zarvanytsia 3

The greatest cataclysm... 

came upon Zarvanytsia with the advent of Soviet rule. 

The monastery was burned to the ground, along with its church. The parochial church of the Holy Trinity was closed, and turned into a warehouse. The miraculous spring surrounded with barbed wire [prikkeldraad] and turned into a dump [vuilnisbelt]. 

During major holy days, the entire village was blocked by the militia. In 1946, the entire Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was officially banned by the Communists, and made subject to the Moscow Patriarchate. Despite this, the Catacomb Church continued to function here, with the icons safely hidden, and Divine Liturgy celebrated in private houses, or the surrounding forests. 

Even a secret seminary opened, in 1975. 

With the imminent collapse of the Soviet Union, on 17 July 1988... 

over 10,000 faithful gathered in Zarvanytsia to commemorate the millennium of Christianity in Ukraine, celebrated by Bishop Pavlo Vasylyk. On 23 November 1989, the Divine Liturgy could for the first time in half a century be celebrated in the church of the Holy Trinity. 

In 1991, the year Ukraine regained independence, the church was repaired, and the chapel at the spring was rebuilt, as was the monastery of the Studite Brethren with its church of the Nativity of the Mother of God.

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In 1991... 

the shrine was visited by Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky, the head of the Ukrainian Church, and in 1993 by archbishop Volodymyr Sterniuk, locum tenens of the Church in Ukraine in the years 1972-1991. In April 1995, mass celebrations were held, commending the Ukrainian nation to the protection of the Mother of God, renewing the vows  Yaroslav the Wise made in 1037, and in 1996 celebrating the 400th anniversary of the restoration of communion with the Catholic Church in the Union of Brest. 

In July 1997, the beginning of the Ukrainian preparations for the Great Jubilee was officially announced here. And in 1999, Ukrainian martyrs of the 20th century were commemorated. In 2000, Cardinal Lubomyr Husar celebrated the first Divine Liturgy in the newly built sobor of the Mother of God of Zarvanytsia. During the pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Ukraine, in 2001, he prayed before the icon of the Mother of God of Zarvanytsia in the church of St. Nicholas the Miracle Worker on Askoldova Mohyla in Kiev. 

In 2002 the Patriarchal Council of the Ukrainian Church was concluded in Zarvanytsia, gathering Church delegates from around the world. In 2003, an ecumenical pilgrimage by the Orthodox Brotherhood of St. Andrew the First-Called Apostle was held. In August 2004, Zarvanytsia hosted an international pilgrimage of reconciliation between Poles and Ukrainians, led by Cardinal Husar and the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Joseph Glemp, together with fifteen bishops from both nations.

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The new church... 

largest in the Podolia and visible far outside the village and well inscribed into the landscape, has a single nave Byzantine cross-dome plan with five cupolas representing Christ and the four Evangelists. Along with the gates, the church of Annunciation, bell tower and chapels it has been built largely by donations from the Ukrainian diaspora as the country's economic situation is still ravaged by extreme poverty.

Along with the Holy Dormition Lavra in Univ and the monastery of the Basilian Fathers in Krekhiv, Zarvanytsia is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Ukraine. It is the destination of an annual youth pilgrimage and numerous eparchial pilgrimages from the farthest corners of Ukraine and Ukrainian parishes abroad and even some Latin rite faithful from neighboring countries such as Poland and Slovakia.

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