St. Righteous Anna WOMEN’S MONASTERY on the Anna’s Mountain
Year established: 1993
Location: Vashkivtsi village, Vyzhnytsya district
The mountain in the outskirts of Vashkivtsi has been long considered holy. A legend says that at the times when Ukraine was under Tatar oppression there was a girl named Anna famous for her beauty and kindness. The girl had a long plait and big black eyes. Tatars knew about her and once decided to sneer at her. The girl ran to the mountain escaping from them but didn’t afford to do that, so she started praying asking the Lord to save her body and soul. When enemies came up too close to her a miracle happened, the Earth opened up and swallowed her. Only her plait remained on the ground surface. Tatars were looking for the girl for a long time but found only her wet hair. The wind wrested this hair from their hands and dispersed it over the whole mountain.
To remember that miracle local Christians raised a grave here and erected a stone cross and the mountain has been named Anna’s since then. Soon a healing source outwelled from the mountain which attracted people to the place. After a time the cross was destroyed by a lightning. It was restored in 1848, the year when serfdom was abolished in Austria (a part of which Bukovyna was at those times). Probably then the wooden church was built here which burnt later in early XX century. People didn’t forget about the sacred mountain for hundreds of years.
In 1993 the St. Righteous Anna Women’s Monastery on the Anna’s Mountain was founded here. St.Anna cathedral was built together with the lower church of St. Great Martyr Maccabaeus, cells, living buildings, household premises.
The St. Martyr Maccabaeus has an ark with parts of the holy relics of Hozebitus Martyrs and other saints.
The Anna’s Mountain provides wonderful view not only onto Vashkivtsi but also almost onto the whole Cheremosh from Vyzhnytsya in the South-West to its junction with the Prut in the North and the Cecino mountain in the East. And in the South you’ll see blue stretching Bukovynian mountains and their valleys.GALLERY
 | The inner yard |
 | The monastery church as a whole |
 | Majestic... |
 | Bells |