Holy Dormition Monastery

The Dormition Monastery for men stands in the village of Lypky in the Rivne region, by the spring from which its whole history begins^{1, 6}. The sources give the house several names - Uspenskyi Lypenskyi¹, Lypkivskyi Uspenskyi⁷, Lypenskyi Uspenskyi⁹ - and all of them come from the village in which it arose.

Lypky has been known since 1577¹. Tradition holds that an older settlement stood on this spot, that during a Tatar raid its church went down into the earth, and that a pool appeared in its place which in time became a healing spring¹. The Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine retells the same tradition with a further detail: the church sank into the ground together with its defenders and most of the attackers².

In 1866 the spring came to lie within the land of the Naumchuk peasants, a devout and hard-working family¹. Blessing his son Mykola for marriage, Andrii Naumchuk gave him part of the family land together with the spring¹. Mykola and his wife Paraskeva had five children - two sons and three daughters; the eldest son, Ioann, was born in 1887¹.

The founder's life, as the monastery itself publishes it, relates that Ioann was drawn to the church from childhood but was gravely ill, and that the doctors held his illness to be incurable¹. According to that account he saw in a dream a Woman who promised him healing and bade him draw water from the spring and have a service of the blessing of water performed; his parents did everything their son had said, and his health recovered¹.

On coming of age Ioann became a novice of the Pochaiv Lavra, where in one of the icons of the Mother of God he recognised the face of the Woman who had appeared to him¹. Having been tonsured with the name Iakov and ordained hieromonk, he resolved to found a monastic skete at the spring in Lypky; his parents gave him a hectare of land¹.

Having served in various parishes and having asked help of monasteries, parish communities and wealthy landowners, Father Iakov gathered the means and in 1921 raised over the spring a wooden Dormition church with a side altar of the Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica¹. The Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine dates the founding of the Pochaiv Dormition skete to 1924 and names as its founder hegumen Yakov (Naumchuk), a native of the same village². The main altar of the church was consecrated in honour of the Dormition of the Mother of God, the side altar in honour of the Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica². The new skete was made subject to the Pochaiv Lavra¹.

Celebrating the daily services, Father Iakov lived in his parents' house, in the family of his brother Antonii, who helped the church with its husbandry and in the last years of his life served in it as deacon¹. Hundreds of people visited the skete, but in 1939, with the establishment of Soviet power, it was closed^{1, 2}. Under the Nazi occupation its life resumed^{1, 2}, and afterwards the skete was closed a second time: the monastery dates this to 1950¹, the encyclopedia to 1951². The founder returned to the Lavra, where in 1956 he reposed with the rank of archimandrite¹.

In 1961 the skete church was destroyed^{1, 2}. Only the chapel on its cement plinth above the spring survived, and people later put it quietly back into decent order¹; the faithful went on caring for the spring, tidied the chapel and brought icons to it².

In 1991 a church of St Iov of Pochaiv was built beside it, and its altar was consecrated in 1992¹. The encyclopedia gives the event in more detail: the church was raised in January 1992, and in February the ruling archbishop of Rivne and Ostroh, Irynei (Serednii), consecrated the altar in honour of St Iov, hegumen of Pochaiv². The church later acquired a series of annexes, a bell tower among them, and its finished architectural form¹.

In the same year, 1992, the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church blessed the revival of a monastery for men here^{1, 2}, and in 1995 the house was officially registered².

Thereafter the monastery built almost without a pause. In 1997 a two-storey cell block was raised^{1, 2}, in 1999 another dwelling house and a wooden bathing house over the spring¹, and in 1999-2000 the large wooden church of the icon of the Mother of God "The Life-Giving Spring", whose altar was consecrated in 2004¹; according to the encyclopedia the newly built church was consecrated that year by archbishop Varfolomii (Vashchuk)². In 2004 a refectory block appeared, on whose second floor a church of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers was arranged in 2005-2006¹ - the encyclopedia dates its consecration to 2006².

The chief holy thing of the house is the spring itself, together with icons of many saints holding particles of their relics². The monastery's patronal feasts are: the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, 15 (28) August; the feast of the icon of the Mother of God "The Life-Giving Spring", the Friday of Bright Week; the memory of St Iov of Pochaiv, 6 (19) May, 28 August (10 September) and 28 October (10 November); and the memory of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers, 4 (17) July³. As of December 2016, when the encyclopedia article was last revised, twenty brethren lived in the house².

The monastery has a skete of the Great Martyr Barbara in the village of Staryi Korets, Korets district, Rivne region, established in 2003 at the church of the same dedication built in 2001 in the village's new cemetery⁴. As of 2005 the skete had a new church house and was building a guesthouse-and-dwelling complex, whose interior finishing was carried out in 2006⁴. On 12 February 2026, the day of the memory of the great teachers of the Church, metropolitan Pymen of Rivne and Ostroh led the festal Divine Liturgy in the Barbara skete and performed an ordination to the priesthood⁵.

On 12 April 2020, at about ten in the morning, during the Divine Liturgy, a fire broke out which engulfed the monastery's farm buildings⁶. The fire covered up to 400 square metres; at 11:50 it was brought under control and at 14:45 fully extinguished⁶. There were no deaths and no injuries, and the fire did not damage the churches of the house: it was 500 metres from the monastery⁶. The fire was fought by 5 fire engines and 42 members of the rescue service from Hoshcha, Rivne and Korets⁶. A farm building and household goods were destroyed by the fire; according to eyewitnesses the rescue service, having examined the burnt building, found a bottle that probably held a flammable liquid, and an investigation was establishing the cause of the fire and the damage done⁶.

The patronal feast of the house is led by the ruling bishop. On 21 April 2023, Bright Thursday, the festal service in the monastery was led by archbishop Pymen of Rivne and Ostroh, and after the liturgy a procession went to the healing spring, where a moleben was served⁷. On 10 May 2024, the feast of the icon of the Mother of God "The Life-Giving Spring", the service was again led by archbishop Pymen; the choir of the sisters of the Hoshcha Protection convent sang, and after the Liturgy the procession went round the house and stopped by the spring, where the water was blessed and a moleben served⁸.

From 14 to 17 July 2026 an Orthodox children's camp, "Lypenskyi Favor", was held on the monastery's grounds, gathering 70 children aged from 13 to 17 from the parishes of the Rivne North deanery⁹. The children were divided into five teams; a monk of the house gave them a tour of the monastery, acquainting them with its history, its holy things and its monastic order, every day the participants visited the holy spring on the monastery's grounds, and one of the memorable events was a pilgrimage to the Annunciation convent⁹.