Hundreds of faithful climb St Anna Mountain on their knees

Faithful climb St Anna Mountain. Photo: UOJ

On August 14, 2026, the feast day of the Holy Maccabean Martyrs, festive services were held at St Anna Convent in the village of Vashkivtsi, Chernivtsi region. From early morning, UOC faithful began climbing St Anna Mountain toward the convent. According to a UOJ correspondent, hundreds of pilgrims made the ascent on their knees, offering prayers and bringing their personal petitions before the Lord.

St Anna Mountain, on the outskirts of Vashkivtsi above the Cheremosh River, has long been venerated by Orthodox believers. The mountain is named in honor of St Anna the Righteous. According to local tradition, the site is also associated with a young woman named Anna who, while fleeing Turkish-Tatar raiders, turned to God and leapt into a ravine to escape her pursuers. Tradition holds that the earth opened up and miraculously sheltered her from danger. In memory of the event, local residents erected a cross on the mountain.

In the late 19th century, during a cholera epidemic, believers gathered on St Anna Mountain to pray for deliverance from the disease. After the epidemic ended, a wooden church dedicated to St Anna the Righteous was built there in 1898. The church was later destroyed by lightning, but the site continued to be venerated by Orthodox Christians.

In 1992, at the initiative of Priest Mykhailo Savva, construction of a new church began on St Anna Mountain, and in 1994 the first novices arrived. This marked the beginning of the convent, which today is a place of pilgrimage. Believers come here on the feast days of St Anna the Righteous, the Conception of the Most Holy Theotokos by St Anna, and the Holy Maccabean Martyrs.

St Anna Mountain remains a place of prayer for pilgrims, while the sisters of the convent carry out their daily monastic obediences there and pray for the salvation of Orthodox Christians.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that UOC faithful set out in procession to St Anna Convent in Vashkivtsi on the eve of the patronal feast of the Maccabean Martyrs.

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