(18th century). In the 18th century Jadwiga Zagorowska, the Polish noble lady, organized the Jesuit mission in Volodymyr. For the purpose of expanding Catholicism, the Jesuits planned to found a series of schools in Volyn as well as to erect the Catholic Church. In 1755 the building of a temple started under the financial support of Gnat (Ignatius) Sadowski and his wife. The building process lasted for 15 years and in 1770 the church was sanctified as Church of St. Jesus’s Heart. In 1773 the Jesuit activities in Poland and Russia were prohibited by the order of the Pope Clement the Ninth. Since 1783 the church belonged to Basilians and was called St. Christmas’s Cathedral. Basilians erected two-storied cells used for the school and hospital for poor people. They also founded the first drugstore in the city.

In 1840 both the cathedral and the monastery became Orthodox institutions. The Bishop’s Chair was located there from 1891. The monastery was furnished with a beautiful vestry, furniture, library (evacuated to Kharkiv in 1914). Between the First and Second World Wars (when Volodymyr belonged to Poland) the cathedral belonged to Catholicons again and was renamed as The Church of Apostles’ Letters. After the Second World War there was a warehouse. The cathedral was restored in the period of Independent Ukraine. Now there is a Chair of the Lutsk Bishop. Services are held in Ukrainian.

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