Pochaev, Ternopil Province, Ukraine, January 2, 2024
Photo: YouTube
Despite the ongoing war and the persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, including of the Holy Dormition-Pochaev Lavra, thousands of faithful Orthodox Christians flocked to the holy monastery in western Ukraine yesterday to celebrate a beloved local saint.
On December 19/January 1, the Church celebrates the memory of St. Amphilochius, the Wonderworker of Pochaev, who reposed in the Lord in 1970.
The Divine Liturgy was live broadcast on the Lavra’s YouTube page, starting at 5:03:05:
The service was led by His Eminence Metropolitan Mark of Khust together with the local hierarch and abbot His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir of Pochaev and other hierarchs and clergy of the UOC.
In honor of the feast, the relics of St. Amphilochius were transferred from the Cave Church of St. Job to the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral.
At the end of the Liturgy, a procession with the precious relics was held throughout the monastery.
Scenes from the All-Night Vigil and the Liturgy were also published:
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St. Amphilochius 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 his release from the hospital, the holy elder returned to his native village of Malaya Ilovitsa in the Ternopil Province where he lived with his nephew, celebrated 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 Great 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 by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in February 2016.
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