The Primate of the UOC Led the Rite of Glorification of Blessed Olga of Kyiv-Florovsky
The Holy Synod established the celebration of the memory of Saint Olga of Kyiv-Pokrovsky on October 21.
UOC Primate His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy led the Divine Liturgy and the solemn rite of glorification among the saints of Blessed Olga of Kyiv-Florovsky (Kochanovska) at the Ascension Florovsky Women's Monastery in Kyiv. The festal service took place on the feast day of the Holy Martyrs Florus and Laurus. This was reported by the Information and Educational Department of the UOC.
The Primate was co-served by Metropolitan Pavlo of Vyshhorod and Chornobyl, Head of the Information and Educational Department of the UOC Metropolitan Klyment of Nizhyn and Pryluky, Metropolitan Yoasaf of Vasylkiv, Archbishop Spyrydon of Dobropillia, Archbishop Mark of Borodianka, the clergy of the monastery, and guests in holy orders. The sisters, led by the abbess of the monastery, Abbess Yevlampiya, also prayed at the service.
Before the beginning of the rite of glorification, the priests performed the last memorial litia for Blessed Olga. Metropolitan Klyment then read aloud the decision of the Holy Synod on the local glorification of the saint. The Synod of the UOC approved the iconographic image of the holy one, as well as the texts of the service and akathist. The Church celebrates the memory of Blessed Olga on October 29 — the day of her repose.
During the rite, Metropolitan Pavlo read the life of Blessed Olga. The clergy and faithful sang the troparion, kontakion, and magnification of the new saint, and then venerated her holy image.
Olga Kochanovska came from a noble family and received an excellent education. After a miraculous apparition of the Most Holy Theotokos, she completely changed her life. In 1905, the eighteen-year-old girl received the blessing of the Glinsk elders and entered the Florovsky Monastery. The ascetic spent more than sixty years in the monastery in prayer, humility, and spiritual struggle.
Under the guise of holy foolishness, the blessed eldress concealed great gifts of the Holy Spirit — clairvoyance, the gift of healing, and wonderworking. During the years of Soviet persecution, the nun Olga helped people preserve the faith, gave spiritual counsel, and prayed for those in need.
The ascetic foretold the day of her repose in advance and peacefully departed to the Lord on October 29, 1971. Her body was buried at the Zverynetske Cemetery in Kyiv. Before her death, she bequeathed to the faithful to come to her grave and promised to pray for every person.
As the SPJ reported, His Beatitude spoke about the newly glorified nun of the Florovsky Monastery.
