St. Stephen's Convent

St. Stephen's Convent is a house of the Gorlivka Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Stepanivka in the Donetsk region¹.

Until 1925 a large stone church in honour of the Holy Apostle Protomartyr Stephen stood in that village, and it was later destroyed². From 1925 to 2007 there was no church at all in Stepanivka².

A monastic community began at the village church of Saint Stephen in December 2006, with the blessing of the Metropolitan of Donetsk and Mariupol¹. The community was given the buildings of a former hospital put up in the nineteenth century^{1, 3}.

In one of the hospital blocks the sisters arranged a house church in honour of the Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen, together with living cells, a refectory and other service premises^{1, 3}. The church was opened in 2007 in an adapted room of the old hospital building, and it received the name of the Holy Protomartyr in memory of the former village church^{1, 2}.

On 18 April 2008, on the report of the Bishop of Gorlivka and Sloviansk, the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, by journal No. 17, blessed the opening of a convent in the village of Stepanivka⁴. So the community received the status of a monastery^{1, 3}.

Soon the whole empty hospital complex was handed over to the convent as well². The sisters themselves rebuilt the buildings from ruins: in a short time the church was repaired and adorned, cells and a refectory were fitted out, and a bell tower was raised².

On 5 November 2009 the Bishop of Gorlivka and Sloviansk performed the rite of laying the first stone of a new monastery church¹. The upper church was to be consecrated in honour of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God, and the lower one in honour of the Holy Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen^{1, 3}.

By the account of the Gorlivka Diocese, 11 metres of the walls of the new church had been raised by the autumn of 2013 and the vaults of the lower church completed; by the design the height of the church was to be 34 metres¹.