Holy Dormition Monastery

The Holy Dormition Monastery, a house of monks, stands in the village of Kichernyy in the Volovets highlands of the Zakarpattia region and belongs to the Mukachevo eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church⁴. The eparchy's own publication calls it one of the most remote monastic houses of the eparchy⁷.

The monastery was established by a decision of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of 17 April 2003, and in 2003-2007 the church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos was built in the house¹.

The beginning of the house is also dated earlier: the eparchy's publication of 2017 places its foundation in 2000 and writes that the monastery arose more than 15 years ago⁶.

In 2005 the St Vladimir skete went out from the monastery to the village of Sukhyi in the Velykyi Bereznyi district, where in 2010-2012 a wooden church of the holy prince Vladimir Equal-to-the- Apostles was built². At the end of 2013 a belfry, a chapel and a residential block were still under construction at the skete².

On 1 April 2015 the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church blessed the forming of a monastery of monks in honour of the holy prince Vladimir Equal-to-the-Apostles of the Mukachevo eparchy in the village of Sukhyi, Velykyi Bereznyi district^{10, 11}. The eparchy's list of houses gives the Dormition monastery at Kichernyy and the St Vladimir monastery at Sukhyi separately, as two different houses of the eparchy⁴.

Among its holy objects the monastery names portions of the relics of the saints of the Kyiv Caves³. Apart from the patronal Dormition, the house venerates the Kyiv-Caves icon of the Mother of God "Dormition", brought from Constantinople in 1073⁹. In May 2017 the ruling bishop consecrated such an icon for the monastery⁸. The veneration itself is explained in the house by the care the Theotokos took of the young Caves monastery in Kyiv, while this highland region had until then had no monasteries⁶.

Two springs belong to the monastery: one on the pass between the Volovets and Velykyi Bereznyi districts, in honour of St John of Shanghai and San Francisco, the second at Zhdeniievo, in honour of the Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos⁶. The chapel over the spring not far from the monastery was consecrated by the ruling bishop on 16 May 2014; the chapel and the spring were consecrated in honour of the Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos⁵.

A Sunday school has worked at the monastery since 2009⁶. The brethren go to school events at the village school in order to reach children who are shy of coming to the house, and keep information boards in public places in the village⁶.

The house has no farming obediences: it stands high in the mountains and has no land beside it⁶. The brethren occupy themselves instead with icon painting of the Byzantine pattern and with joinery, and shortly before 2017 they opened at the monastery a workshop of joinery, metal and wrought work for the needs of the church⁶.

As of 2017 the brotherhood of the house consisted of two men; a deacon on the staff served at the monastery, and about ten village boys served in the church every Sunday⁶. The monastery choir was begun by a previous superior⁶.