Theodore Church, Kiev

In the seventies of the 19th century, the Theodore Church was erected in Kiev, the money for which was donated by a civilian official Fyodor Ivanov. Perhaps this is what caused the church to be named after Theodore the Sanctified.

Over 20 years, additional chapels and underground halls were added to the church. One of the underground sanctuaries became a copy of the cave temple of St. Elizabeth in Inkerman. The second sanctuary in the smallest detail copied the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

The church was erected in the style of Russian classicismwith a tent bell tower and domes in the form of bulbs. The interior decoration consisted of frescoes and Old Russian paintings. Within the walls of the temple were kept multiple relics brought from Jerusalem, as well as a copy of the Resurrection of Christ, which is preserved in Israel, transmitted by the monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

The parish school, day shelter and women's guardianship for the needy worked at the temple. Near the church of the Monk Theodore the Sanctified was a cemetery, and a little aside stood the chapel, built in 1891, and the crypt of the Pishenkovs family. In 1910 a parish fellowship appeared in the church. After 14 years, the Soviet authorities ordered the community to vacate the premises of the church. In the 30s of the last century the chapel was demolished, later installing a monument to Ivan Kotlyarevsky in its place. Then the temple was closed, and after 5 years the church was demolished. Removed and the cemetery.

In 2007, the services on the territory of the church resumed. A number of excavations were carried out and it was found that the foundation of the temple and the underground part were well preserved. Soon Metropolitan Volodymyr blessed the restoration of the church in honor of Theodore the Sanctified.