Believers from all over the world revere the Patroness of Pochaev Lavra (PHOTO)

His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Onufry celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra.

Before the beginning of the divine service, His Beatitude bowed to the relics of the monastery: the relics of St. Job and Amphilochius of Pochaev, as well as the foot of the Most Holy Theotokos.

The history of the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God dates back to the middle of the 16th century, when the future Patriarch of Constantinople Neophyte, present in the territory of modern Ternopil region, presented its landowner Anna Goiska, who accommodated him in her house for the night. In 1597 the miracle-working icon was given to the Pochaev Lavra. In the summer of 1675, during the Zbarazh war with the Turks, by prayers before the miraculous image the monastery was saved from the invasion of Tatar Khan Nurredin. The icon is still kept in the Pochaev Lavra.

Thousands of believers from different regions of Ukraine and abroad prayed for the Divine Service. On the eve of the celebration, thousands of pilgrims arrived at the Monastery in the framework of the annual International Holy Cross Procession, which united Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Poles, Hungarians, Georgians and Italians.

After reading the Holy Gospel, His Beatitude turned to the numerous flock with the sermon.

During the Liturgy, a special prayer was offered for peace in Ukraine.

At the end of the Liturgy, the procession with the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God took place at the Assumption Cathedral of the Lavra, where a festive moleben was performed.

A few days earlier, on August 2, the traditional religious procession with the Pochaev miracle-working icon of the Mother of God took place from the tract of Virl (the village of Savchitsy) to the Pochaev Lavra, which is held annually in memory of events more than 400 years ago. The solemn procession was led by Metropolitan Volodymyr, Vicegerent of the Pochaev Lavra. In total, it was attended by more than five thousand monks and pilgrims.

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