Abbess Dorothea (Khokhlova), superior of the Krupytskyi St. Nicholas’s Convent in the Chernihiv region, died on 6 August 2026 in the seventy-seventh year of her earthly life. Her death was reported by the Information and Education Department of the UOC, citing the press service of the Nizhyn eparchy.
In the world she was Valentyna Ivanivna Khokhlova, born on 16 September 1949 in the Dzhambul region of Kazakhstan into a working family. In 1974 she graduated from the Dzhambul Pedagogical Institute with a degree in mathematics and taught mathematics at a school; in 1976 she moved to the Odesa region.
In 1996 she was received as a novice at the Hustynya Holy Trinity Convent in the Chernihiv region, and the following year she was transferred to the Yeletskiy Holy Dormition Convent in Chernihiv. On 1 January 1998 she was tonsured a nun with the name Varvara, and on 5 July of the same year she was tonsured into the mantle with the name Dorothea.
On 17 April 2000 she received the blessing of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to revive the Krupytskyi house. According to the eparchial press service, over the years of her superiorship the monastery’s main church, the sisters’ buildings and the monastery wall were restored from ruins.
The free-use agreement for the premises between the Hetmanska Stolytsia reserve and the house expired on 26 January 2026, and the sisters left the complex that same month; according to Chas Chernihivskyi, five nuns had been living at the monastery in the last period. The eparchial press service reports that Abbess Dorothea sought to challenge the sisters’ removal in court, and that her work as superior was ended by the severe illnesses she had borne for many years.
Sources: Information and Education Department of the UOC, 7 August 2026; Chas Chernihivskyi, 11 February 2026.
