St. John the Forerunner's Monastery

The first documented monastery at Bedevlia in Zakarpattia appeared in 1719: it was founded by the village teacher Feodor Dubanovych and had a wooden church. At the end of the eighteenth century this monastery was abolished¹.

A new monastic community arose here after the First World War. Hieromonk Boholip (Tserkovnyk) was appointed priest of the village of Bedevlia. At that time the people of the neighbouring village of Dubove, led by the rector of their own church, Hieromonk Nikolai (Madar), decided to found a monastery of their own, and on learning of it Father Boholip in 1925 obtained permission from the church authorities to build a house. A local man, Feodor Tsubera, gave the monastery land two kilometres south-east of Dubove, in the Vyshnii Dubovets tract, and his own house, where Father Nikolai settled with the novices¹.

While continuing to serve at Bedevlia, Father Boholip helped to establish the new house: in that same year of 1925 a church was raised there, in 1926 it was consecrated and the novices were tonsured, and in 1927 a wooden building and outbuildings were put up¹.

In 1929 Father Boholip began to petition for his own transfer to the house at Dubove, but in reply he was directed to move the monastery to Bedevlia. He found the new site two kilometres north-west of the village, in the Horby tract: a resident of Bedevlia, Ivan Tyvodar, known as Palchyk, gave his land, and Father Boholip bought a further plot with people's donations. A building with a house church was put up there, after which the brethren moved to the new site¹.

In 1940 Father Boholip, by then an archimandrite, moved the church itself from the former house at Dubove to Bedevlia; another building followed. The monastery was later turned into a women's house, and at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s it was closed¹.

The house was revived in 1991, and in 1992 it was made a men's monastery again. In 1992-1999 the large church of St John the Forerunner was built here, in 1993-1994 the small chapel of the Pochaiv icon of the Mother of God, in 2005 the refectory church of St Job of Pochaiv was consecrated, and in 2006 work began on a bell tower¹.

Among the monastery's holy things are a copy of the Pochaiv icon of the Mother of God, a copy of the icon of the Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow", an icon of St John the Forerunner with a particle of relics, and an icon of the martyr Tryphon².

The house keeps the feasts of the Pochaiv icon of the Mother of God on 23 July (5 August) and 8 (21) September, seven commemorations of St John the Forerunner and three of St Job of Pochaiv³. Services are held daily: on Sundays and feast days the Liturgy at 9.00, on weekdays at 6.00, and vespers and matins at 16.00⁴.

The monastery's patronal feasts are marked with hierarchical services. The Synaxis of John the Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord was celebrated here on 20 January of 2023, 2024 and 2026^{5, 6, 7}, the Nativity of John the Forerunner on 7 July of 2023 and 2024^{8, 9}, and the Beheading of John the Forerunner on 11 September 2024¹⁰.