Pilgrimage sites and pilgrimages in Ukraine
Christian pilgrimage sites within the country
The most prominent and famous sites in Ukraine are three large monasteries called lavras. All of them are dedicated to the Dormition of the Mother of God, one of the most popular Christian feasts in Ukraine; at this time, all of these religious sites belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC (MP)).
The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (Kyivan Monastery of the Caves) was the first organized monastic community in Ukraine founded by Sts. Antoniy and Theodoziy in 1051. In 1598 the monastery gained the status of lavra (a major self-governing monastery) and became the largest spiritual and cultural center of Rus-Ukraine. The Lavra always was and still remains a distinguished place of pilgrimage in Ukraine. The main sacred places of the Lavra are the caves which contain the complete remains (relics) of saints, which draw tens of thousands of pilgrims yearly. Numerous cases of miraculous healing have been reported. 
Other well known places of worship and pilgrimage in Kyiv are the ancient St. Sophia cathedral (constructed in the middle of the 11th century, now a museum), the recently restored St. Michael’s Golden-domed monastery, and also other Kyivan churches. Many of the people who traveled to Kyiv from all corners of Ukraine on the day of Viktor Yushchenko’s presidential inauguration (many of them visiting Kyiv for the first time) spent the hours before the ceremony visiting famous churches.
The Pochayiv Lavra in the Ternopil region was founded in 1219 by a monk from Mount Athos. After the destruction of Kyiv in 1240 during the Mongol invasion, other monks joined him. From 1721 to 1831 the monastery belonged to the Greek Catholic Basilian Order. In 1883 the Pochayiv monastery gained the status of lavra and was equated in a spiritual sense with the Lavra in Kyiv. At present the Pochayiv monastery belongs to the UOC (MP) and although active anti-Catholic propaganda is conducted on the grounds of monastery, Pochayiv still remains one of the most honored places of pilgrimage not only for Orthodox Christians, but also for Greek Catholics. 
The Sviatohirsk (Holy Hill) Lavra in the Donetsk region, founded in 1624, gained its present status of lavra only in September 2004 because of the monastery’s considerable age and important historic role and also in order to increase the spiritual life and influence of the Church in the eastern regions of Ukraine.
The Simferopol and Crimean eparchy of the UOC (MP) organizes pilgrimages for Orthodox faithful to 20 sacred places on the Crimean peninsula, including ancient cave towns, mountain monasteries and churches. Pilgrimages by foot to the same places are organized by the pilgrimage department of the Kryvy Rih and Nikopol eparchy. 
In addition, the Orthodox faithful make pilgrimages to churches and cave monasteries in the ancient cities of Chernihiv and Novhorod-Siversky, the famous Zymne monastery (Volyn region), a miraculous place in the town of Kalynivka (Vinnytsia region), numerous monasteries in the Transcarpathian region etc. There are also dozens of honored icons in villages and towns of the historic regions of Volyn and Polissia.
The village of Zarvanytsia in the Ternopil region, famous for the appearance of the Mother of God in 1240 and the local miraculous icon is the primary pilgrimage destination among the shrines of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC). In 1995 Zarvanytsia was officially declared an international pilgrimage site for faithful of the Church. The great complex of the Marian spiritual center was built in the picturesque valley by the local eparchy with help of foreign donors, and now Zarvanytsia is becoming an “Ukrainian Lourdes”. Pilgrimages of various groups of believers are held in Zarvanytsia from May to October every year, like the annual Youth pilgrimage and numerous eparchial pilgrimages. The largest was the second All-Ukraine Pilgrimage in July 2000, on the occasion of the Jubilee. Two years later a large pilgrimage concluded the Patriarchal Sobor (Council) of the UGCC, which gathered church delegates from all around the world.
The international pilgrimage of Love and Forgiveness to Zarvanytsia in August 2004 gathered 220,000 participants from Ukraine, Poland, other European countries, and the USA. It was lead by the UGCC Patriarch Lubomyr Husar and Cardinal Jozef Glemp, the primate of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland, together with 15 bishops of both Churches. Pilgrims prayed together for reconciliation between the Ukrainian and Polish people.
Some pilgrimages to Zarvanytsia have an ecumenical character, like the pilgrimage of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew the First-Called Apostle (Ukrainian AutocephalousOrthodox Church) in July 2003, leaded by Archbishop Ihor Isichenko. 
Among the shrines in Greek Catholic monasteries the best known are the Holy Dormition Lavra of the Studite order in Univ near Peremyshliany and the Krekhiv monastery of the Basilian Fathers near Zhovkva (both in the Lviv region). The largest pilgrimage associated with the shrine in Univ is an annual two-day, 
60 km long youth pilgrimage on foot in the middle of May, on the eve of the feast of the local icon of the Mother of God, organized by the Ukrainian Catholic Student Society Obnova (Renewal) and the Maltese Cross charitable aid society.
For the last two years the pilgrimage has become international owing to the participation of groups from Poland. The town of Peremyshliany, where the 20th century Ukrainian martyr, Blessed Fr. Emilian Kowcz ministered, was recently included on the pilgrimage route (Fr. Kowcz was murdered in the Nazi concentration camp of Majdanek in Lublin, Poland). Various distinguished guests have taken part in the celebrations: Adam-Daniel Rotfeld, Vice-minister of foreign affairs of the Polish Republic in 2004, and Cardinal Francis George, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Chicago, America in 2005. Both years the pilgrimage gathered approximately 1,500 young people and several more thousands believers from many corners of Ukraine took part in the event. There is also another annualpilgrimage to Univ at the end of August.
The monastery in Krekhiv, founded in the 17th century, is renowned due to two miraculous icons. The main annual pilgrimage is held on May 22nd, on the Feast of St. Nicholas the Wondermaker. Since its renewal and restoration in 1990 the monastery has again become a popular site for pilgrimages.
