Pochaev, Ukraine, August 6, 2021
The feast of the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God gathered thousands of Orthodox Ukrainians from across the country and a host of hierarchs and clergy at Holy Dormition-Pochaev Lavra yesterday, headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine.
The Ukrainian primate celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Lavra’s Holy Transfiguration Cathedral together with 24 hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, reports the Information-Education Department of the Ukrainian Church.
Many of the faithful arrived at the Lavra today before in religious processions from the western regions of the country: 200 from the Nikolaevka Dubensky District, 1,500 from the Vladimir-Volyn Diocese together with pilgrims from Poland, 500 from Zdolbunov, 200 from Ivano-Frankivsk, and about 700 people from the Diocese of Lutsk.
After the reading of the Holy Gospel, His Beatitude told the faithful about miracles worked by the Most Holy Theotokos at the Lavra, urging all to turn to the Mother of God in difficult circumstances:
Every person at a certain period of his life experiences being surrounded by passions with their dark spirits, when he doesn’t know where to find advice and help. We have to remember: When things are difficult for us, when we’re surrounded by trouble on all sides, when we can’t see any light, we must turn with prayer to the Most Holy Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, and she will certainly help us… When we behave like this, then we’ll be blessed in this earthly life, and through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos we will be accounted worthy to become partakers of eternal blessedness in our Lord Jesus Christ in the coming age.
Watch as the entire Lavra sings the Lord’s Prayer:
At the end of the Liturgy, the participants in the Divine service, led by His Beatitude Met. Onuphry, processed to Holy Dormition Cathedral, where the clergy served a moleben before the wonderworking icon of the Theotokos.
***
In the 16th century, the now revered icon of the Mother of God was presented by the future Patriarch of Constantinople Neophyte to the landowner Anna Goyskaya, who sheltered him for the night. In 1597, the miraculous image was transferred to the Pochaev Lavra. Through prayers before the icon, the monastery was saved from the invasion of the Tatar Khan in the summer of 1675, during the Zbarazh War with the Turks.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Vkontakte, Telegram, WhatsApp, MeWe, and Gab!
