Zymne Monastery
Encyclopedia
Cave monastery
A cave monastery is a monastery built in caves, with possible outside facilities. St. Anthony the Great known as the founder of monasticism lived in a cave.- List of cave monasteries :*Albania**St...
, located at the top of the Holy Mountain rising above the Luh River near the village of Zymne, five kilometers south of Volodymyr-Volynskyi
Volodymyr-Volynskyi
Volodymyr-Volynsky is a city located in Volyn Oblast, in north-western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative centre of the Volodymyr-Volynsky District, the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast...
, Volyn Oblast
Volyn Oblast
Volyn Oblast is an oblast in north-western Ukraine. Its administrative center is Lutsk. Kovel is the westernmost town and the last station in Ukraine of the rail line running from Kiev to Warsaw.-History:...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
.
History
The origin of the monastery is uncertain, but a monastic legend attributes its foundation to Vladimir the Great, who allegedly built there two churches and his winter palace, from which the village takes its name. It is also claimed that the first hegumenHegumen
Hegumen, hegumenos, igumen, or ihumen is the title for the head of a monastery of the Eastern Orthodox Church or Eastern Catholic Churches, similar to the one of abbot. The head of a convent of nuns is called hegumenia or ihumenia . The term means "the one who is in charge", "the leader" in...
of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra
Kiev Pechersk Lavra
Kiev Pechersk Lavra or Kyiv Pechersk Lavra , also known as the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, is a historic Orthodox Christian monastery which gave its name to one of the city districts where it is located in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine....
died there on his way from Tsargrad
Tsargrad
Tsargrad is a historic Slavic name for the...
to Kiev in the 11th century.
The monastery was first mentioned in documents in 1458. It remained in the hands of the Greek Orthodox Church
Greek Orthodox Church
The Greek Orthodox Church is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity sharing a common cultural tradition whose liturgy is also traditionally conducted in Koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament...
until 1698, when it was taken over by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church , Ukrainska Hreko-Katolytska Tserkva), is the largest Eastern Rite Catholic sui juris particular church in full communion with the Holy See, and is directly subject to the Pope...
. Within several decades, the monastic community ceased to exist, but its cathedral was revived as a Russian Orthodox parish church in 1857.
In 1893, the monastery was reestablished as a Russian Orthodox nunnery, which was disbanded by the Soviets with the annexation of Volynia in 1939. The convent was revived during the period of the German occupation, reduced to a parish church in 1945, reopened again in 1990 and acquired stauropegic
Stauropegic
Stauropegic, also rendered stavropegic, stauropegial, or stavropegial is a title or description applied to Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Christian monasteries subordinated directly to a Patriarch or Synod, rather than to their local Bishop...
status in 1996.
Architecture
The four-pillared Assumption Cathedral was built with funds provided by Prince Fyodor Chartoryisky, who also donated to the abbey two fine bells, one of which is now on exhibit on the monastery grounds. The cathedral was completed and consecrated in 1495, when the Gothic influence in the region was still paramount. It was modernized for the first time in 1550 and subsequently went through a number of reconstructions, in keeping with prevalent ideology of the period. The Uniates dismantled its flanking towers in 1724 and reshaped its facade in the then contemporary Polish fashion. The Russians took pains to redecorate the building in the Russian Revival
Russian Revival
The Russian Revival style is the generic term for a number of different movements within Russian architecture that arose in second quarter of the 19th century and was an eclectic melding of pre-Peterine Russian architecture and elements of Byzantine architecture.The Russian Revival style arose...
style, but the church was damaged during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and subsequently repaired by the Poles in the 1930s. Its roofing was again destroyed during WWII and was replaced by five golden helmet domes more recently.
The oldest building in the complex is the miniature Trinity Church (1465-75), a stone copy of the wooden churches of Volynia. It is situated on the mountain slope to the south from the cathedral, outside the monastery walls. There is also the 16th-century refectory
Refectory
A refectory is a dining room, especially in monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places the term is most often used today is in graduate seminaries...
with the church dedicated to Saint Juliana
Saint Juliana
-People:* See Paul and Juliana for Saint Juliana ; she also lived with saint Tom martyred with her brother Paul in 270* Saint Juliana of Nicomedia * Saint Juliana of Liège , also known as St. Juliana of Mt. Cornillon...
, the oldest refectory church in the country. Between Trinity Church and the cathedral lurks the entrance to the caves which consist of two parallel corridors joined in the middle. The cave church is consecrated to Saint Barlaam.