The article studies the potential source of pre-revolutionary diocesan periodicals. On the basis of the substantial evidence in the array «Ekaterynoslav diocesan gazette» highlights the main forms of charitable activity aristocratic strata in the direction of the Church Katerynoslavsk’s province. The methodology of this study is based on the general principles (historicity, objectivity, scientific), historical and scientific methods (historical-genetic, historical and typological, historical, comparative, chronological), which allowed the possibility of objectively reveal the diocesan publication as the source foundations for the study charitable activities nobility in the study region. Total for all «Diocesan Gazette» typical structure and enable meaningful conclusion about the universal nature of the diocesan periodicals as a source of noble history of philanthropy in different provinces of the Russian Empire in the late 19th — early 20th ct.