Head and Clergy of Kyivan Patriarchate Conduct Memorial Service for Taras Shevchenko

On May 19, at 9 a.m., on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the reburial of Taras Shevchenko in Ukraine, in the Church of the Birth of Christ at Poshtova Square in Kyiv, a memorial service for the great poet was served.

The service was led by the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP), Patriarch Filaret, in concelebration with the vicar of the Kyiv Eparchy, Bishop Ahapit of Vyshhorod, senior priest of the church Protopriest Mykola Salabai, monks of the Monastery of St. Michael and the priests.

Such political and public figures as Volodymyr Bondarenko, Yurii Bohutskyi, Mykola Tomenko, Yevhen Suslov, Andrii Shevchenko were also present at the service.

The Church of the Birth of Christ in Podol is also called “Shevchenko’s Church” for in May 1861, the coffin and body of the poet were exhibited on the way from St. Petersburg to Kaniv. The original church was destroyed by the Communists in the 1930s, but it was rebuilt on the 2,000 anniversary of the birth of Christ, the press service of the Kyivan Patriarchate reported.

Archbishop Petro (Lebedintsev), who served the memorial service for the great poet of Ukraine, wrote: “Approximately, at four o’clock, when the memorial service was to begin and the body was to be transported from the church to the ship near the Chain Bridge, not only the church but the whole yard were packed; at Oleksandrivska Street, on the highway, on Andriivskyi and Mykhailivskyi Slopes and on the hill near the Tsarskyi Garden, there were not less people than on July 15, during the Volodymyr’s procession.”