On the Day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin UOC canonizes two saints

The glorification among the saints of the two strugglers will be held tomorrow, the Day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, during the festive Divine Liturgy at the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, reports Foma in Ukraine.

Among those canonized will be Schemamonk  Bassian the Blind of the Kiev Caves (Balashevich; +1827) and Metropolitan Ioanniky of Kiev and Galicia (Rudnev + 1900), whose incorrupt relics were found in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

The service will be headed by the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine. The Liturgy will be held on Cathedral Square in front of the Assumption Cathedral. The service starts at 8.30.

Recall the famous elder Hieroschemamonk Bassian the Blind (Balashevich; 1745-1827) was born into a poor middle class family and baptized under the name of Basil. After the death of his spouse, the wedding of one of his daughters and another entering a convent, he became a novice of the Vydubichi Monastery of Kiev, where he took monastic vows with the name of Babylas. Later, he was a monk of the Rzhischev monastery and the Holy Trinity Kitaev Hermitage (where he was admitted to a schema with the name Bassian). In 1907, after the onset of blindness he was transferred to the hospital building of the Lavra.

By the strictest fasting and prayer he acquired the gift of foresight. The advice of the confessor of the Lavra governor (future Archbishop Anthony of Voronezh (Smirnitsky)) was searched by representatives of various layers of society, including Emperor Alexander I, Prince Nicholas (future Emperor Nicholas I). The elder reposed on April 25, 1827, and was buried at Lavra cemetery on the territory of Far Caves.

Metropolitan Ioanniky (Rudnev) of Kiev and Galicia was born in 1826 in the province of Tula in the deacon’s family. In 1849 he graduated from the Kiev Theological Academy, where he further served as a teacher. In the same year he took the monastic vows. In Kiev, he was ordained a deacon, then a hieromonk and Archimandrite. From October 19, 1858 to October 19 1860 Metropolitan Ioanniky was the rector of the Kiev Theological Schools.

Then he served in St. Petersburg, Saratov, Nizhny Novgorod. In 1877, he was appointed Archbishop of Kartli and Kakheti, Exarch of Georgia. Since 1882 he was Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna. From November of 1891 until the repose, Bishop Ioanniky was Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia. The Bishop died on 20 June 1900 in the Goloseyev monastery. He was buried in the Holy Cross Church of the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

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