UOC Primate leads rite of glorification of Bl. Olga of Kyiv Florus Convent
The Holy Synod established the celebration of the memory of Saint Olga of Kyiv-Florus Convent on October 21.
UOC Primate His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry led the Divine Liturgy and the solemn rite of glorification among the saints of Blessed Olga of of Kyiv Florus Convent (Kachanovska) at the Ascension Florus Convent in Kyiv. The festal service took place on the feast day of the Holy Martyrs Florus and Laurus, reports the UOC Information and Educational Department.
The Primate was co-served by Metropolitan Pavel of Vyshhorod and Chornobyl, Metropolitan Clement of Nizhyn and Pryluky, head of the UOC Information and Education Department; Metropolitan Ioasaph of Vasylkiv; Archbishop Spyridon of Dobropillia; Archbishop Mark of Borodianka; the monastery’s clergy, and other guests in holy orders.. The sisters, led by the abbess of the monastery, Hegumeness Yevlampiya, also prayed at the service.
Before the beginning of the rite of glorification, the priests performed the last memorial litia for Blessed Olga. Metropolitan Clement then read aloud the decision of the Holy Synod on the local glorification of the saint. The Synod of the UOC approved the iconographic image of the holy one, as well as the texts of the service and akathist. The Church celebrates the memory of Blessed Olga on October 29, the day of her repose.
During the rite, Metropolitan Pavel read the Life of Blessed Olga. The clergy and faithful sang the troparion, kontakion, and magnification in honor of the newly glorified saint, and then venerated her holy icon.
Olga Kachanovska came from a noble family and received an excellent education. After a miraculous apparition of the Most Holy Theotokos, she completely changed her life. In 1905, the eighteen-year-old girl received the blessing of the Glinsk elders and entered the Florus Convent. The ascetic spent more than sixty years in the monastery in prayer, humility, and spiritual struggle.
Under the guise of holy foolishness, the blessed elder concealed the great gifts of the Holy Spirit – discernment, the gift of healing, and the power to work miracles. During the years of Soviet persecution, the nun Olga helped people preserve their faith, offered spiritual guidance, and prayed for those in need.
The ascetic foretold the day of her repose in advance and peacefully departed to the Lord on October 29, 1971. Her body was buried at the Zverynets Cemetery in Kyiv. Before her death, she bequeathed to the faithful to come to her grave and promised to pray for every person.
As the UOJ reported, His Beatitude spoke about the newly glorified nun of the Florus Convent.
