Ukrainian Orthodox parishioners celebrated the 1,032nd anniversary of the Baptism of the Kyivan Rus in St. Michael Monastery in central Kyiv as well as next to the St. Volodymyr monument on July 28.
The celebration began on July 27 at 4 p.m. when parishioners and representatives of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine started to gather for the all-night vigil in the St. Michael Cathedral.
At the entrance, people were given medical masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the religious holiday wasn’t as eventful as usual: The church didn’t perform some of the traditional sacred processions and there were only 200 participants compared to 5,000 in 2019.
Metropolitan Epiphanius, the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, led the prayer services.
“The key to the success of our country is the unity of the Ukrainian people. That’s why, when celebrating this great holiday, I wish all Ukrainians, first of all, to be united,” Epiphanius said in a video address on Facebook. “I wish us to stay united by the love for God and for neighbors, for one’s own Church and for the whole Ukrainian people.”
Before Russia started its war in eastern Ukraine and occupied the Crimean peninsula in 2014, this holiday was organized in Ukraine by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. In 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin even visited Kyiv to mark the 1,025th anniversary.
But after Eastern Orthodoxy’s highest body, the Ecumenical Church in Istanbul, recognized the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in December 2018, granting it independence from Russia, the Baptism of the Kyivan Rus holiday is organized only by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
In 2008, ex-President Viktor Yushchenko officially began the tradition of publicly celebrating the anniversary of the Baptism of the Kyivan Rus, which was initiated by St. Volodymyr, then prince of Kyiv, on July 28, 988.
