St. Nicholas's Monastery

The St Nicholas monastery for men stands in the Karputlash tract near the village of Iza, in Khust district, in Transcarpathia^{1, 3}.

The house grew out of the movement among Transcarpathians who returned to the Orthodox faith at the beginning of the twentieth century². One of them, Oleksandr Kabaliuk, a native of Yasinia, was tonsured in 1910 with the name Alexiy at the Yablochyn monastery in the Kholm region, and the following year returned to Transcarpathia as a priest; for confessing his faith he stood trial and served a term of imprisonment².

At the beginning of 1919 hieromonk Amfilokhii (Kemin) came to Iza, bringing from the Yablochyn house hieromonk Matvii (Vakarov) and the priests Heorhii Plyska and Mykhailo Machka². Having recovered his health in the hospital of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Fr Alexiy returned in May of that year². These ascetics resolved to found a monastery at Iza, and the first monks lived in the parish house beside the village church². According to the encyclopaedia the house was founded in 1919 at the church of the Dormition by eight monks under hieromonk Alexiy (Kabaliuk), under the protection of the Serbian Orthodox Church¹.

In 1920-1921 three notable things happened at the house: Fr Alexiy was elected its superior, he was raised to hegumen, and the first Council of the Orthodox inhabitants of Transcarpathia met there²; he was elected hegumen of the St Nicholas monastery at Iza on 17 August 1921⁶. In 1925 Fr Alexiy was given charge of the region's Spiritual Consistory, Fr Matvii was elected superior, and in the same year the monastery moved to the Karputlash tract, where a block with a house church of the Dormition of the Mother of God was built^{2, 3}; the encyclopaedia dates the move to 1926¹. In 1927 work began on a second block, with a winter church of the holy prophet John the Baptist³. Pastoral and theological courses were held at the monastery more than once: in 1928 they were completed by Ivan Kundria, a native of Iza and the future St Job of Uhol². From 1933 to 1937 eparchial courses for the clergy ran here under Bishop Damaskin (Grdanicki) of Mukachevo and Presov¹. In 1936 the renewed and enlarged church of the Dormition was consecrated^{1, 3}.

As of 1944 the brotherhood numbered 39, of whom 23 were serving in the surrounding villages¹. On 2 December 1947 St Alexiy died, having taken the great schema shortly before his death; his body was brought to Iza and buried in the monastery on 5 December, and in 1953 Archimandrite Matvii was buried beside him². In 1958-1959 St Job of Uhol lived here as a monk². In 1959 the monastery was closed - 64 monks were living in it at the time^{1, 2}. In the 1970s almost all the monastery buildings were pulled down and a tuberculosis dispensary was built in their place, which operates to this day^{1, 3}.

From 1990 monastic life began to revive^{1, 2}. Of the former house only the stone chapel, put up in 1945-1946 for services at large gatherings of parishioners and pilgrims, and an old dwelling survived; on 12 July 1991 the first Liturgy was celebrated in that chapel³. In 1994-1998 a new church of St Nicholas of Myra was built at the monastery³. On 12 March 1999 the relics of St Alexiy were found^{2, 3}.

On 8 July 2001 the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church resolved to number St Alexiy, the confessor of Carpathian Rus, among the locally venerated saints and to keep his memory on 2 December; the rite of glorification was performed at the house on 21 October 2001, and by a synodal decision of 21 December that year a second day of his memory was established, 21 October².

By 2004 a house church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross had been fitted out in one of the blocks, and in 2005 the foundation was laid for a church of St Alexiy of Carpathian Rus³. Among the monastery's holy objects are the relics of St Alexiy, an altar cross with a particle of the Holy Cross, a reliquary with particles of the relics of the saints of the Kyiv Caves, and an icon of the Mother of God "Quick to Hear", found in St Alexiy's grave beside his relics⁴. The monastery keeps the days of St Nicholas of Myra on 9 (22) May and 6 (19) December, and those of St Alexiy on 8 (21) October and 19 November (2 December)⁵.