Holy Guardian Angels Parish (Mykhailivka)

The small settlement of Mykhailivka has only about a hundred residents. After the tsar’s 1905 manifesto on religious toleration permitted the establishment of Catholic parishes and the construction of churches, a parish was founded in Mykhailivka and a wooden church built with local parishioners’ funds. Construction was probably completed in 1918.

From 1925, there were no priests because of repression, but the people continued to come and pray on their own.

Fr Zygmunt Khmelnytskyi served here in 1927–1928. In 1929, he was taken away and was never seen again. The people once more began gathering without a priest.

In 1944, with the arrival of the communists, attempts were made to destroy the church. A large grain harvest that year led to a decision to use it as a warehouse instead. The people nevertheless continued gathering on Sundays to pray.

From 1953, priests began visiting from Zhytomyr and Berdychiv: Kozinskyi, Yankovskyi and Shchypta.

From 1969, Monsignor Amvrozii Mitskevych was pastor in Mykhailivka. He devoted considerable effort to preserving, repairing and decorating the church in the 1980s.