Icon of the Virgin of Krystynopil

Marian devotion

Where is he?

The icon of the Virgin of Krystynopil is linked to the current Sheptytskyi, in the oblast of Lopolis, Ukraine. The city historically received the names of Krystynopil and Chervonohrad; OpenStreetMap today identifies the town as Sheptytskyi. The coordinate has a precise location and does not aim to point out the altar of the monastery of San Jorge. The Basilian source calls the icon "Krystinopil," a transliteration that is preserved here along with the Spanish form Krystynopil.

Documented history

The Order of Saint Basil the Great dates the icon in the 18th century and states that it was delivered in 1765 to the monastery church by Stanislav Kostka-Sadovsky, marshal of the court of the Count of Silesia Potocki. The books of the monastery recorded curations and aids attributed to the image. They also remember a cholera epidemic that affected the outskirts of Krystynopil in 1770: the monks and the faithful made a prayer procession with the icon around the city and, according to the source, the epidemic did not reach Krystynopil.

The following year, on January 26, 1771, Bishop Maximilian Rylo proclaimed the icon miraculous by a decree, according to the institutional source. In 1773 the Basilian monks made silver and gold crowns as a thanksgiving. The Order also retains the reference to celebrations with indulgences granted by a decree of Leo XIII of 1902. These acts document the history of the cult; they do not allow it to be stated that each account of protection or healing is a proven miracle in a medical sense.

After World War II, the Soviet authorities expelled the Basilian parents from the monastery on June 17, 1947. The icon was taken to Warsaw by Father Arsenius and two Basilian brothers, Benjamin and Hyacinthe. He first remained in the chapel of the house of the novitiate of the Siervas and then in the chapel of the monastery of the Basilian Fathers.

On April 7, 1994, the feast of the Annunciation, the icon was solemnly returned to the monastic church of San Jorge de Chervonohrad, according to the Basilian source. The return relates the history of the image to the recovery of the Eastern ecclesial life after the decades of persecution.

Tradition

The Krystynopil tradition retains the memory of processions, thanksgiving and celebrations around the icon. The image accompanies a community that called for help in times of epidemic and then protected the sacred object during forced displacement. Marian veneration is not worship: the faithful honor Mary and ask for her intercession before God, always in reference to Jesus Christ.

Legend

The claim that the procession stopped or prevented the arrival of cholera belongs to the devotional account preserved by the books of the monastery and by the Basilian source. It is published as a documented tradition in the memory of the sanctuary, not as an epidemiological conclusion. There is no Marian apparition linked to the icon in the consulted source.

Ecclesial State

It is an Eastern Catholic cult of Basilian tradition, an episcopal proclamation of the icon as miraculous according to the Order of Saint Basil the Great, celebrations with historical indulgences and their solemn return to the monastic church. A pronunciation of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on an apparition does not appear in the consulted source. This is why it is recorded as an icon of allowed veneration, without presenting an undocumented apparition as approved.

Anecdotes and stories

The departure of the icon to Warsaw and its return in 1994 are a significant sequence: the image was not only linked to a building, but also to the people and communities who guarded it during the expulsion of the monks. The current name of Sheptytskyi meets the historical names Krystynopil and Chervonohrad, which allow to follow the continuity of the memory of the place without confusing its political stages.

Prayer

Holy Mary, Mother of Jesus, accompanies the community that venerates your image in Krystynopil. It is for those who suffer from disease, war or displacement, and for those who guard the faith received from their elders. May our processions, pleas and thanksgiving always lead us to Christ. Amen.

Sources

• Orden de San Basilio Magno: Miraculous Icons, Krystinopil Icon of the Mother of God.
• OpenStreetMap, localidad de Sheptytskyi/Chervonohrad.