Relics of Greek Catholic Martyr Venerated in Lviv
On 29 August 2004 , the relics of Blessed Petro Verhun, a 20 th century martyr of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), were solemnly venerated in the towns of Stryi and Horodok, in western Ukraine 's Lviv region. The relics had been transported from Angarsk , Krasnoyar region, Russia . From now on, the relics of the blessed will be kept in the churches of the above-mentioned towns and in a church in Munich (Germany).
During his pastoral visit to Ukraine in 2001, Pope John Paul II declared Monsignor Petro Verhun, who had been the apostolic visitor for Ukrainian Greek Catholics living in Germany , one of the new blessed martyrs of the UGCC.
On 21 June 1945 Msgr. Verhun was arrested by officers of t he Soviet Peoples ' Commissariat of Internal A ffairs Joined and was taken to the Soviet Union . After hard and wearisome interrogations in the summer of 1946, he was sentenced by the military tribunal to eight years in prison. The trial was held behind closed doors. The priest served his prison term in the Siberian gulag.
After he was released from penal servitude in June 1952, Msgr. Verhun was exiled. In 1953 he was brought to the village of Angarsk in the Boguchansk district, Krasnoyar region, where he died all alone on 7 February 1957 . He was buried in the new cemetery in the village of Adgarsk.
Thanks to the recollections of Ivan Khardon from Lviv, who was also exiled to Angarsk , the relics of Msgr. Verhun were found and identified. A special delegation of the UGCC's Stryi eparchy took care of finding and transporting the relics. This process took two years. Msgr. Verhun's family had addressed the government of the Russian Federation with the request to allow them to take the remains of the blessed to his homeland. On 26 July 2004 , the relics were brought to Stryi.
Some of the relics will be kept at Stryi's Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God. On 28 August, another part of the relics were solemnly taken to Horodok, Msgr. Verhun's "small motherland." Yet another part of the relics will be taken to the UGCC parish in Munich.
At the Horodok Public Square , in front of the Church of the Annunciation, the sarcophagus with relics was received by numerous clergy and more than 6,000 faithful of the UGCC. In his address to the faithful, Bishop Yulian Gbur, head of the Stryi eparchy, said that from this day on the Greek Catholics of Stryi and Horodok will have their own heavenly intercessor. Through the mediation of Blessed Peter they can ask for God's blessing for their homeland, which is experiencing hard times now, and also for their native church.
Source: www.gazeta.lviv.ua
|
