Volyn Icon of the Mother of God Convent

The Convent of the Volyn Icon of the Mother of God stands in the village of Sernyky, Zarichne raion, in the Rivne region, and belongs to the Sarny eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church^{2, 3}.

The house grew out of a parish church. For many years the adornment of Sernyky was the wooden church of the holy great martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica, which the monastery's own site calls the pearl of the village; on the gallery above its narthex stood a side chapel of Saint Nicholas of Myra¹.

The date of that church is given differently in different accounts. Art-historical publications of 1982 and 1983-1986 place it in the eighteenth century; a pre-revolutionary description of the churches and parishes of the Minsk eparchy, of 1879, states that it was built in 1821 on the site of an older one; local tradition dates it to 1751, and in 2001 the village marked the church's 250th anniversary¹.

By a decision of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of 7 March 1996, a convent of the Volyn Icon of the Mother of God was founded at this church, on the base of the village's Demetrius parish^{2, 1}.

Zarichne raion then belonged to the Rivne eparchy. On 30 March 1999 the Holy Synod by journal No. 149 created the Sarny eparchy, separating seven raions from the Rivne one - Sarny, Berezne, Volodymyrets, Dubrovytsia, Zarichne, Kostopil and Rokytne - and since then the house has been in the Sarny eparchy⁴.

Building began at once. Over 1997-1998 a residential block for the sisters with a domestic church of the Volyn Icon of the Mother of God was put up, and in 1999 a residential floor was added above it^{1, 2}. The eparchy's profile of the house also lists among its buildings the farm premises - a byre, a garage and a kitchen².

In 2000 a cellar and a granary were built at the house, in 2001 it was enclosed with a stone wall, and in 2002 the sewing workshop's premises were repaired and a house with a plot of land was bought, by which the monastery's grounds were enlarged^{2, 1}.

On 18 July 2002 the domestic church of the Volyn Icon of the Mother of God was consecrated as a newly built church - so it stands in the eparchy's register of consecrated newly built churches⁵; the house's own site likewise puts the consecration in 2002¹.

On 29 August 2001 the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, by journal No. 22, on the report of the ruling bishop, blessed an addition to the house's statute describing its own emblem: a circle bearing an eight-pointed cross with the monastery's name - on its stamp and seal and on its letterhead³.

The community was a young one. In an interview of 2002 the ruling bishop said that the monastery had no sister older than thirty and that the sisters cultivated several hectares of land⁶. The eparchy's profile adds that the house leases seven hectares from the state, worked for the sisters' needs².

On 18 July 2006 the sisters marked the tenth anniversary of the house's consecration. The festal liturgy was led by the ruling bishop; at the concelebrated service the superiors of monasteries, the clergy and the monks of the raion's parishes and monasteries prayed, and among those present were the heads of the town, village and raion councils⁷. The head of the Synodal Commission for Monastery Affairs entered the date in his annual report⁸, and it stands as well in the eparchy's register of church anniversaries, which marks 13 July 2016 as the house's twentieth⁹.

In that same year, 2006, the eparchy's press service reported that a skete of Saint John the Baptist had been opened at the house in the Tryshchava tract of Sarny raion - on a site where several churches once stood and were afterwards destroyed to the ground⁷.

The eparchy's profile puts the laying of the foundation of the new Ascension church in 2006². On 16 May 2007 the ruling bishop consecrated the site for its building; before the consecration a Divine Liturgy was served at the house, at which the clergy of the Zarichne deanery concelebrated¹⁰. The same act is recorded both in the eparchy's register of consecrated building sites¹¹ and in the annual report of the head of the Synodal Commission for Monastery Affairs for the following year¹².

The house's own site puts the raising of the stone Ascension cathedral in 2006-2011¹. In March 2016 the ruling bishop inspected the building of the cathedral and advised on its painting, which local masters were carrying out¹³, and in July of the same year on the building of the monastery's guest-house complex¹⁴.

On 13 July 2022, at the patronal service, the first tier of the new iconostasis of the Ascension cathedral was consecrated at the Little Entrance¹⁵. In that same cathedral the ruling bishop performed a diaconal ordination¹⁶.

The house keeps its anniversaries together with the patronal feast of the Volyn Icon. On 13 July 2016, its twentieth anniversary of foundation, priests of the Sarny, Volyn, Zhytomyr and Rivne eparchies concelebrated, and the superiors of three other convents of the Rivne region and the head of the Zarichne raion state administration prayed¹⁷. On 13 July 2021, its twenty-fifth, the deans of seven deaneries of the eparchy and 35 further rectors of churches of Polissia concelebrated¹⁸.

The house belongs to the Zarichne deanery. In the eparchy's list of the deanery's clergy the monastery stands on a line of its own with its own clerics, and beside it the village's Demetrius church with its own rector: the parish out of which the house arose goes on living its own life¹⁹. In 2024 the community of that church kept its patronal feast with the ruling bishop presiding²⁰.

The monastery has three patronal feasts - the Ascension of the Lord, the Volyn Icon of the Mother of God, and the holy great martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica²¹.

The village of Sernyky itself is documented from 1449. The house's own site relates that in 2003 seven of every ten local residents bore the surname Poliukhovych - the family is mentioned here from 1526 - and that telling them apart was so hard that the village council kept a separate column of nicknames in its records²².