Turning the pages back... July 14, 1996 (07/13/03)

Turning the pages back...

July 14, 1996

Seven years ago The Ukrainian Weekly reported that close to 1,000 people had gathered on July 14, 1996, near the Cathedral of St. Sophia to pay tribute to Patriarch Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine on the first anniversary of his death. Led by Patriarch Filaret and concelebrated by tens of Ukrainian Orthodox priests of the Kyiv Patriarchate, the memorial service and blessing of the white marble tombstone lasted a little over an hour.

Our reporter on the scene, Marta Kolomayets noted that many of the Orthodox faithful stayed past the official ceremonies, peacefully praying, lighting candles and leaving bouquets of flowers on what was the final resting place of Patriarch Volodymyr (Vasyl Romaniuk), who prior to becoming the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate, spent many decades in the Soviet gulag as a defender of the Ukrainian Orthodox faith and Ukrainian national rights.

The memorial service contrasted greatly with events of a year earlier, when on July 18, 1995, Patriarch Volodymyr's funeral procession was disrupted as riot police and mourners clashed on the streets of Kyiv, in violence that strained Church-State relations for months to follow. Many of the faithful attending the memorial service in 1996 could not help but recall the violence of last summer.

Ms. Kolomayets reported that many spoke of what they had seen in July 1995 and wondered why no charges had been pressed against the riot police who attacked mourners when they were refused permission by the government to bury the late patriarch's body on the grounds of the St. Sophia Cathedral complex. They recalled how members of Ukrainian National Assembly/Ukrainian National Self-Defense Organization, a radical right-wing group, took upon themselves the role of special bodyguards for the funeral procession, and then helped dig a grave in the sidewalk outside the gates to St. Sophia.

There was a tense moment at the start of the 1996 service when tens of UNA members, dressed in army fatigues, waving bright black-and-red banners, the official flags of the Ukrainian National Assembly, demonstratively made their way to take up the front ranks near the grave. But, the memorial service proceeded peacefully.

"This place is suited as the burial ground for Patriarch Volodymyr," said Dmytro Korchynsky, leader of the Ukrainian National Assembly. "It is a holy place," he noted, although the gravesite is outside the gates of the 10th century cathedral. He also explained that this grave, which people will pass by everyday as they wait for buses and trolleys at the public transportation stop just a few yards away, will serve as a constant reminder of the gruesome events of July 18, 1995.

Source: "Monument erected at site of patriarch's place of burial," by Marta Kolomayets, The Ukrainian Weekly, July 28, 1996, Vol. LXIV, No. 30.

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