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MARIAPOCS, Hungary — Thirty-five pilgrims from across the metropolia joined Horizons’ 2018 pilgrimage, under the patronage of the Mother of God, to the spiritual and historical roots of the Byzantine Ruthenian Church.
The Sept. 16-28 pilgrimage was themed “From Mariapoch to Mariapoch.”
Bishop Milan Lach, SJ, of Parma led the pilgrims from Vienna, home of the original weeping icon of Our Lady of Mariapoch, to the shrine in eastern Hungary dedicated to Our Lady of Mariapoch and which houses the miraculous copy of this same icon.
The intense pilgrimage included more than 20 holy sites in Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine. The visits with all of the bishops of the Greek Catholic eparchies en route provided unique encounters between the Greek Catholic Church of Central Europe and of the United States.
Prayer permeated the entire pilgrimage, whether in large basilicas or small wooden churches, on the tour bus or a river raft in the Tatras Mountains. Pilgrims also walked in the footsteps of the Byzantine Ruthenian martyrs, venerating the relics of Blesseds Paul Gojdich, Basil Hopko, Theodore Romzha and Blessed Fr. Dominik Method Trcka, CSSR.
The pilgrims’ commitment to unceasing prayer and Christian fellowship on the pilgrimage was rivaled only by the warm hospitality of the local churches, their bishops, clergy and faithful. Some pilgrims also had the opportunity to visit their ancestral homes.
Full coverage of this pilgrimage will be published in an upcoming edition of Horizons.
Read Bishop Lach’s homily at the Church of St. Nicholas in Ruska Bystra here.
Caption: Darlene Hritz of St. Joseph Parish in Brecksville, Ohio, lights a votive candle before the miraculous icon of the Mother of God at the Shrine of Our Lady of Mariapocs in Mariapocs, Hungary, Sept. 26, the penultimate stop on Horizons’ 2018 pilgrimage. (Photo: Laura Ieraci)
As published in Horizons, Oct. 21, 2018.
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