Zhytomyr, Ukraine, August 25, 2021

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A festive Divine service was held in Zhytomyr today, on the feast of the Synaxis of the Saints of Zhytomyr, led by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine on the occasion of the liturgical glorification of a new saint.

St. Eumenius (Khorolsky), Archbishop of Zhytomyr and Ovruch, was canonized by the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Church on Ukrainian Church canonizes 20th-century hierarchAccording to the Synodal report: “In response to the report of the ruling hierarch of the Zhytomyr Diocese, the Holy Synod blessed the local veneration within the Zhytomyr Diocese of St. Eumenius (Khorolsky), Archbishop of Zhytomyr and Ovruch, establishing the day of his memory as August 25 according to the new style.”

“>May 12, and today, Met. Onuphry was joined at Holy Transfiguration Cathedral by 20 hierarchs and a host of priests and deacons to formally glorify the 20th-century holy hierarch, reports the Information-Education Department of the Ukrainian Church.

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The rite of glorification of St. Eumenius was served after the Small Entrance. According to tradition, the last memorial service was held over the relics of the saint, then the Synodal decision of canonization was read out along with the life of the saint. Then the troparion, kontakion, and magnification for the new saint were sung, with the veneration of his relics.

Following the reading of the Holy Gospel, His Beatitude gave a homily in which he spoke about St. Eumenius as an example of the transformation that is possible in Christ when we keep His commandments and the true faith. He also shared his memories of St. Eumenius, who had ordained the future primate’s own father to the priesthood.

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After the dismissal, His Eminence Metropolitan Nikodim of Zhytomyr thanked His Beatitude Met. Onuphry for his visit, and thanked the faithful for their loyalty to the Church and to their primate, and presented an icon of St. Eumenius as a gift to Met. Onuphry.

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St. Eumenius was born on December 13, 1886, in the Kherson Governorate. He received his initial education in a parochial school, after which he graduated from a pedagogical school. He then entered Holy Trinity Monastery in Kiev as a novice.

After fulfilling his military service, he then became the personal secretary to Bishop Dionysiy of Saratov in 1912. Six years later, he entered St. Michael’s Monastery in Kiev, where he was tonsured and ordained to the diaconate in 1919. In 1923, he transferred to the Kiev Caves Lavra, and the next year he was sent to the Lavra’s dependency in Petrograd to serve as archdeacon.

He was arrested on the night of August 22-23, 1930. Later, in March 1950, he was ordained as a hieromonk and appointed as dean of the Kiev Caves Lavra. He was elevated to the rank of archimandrite in January 1954, and the next month he was consecrated as the bishop of Chernivtsi and Bukovina.

On December 9, 1958, he was elevated to the rank of archbishop and appointed Archbishop of Zhytomyr and Ovruch.

He reposed in the Lord on August 25, 1967, and was buried behind the alter of the church in the Zhytomyr cemetery.

St. Eumenius is known as a wonderworker both during his lifetime and after.

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