St. Elijah Church - a thousand-year-old shrine of Kyiv

According to the chronicles, the wooden temple of Elijah the Prophet near the "stream", where Christians-vikings from Prince Igor's army gave their oath in 944, was indeed located on the site of the present stone church. After all, the stream, near which the ancient center of Christianity was located, is considered as a stream (river) Pochayna - a tributary of the Dnipro River, where the whole of Rus was baptized later in 988. Pochayna flowed just near the modern church, which gave the appropriate name to the local street. The building of the ancient temple often suffered from fires or hostilities, but was always restored, because the need for the existence of a temple in honor of Elijah the Prophet in Podil was engraved in the minds of many generations of Kyiv inhabitants. 

It is not surprising, therefore, that in 1692, on the site of a wooden church, a stone church was built in honor of the holy prophet of God Elijah by the efforts of Ivan Hudyma-Levkovych from Kyiv. Hudymy-Levkovychi were descendants of Serbian immigrants who moved to Kyiv in the middle of the 17th century and served in the military and built bridges and crossings. Having received from Ukrainian hetmans the right to collect taxes for passing bridges, they became rich and actively involved in charity and city policy. The already mentioned Kyiv’s citizen Ivan Hudym-Levkovych from 1719 to 1732 worked in the magistracy of Kyiv and was generally considered the patron of the Church of St. Elijah. The National Art Museum of Ukraine keeps a portrait of him, painted for his centenary in 1755. Ivan's sons, Vasyl and Joseph, followed in their father's footsteps and worked in the Kyiv self-government bodies. But the son of Joseph, the grandson of the temple’s builder, Gregory became a priest in the family-run church of the Holy Prophet Elijah.

The stone church built by the efforts of the Hudym-Levkovych has one central dome and generally corresponds to the Ukrainian three-store Baroque architecture of the end of the 17th century, although it has a rather restrained exterior. At the beginning of the 18th century, a low bell tower and a beautiful baroque gate were built near the church, designed by the famous Kyiv architect Ivan Hryhorovych-Barsky. Most likely, these additions were part of measures to restore the church after the fire of 1718, which destroyed much of Podil and damaged the Church of St. Elijah. As part of the same restoration in 1755, a chapel in honor of St. John the Baptist was added to the side of the main church. The money for this was given by a representative of the patron’s family - Regiment Captain Pavlo Hudyma. At the end of the 18th century, one-storey buildings were built near the church, which housed a dormitory for students of the Mohyla Academy, the so-called "Small Bursa".

In the 19th century, the Church of St. Elijah was greeted with the status of an ordinary parish church, to which the inhabitants of 16 surrounding courtyards were assigned. In 1811, a terrible fire in Podil again damaged the church. During the next restoration, an entrance portico with columns in the style of classicism was added to the church. At the end of the century, in 1887, at the expense of the head of the church Lazar Chornoyarov, the church was equipped with steam heating and a new warm wooden floor, instead of cold cast iron plates. The last restoration and renovation of the temple took place between 1904 and 1909. After the turbulent events of 1917-20, the Church of St. Elijah remained open until 1930, when it was closed and transferred as a granary to the Kyiv Elevator Department, which was located nearby. In the premises of the bell tower and the former small bursa, living quarters were arranged, which damaged their appearance.

During World War II, the church was opened for worship, and in the 1950s, some frescoes were restored. From that time until 1991, the Church of St. Elijah was not closed, although it was in a rather unsightly condition. In 1991, a new restoration of the sanctuary began - the building itself was overhauled, a new iconostasis with images was erected, parish life was established, and a baptistery was opened in the premises of the former bursa. Since then, a strong community of parishioners and clergy has been formed, who do their best to further develop the Church of St. Elijah and organize it as a spiritual refuge for every person who seeks the salvation of the soul. As thousands of years ago, on the site of the first temple of Rus, daily prayers for the whole world are performed in the church, and the temple feast of the prophet Elijah (August 2) gathers for worship not only the locals of Podil district, but also other inhabitants of our "Second Jerusalem" – golden domed Kyiv.