Oleksandrivka believers hold procession to site of Virgin Mary’s apparition

The Icon of the Mother of God's apparition. Photo: a video screenshot of the Odesa Eparchy

The Odesa Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church held an annual religious procession to the Nativity of the Theotokos Convent, reports the press service of the Odesa Eparchy.

The religious procession took place to the monastery near the village of Oleksandrivka on the 102nd anniversary of the apparition of the Most Holy Theotokos at this site. Every year thousands of believers from across the region come here: this time pilgrims from Bolhrad, Artsyz, Tarutyne, Izmail and other cities and villages of the region took part in the common prayer.

According to tradition, in 1924, in Oleksandrivka, a mute shepherd named Foma Tadzhi was tending sheep when he saw a Majestic Woman. He wanted to approach Her, but She became invisible. After this, the Virgin Mary healed the shepherd of his muteness, and he told his fellow villagers about the miracle he had witnessed. On August 4 of the same year, local women came to the site of the apparition, and among them was 49-year-old widow Ekaterina Terzi, to whom the Virgin Mary appeared for the second time and conveyed a message about the need to preserve the Orthodox faith and pray with repentance.

Since 1924, the date of the apparition of the Mother of God in Oleksandrivka has been considered the founding day of the convent, and on the stone where the Most Pure One stood, according to tradition, the imprint of Her footstep remained. Believers call the Oleksandrivka monastery the "women's Pochaiv," since, as in the Pochaiv Lavra, there is here a wonderworking icon of the Mother of God, the imprint of Her footstep, and a spring of the righteous Ancestors of God, Joachim and Anna.

As the UOJ reported earlier, thousands of UOC believers held a religious procession to the Intercession Monastery in Marynivka.

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