Ascension female skete

The Ascension convent stands in the settlement of Mlyniv in the Rivne region and belongs to Gorodok St. Nicholas's Convent of the Rivne Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as its skete^{1, 2}.

Mlyniv is documented from the beginning of the sixteenth century, and on its northern edge, on the right bank of the Ikva, the remains have been found of the old Rus town of Muravytsia, mentioned in the chronicles under the year 1149².

The house was opened in 2003 in the building of the former central district hospital, which had stood empty since 1998; a domestic church of the Hieromartyr Eudokia of Heliopolis was fitted out inside it, and there the first Liturgy was celebrated on 29 August 2003^{2, 3}. The press service of the Rivne diocese describes the beginning of the skete differently - as a first divine service held in the open air on the site of the old hospital⁴.

The senior sister of the house recalls that the sisters walked from Gorodok to Mlyniv in cross procession carrying an icon of the Hieromartyr Eudokia which they had painted themselves, and that some of those who walked in that procession stayed on to live in the old building of the former hospital and to build the house up⁵.

By her account the first sisters had to work hard and to live in old premises infected with fungus in order to build the house into what the people of the Mlyniv district and the pilgrims now see⁴.

In 2004-2010 the church of the Ascension of the Lord was built in the house²; this is the skete's main cathedral, raised in memory of that very Gospel event⁶.

The diocesan press service names Metropolitan Pavlo (Lebid) as the chief initiator and benefactor of the main church⁴. The senior sister relates that whenever he entered the grounds he would recall that he had come into the world on this very spot: before the hospital that fell to the sisters there had been a maternity home there⁴.

On 29 August 2021, on the 18th anniversary of the house's foundation, with the blessing of Metropolitan Varfolomii of Rivne and Ostroh two altars were consecrated here^{7, 8}. The rite of consecration of the church of the Hieromartyr Eudokia was led by the vicar of the Rivne diocese, Bishop Pymen of Dubno, and that of the church in honour of the Hieromartyrs Alexander, bishop of Kharkiv, Alexander Khutovytsky and Alexander Skalsky by Bishop Veniamin of Khotyn^{7, 8}.

The second of these churches had been fitted out and prepared for consecration by the late Archimandrite Alexander (Katler), so at the end of the rite the hierarchs served a memorial litia for him, and after the service the monk Daniil, his cell-attendant, was set apart as a subdeacon^{7, 8}.

Archimandrite Alexander was born on 16 October 1942 in the United States and received Orthodoxy at the age of 26; he was ordained priest in 1973, and from 1981 he was for 32 years the superior of the monastery of the Holy Apostle John the Theologian at Hiram, Ohio⁹.

From September 2013 he lived at the Ascension dependency in Mlyniv and was spiritual father to the sisters of the house, and there he ended his earthly course, departing on 26 January 2021 in the 79th year of his life⁹. In the words of Archbishop Pymen of Rivne and Ostroh, the archimandrite spent his whole conscious life in the United States yet chose Ukraine, from which his parents came, as his place of eternal rest¹⁰.

He was buried at the house on 27 January 2021: the night Liturgy was celebrated in the church he had adorned by his own labours and the early one in the main cathedral, after which he was carried in cross procession to the place of burial⁹. On 4 March 2021 the conciliar hierarchical service of the fortieth day was held here¹¹, and on 25 January of 2023 and 2024 a Divine Liturgy and a panikhida for him^{10, 12}. At the annual celebration of 29 August the cross procession around the main cathedral ends with a memorial litia at his grave³.

The house receives the shrines brought to the Mlyniv district which the diocese and the deanery call wonderworking: in 2017 an icon of Saint Gabriel (Urgebadze)¹³ and the Kasperivska icon of the Mother of God¹⁴ were brought here, in December of the same year the Sviatohirsk icon of the Mother of God¹⁵, in 2018 the Otchenashivska icon of the Passion¹⁶, in 2019 the icon called the Fragrant Flower¹⁷, and in December 2023 eight icons from the monasteries of the diocese were received in the main church of the house¹⁸.

In September 2022 icons of the Hieromartyr Alexander Skalsky, who was a native of the village of Yaroslavychi, and of the three Hieromartyrs Alexander were taken from the house to the Nativity of the Mother of God parish of that village; the priests together with the sisters and the parishioners went in cross procession through the streets of the village and served a moleben with an akathist in the church¹⁹.

The clergy of the Mlyniv deanery gather at the house for their confession and for their assemblies^{20, 21, 22}, and the patronal feast of the domestic church is traditionally joined to the confession of the clergy of the district²⁰.

The choir of the sisters of the house sings at the patronal feasts and the consecrations of churches of the deanery^{23, 24}.

A Sunday school works at the house. Its pupils have performed at the Christmas charity concert for children with disabilities, playing on banduras and singing carols²⁵, one of them took second place in 2024 in the junior age category of the diocesan olympiad "Knowers of the Bible"²⁶, and on Palm Sunday the children of the school held a charity fair of Easter souvenirs and handmade goods, the proceeds of which went to the needs of the school itself²⁷.