Entry of the Mother of God Convent

The Entry of the Mother of God Convent is a house of the Mukachevo eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Kushnytsya, Irshava district, Zakarpattia region¹. The Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine, describing that district, names three Orthodox convents on its territory - at Pryborzhavske, Dubrivka and Kushnytsya².

At the international scholarly conference "Malyi Afon", held in Mukachevo on 3-4 October 2015 by the Mukachevo eparchy together with scholars from Uzhhorod and the State Archive of the Zakarpattia Region, the ruling bishop, Archbishop Feodor of Mukachevo and Uzhhorod, named Kushnytsya as an example of a house that has kept the traditions of Athos³.

In his words, services in the Entry convent of the village of Kushnytsya begin every day at half past one in the night - at about the same hour at which the Divine Liturgy begins on the Holy Mountain; the monastery, again in his words, was founded about twenty years ago, and this rule of the night service has been preserved in it³.

The sources speak differently about the beginning of the house. An eparchial account of 2014 dates the foundation of the monastery to November 1998, when monastic life began here through the labours of the nun Susanna (Hryha)¹; the house's own site also names 1998⁴. The eparchial report of the foundress's funeral gives 1997 instead - the year in which, according to it, the nun Susanna founded the monastery with the blessing of Archbishop Yevfymii of Mukachevo and Uzhhorod and became its first superior^{6, 7}.

The opening of the monastery and the first hierarchical service took place on 4 December 2000 with the blessing of Archbishop Yevfymii¹; the house's own site also dates the opening to 2000⁴. The official opening fell in 2002: by a resolution of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of 23 April 2002 it was decided to open the Entry of the Mother of God Convent in the village of Kushnytsya, Irshava district, Zakarpattia region^{1, 4}.

The foundress of the house was born in Kushnytsya itself: Hegumenia Susanna, in the world Melaniia Vasylivna Hryha, came into the world on 6 January 1938^{1, 6}. The eparchial account writes that in 1951 she entered the convent of the Nativity of the Mother of God in the village of Lypcha in the Khust area, and in 1961 was tonsured into the riasophore with the name Ksenia¹; the report of her funeral names a different year of entry - 1952, when she was fourteen⁶.

After the closure of the Lypcha house, in 1971 the riasophore nun Ksenia moved to St Nicholas's Convent in Mukachevo, and in the same year she was transferred on obedience to St Daniel's Monastery in Moscow¹. In 1975 she returned to the Mukachevo house and was tonsured there into the mantle with the name Susanna, and in 1991 she returned to the reopened Lypcha house¹.

On 4 December 2005 Bishop Ahapit (Bevtsyk) of Mukachevo and Uzhhorod raised the nun Susanna to the rank of hegumenia^{1, 4}. As of 2014 five sisters lived in the Kushnytsya monastery¹.

On 10 January 2020 Hegumenia Susanna died⁵. On 12 January the rite of burial of the foundress and first superior of the house was led in the Kushnytsya monastery by Metropolitan Feodor of Mukachevo and Uzhhorod⁶; her death was also reported by the central information publication of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church⁷.

As of 2010 the monastery had a church of the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple and a house church of the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women⁴. There was also a chapel in the house in honour of the icon of the Mother of God "The Life-giving Spring": on 25 April 2014, after the liturgy, the customary cross procession came to it and the bishop performed the lesser blessing of water⁸.

On 17 June 2018 Archbishop Feodor consecrated the altar and the new monastery church in honour of the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple⁹. On 26 August 2019 he consecrated the new wall-painting in that summer church¹⁰.

The house has a spring of its own: on 3 May 2019 the ruling bishop performed the rite of the lesser blessing of water at the monastery spring itself¹¹. Four years earlier, on 17 April 2015, more than twenty clergy concelebrated at the feast of the house, and after the liturgy a cross procession went round the monastery¹².

Among the shrines of the house its own site names the icons of the Mother of God "The Seven-arrowed" and "The Life-giving Spring"¹³; the eparchial account lists the same two images¹. The icon "The Seven-arrowed", which is also called "The Softening of Evil Hearts", was venerated in the monastery with hierarchical services - on 26 August 2016 and 26 August 2019 among others^{14, 10}.

On 21 December 2016 Archbishop Feodor performed a monastic tonsure in the house: the riasophore nuns Yelikonida and Valeriia were tonsured into the mantle with the names Antoniia and Feodosiia, in honour of the venerable Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves¹⁵.

The nun Nektariia, in the world Olha Teodoziivna Dub, was born on 18 November 1977 in Kolomyia in the Ivano-Frankivsk region and entered the Kushnytsya house on 19 October 2020; on 15 October 2022 she was tonsured into the mantle, and on 26 October of the same year she died¹⁶. Earlier in the same year, on 24 March 2022, a resident of the monastery, the nun Varvara (Kikalo), departed in her 86th year¹⁷.

The house has a monastery cemetery. The eparchial account of the superiors of the Mukachevo St Nicholas Convent records that the superior who governed the Mukachevo house in 1984-1993 and left for Lypcha in 1993 died on 2 July 2002 and is buried in the monastery cemetery of the Entry of the Mother of God Convent at Kushnytsya¹⁸.

In the spring of 2020, during the quarantine, the sisters of the Kushnytsya house together with the sisters of the Mukachevo St Nicholas Convent sewed and handed out protective masks and prepared antiseptics - part of the eparchial social projects which the eparchy was then running in its monastic houses¹⁹. This work of the Zakarpattia houses was also reported by the central information publication of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church²⁰.