Funeral service for Ukrainian poet Borys Oliynyk held at Kiev-Pechersk Lavra

The Divine service in the memory of the newly-departed was led by the vice-rector of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Metropolitan Pavel of Vyshgorod and Chernobyl accompanied by the monastery’s and Kiev eparchy’s clergy. On the eve there took place a Lity for the Dead service and reading of the Psalm book over the body of the deceased.

A public funeral prayer was attended by the relatives and acquaintances of Borys Illich, administration of the Kiev-Pechersk Cultural and Historical Reserve, famous actors of Culture and Art, as well as state agents.

Borys Oliynykn is a Ukrainian poet, public and civil activist, who died on 30 April 2017 at the age of 82 after a complicated and extended illness.

Borys Oliynyk is an author of over 40 books of poetry and social and political journalism. The Ukrainian author’s poetry was translated into Russian, Italian, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Serbian-Croatian, Romanian and other languages.

He was elected Member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine from 1992 to 2006 and led a parliamentary delegation of Ukraine in the PACE.

The USSR State Prize Winner (1975), Hero of Ukraine (2005). On 25 January 2010 he applied for the withdrawal from authority as a Chairman and member of the Commission for State Awards as a sign of his protest against the decision of President Victor Yushchenko to award the title of Hero of Ukraine to Stepan Bandera.

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