Delegation of UOC brings relics of saints from Ukraine to Georgia

A meeting of believers of the UOC in Zugdidi, Georgia. Photo: Facebook page of the Zugdidi Diocese

The relics of many saints were brought to Georgia by the representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, reports the abbess of the Convent of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara of the Bila Tserkva diocese of the UOC, Mother Varvara, who, accompanied by her sister Afomaida and Orthodox brothers from the Georgian Church, has been making a pilgrimage tour around this country for more than a week.

With the blessing of Patriarch Elijah of Georgia, the pilgrims of the UOC visited the Sameba Cathedral in Tbilisi, after which they went to the Zugdidi and Tsaish Diocese.

Photos and videos of the meeting and prayer procession in Zugdidi were published on the Web on September 27.

In Zugdidi, the relics of many saints from Ukraine, which were brought by Ukrainian pilgrims and the President of the Georgian Diaspora in Ukraine Giga Berishvili, will be kept in the Сhurch of the Icon of the Mother of God of Iberia.

“Those shrines that are with us are sent by God, one person cannot do this,” said Mother Varvara. “Everyone shared, everyone wanted to hand over some particles to Georgia. Many monks, brothers, sisters in Christ took part in this noble cause, our monastery also shared what it could with the brethren – in gratitude to Orthodox Georgia. In our monastery, the collected relics have been put in order, lists have been drawn up – a lot has been collected."

In Georgia, the Ukrainian faithful were met by a large number of believers who had the opportunity to venerate the shrines brought from Ukraine, many of them joined the delegation of the UOC to accompany it on pilgrimage. The myrrh-streaming icon of the Mother of God "Seeking the Lost" from the Barbara Convent, which is more than 280 years old and has already visited Georgia, is of great interest to the Georgian believers.

“In 2003, we were invited here with the icon with the blessing of Patriarch Elijah and travelled here for a month,” explained Mother Varvara. “After that, we were blessed to build a temple complex (a monastery complex in honor of the Holy Land of Jerusalem in the monastery of St. Great Martyr Barbara in the city of Kagarlyk, Kyiv region – Ed.). 18 years ago we crossed the whole of Georgia, and now we have come back to thank it”.

The abbess emphasized that the convent has a lot of ties with Georgia, including with the public organization "Orthodox Georgia". It was the Georgian brothers who asked to bring the relics from Ukraine, Mother Varvara explained, and on this trip again “we wanted to show the miraculous icon from our monastery so that joy, love, compassion, mercy would come to all of us – we cannot be divided, we are all brothers in Christ and our homeland is in heaven."

As reported, pilgrims from Georgia visited Kyiv monasteries of the UOC and the Pochaiv Lavra.

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