A little-known Shrine close to: in Kiev, are three of the eight most ancient icons in the world
In Kiev kept three of the eight most ancient icons of the world, which got into Ukraine by monks of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery from the monastery of St. Catherine on mount Sinai. It is in this remote monastery during the iconoclasm took to rescue the images with the whole of the then Byzantine Empire, says the story TSN.19:30.
The current building of the NBU at the Kontraktova square in Kiev before the revolution was a representation of this Sinai monastery. It ruled the service in Greek and collected donations for the maintenance of the monastery. Archpriest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Georgy Kovalenko is convinced that after the Soviet era with its “iron curtain” the time has come for the Ukrainian Orthodoxy to restore an active and living connection with the brethren in the world in the first place, with the old historical centers of Christianity.