Mezhyrich Holy Trinity Monastery

The Trinity men's monastery of Mezhyrich stands in the village of Mezhyrich, Ostroh district, Rivne region, beside the eastern stretch of the old town's defensive rampart, and belongs to the Rivne eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church⁵. Its courtyard still looks like a small fortress: the stone Trinity church, the cell buildings, the gate bell tower and a utility building stand inside defensive walls 482 metres long on the outer side and from 5 to 8 metres high, with four hexagonal two-tier towers at the corners^{4, 6}.

The written history of Mezhyrich begins with the charter of Grand Duke Vytautas of 1396, which names the village among the confirmed holdings of Prince Feodor Ostrozky^{1, 5, 6}. The founder of the monastery is held to be Ivan Vasylovych Ostrozky (1427-1465), who raised the stone complex in 1453-1460 on the site of an earlier wooden church^{4, 6}. Researchers date the Trinity church to the beginning of the sixteenth century, about 1521^{1, 4}, and on 12 March 1523 Prince Konstantyn Ivanovych Ostrozky endowed the monastery with lands and revenues^{1, 4, 6}; it is also mentioned in the will of Illia Ostrozky of 1539¹. Local tradition connects the beginning of monastic life at Mezhyrich with the thirteenth century, the age of the Mongol invasion, but that tradition is not documented^{1, 6}.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century the fortunes of the house changed. Prince Yanush Ostrozky, having converted to Catholicism, took ownership rights over Mezhyrich in 1603, obtained Magdeburg law from Sigismund III Vasa, and by 1610 was rebuilding the complex into a fortress⁶; the cell buildings and the defensive walls went up in 1606-1610^{4, 6}. By an act of 28 June 1612 the monastery was handed to the Franciscan order together with lands along the Vilia, orchards, an apiary and the tithe from seven estates^{4, 6}. The monastery's own site adds that at the handover the church was renamed for the Archangel Michael¹.

During the war of 1648-1657 the town was taken by Cossacks, and the Polish detachments of Dominik Zaslavsky failed to retake it; fires destroyed the monastery and the lordly residence, and the settlement lost its town status for good⁶. Early in the eighteenth century the friary fell into decay, restoration began in the middle of the century⁶, and the fifth tower was then rebuilt into a three-tier bell tower with a baroque dome¹. The fire of 14 November 1854 damaged the domes, the icons, the ceilings and the wooden structures; before it the monastic library held about 1900 books⁶, and the monks found the funds for the repairs⁴.

In 1866, after the Polish uprising of 1863 and the hardening of imperial religious policy, the Catholic monastery was abolished^{1, 4, 6}. The church was received by Fr Kostiantyn Chervinsky, who consecrated the main Trinity altar on 13 November 1866⁶; the monks being expelled were offered a choice - to leave with an annual pension of 100 rubles, or to stay in the empire on 60⁴. The side altars were consecrated in 1868 - the right one for the Archangel Michael - and in 1869 - the left one for the Apostles Peter and Paul¹. The wall paintings of about 1900 were executed by Yermakov's workshop after sketches of the paintings by Vasnetsov and Nesterov in St Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kyiv^{1, 4}.

The fire of 1913 damaged the utility buildings, the north wing and one of the towers⁴. The First World War, the fighting of 1918-1920 and the town's position on the border in 1921-1939, when entry required a special permit, undermined the monastery's economy and reduced the flow of pilgrims^{4, 6}. In 1929-1934 a court dispute with the Catholics ran its course and was decided for the Orthodox community on evidence of the church's Orthodox origin⁴; while the case was still going, from 1925, the then superior Stefan Rykhlitsky was seeking funds for a rebuilding that would remove the church's Catholic architectural features⁶. In the early 1930s the engineer Ye. Sennytsky made precise measurements - 21 plates of plans and cross-sections⁴.

Through the Soviet period the church remained an active registered parish⁴. The superior Volodymyr Bobrovnytsky, who served here from 1944 for more than four decades, repeatedly turned aside attempts to close the church⁴. In the 1950s the buildings were measured by H. Lohvyn⁴; in 1963 the complex was entered among the architectural monuments of state significance, in 1967 a Lviv restoration workshop carried out detailed research and a partial restoration^{4, 6}, and since 1981 the monastery has belonged to the Ostroh state historical and cultural reserve⁴.

In 1991, by a decision of the Rivne regional state administration, a men's monastery arose once more on the site of the working parish⁴, and on 16 August of the same year the first monks were tonsured here^{3, 6}. The second cell building was occupied in 1992, in 1993 a church of the icon of the Mother of God known as "Upbringing" was consecrated in the north wing, and in 1994 a spiritual and pastoral school opened at the monastery^{1, 6}; the church chronicle confirms the opening of the school³. In 2021 the community marked the thirtieth anniversary of the monastery's revival³. The patronal feasts of the house are Trinity Sunday and the days of the Archangel Michael and of the Apostles Peter and Paul². Five marble plaques with inscriptions about the founder survive on the walls of the church⁴.