In the middle of the XIX century in G. Zhitomir out of five stone churches there was only one Orthodox church, and it was far from the city center. Mikhail Khabotin, a well-known merchant in the city, decided to buy a plot of land at the corner of Kievskaya and Piliponovskaya streets and build an Orthodox church on it.
According to legend, there used to be a swamp on this spot. A woman was passing through it and lost a whole ruble, which at that time could buy two cows. At night she had a dream in which the Mother of God showed her the place where to look for the lost money. This unusual story prompted M. Khabotin to build a cathedral on this spot. The city authorities for 16 years did not allow the construction of the church. The merchant himself was the architect and foreman, personally controlled the daily progress of construction. M. Khabotin gave almost all his savings for the construction of the church. He was childless and as a believing Orthodox man wished to invest his money in a God-pleasing act. In 1856 the church was consecrated and opened for divine services and named in honor of St. Michael the Archistratigus Mikhail Mikhailovskaya. The built temple had features of the ancient Byzantine style and was characterized by clear symmetry and proportionality of parts: one large dome and four small domes, bell tower and inner halls decorated with beautiful frescoes. Only two of them have miraculously survived to our days: «Assumption of the Most Holy Mother of God» and «The Prayer of Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane», the rest were destroyed during the years of Soviet power. After his death M. Khabotin was buried under the altar part of the church, but in 1960 his remains were removed from there.
Since 1917 and until 1927 the church operated as a temple of the Ukrainian autocephalous Orthodox community, and then, under the pretext of repair and arrangement, was closed and for a long time was used as a warehouse. In 1942, the Germans gave the church to the believers, and the church operated until 1960 until it was closed again at the «request of the workers». The belfry and small domes were destroyed, for a long time in the building worked regional society «Knowledge», in the Central Hall was located in the regional puppet theater, and in the cellars again arranged a warehouse.
The third birth of the temple took place in October 1991, when the regional authorities handed over the old building to the community of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. After the formation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate, the community became a part of it. The temple received the status of a cathedral after the formation of the Zhytomyr-Ovrutsk diocese of the UOC-KP. Prayers and sermons, divine services and services in the cathedral are conducted in the Ukrainian language, there is a Sunday church school. The main objects of pride of the temple are the Wonderworking Icon of the Mother of God and the reliquary with a large number of relics of saints.
For the 150th anniversary of the consecration of the Svyato-Mikhailovsky Cathedral, the Zhitomir local history publishing house «Volyn» has printed a beautifully illustrated book «The Cathedral of St. Michael the Archistratigus in Zhitomir», which describes the history of the church and its current artistic and spiritual relics in Ukrainian, English, and German.
The book «The Cathedral of St. Michael the Archistratigus in Zhitomir» has been published in Ukrainian, English, and German.