The Church of the Holy Spirit — a destroyed monument of Baroque church architecture

Records of the church’s construction

Records of the Consistory archive [21] tell us how the church was built. In 1788 the Pavlohrad spiritual board sent a report to His Grace Amvrosii of Katerynoslav on the state of spiritual affairs in the village of Volia, then in the possession of the Nadarzhynsky family.

The report concerned the construction of the Church of the Holy Spirit, begun on 3 May 1784 and completed on 10 July 1788. The building housed an altar and a table of oblation. The iconostasis was wooden, with refined painted decoration. A library operated at the church.

A resolution of 23 December 1788 records the blessing for the consecration of the church granted by His Grace Amvrosii, and early the following year, on 21 January 1789, the Church of the Holy Spirit was consecrated by Oleksii Khandalev, archpriest of Pavlohrad.

History of the building

Spiritual publications and the accounts of village elders tell us that the Church of the Holy Spirit was built in the Cossack Baroque style. An architecturally similar church stands in the town of Izium.

The archival record offers a fascinating view of the church’s life. Many notes on church news appear in the newspaper “Katerynoslav Diocesan Gazette”.

From the newspaper we also know that in 1864 the church was rebuilt from wood into brick (with a single altar), this time at the parishioners’ expense. A rather large library continued to operate at the church at that time [26].

The “Gazette” records interesting details of interior alterations. In March 1872, for instance, repairs were carried out at the parishioners’ expense — the wooden floor was replaced with stone slabs [3]. In February 1884 the emperor himself donated icons of the holy prince Alexander Nevsky to the church [1]. In 1877 the church was repaired after a fire: the crosses on the roof were cleaned and gilded, the roof itself repaired and repainted, and five new bells installed. The column notes that a large share of the funding came from donations by Yakiv Korostovtsev (then the church warden) and the peasant Kornelii Buhunov, with smaller donations from many other parishioners covering the rest [9].

There are also records of donations to the church. In 1876 Yakiv Korostovtsev gave 1,000 roubles for the needs of the Church of the Holy Spirit [23]. On 5 May 1902 the emperor himself donated four plots of estate land to the church [14].

The church’s inner workings

For a long time the Church of the Holy Spirit was the only one in the Dobrovillia parish of the Pavlohrad district of the Katerynoslav diocese; in the last decade of the nineteenth century its clergy consisted of a rector, an assistant rector and two psalm-readers [24].

The “Katerynoslav Diocesan Gazette” frequently published vacancies for psalm-readers and priests and announced staff changes. In 1872, for example, a new prosphora baker was appointed — the sexton’s widow Anastasiia Tuchyna took up the post in place of Anna Stepanova [4].

Most of the staffing records concern changes of church wardens. From the newspaper we learn that in 1873 the landowner and collegiate secretary Yakiv Korostovtsev was appointed the new warden [5] (he was reappointed several times thereafter, including in 1876 [7]). An entry for 1889 is particularly curious — it records the appointment of Count Mykola Sumarokov-Elston as church warden [27].

As of 1908 the clergy of the Church of the Holy Spirit included two priests — Kyrylo Metkalev (serving at this church since 1897) and Mykhailo Kucherenko (since 1903), both graduates of the Katerynoslav theological seminary — and two psalm-readers: Makarii Donchenko, a priest’s son from the seminary’s junior division (since 1889), and Petro Khotsynskyi, a priest’s son and graduate of the seminary’s third class (since 1895).

The clergy of the church were often rewarded for diligent service. In 1875 the priest Aaron Veselovskyi was awarded the nabedrennik [6]. On 28 April 1876 the priest Kostiantyn Skybyn received the highest award (an order) by the emperor’s decree [8]; in 1893 he also received a pectoral cross from the Holy Synod [22]. On 15 May 1895 the church warden Nykyfor Sevriukov was awarded a letter of commendation [12]. In 1917 the priest Kyrylo Metkalev was awarded the nabedrennik [16].

Religious life

It is safe to say that the Church of the Holy Spirit was active from the earliest days of its existence. Spiritual life in Dobrovillia was in full swing: this was an important religious centre, the only one in the district. People came here for weddings and baptisms, and funerals were held here. Young clergy were also trained at the church.

The “Katerynoslav Diocesan Gazette” also offers some statistics. In 1890 the Church of the Holy Spirit counted 3,700 parishioners and owned a plot of 120 desiatinas of land [11]. As of 1898 its clergy included three priests and three psalm-readers (that same year the Holy Synod reduced the number of priests to two). There were then 3,252 parishioners, and the church had at its disposal 147 desiatinas of land and a guest house for one of the priests. In 1901 the parish numbered 3,293 souls [13]. As of 1916 the church had 3,641 parishioners [18], and by 1917 — 3,669 [19].

The church took part in various religious events and was a centre of pilgrimage. In April–June 1916, for example, a religious procession carried the miracle-working Samara icon of the Mother of God from the village of Kryshtopivka to Dobrovillia. The June services at the Church of the Holy Spirit were led by the priests Mykhailo Katranov, Kyrylo Metkalev and others. The services addressed grief and consolation, the place of faith in a peasant’s life, and the meaning of war as a higher punishment [17].

The newspaper also documents the church library. An 1872 issue lists the church among subscribers to spiritual books and journals — two titles were taken that year, “Dukhovnaia Beseda” and “Strannik” [25].

The church kept its own parish registers: among the digitised holdings of the State Archive of the Kharkiv region we find numerous documents beginning in 1843, as well as for 1880–1884, 1888–1891, 1894–1895, 1913–1914 and 1919–1921 [2].

The church’s influence on local education

The Church of the Holy Spirit also left its mark on local education. In 1879, by order of the director of public schools of the Katerynoslav governorate, the church’s priest Kostiantyn Skybyn was appointed religion teacher at the local village school [20]. As of 1890 a parochial school is recorded in Dobrovillia [10]. In 1903 the priest Mykhailo Kucherenko was the religion teacher of the public school [15].

A curious note concerns the religious peculiarities of Dobrovillia. A report on sectarianism in the Katerynoslav diocese states that as of 1900 the so-called shelaputy or khlysty (people “adhering to religious deviations”) lived in Dobrovillia. They were also mentioned in earlier issues of the “Diocesan Gazette”. To counter the phenomenon, officials, peasants and patrons supported the development of the parochial school.

In summary

The church periodicals allow us to trace the history of the Church of the Holy Spirit from its foundation at the end of the eighteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth. Over that time the church was repeatedly rebuilt and repaired, received substantial donations from parishioners, landowners and statesmen, maintained a library, fostered education and was a centre of vibrant religious life. The sheer number of references to the church in the sources testifies to its special place in the life of the village and the whole parish.

At the same time, the story of the Church of the Holy Spirit exemplifies the loss of an important monument of Ukrainian sacred architecture. Destroyed during the anti-religious campaign of the Soviet authorities, the church vanished forever from the local architectural landscape. With the building, a unique example of Cossack Baroque church architecture was lost — and with it an important symbol of the community’s historical memory.