Until recently the icon “Holy Mother of God” has been preserved in the temple of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church in Chicago (US). It was brought to Lutsk by Father Ivan Boiarchuk, senior priest of this church. This holy image was used for swearing soldiers of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in 1942 and later the chief of UPA Roman Shukhevych took it from Ukraine to Czechoslovakia. The icon eventually found its way to the collection of Bishop Petro Kolisnyk, who was the chief treasurer of OUN-UPA. There was time when Bishop lived in the family of Reverend Ivan Boiarchuk. It is known that he owned a unique collection of antiquities and various relics and before he died he asked Reverend Ivan to transfer them to Ukraine.
“Metropolitan Petro Kolisnyk told me on his deathbed that if I do find a place on earth for safe and secure storage of the icon I should move it there and if I do not find such place I should pass it to my descendants and let them decide its fate,” recalled Reverend Boiarchuk.
The relic was passed to the head of the Volyn Oblast State Administration Borys Klimchuk, who believes that the best place for the icon in the Museum of Volyn Regional Ethnography. What concerns the books on history of Ukraine, which were also presented by Reverend Boiarchuk, there is a chance that they might be republished.
“We agreed that the Ukrainian language does not need to be protected, instead, it should be cultivated and popularized. I looked at us through his eyes. He is right in saying that many of us, Ukrainian people, do not understand the essence of the Ukainian state. I was impressed by his statement that only enemies of Ukraine can declare that Ukraine is for Ukrainians only. Reverend Boiarchuk is a deeply religious person. He is a Ukrainian national patriot in spirit. He spoke about interesting historical parallels: in OUN-UPA there were hundreds of men led by Armenians, Russians, and Jews. Jewish doctors treated insurgents in Lviv. There are similar cases in the history of the UPA in Volyn. This is our history – we should understand and know it. We should rely on its bright and positive experience. We have to strengthen faith in the good,” believes Klimchuk.
Vira Bernadska, who used to serve as one of UPA’s enlisted members recalls that she has heard about the fact that soldiers of UPA were sworn on an icon or Bible. But she personally was sworn, like other fellow soldiers, before a grave, in which the bodies of dead insurgents were buried. It took place in a forest near Zavydiv in Volyn region where a large unit of UPA stayed. When members were sworn in they also recited the oath of UPA soldier. Another UPA soldier Hryhorii Yarmolchuk, who now lives in the town of Kivertsi, was sworn in the forest near the village of Lypno, in Kivertsi raion in March of 1943. He remembers that the recruits were lined in four long ranks. They were sworn in on weapons. After the oath a cannon shot was fired.
