Svyato-Dukhov Monastery, Orthodox monastery in Vitebsk, Belarus.
Svyato-Dukhov Monastery is a female Orthodox monastery on Tolstogo Street at the mouth of the Vitba River, below Uspenskaya Hill. Its revived complex centres on the new Church of the Holy Spirit, consecrated on 24 November 2012, and also holds a house church dedicated to Princess Olga and the Vitebsk Women's Theological School. The original Holy Spirit church stood elsewhere in the city and was demolished in 1962.
The Monastery of the Holy Spirit was founded in the 1380s by Duchess Uliana of Tver, wife of Grand Duke Algirdas of Lithuania, who ordered the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit built here; around 1392–1393 she took schema vows in her own monastery. From the mid-17th century until 1839 it was Greek-Catholic, then returned to Orthodoxy and was soon closed for poverty. After the October Revolution most of its old buildings were destroyed; it was revived in 2001.
The monastery is named after the Descent of the Holy Spirit; local tradition credits its founding to Uliana of Tver, second wife of Grand Duke Algirdas, who took schema vows here around 1392–1393 under the name Marfa. Today the revived community runs the Vitebsk Women's Theological School, and the house church is dedicated to Saint Olga, Princess of Kiev.
The monastery is located in the city center and easy to access. Visitors should keep in mind that religious services and spiritual observances may affect visiting times.
The 1902 three-storey building of the former diocesan women's school, later the regional executive committee, stands on the site of the old monastery; the Holy Spirit church itself was demolished in 1962 and replaced in the 1980s by an annex. The monastery was revived on 3 May 2001 and given a building at the mouth of the Vitba River.
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