The Mharsky or Mgarsky Monastery was founded in 1619 on the bank of the Sula River

Sula River

The Sula River is a left tributary of the Dnipró or Dnieper River with a total length of 365 km and a drainage basin of 19,600 km²....

 near Lubny

Lubny

Lubny is a city in the Poltava Oblast of central Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Lubensky Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast...

 (Poltava Oblast

Poltava Oblast

Poltava Oblast is an oblast of central Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Poltava.Other important cities within the oblast include: Komsomolsk, Kremenchuk, Lubny and Myrhorod.-Geography:...

, Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

) by Isaia Kopynsky

Isaia Kopynsky

Isaia Kopynsky ; b ? in Galicia region, d 5 October 1640) was a Ukrainian Orthodox metropolitan ....

 (who later became the Metropolitan of Kiev) and Princess Rayina Vyshnevetska (cousin of Metropolitan Petro Mohyla

Petro Mohyla

Metropolitan Peter was a Metropolitan of Kiev, Halych and All-Rus' from 1633 until his death. He was born into a Moldavian boyar family — the Movileşti — one that gave Moldavia and Wallachia several rulers, including his father, Ieremia Movilă. His mother, Margareta, was a Hungarian noble lady...

) as a bratstvo

Bratstvo

Bratstvo may refer to:*FK Bratstvo Bratunac, Bosnia and Herzegovina football club*FK Bratstvo Cijevna, Montenegrin football club*NK Bratstvo Gračanica, Bosnia and Herzegovina football club*FK Bratstvo Krnjača, Serbian football club...

 designed to become a bulwark of Orthodoxy

Eastern Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...

 in the eastern part of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The Ukrainian Baroque

Ukrainian Baroque

Ukrainian Baroque or Cossack Baroque is an architectural style that emerged in Ukraine during the Hetmanate era, in the 17th and 18th centuries....

 katholikon

Katholikon

A Katholikon or Catholicon is the major temple of a monastery, or diocese in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The name derives from the fact that it is the largest temple where all gather together to celebrate the major feast days of the liturgical year. At other times, the smaller temples or...

 was erected in the 1680s with the help of a generous grant from Hetmans Ivan Samoylovych

Ivan Samoylovych

Ivan Samoylovych was the Hetman of Left-bank Ukraine from 1672 to 1687. His term in office was marked by further incorporation of the Cossack Hetmanate into the nascent Russian Empire and by attempts to win the Right-bank Ukraine from Poland-Lithuania....

 and Ivan Mazepa

Ivan Mazepa

Ivan Stepanovych Mazepa , Cossack Hetman of the Hetmanate in Left-bank Ukraine, from 1687–1708. He was famous as a patron of the arts, and also played an important role in the Battle of Poltava where after learning of Peter I's intent to relieve him as acting Hetman of Ukraine and replace him...

. The seven-domed church with six piers was designed by a German architect who had worked on the Trinity Cathedral

Trinity Monastery (Chernihiv)

The Trinity Monastery is a historic monastery in the city of Chernihiv in northeastern Ukraine.Initially it was founded by Saint Anthony of Pechersk in the 11th century, but ruined in 1239 during the Mongol invasion....

 in Chernihiv

Chernihiv

Chernihiv or Chernigov is a historic city in northern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Chernihiv Oblast , as well as of the surrounding Chernihivskyi Raion within the oblast...

. The number of domes was reduced to five after the central cupola had collapsed in 1728. A free-standing Neoclassical bell tower

Bell tower

A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...

 was started in 1785 but was not completed until 60 years later.

The monastery grounds contain the graves of several Kievan metropolitans. It was there that Yurii Khmelnytsky

Yurii Khmelnytsky

Yurii Khmelnytsky , younger son of the famous Ukrainian Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky and brother of Tymofiy Khmelnytsky, was a Zaporozhian Cossack political and military leader...

 took the tonsure and St. Athanasius III Patelaros (an ecumenical patriarch) died and was buried. After 1925 the monastery was occupied by the leaders of the Lubny Schism, then housed a succession of institutions for children, including a Young Pioneer camp

Young Pioneer camp

Young Pioneer camp was the name for the vacation or summer camp of Young Pioneers. In the 20th century these camps existed in many socialist countries, particularly in the Soviet Union....

, until the monks were allowed to return there in 1993.