Turning the pages back... July 22, 2000 (07/21/02)

Turning the pages back...

July 22, 2000

Two years ago our Kyiv correspondent was among the 750,000 who traveled to Zarvanytsia for a pilgrimage to the Marian shrine located there. It was one of the largest gatherings of Ukrainians ever, and at the time certainly the largest gathering of faithful of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. Following are excerpts of Roman Woronowycz's report.

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They came by car, by bus and on foot. Some traveled for a week, others for a few hours. They arrived from Donetsk in the east of Ukraine and from New York in the east of the United States, but mostly from the regions of western Ukraine. Adults, children, pensioners, the indigent and the disabled, and unexpectedly large numbers of teenagers and young adults congregated from many of the corners of the world in the small village of Zarvanytsia ... the roads to Zarvanytsia were clogged with a train of humanity slowly making its way to one of the holiest shrines of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. ...

Organized as a second millennium celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ by the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, the reason for the mass gathering was the blessing of the new Sobor of the Mother of God of Zarvanytsia. However, it was more than that. Church leaders said that, in addition [the gathering was aimed at] giving thanks for the re-emergence of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church after nearly a half century of persecution ...

The [events] that occurred in Zarvanytsia were a celebration of the Mother of God, who many believe has performed miracles through the waters that flow from a spring there. ... During the Soviet era, Communist Party officials repeatedly tried to cap the wellspring to no avail, according to local lore. When they covered one fount, water would burst forth from another. Pilgrims ... continued to visit the shrine even after it was officially shut down.

Source: "750,000 participate in pilgrimage to Zarvanytsia shrine" by Roman Woronowycz, Kyiv Press Bureau, The Ukrainian Weekly, July 30, 2000, Vol. LXVIII, No. 31. Reprinted in the forthcoming book "Ukraine Lives!", Parsippany, N.J.: The Ukrainian Weekly, 2002.

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