Patron of Prison Ministry

BLESSED VASYL VELYCKOVSKY PROCLAIMED PATRON OF PRISON MINISTRY

On July 20, 2014 before a crowd of 200,000 people during the All-Ukraine Pilgrimage to Zarvanytsia, Ukraine, Patriarch Sviatoslav solemnly proclaimed Blessed Vasyl as the Patron of Prison Ministry for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. This proclamation was made at the Pontifical Divine Liturgy at this Marian Shrine during the “Little Entrance”. The Decree was read by Bishop Bohdan Dziurakh. Then Partiarch Sviatoslav majestically sang the “Exaltation”, blessed the huge crowd of faithful with the holy relics of Blessed Vasyl. See our photo gallery of this event.

Blessed Vasyl was chosen by the Synod of the UGCC as Patron of Prison Ministry because of the  example of ministry that he gave while he was imprisoned on death row and later in the labor camps in Vorkuta , the place of Russian coal mines above the Arctic Circle.