Ukrainian Catholic ChurchAustralia, New Zealand and Oceania
All-Ukrainian pilgrimage in Zarvanytsia
July 15, 2024
Last weekend, July 13–14, Bishop Mykola Bychok, Eparch of Melbourne, took part in the All-Ukrainian Pilgrimage at the Marian Spiritual Centre in Zarvanytsia, Ukraine.
All-Ukrainian pilgrimages in Zarvanytsia take place every year. This is a great event for the entire Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church because the clergy and the faithful from many eparchies and different parts of the world come together to visit the Zarvanytsian Mother of God.
Since the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was held from July 2 to 12 in the Marian Spiritual Centre in Zarvanytsia, which was attended by 50 bishops of the UGCC from Ukraine and settlements, including Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, and Australia, as well as invited guests from other Churches and countries, they also joined the pilgrimage.
Pilgrimage began on Saturday evening, July 13, with a traditional procession of pilgrims with candles from the parish church of Zarvanytsia to the place of the apparition of the Virgin Mary. Therefore, a Moleben to the Mother of God was held in the square in front of the basilica.
On Sunday, July 14, the Father and the Head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, presided over the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy, which was not only the culmination of the pilgrimage but also, according to the words of His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the solemn conclusion of the Synod.
During the homily, His Beatitude Sviatoslav remarked: “Today, Our Lady has called you all here to experience God’s love for you. So that you could leave all your burdens here in confession. So that you could give all your pain and tears into the hands of our Mother of God. She is ready today to take all this from us and give us the light of God’s life. Today, the Lord God invites us to shine His light on the world.”
A special testimony to the care of the Mother of God was the presence at the pilgrimage of the Redemptorist Fathers, Father Ivan Levytskyy and Father Bohdan Heleta, who had recently been released from Russian captivity.
“Today we have bishops from all over the world here; I will introduce you to each of them,” said His Beatitude Sviatoslav during the homily, and at the end of the Divine Liturgy, he really introduced each of the bishops to the audience. Introducing Bishop Mykola Bychok, Eparch of Melbourne, His Beatitude Sviatoslav greeted all Ukrainians in Australia and asked Bishop Mykola to bring blessings from Zarvanytsian Mother of God to the faithful of the Melbourne Eparchy.
Reference
The Marian Spiritual Centre in Zarvanytsia in the Ternopil region is well known not only in Ukraine, but also beyond its borders due to its miraculous icon of the Mother of God. Its history is connected to the story of a Kyivan monk who survived the devastating Mongol invasion of 1240, having found a safe refuge here in Zarvanytsia, and who in a dream saw an image of the Virgin holding the baby Jesus in her arms. In 1867 Pope Pius IX crowned the icon and granted Zarvanytsia its status as a significant pilgrimage site. Since then, thousands of pilgrims have visited this holy place.
The Podillian sanctuary suffered repeatedly from the devastations of the Tatar attacks, and was destroyed both during World War I and World War II. However the greatest damage inflicted on Zarvanytsia was by the Bolshevik totalitarian system, which destroyed the monastery, closed the Church of the Holy Trinity, and forbade pilgrims from praying at the healing spring. Greek Catholics were then forced to conduct their masses in secret in the forests and in their houses.
After the proclamation of independence of the Ukrainian state, the Zarvanytsia shrine began to rise again from the ruins and became an important place of pilgrimage to the Virgin Mary.
Photo: ugcc.ua
