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Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary next week. As Church Militant’s Kim Tisor reports, Ukraine has a long-held devotion to Our Blessed Mother and is currently seeking her aid.
As war rages in Ukraine, some beleaguered citizens are turning to the Blessed Virgin Mary, protesting while holding up an icon of “the Pokrova” meaning “the cover.” Ukraine and our Blessed Mother established a special bond in 1037 when Kyiv’s ruler dedicated Ukraine to Mary, giving her the title “Queen of Ukraine.”
Unfamiliar to many in the West are the Marian apparitions that occurred in Ukraine — first in 1914 to warn of Russian oppression, then 73 years later.
Fr. Chris Alar, MIC: “In 1987 in Hrushiv, at the local church, Mary, the Mother of God, appeared to a 12-year-old girl named Maria Kyzin.”
Mary’s apparition occurred exactly one year, to the minute, following the Chernobyl disaster. Mary conveyed comfort to more than 500,000 people who saw her during a series of appearances that year. Historians claim Mary also urged Ukrainians to “forgive your enemies. Through you and the blood of martyrs will come the conversion of Russia.”
As they await the apparitions’ fulfillment, Ukrainian Christians turn to the Virgin Mary as their queen, protector and continual source of comfort. All the while, Russia continues to tear apart and reconstruct Ukraine’s physical borders.
A Ukrainian archbishop is calling on the world to pray the Annunciation Novena ahead of the pope’s consecration of Ukraine and Russia to Mary. The novena begins tomorrow.