Ruined and abandoned Surb Khach monastery resumes services in the Crimea

PanARMENIAN.Net - The medieval Armenian monastery Surb Khach (Holy Cross) in the Crimea, repeatedly ruined and abandoned, is coming back to life: the first monk was recently appointed and the divine service was resumed, Analitika.at.ua reported.



According to Hieromonk Hayrik Hovannisyan, Surb Khach monastery belongs to Armenians, but its doors are open to all believers and pilgrims.



On November 27, 2009 during his working visit to the Kirov district Anatoly Gritsenko, Verkhovna Rada speaker of the Crimea said, the Armenian monastery of Surb Khach would become a part of the Crimean Ethnographic Museum from December 1, 2009. That decision was justified by the absence of monks and service in the monastery. Recently the Catholicos of All Armenians appointed monk Hayrik Hovhannisyan as a father superior at the monastery.



"Armenian monastery Surb-Khach (Holy Cross), a monument of national value of Ukraine, is among the 200 most valuable and state-protected monuments of Ukraine.The monastery is located in a wooded valley 3 km far from the town of Stary Krym (Kirov region). The first church on the territory of the monastery was built in XIV century (1358)by Armenians fled from the Seljuk Turks, and settled in the eastern Tauris in XI century.



The name of the monastery is linked with the khachkar (stone cross) of VI century, which was brought to Taurica by the first refugees from Armenia by sea. Since then, the monastic life was interrupted several times, sometimes for centuries. The last time the monastery of Surb Khach was destroyed in 1925 by the the Soviet authorities. Only 85 years later were divine services restored here.