Berdychiv Catholic Sanctuary Declared National Shrine

On 27 October, in the Higher Spiritual Seminary of Lviv Archdiocese (Lviv-Briukhovychi), a session of the 38^th Conference of Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine began. It has passed a decision to proclaim the Diocese Sanctuary of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary in the town of Berdychiv (Zhytomyr Region) to be an all-Ukrainian national Sanctuary, reported the Catholic Media Center.

The Berdychiv Monastery of Bosykh Karmelitiv was founded in Ukraine by the Kyiv Governor, Yanush Tyshkevych in 1630 as a sign of gratitude for his release from the Tatar captivity. The founder presented to the monastery Polish Catholic Church an icon of the Mother of God Snizhna (Snowy) painted in the 16^th c. in the manner of Odyhitria. The icon was much venerated by the Tyshkevych family who associated their many blessings with the icon. The veneration of the icon spread wider and a large number of believers testified about special graces received from the icon. The Kyiv Bishop Stanislav Zaremba was also miraculously healed. He studied appropriate documents as to the large number of wonders worked with the intercession of the Virgin Mary and on 23 May, 1647, he issued an official document declaring the icon of the Berdychiv Mother of God to be wonder-working. It was the beginning of the long tradition of pilgrimages to the Sanctuary.