Verkhni Petrivtsi

Vehrkhni Petrivtsi is a village in the Chernivtsi region, Storozhynets district, Ukraine. In 1848, the villagers received land plots. Petrivtsi villagers took part in the Bukovyna uprising against the Austrian authorities led by Lukian Kobyltsia.

On June 29, 1905, the villagers took part in a mass demonstration of solidarity with the first Russian revolution that took place in Chernivtsi. After that, the peasants seized the landlord's pasture by force, and the Austrian authorities sent a detachment of gendarmes to the village to tame the peasants and protect the landlords. In 1917, the peasants demanded the redistribution of landowners' lands and the establishment of new orders. In June of that year, the sawmill of the landowner Drukman was burned down in the village.

In April 1941, residents of the village and neighboring settlements, disagreeing with the establishment of the new order of Soviet power, took part in a peaceful march with the hope of crossing the Soviet-Romanian border into Romania. They were met with machine gun fire by border guards near Bila Krynytsia in the Hlyboka district, Varnitsa tract. Warnings about the illegality of the action had no effect even after warning shots were fired in the air, and no one was killed. During World War II, from July 8, 1941 to March-April 1944, the village was part of Romania.

The village of Verkhni Petrivtsi (Storozhynets district, 3.8 thousand inhabitants) has been known since the XIV century. It was at this time that defensive fortifications were built on the territory of the modern village during the times of the Galicia-Volyn principality. It is said that their remains have been preserved to this day. From the beginning of the nineteenth century, Verkhni and Nyzhni Petrivtsi became a place of compact residence for one of the Polish ethnic groups, the Chadetsky Guraly. The Chadecian Gurals moved en masse to their historical homeland in the Chadecian District in Slovakia after World War II, when the Soviet authorities began persecuting them. However, some representatives of this ethnic group remained in Verkhni and Nyzhni Petrivtsi, preserving their traditions and continuing to secretly conduct services in the Church of the Transfiguration in Nyzhni Petrivtsi.

In the center of the village stands the brick church of St. Anthony, built in 1907, which reminds us of the former large Roman Catholic community of the village.

In the north of Verkhni Petrivtsi, on the slopes of the hill of the same name, the convent of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women was founded in 1994 on the Leorda farm. The first monastery in Petrivtsi was built in 1487 by Stefan the Great. The modern monastery is greeted by a high gate-bell tower. To the left of the entrance is a two-story building of monastic cells. To the right stands the Church of the Archangel Michael, built in 1998.

Among the shrines that attract pilgrims here is the icon of the Mother of God All-Holy Mother from the Athos Monastery, which, according to believers, has the ability to heal cancer patients. The church houses the Pochayiv Icon of the Mother of God, parts of the holy relics of St. Silouan of Athos, the Great Martyr Barbara, St. Dmitry the Myrrh-Flowing, St. Gregory the Dvoslov, 40 martyrs of Sevastia, St. Lawrence of Chernihiv, and one of the 14,000 children who were killed by Herod. In addition, the church has parts of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord from Jerusalem. In total, the Church of the Archangel Michael has 40 relics of saints, including the Great Martyr Panteleimon. In his honor, a 50-meter-high church-bell tower was recently opened, which impresses with its size and grandeur.

There is a well with healing water on the territory of the monastery, and from the top of the hill you can see a panorama of the Bukovinian Carpathians, the beauty of which is breathtaking.