KYIV. UOC Primate Blessed Holodomor Victims Memorial

On November 22, in the framework of the commemoration of the 75^th anniversary of Holodomor (Ukrainian Famine) of 1932-1933, His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr at the request of the President of Ukraine blessed the newly-built monument in honour of the victims of Holodomor, which had been built near the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra in the Park of Glory.

Concelebrating with His Beatitude were the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. At the divine office Secretary General of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople archimandrite Elpidoforos (Lambriniadis), who came to Ukraine at the invitation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was also present.

After the blessing rite the Litia was served "for the repose of the souls of the deceased and starved by hunger by the godless power".  Praying at the office for the dead was President o Ukraine Victor Yushchenko with wife, Prime-Minister of Ukraine Yuliya Tymoshenko, Kyiv city mayor Leonid Chernivetskyi, Presidents of Latvia (Valdis Zatlers) and of Lithuania (Valdas Adamkus), representatives of many foreign states, diplomatic corps and religious confessions.   

Finally the ceremony of laying flowers and pots with candles to the Memorial took place, and right before the beginning of the office for the dead the names of the victims of genocide.

REFERENCE In compliance with the Decree of the President of Ukraine the Memorial was constructed in the complex of high cranberry wood, the monument to the victims of Holodomor, the museum and the scientific methodic centre of Holodomor studies in Ukraine.   

The project was realized by the collective under the guidance of the people's artist of Ukraine Anatoly Haydamaka.

Photos by Maxim Brusnyka