Persecuted UOC community in Zadubrivka celebrates patronal feast

Patronal feast of the persecuted UOC community in Zadubrivka. Photo: UOJ

In the village of Zadubrivka, the religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church celebrated its first patronal feast in honor of the saint to whom its new church under construction is dedicated.

The festive Liturgy was celebrated in a house church specially arranged for worship. Despite the weather, after the Liturgy the faithful held a procession to the church construction site, where the rite of blessing water was served. Participants in the celebration said the rain stopped immediately after the people were sprinkled with holy water, which they saw as “God’s consolation and support.”

In his sermon, the rector, Father Vitaliy, stressed that Venerable Amphilochius is a “skillful healer” of human souls and bodies, who himself passed through war, captivity, and brutal persecution of the Church. “Who, if not he, can today implore the Lord God and His Most Pure Mother for our soldiers and for our captives?” the priest addressed his flock.

He called on believers to pray for an end to the persecution of the true faith and to ask the saint for protection for both Bukovyna and all Ukraine.

The rector called the construction of the first church in the region dedicated to the Wonderworker of Pochaiv a unique event and “God’s mercy.” According to Father Vitaliy, taking part in building the church – even by laying a single brick or carrying a bucket of mortar – is a great spiritual feat.

“One Liturgy served in a church grants mercy to all generations ahead,” the priest recalled the elders’ words. The feast brought together not only local parishioners but also pilgrims from neighboring villages, who help the community through both deeds and prayer.

As the UOJ reported earlier, the religious community in honor of the Synaxis of Archangel Michael lost its parish church on April 5, 2023, as a result of a forceful seizure by OCU supporters. The assault on the shrine took place during the funeral of a Ukrainian soldier killed at the front: masked raiders used an angle grinder to cut through the doors leading to the altar and broke inside.

Eparchy representatives at the time called the raiders’ actions the height of cynicism, noting that the hero’s body was effectively used as a “battering ram” for looting, while supporters of Dumenko’s structure beat parishioners and used foul language.

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