Relics of St. John Paul II to be presented for veneration in Kyiv on Dignity Revolution anniversary
On November 21, at 10 p.m. on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Dignity Revolution an all-night vigil service will begin in the Cathedral of the Resurrection, during which the relics of St. John Paul II will be presented for veneration.
As reported by head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Patriarch Sviatoslav in his video blog on Zhyve.TV, the relics of St. John Paul II will arrive in Kyiv for the occasion.
He recalled that on November 21, the Christians celebrate the feast of St. Michael the Archangel. He said that St. Michael is the patron saint of Kyiv, but in the history of independent Ukraine was always associated with the struggle. The struggle between good and evil. The struggle for a better future of Ukraine. And on this day we remember the first anniversary of the Dignity Revolution.
Patriarch Sviatoslav said that different members of revolutionary actions will always remember the events that happened during this year. And Ukrainian Greek Catholics will pray. “Celebrating the anniversary of the Maidan, we will serve the Vigil. The same as the people stood on the Maidan before God fighting evil, so we want stand before the face of God all together in the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ and remember in His presence all that we have experienced, glorious and tragic moments of the year,” said the head of the church.
The UGCC Head explained why the relics of St. Pope John Paul II will be presented on Maidan Nezalezhnosti to mark the anniversary: “Pope John Paul II came into human history as a great humanist of the twentieth century. Today he is the angel of peace for Ukraine. We know thatthe fall of the Berlin Wallis associated with his personality, so is the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. I think everyone remembers a time when Polish society stood up to fight communist totalitarianism. This struggle lasted nine years. Every day during that time John Paul II lighted a candle in his window, praying for the Maidan started by the Polish ‘Solidarity’. He is the Pope, who arrived in Ukraine. He visited our people, touched our wounds, bowedour martyrs. He put his foot on the ground, which historians call the bloody ground, to show that there is a land that needs to be a new hope for its people and all mankind.”
"Therefore, we will venerate the relics and ponder how to build peace in our independent Ukraine, how to oppose war, how to build a free and independent Ukraine.”
“Come together to celebrate the anniversary of the Maidan, to rethink in a Christinan way everything that we have experienced and witnessed this year,” the hierarch was reported as saying by the Information Department of the UGCC.
