Cross procession to honor miraculous Boyany Icon takes place in Bukovyna

The cross procession in honor of the Boyany Icon of the Holy Theotokos. Photo: UOJ

On September 24, 2025, in Bukovyna, a traditional cross procession to celebrate the miraculous Boyany Icon of the Theotokos took place to the Boyany Convent of the UOC, reports a UOJ correspondent.

Several thousand pilgrims set out early in the morning from the village of Mahala (a suburb of Chernivtsi), walked about 10 kilometers with a copy of the Boyany icon, and arrived at the festive Liturgy in the monastery Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos.

The Boyany icon was painted in 1991 for the iconostasis of this church.

On December 18, 1993, on the eve of the feast of St. Nicholas, the then rector of the church, Father Mykhailo (Zhar), and the parishioners noticed that the eyes of the Mother of God on the icon were filled with tears, abundantly flowing down the icon. After the service, Fr. Mykhailo closed and sealed the church and reported the incident to the ruling bishop. The next day, a eparchial commission led by Bishop Onuphry (Berezovsky), now the Primate of the UOC, documented the phenomenon of the miraculous icon.

In the same year, two more miraculous events related to the Boyany Icon of the Theotokos were recorded – the healing of a young cancer patient named Heorhiy from the Khmelnytskyi region and an Orthodox priest Ihor from Poland.

On October 4, 1994, the Holy Synod of the UOC officially recognized the icon as miraculous and named it "Boyany" in honor of the place where miracles occured. The day of celebration of the miraculous icon was established as (September 25) October 12.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the religious procession to Boyany took place in 2024.

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