Pochaev, Ukraine, January 3, 2018
Photo: pochaev.org.ua On January 1, the day of commemoration of the venerable Amphilochius of Pochaev (1894-1971), a festive Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the Holy Dormition-Pochaev Lavra, reports site of the monastery. Thus, hundreds of the faithful had the opportunity to greet the new year before the incorrupt relics of the great saint.
The Lavra is pleased to report that every year more and more pilgrims come from all corners of Ukraine on these days to the holy Pochaev mountain, to prayerfully venerate the God-pleaser St. Amphilochius, the wonderworker of Pochaev, on New Year’s night.
Photo: pochaev.org.ua The All-Night Vigil with an akathist to St. Amphilochius was celebrated before his relics in the monastery’s Holy Transfiguration Cathedral. After a short break, the first Divine Liturgy of the night began in the same church. The festal late Divine Liturgy in the cathedral was celebrated by Metropolitan Mark of Khust and Vynohradiv, with the assistance of ten of his brother bishops.
After the Divine Liturgy, the reliquary with the incorrupt relics of the saint were transferred in a cross procession to the caves church where a moleben was celebrated.
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Photo: pochaev.org.ua Venerable Father Amphilochius (in the world Yakov Holovatyuk) of Pochaev was a wonderworker and visionary of the Pochaev Lavra. He entered the monastery at the age of 31, and became a monk at the age of 38.
He had several duties at the monastery, and received the sick as an osteopath and medical assistant. In 1962, he prevented the closure of the Lavra’s Holy Trinity Cathedral, for which he was sent by the communist authorities to a mental hospital. After release from the hospital, the holy elder returned to his native village of Malaya Ilovitsa (the Ternopil region) where he lived with his nephew, performed supplicatory prayer services, and healed the sick. At the instigation of local functionaries, St. Amphilochius was brutally beaten by one of his relatives; the dying elder was taken to the Lavra and immediately tonsured into the schema, after which his health was miraculously restored. Then the saint returned home where he prayed fervently and received the sick for the rest of his life. St. Amphilochius reposed in the Lord on January 1, 1971, aged 76. This great ascetic was canonized in 2002 and approved for Church-wide veneration in 2016.
