THE HISTORY OF THE ICON
The original miraculous Icon of Our Lady of Zhyrovytsi dates back to the fifteenth century and is closely connected to the monastery in Zhyrovytsi, located in present-day Belarus, a region historically connected to the spiritual tradition of the Kyivan Church. According to tradition, the icon was discovered by shepherd children near a pear tree after a mysterious light appeared in the forest. Over time, Our Lady of Zhyrovytsi became especially associated in popular devotion with ordinary people, families, children, and all those searching for hope in difficult times.
For Ukrainian immigrants far from their homeland, Marian devotions like this often became something greater than religious tradition alone. They carried memory, identity, language, prayer, and a sense of spiritual continuity with the Church and villages people had left behind in Eastern Europe. And so, the icon that once quietly hung on the wall of a single parish family home gradually became the spiritual heart of an entire pilgrimage tradition in northeastern Pennsylvania.
A PLACE OF PILGRIMAGE
In 1983, St. Cyril and Methodius Church officially established the annual pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Zhyrovytsi. Each year, pilgrims gathered outdoors for Divine Liturgies, Molebens, processions, confessions, prayers for healing, and anointing with holy oil. Candles burned before the icon, while Marian hymns echoed across the parish grounds late into the evening.
For many people, the pilgrimage became far more than an annual religious event. It became a place where people brought burdens too heavy to carry alone. Some came praying for healing after illness. Others arrived carrying the pain of losing loved ones. Parents prayed for their children. Families prayed for reconciliation. Immigrants prayed for relatives far from home. Many simply came searching for peace during difficult seasons of life.
Over the years, the pilgrimage developed its own rhythm and memory within the life of the parish.
STORIES PEOPLE STILL REMEMBER
As the years passed, stories of answered prayers and unexpected graces became part of the shrine’s spiritual memory. Among the most remembered is the story of Michael Metrinko, a parishioner of St. Cyril’s Church who became one of the American hostages during the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979–1981. Month after month passed, and the fate of the hostages remained uncertain. During that time, parishioners continually gathered in prayer at the shrine. Eternal vigil candles burned day and night in Olyphant and neighboring Scranton as the community prayed for Michael’s safe return home. Then, after 444 days in captivity, the hostages were finally released. When Michael Metrinko returned home, he personally came to the shrine and extinguished the vigil candles that had burned throughout his imprisonment. For many parishioners, that moment became forever connected with the intercession of the Mother of God.
Another story tells of Paul Polcha, who gradually lost his eyesight after a workplace accident. After many months of prayer at the shrine, his vision unexpectedly began to return. Still another story speaks of a father and son separated for forty-seven years who were reunited shortly after prayers offered during the annual pilgrimage.
