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Pilgrimage to Khars’k, the burial place of the holy martyrs Olimpia and Lavrentia

25-11-2009

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Recently the faithful of parishes of Siberia went to the settlement of Khars'k, which is situated 300 km from the city Toms'k. In the 1950s two nuns of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Olimpia Bida and Lavrentia Garasymiv, were deported here and died. In 2001 they were proclaimed blessed by Pope John Paul II.

The search of the burial place began in 2002. For this mission the sisters of the Congregation of Saint Joseph arrived from Ukraine. Witnesses of these events were found, and after much effort the burial place was found and permission was granted for the exhumation. In 2005 the expedition that consisted of representatives of the Greek Catholic Church departed for the place of exile and death of the nuns and conducted the exhumation of their relics to transport them to Ukraine.

Part of the relics remained in the Siberian earth and for the first time a group of pilgrims made a journey to this place.

UGCC