Orthodoxy in the west of Russia in its closest representatives or the Volhynian-Pochaev Patericon

This monumental work of Archpriest Andrei Chojnacki (Khoinatsky in Russian transliteration), a native of Volhynia, constitutes a comprehensive history of the Lives of the Saints of Volhynia (Volyn/Wołyń), and the history of the Orthodox Church as seen through their eyes. Volhynia was once an ancient Rus’ principality, which was merged with the Kingdom of Galicia and Rus’, and was possibly the birthplace of St. Vladimir of Kiev, the Baptiser of Rus’. Volhynia is the forested meadowland north of Galicia between the eastern border of Poland and the south-western border of what is today Belarus’. Galicia and Volhynia later became an integral parts of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth home to many Poles as well as Ruthenians, later became part of the Russian Empire, and is now part of Ukraine. The work chronicles church history starting with Saints Cyril and Methodius in the 9th century and ending around the 19th century. It includes the lives of major saints like Job of Pochaev who came from Precarpathia, and a Ruthenian saint very important for America – St. Innocent of Alaska whose family is said to come originally from Volhynia. This works is considered one of the best relatively modern sources for Church history in Volhynia, which along with the rest of the region, overlaps and influences the religious lives of Carpatho-Rusyns, as many Rusyns such as St. Maxim Sandovich studied in Pochaev, and brought Orthodox traditions back to the Rusyn homeland from there. There was a skete of Pochaev Lavra in the pre-war Presov region, which continued the medieval Pochaev printing tradition, in the Rusyn village of Ladomirová, which is a latinization of a name for Volhynia. Due to the tremendous spiritual interaction and exchange, the church history and traditions of Carpatho-Rusyns and Volhynians are deeply connected in the broader Cyrillo-Methodian tradition.