The Orthodox church was built in six months in honor of the holy martyr Macarius, Metropolitan of Kyiv, Galicia and All Rus’ (1495-1497), who was killed by the Tatars on the banks of the Pripyat in the village of Skrigalov (Belarus) while traveling from Vilna to Kyiv. The wooden temple was erected in the style of pseudo-Russian historicism according to the design of the architect Evgeny Ermakov (Cathedral of St. Panteleimon in Feofaniya) in 1897-98 in Tatarka. For the construction of this church, material was donated from the dismantled Dmitrievskaya Church at Baikov Cemetery.
In the justification for construction on Tatarka, the fight against heretics who allegedly lived here was mentioned. Until 1917, there was a brotherhood at the temple engaged in education and charity, there was a school, a day care center for children, and a library. The parish school was closed in 1922, but the church continued to operate until 1938. In 1939, the domes were removed from the church building, which was turned into a workshop. However, already at the end of 1941, after the occupation of Kyiv by German troops, with the permission of the German administration, the temple became operational again. The domes and decoration were restored by the people of Kiev.
In the post-war period, the temple did not close, becoming the only functioning church in Tatarka and Lukyanovka. In 1947, national artist Ivan Sidorovich Izhakevich took part in the painting of the temple. His brushes belong to 2 large icons in the icon cases “Nicholas the Wonderworker “Wet” and “Our Lady “Unexpected Joy””, which, according to art critic Mikhail Degtyarev, are “examples of a masterful transfer in an intelligible form for believers of the story of the miraculous salvation of a baby… and about the moral rebirth of a cruel attacker.” Nowadays there is a Sunday school at the Makarievskaya Church (it was one of the first church Sunday schools in Kiev, appeared in the late 1980s; today the children’s Sunday school has three groups: senior, middle and junior, and the senior children’s group together with adults often organizes excursions to Kiev and the surrounding area, together they go on pilgrimage trips around Ukraine and neighboring countries) and theological courses (forms of study: evening, correspondence, distance learning and correspondent).
Where is Makarievskaya Church?
Staraya Polyana street, 46
services: morning 07:00 (Sat 08:00, Sun 07:00, 09:00), evening 17:00
044 417 00 25