It all began with pies and dumplings. Nadiya Khvoya, a librarian from Kyiv who had worked for over 45 years at the Andriy Malyshko Library, joined a volunteer community in the village of Vodotyi. Her familiar rhythm of life with books shifted to village routines and volunteer work. But it was here that she stumbled upon something much deeper — a trace of her grandfather, remembered in these parts as a man of faith. 

When Nadiya brought a didukh she had made herself to the local museum, she had no idea it would lead to a remarkable discovery. Maria Mykolaivna, a museum worker, showed her old glass-painted icons that had been found in an abandoned house, tucked away under the thatched roof. It turned out these icons had been painted by Nadiya’s grandfather, Mykyta Ilchenko, known in the village as “the cantor.” He had hidden the relics in a neighbor’s house, and there they lay for decades — until the new owners eventually found them.