Katerlezsky Saint George Monastery, Orthodox monastery on Saint George Mountain in Voikove, Ukraine.
The Katerlezsky Saint George Monastery is an Orthodox monastery in Voikove, set on elevated ground and made up of several stone buildings. The compound includes a church, a bell tower, and other monastic structures arranged within an enclosed area.
Archbishop Innocent of Kherson and Taurida founded the monastery in 1857 on the site where, by local legend, a Greek shepherd saw a rider on a white horse. A chapel built there earlier was used as a stable during the Crimean War. The monastery was dissolved in 1921, its stones later reused for local buildings, and worship resumed only in 1996.
The monastery takes its name from the village of Katerlez, now Voikovo, where a Greek shepherd is said to have seen Saint George on a white horse. The icon found there was carried twice to the Church of Saint John the Forerunner in Kerch but returned each time; the priest then promised a monastery would be built and the icon carried back annually on 23 April. In 1900 the monastery became a women's community and diocesan widows' home.
The monastery stands in Voikove, on the Kerch Peninsula, on the slope of Saint George's Mountain. A seven-metre Orthodox cross was set up on the mountain in 1991, and services on the monastery land resumed in 1996 with the blessing of Metropolitan Lazar of Crimea and Simferopol. The site is being rebuilt, so parts of the grounds may be closed off.
The stone on the summit, found with footprints and hoof marks, was later targeted with explosives; only a fragment bearing one of the prints survives. The icon linked to the vision was twice carried to Kerch's Church of Saint John the Forerunner and each time returned to the mountain, prompting a promise to build a monastery and an annual procession on 23 April.
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