany us throughout our life. And we honour Her, we pray to Her, because we are men of flesh, we do not have the power to enter the spiritual worlds.

Not to lose contact with God, with the world of angels, we have sacred images. They are like little windows into another world, and the church of God is the place where eternity and infinity, the temporary world and the timeless world, the material world and the spiritual world merge. Who lives carefully, listens to oneself and to God's word, they connect the material world and the spiritual world in themselves.

Today we have gathered in this temple, which has always been sacred, even if there is nothing left here, the church will stand, because the spiritual world prevails here. Nothing bad can happen to us if the Lord does not allow this. So, feel free to go to church, pray, confess, partake of Eternal Life," said the hierarch.

Archbishop Barsonophy congratulated the abbess of the St. Iver Convent Michaela on the feast day, marking the high feat and strength of the nuns, with which they pray and work for the sake of restoring the destroyed shrine and unceasing prayer in this holy place.

The convent and its cemetery were almost completely destroyed in the fighting, with only a bullet-ridden shell remaining. Despite the almost incessant fighting and shelling, the sisters and parishioners of the St. Iver Convent managed to clean up the territory shortly afterwards. A lot of debris at the entrance to the convent has been removed. Beds of roses and other flowers decorate the territory of the long-suffering monastery.

It is much safer and more comfortable for worshipers to stand in the church now: the roof is covered with planks, hanging piles and bulkheads are removed, holes in the walls are bricked up, a heater is set to warm up the premises. Several newly glassed windows have already been broken by the blast wave, but it does not bother all those who work for the revival of the convent.

In the footage, shot by Donetsk journalist Sergei Golokha during the blessing of water before the liturgy, intensive firing can be clearly heard.

As reported earlier by the UOJ, the St. Iver Convent is being restored in the Donetsk diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.