UOC Primate presides over celebrations at Zymne Monastery
His Beatitude led celebrations at Zymne Monastery marking the 1,025th anniversary of its founding and the 35th anniversary of the revival of monastic life.
On the feast day of the Sviatohirsk Zymne Icon of the Mother of God, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine led a festal service at the Zymne Convent in the Volodymyr-Volynskyi Eparchy, the UOC Information and Education Department reports.
This year, the ancient monastery is celebrating two anniversaries – 1,025 years since its founding and 35 years since the revival of monastic life there.
The celebrations began the previous day, September 23. In the monastery’s Dormition Cathedral, hierarchs led by the Primate celebrated a conciliar All-Night Vigil and an Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos before her wonderworking Zymne Icon. The first Divine Liturgy was celebrated at the monastery during the night.
On the morning of September 24, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry was joined at the festal Divine Liturgy by numerous UOC hierarchs, monastery clergy, and visiting clergy. Abbess Stefana of Zymne Monastery, abbesses from other UOC monasteries, the monastery sisters, and numerous faithful also prayed at the service.
At the Little Entrance, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry presented Abbess Stefana with the Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker to mark the 35th anniversary of her service as abbess. During the festal Liturgy, special prayers were offered for peace in Ukraine, deliverance from the enemy, and God’s mercy upon those suffering because of the war.
Following the Divine Liturgy, the traditional cross procession with the wonderworking Zymne Icon of the Mother of God took place around the monastery, after which the faithful were sprinkled with holy water.
The Primate congratulated everyone on the feast and gave his archpastoral blessing. Abbess Stefana thanked the Primate and the hierarchs for visiting the monastery and joining the community in prayer.
As the UOJ reported, the UOC Primate consecrated the Transfiguration Cathedral at the Pochaiv Lavra.