There is yet another well known Marian shrine in Hoshiv near Bolekhiv (Ivano-Frankivsk region). The local miraculous icon is considered to be a copy of one from the Western-Ukrainian town of Belz, which was taken in 1370 to Czestochowa in Poland and has since become world famous. The appearance of the Mother of God in Hrushiv near Drohobych in 1986 attracted hundreds of thousands of believers and become a “forerunner” ofthe great changes in post-Soviet society.
Before the Second World War there were many icons that were considered to be miraculous in towns and villages of Western Ukraine. Some of them were later taken abroad, to Poland, the Slovak Republic or Hungary. Others, after being hidden for a period of time, were returned to their original churches. Among them are the icons in the towns of Mariapovch, Boroniava, and Mukachevo (Transcarpathian region), Hlyniany and Hnizdychiv (Lviv region), and many others.
Similar to the cultural practices of Poland, where many pilgrims visit the town of Wadowice – the hometown of Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), Ukrainian Greek Catholics visit those places where the most prominent leaders of their Church in the 20th century were born: the village of Prylbychi in the Lviv region (Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky’s hometown) and the village of Zazdrist in the Ternopil region (hometown of Patriarch Josyf Slipyj). The problem facing both of these locations is that during the period of Soviet rule, when the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was illegal, Orthodox communities hostile to Greek Catholicism took over those parishes and now dominate the villages. As a result the instigated local inhabitants have been strongly against promoting the memory of the late UGCC leaders. This practice of disrespect towards great countrymen can be considered at least a little strange. However, through the efforts of the UGCC, mostly its Diaspora, a memorial complex hasbeen built in Zazdrist and a church and museum have almost been completed in Prylbychi.
The village of Yazlovets in the Ternopil region, included on the main tourist routes for Polish tourists along with Lviv, Buchach and Kamyanets-Podilsky, is one of the most important pilgrimage centers for the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine. In Yazlovets there is a shrine of the Blessed Sister Marcelina Darowska, buried there. Besides this shrine, churches in Lviv, Stryy, Kamyanka-Buzka, Rudky, Krysovychi (Lviv region), and Dovbysh (Zhytomyr region) have the status of sanctuary. 
Since 1992 thousands of Roman Catholics and Christians of other denominations from various regions of Ukraine walked the annual summer Podillian pilgrimage to the icon of the Mother of God of Berdychiv (Zhytomyr region), whose veneration dates back to the 17th century.
In respect to pilgrimages and shrines of other religious groups of Ukraine, we should mention the pilgrimage of the Armenian youth community of Lviv to Armenian sacred places in the Halychyna (Galicia) area in August 2003, dedicated to the 640th anniversary of the Armenian cathedral in Lviv. Before the Second World War the Lviv Armenian Catholic Archeparchy owned a dozen churches in cities and towns of Eastern Halychyna. The present Armenian community in Ukraine, believers of the Apostolic Church, cannot be considered as the direct descendants of the pre-war community, which partially disappeared and partially immigrated to Poland, but the Armenians wish to rediscover the remaining monuments to their culture.
Non-Christian pilgrimage places in Ukraine
Ukraine is also one of the main centers of Jewish pilgrimages: there are between 43 and 46 places of worship on Ukrainian territory, mainly consisting of places of birth or burial of famous Judaic teachers, especially Hassidic rabbis – tsadiks, whose life and activity were strongly connected withUkraine.
The best known Jewish site is the grave (Tsion) of Rabbi Nachman (1772-1810), a founder of the Braslav Hassid (Chassid) movement in the central-Ukrainian town of Uman. Presently approximately 12,000 people visit the site every year (in 1989, only 250 were in attendance). 
Most visitors come in September to celebrate the Jewish New Year (Rosh-a-Shana) and the number of pilgrims has increased every year. In the future the Historic-cultural center of Braslav Hassids which is being constructed in Uman will be the largest synagogue in the world, with a capacity for 5000 worshippers. Certain followers of Braslav Hassidism from Israel have their own opinion about the place of the Rabbi’s burial, so within the last eight years two serious attempts were made to excavate the Rabbi’s remains and to move them illegally to Israel (a similar incidentoccurred with another memorial – the frescoes of Bruno Schulz in Drohobych).
Other well known Jewish centers are the graves of the main Hassidic movement founder Rabbi Israel ben Elizer (1698-1760), known as Baal Shem Tov or Besht, in Medzhybizh, the first Liubavich Rebbes – Rabbi Schneur Zalman (1745-1812) in Hadiach and Rabbi Dov Ber (1773–1827) in Nizhyn. The last two lastplaces of special importance for ChaBaD-Liubavitch Hassids. 
The Crimean Tartars tombs of their local holy men, e.g. in Bakhchysaray are considered to be shrines and pilgrimages to them – ziara – are an important part of Muslim religion. But because one of five main duties of Muslim is to make hajj – pilgrimage to shrines of Mecca and Medina, they also have to travel there.
According to leaders of the Buddhist community in Ukraine, numerous ancient barrow are their objects of worship and pilgrimages, too. Buddhists allege that they are the burial places of Buddhists who accompanied the Scythians on the Ukrainian steppes 2000 years ago. Moreover, recently Ukrainian Buddhistshave built a Stupa – sacred monumental barrow in Kharkiv.
Ukrainian pagans – believers of the so-called native faith along with Buddhists also worship near to the site of the barrows: in May 2003 they made a pilgrimage to the ancient (2,000 BC) shrines on the island of Khortytsia on the Dnipro River.
Prepared by Taras HRYNCHYSHYN,
July 6, 2006
