Pope John Paul II began his pastoral visit to Ukraine June 23, 2001, by stopping at St. Nicholas Greek-Catholic Church in Kyiv to invoke Our Lady of Zarvaniza, whose icon was present there. The Sovereign Pontiff prayed: “O Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Zarvaniza, I thank you for the gift of my visit to the Kyivan Rus’ from where the light of the Gospel spread through this whole region. Here before your miraculous icon, kept in this church of Saint Nicholas, I entrust to you, Mother of God and Mother of the Church, my apostolic journey to Ukraine. Holy Mother of God, spread your maternal mantle over all Christians and over all people of good will who live in this great nation. Lead them to your Son, Jesus, who is for everyone the way, the truth and the life.”
Asking Mary to cloak with her protection those who live in Ukraine and to lead them to Christ strikes us, more than 20 years later, as so timely and necessary. With a brutal invasion having been unjustly undertaken and now being savagely prolonged, Our Lady’s motherly assistance is required more than ever.
The events in Ukraine invite us to think of Our Lady of Fatima. The sinless, Ever-Virgin Mother of God, in her July 13, 1917, apparition to Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta, taught the three shepherd children what we now know as the “Fatima Prayer,” to be recited after each decade of the rosary. “O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are most in need.” During the same appearance, Our Lady presented the way forward — the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart and the practice of the faithful making the five First Saturdays.
Mary continued: “If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved.”
Pope Benedict XVI said in his homily May 13, 2010, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, during the Mass in Fatima to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the beatification of Jacinta and Francisco: “We would be mistaken to think that Fatima’s prophetic mission is complete. Here there takes on new life the plan of God which asks humanity from the beginning: ‘Where is your brother Abel (…) Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!’ (Gn 4:9). Mankind has succeeded in unleashing a cycle of death and terror, but failed in bringing it to an end … In sacred Scripture we often find that God seeks righteous men and women in order to save the city of man and he does the same here, in Fatima, when Our Lady asks: ‘Do you want to offer yourselves to God, to endure all the sufferings which he will send you, in an act of reparation for the sins by which he is offended and of supplication for the conversion of sinners?’ (“Memoirs of Sister Lúcia,” I, 162).
Given that the apparitions and message of Our Lady of Fatima still have validity within the church and the world, Ukraine’s Latin rite Catholic bishops, in a recent letter, petitioned Pope Francis to consecrate Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Acknowledging the current turmoil in their homeland, the bishops wrote: “… we humbly ask Your Holiness to perform publicly the act of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Ukraine and Russia, as requested by the Blessed Virgin in Fatima. May the Mother of God, Queen of Peace, accept our prayer: Regina pacis, ora pro nobis.”
We humbly beg Our Lord Jesus Christ through Our Lady of Zarvaniza and Our Lady of Fatima for his gift of peace.
Msgr. Mangan teaches at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md.
