St. Nicholas Men’s Monastery (village of Myltsi)

Address:
Bogatyriova Str., village of Myltsi, Volyn oblast, 44434

Myltsi is a village in the Stara Vyzhivka raion. It is a home to the St. Nicholas monastery founded in the late thirteenth century. In the middle of the 15th century it became the property of the Sanguszko dukes and made their main ancestral residence.

The dukes took good care of the monastery. According to one of the legends, while hunting in 1540 it was attended by Duke Fedir Andriyovych Sanguszko, the Elder of Volodymyr and the Marshal of the Volyn land. He felt hurt to see the poverty of the monastery and at the same time was very much impressed by the feat of the local monks. Moved to the depths of his heart, Duke Fedir in 1542 began construction of a church to honour Saint Nicholas. He donated to the monastery several inhabited villages with all the lands, hayfields and lakes. Since then, Duke Fedir Andriyovych Sanguszko is considered to be the founder of the Myltsi monastery.

The researchers assume that seven members of the Sanguszko family were buried in the Myltsi monastery during the 15th-17th centuries. In 1997, when executing the restoration activities in St. Nickolas church of the monastery, the remains of six people as well as remnants of clothes and shoes were discovered under the floor. The remains of the dukes who ordered to bury themselves in the monastery are likely to be among them.

At that time, an ancient fresco depicting the Mother of God was also discovered in one of the niches. It dates back to the 16th century and is one of a few surviving frescoes in Western Ukraine. Today it has been restored and is one of the most revered shrines of the monastery.