The Virgin of Pocháyiv and the mantle that stopped the Turks
Monastery of Pocháyiv, Ukraine · 1675
The rock of Pocháyiv and the footprint of the Virgin
In the Volinia region, in the northwest of the present Ukraine, there has been a sacred mountain since the Middle Ages where, according to tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared to two monks in the 12th century and left a mark of her foot on the rock. From the place where the foot was laid, a spring of water that the faithful have considered miraculous for centuries sprang. On that mountain was raised the monastery of Pocháyiv, which would become one of the largest pilgrimage centers in the Slavic world.
The Turkish siege of 1675
In July 1675, a powerful Tatar and Ottoman force - part of the great campaign that threatened all of Central Europe and that that same year would be arrested before Leópolis - surrounded the monastery of Pocháyiv. The monks and civilian refugees who had been kept in the compound were few and without weapons. The situation was desperate.
According to the monastic chronicle, as the attackers began to climb the walls, the Virgin Mary appeared visibly on the monastery, extending her luminous mantle on the enclosure. The icons of the saints who accompanied her seemed alive. At that time, the arrows that the Tatar soldiers fired into the monastery turned against themselves, causing casualties in their own ranks.
La derrota sin combate
The attackers fled the fence without having taken the monastery. Several of the Tatar soldiers, impressed by what they had seen, converted to Christianity. The monastery of Pocháyiv left the only siege he suffered in all his history.
The sanctuary at present
The monastery of Pocháyiv is now one of the largest pilgrimage centers in the Eastern Orthodox world. The miraculous icon - the icon of the Virgin of Pocháyiv, donated to the monastery by the Polish noble Ana Hoiská in the 16th century - remains the object of central veneration of the sanctuary. The main party is held on August 5, coinciding with the festivity of the Transfiguration in the Julian calendar.
sobre los que no tenían más defensa que la oración,
cúbrenos también a nosotros cuando las fuerzas del mundo
parecen demasiado grandes para resistirlas. Amén.