The Mhar Monastery, a spiritual gem of the Lubny land, rises above the picturesque Sula, attracting new seekers of heavenly gifts. The hearts of pilgrims here open to something unspeakable, incomprehensibly high, and long desired. Another world knocks on the souls of people through the silence and joy that are inaccessible in the hustle of everyday life.

The first hermit monks appeared on Mhar Mountain, according to legend, in the 10th-11th centuries, making these places blessed and well-prayed.

The Mhar Spaso-Transfiguration Monastery was founded in 1619 by the prominent anti-Uniate figure Isaiah Kopynsky with the funds of Princess Raine Vishnevetskaya. Kopynsky, having received an excellent education in Orthodox educational institutions of the Ostroh princes, was tonsured a monk at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. He spent fourteen years in prayer in the Anthony Caves and then became the abbot of the Hustyn Monastery, led the Kyiv Epiphany Brotherhood, and participated in the establishment of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

Raina Mohylanka-Vishnevetskaya, sister of Peter Mohyla and widow of the owner of feudal lands on both banks of the Dnieper, issued a decree on January 18, 1619, to establish an Orthodox monastery in the Mhar forest, six kilometers from Lubny. According to legend, angels indicated the place for the construction of the monastery, which T. G. Shevchenko mentions in the story "Twins."

In 1692, a stone Spaso-Transfiguration church was built on the site of the wooden church with the funds of the hetmans I. Samoylovych and I. Mazepa, consecrated by Metropolitan Varlaam Yasyinsky of Kyiv.

Since its founding, the Mhar Monastery has played an important role in the spiritual life of Ukraine, remaining a stronghold of Orthodoxy. In 1622, Isaiah Kopynsky established a brotherhood here that opposed the Catholicization of left-bank Ukrainians.

In early 1654, on his way from Moscow to Constantinople, Patriarch Athanasius III Patelar of Constantinople stopped at the monastery, where he died and bequeathed to be buried in this monastery. In 1662, Saint Athanasius was canonized, and his body was found incorrupt. Until 1936, the relics of the saint were in the monastery, and now they rest in the Annunciation Cathedral of Kharkiv.

From 1737, the future saint of Belgorod, Joasaph Gorlenko, was the abbot, and from 1744, the first archimandrite of the monastery. In 1785, a bell tower was built at the place of the hermitage of Saint Athanasius, and a skete with the church of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos was founded.

The population of the monastery mainly consisted of Zaporozhian Cossacks who took monastic vows. In 1663, the son of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Yuri, was here under the name Gideon.

The Mhar Monastery influenced the spiritual formation of many ascetics of piety, including St. Paisius of Kyiv-Pechersk, Abbot Theodosius Popov, and Archimandrite Herman.

Buried on the territory of the monastery are Patriarch Seraphim Anin of Constantinople, Metropolitan Joseph Nelyubovych-Tukalsky of Kyiv, Archbishop Ambrose Kelembet of Tobolsk, and Bishop Methodius Pisnyachevsky of Poltava and later Pskov.

In the 17th-18th centuries, the Chronicle of the Mhar Monastery was created, the manuscripts of which are kept in scientific libraries of Ukraine.

On the night of August 5-6, 1919, the Bolsheviks shot 17 Mhar monks led by Abbot Ambrose. The new martyrs are buried behind the altar of the skete church of the Annunciation.

In the early 1930s, a Patronage for the children of "enemies of the people" was established on the territory of the monastery. From 1937, a disciplinary battalion was located here, and from 1946, military warehouses. In 1985, the monastery was handed over for a pioneer camp.

The revival of the monastery began in 1993. The first abbot in the post-revolutionary period was Abbot Philip Osadchenko, later an archimandrite, and now the Metropolitan of Poltava and Mirgorod. Currently, the monastery has arable land, livestock and poultry farms, a beekeeping operation, a bakery, and engages in publishing activities. The magazine "Mhar Bell," published by the monastery, was recognized as the best magazine of the UOC in 2005.