Metropolitan Borys Gudziak Visits Ukrainian Community in Follonica, Italy

July 07, 2025

On July 6, 2025, Archbishop and Metropolitan of Philadelphia Borys Gudziak celebrated the Divine Liturgy with the Ukrainian community of the town of Follonica, Italy. During his visit, he conveyed greetings and blessings from His Beatitude Sviatoslav and the Synod of Bishops currently taking place in Rome. Faithful from neighboring parishes in Grosseto and Piombino also joined the celebration.

Fr. Mykhailo Dumynskyi, the local parish priest, shared his impressions:

To sum up what happened that day in just three words — it was light-filled, simple, and easy.

The bright church of San Paolo della Croce, where the Ukrainian community regularly gathers for worship, filled within half an hour with the bustle of festivity. Faithful, choir members, volunteers, and guests came to experience the joy of shared prayer and a summer meal with their transatlantic visitor.

It felt as natural as coming home for the Ukrainians who have found themselves in the picturesque region of Tuscan Maremma. Local women prepared both Ukrainian and Italian delicacies. And just like the soft ponente breeze, time passed lightly — yet left a lasting impression on those present: a moment of shared prayer, of breaking bread and sharing cares, a brief experience of community that became a lesson in simple trust in God — the very trust to which Bishop Borys invited all through his pastoral message as he unpacked a Gospel story nearly two millennia old.

Through his homily, Bishop Borys was able to touch on a whole range of human emotions — fear, discouragement, suspicion, disgust, wastefulness, and even hatred for one's enemies. And to all these uncomfortable inner challenges, using the central line from the Sunday Gospel (Matthew): "I have not found such faith in all of Israel," the bishop offered a response: “Trust the Lord completely!”

He acknowledged fear as a natural part of human existence but proposed that, just as the Roman centurion trusted in Jesus’ word to heal his servant, we too are called to a radical act of faith.
“How much can we really change by holding on to our fear? And how much are we changed when we place our trust in God? That’s when deep peace comes. And that’s when we also rediscover our dignity — a dignity that stems from our relationship with God. It is a God-given dignity. No Putin, no hardship, no employer can take that away from us… Today, we receive a lesson in trust.

Trust!” archbishop Borys asked all the faithful.