Protection of the Mother of God Monastery

The Protection of the Mother of God Monastery stands in the village of Khotyn in the Berezniv district of the Rivne region and belongs to the Sarny eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church^{1, 2}.

The eparchy itself was created by a decision of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of 30 March 1999: seven districts of the Rivne region, among them Berezniv, were separated from the Rivne eparchy, and the town of Sarny was chosen as the seat of the new eparchy³.

The house grew out of a parish. Its church was the parish church of the Protection of the Mother of God of the village of Khotyn, and it was that community that was turned into a men's monastery². The Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church blessed the opening of the Protection of the Mother of God Monastery in the village of Khotyn at its extended session of 8 July 2001, by journal No. 11, on the report of the bishop of Sarny and Polissia¹.

The parish community transferred the church property together with the church building onto the new monastery's balance, and the house received a land plot of two hectares².

By the monastery's own account it was established in 2001 at the parish church of the Protection; as of 2003 the house was building residential blocks, and as of 2006 a two-storey block for the brethren already stood and a new church was under construction⁴. The eparchy's site adds that the church was painted and a building for the monks was erected in the house³.

The monastery's new domestic church was consecrated on 18 September 2012⁵. The eparchy's site gives its dedication in two versions: the profile article on the house, the register of newly built churches and the report of 2019 call it a church in honour of the Archangel Michael^{2, 5, 6}, while the page carrying the eparchy's history calls it a church in honour of Saint John the Forerunner³.

The baptistery was built by the brethren themselves². In October 2014 the ruling bishop came to the house and inspected the work on it⁷.

The monastery's Protection church was consecrated after reconstruction on 19 September 2016⁸. In the same year the bishop visited the house and saw the restoration work in progress⁹, and on 25 September 2019 he consecrated a new iconostasis in the domestic church, made by craftsmen of Polissia⁶.

Archimandrite Kyrylo (Petrov) was born on 18 July 1930, served as the superior of the Protection monastery and died on 18 February 2014; archdeacon Sofroniy (Rybak) was born on 24 December 1931, served in the house as its staff deacon and died on 20 February 2015¹⁰.

On 19 September 2015 the service in the monastery ended with a procession and a litia for the departed superior, archimandrite Kyrylo (Petrov), and for the brethren of the house¹¹. In 2016 and 2017 a litia for the departed brethren and founders was again served in the monastery^{9, 12}, and on 6 November 2024 the ruling bishop, preaching there, named archimandrite Kyrylo (Petrov), archdeacon Sofroniy (Rybak) and other brethren as the first founders of the house¹³.

In the Sarny eparchy's register of church jubilees for 2021 the Protection of the Mother of God Monastery in Khotyn is entered with a count of thirty years¹⁴, and on 19 September 2021 a festal service was held in the house, marked both for its patronal feast and for the thirtieth anniversary of its foundation¹⁵. By that count the community begins in 1991, while the Synod act opening the monastery and the house's own account both stand on 2001^{1, 4}.

In the summer of 2017 an Orthodox children's summer camp, Stezhynamy Dobra, was held on the monastery's grounds, attended by pupils of the Sunday schools of four parishes of the Berezniv deanery¹⁶.

The Divine Liturgy for the campers was served in the monastery's Protection church, lessons in the Law of God and sports games were held for the children, the monastery refectory gave them four meals a day, morning and evening they prayed in the church and after the evening prayers walked round it in procession, and they bathed in the monastery's spring¹⁶.

The patronal feast of the house is the Miracle of the Archangel Michael at Chonae; in 2018 sixteen priests took part in it, clergy of the Sarny, Rivne and Shepetivka eparchies¹⁷. In the eparchy's own words, many pilgrims and worshippers from all over Polissia always come to hierarchical services at the house¹⁸.