Holy Dormition Convent

The Holy Dormition Convent stands in the village of Raykivshchyna in the Kyiv Region and belongs to the Yahotyn deanery of the Boryspil Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - the only monastic house among that deanery's parish communities¹.

The villages along the river Supiy, Raykivshchyna among them, arose in numbers, according to the historical note of the Yahotyn City Council, at approximately the first half of the seventeenth century². When exactly the village was founded the local church source declines to say, but it notes that in 1859 there were already 536 people living here, and that the village had a church whose building date and dedication are not known for certain; by unverified information, as that source itself qualifies it, this was a church in honour of St John the Forerunner³.

In 2002 the Holy Dormition parish of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was opened in Raykivshchyna. For its services the community was granted the use, for 49 years, of a disused kindergarten building, and Hieromonk Trokhym (Krykun), a monk of the Holy Entrance monastery of the city of Kyiv, was appointed its rector. Later it was decided to create a convent on the basis of the parish³.

On 26 July 2005 the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, by Journal No. 11, blessed the opening of the Holy Dormition Convent in the village of Raykivshchyna in the Kyiv Region⁴. From that time, by the deanery's account, the building and arrangement of the house began under Father Trokhym³.

The main work fell in 2006: in August the building of the gate with its bell tower was begun, and in October and November the church's main dome was set in place³.

In November 2006 a cross was set on the church's dome - an Anthony cross with shoots of the grapevine which, as the deanery explains, symbolise the sprouts of the Christian faith that the house will spread³.

In January 2007 a dome rose over the bell tower as well, and the greater part of the exterior work was finished; in the summer of that year the cells were built, the interior work went on and the bell tower was completed³.

In December 2007, once the building was finished, Hegumen Trokhym (Krykun) was transferred to serve in the village of Shchaslyve in the Boryspil area, where he began building a church of St Nicholas; the exterior finishing at Raykivshchyna was carried through by his successor, and by May 2008 it was complete³.

On 29 May 2008 the convent's main altar, in honour of the Dormition of the Mother of God, was consecrated by hierarchical rite by His Beatitude Volodymyr (Sabodan), Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine^{3, 5}.

On 25 September 2013 the Holy Synod, by Journal No. 58, formed the Boryspil Diocese, separating it from the Kyiv Diocese, and assigned to it seven districts of the Kyiv Region, among them Yahotyn and Zgurivka⁶. The Yahotyn deanery, to which the house belongs, has since been listed as part of the Boryspil Diocese¹.

The convent's main church is the Dormition church³. On its own site the house names as its locally venerated holy things the icon of the Mother of God "Miluiucha" - "the Compassionate" - and the icon of the holy right-believing princes Peter and Fevronia of Murom⁵; a post on the convent's site dated 5 February 2014 likewise names the venerated icon of the Mother of God among its holy things⁷. By the schedule of services the convent publishes, a moleben with an akathist is served here each week before the "Miluiucha" icon, and a moleben with an akathist to Saints Peter and Fevronia⁸.

The site of the Yahotyn deanery names as the convent's chief holy thing a wonderworking icon of the Mother of God "Mylostyva" - "the Merciful" - which, by its account, became renowned for the healing of female infertility and of other illnesses, and is a copy of the Cypriot icon "Triodoitissa"³.

The house tells of its charitable work on its own site. The sisters care constantly for the local kindergarten, helping with money, clothing, toys, school and everyday supplies, while the teachers and the children receive spiritual literature, neck crosses and reliquary pouches; religious talks are held there as well. The convent also gives varied help to a local family with seven children⁵.

The house carries on a penitentiary social mission as well: by its own account, for four years it has been helping the women's prison in Chernihiv with goods, food and money, and sending a great quantity of spiritual literature there. To two large families with sixteen children between them the convent gives the goods and food they need at the "Vinochok" children's shelter in the town of Yahotyn, and it feeds the homeless and gives money to the sick⁵.