A group of pilgrims from Sokółka are to cover over 150 km in five days. There are also groups of the faithful walking a distance of over 100 km from the historic monastery in Jabłeczna in the Lublin province, as well as from Białystok and Warsaw.
Polish Orthodox Christians from Brussels are set to arrive in Siemiatycze on August 17 and walk from there to the Holy Mount.
This year’s celebrations of the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord coincide with the centenary of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church, which is commonly known as the Polish Orthodox Church. To mark the occasion, a hundred crosses are to be erected on the mount as a thanksgiving for the Lord’s graces.
Grabarka, eastern Poland, August 19, 2023. Last year's celebrations of the Feast of the Transfiguration at the Orthodox sanctuary on Holy Mount Grabarka, the most important Orthodox site in the country. Due to the annual Feast of the Transfiguration, several thousand pilgrims from both Poland and abroad visit this site over the course of a few days (PAP/Artur Reszko)
The importance of Grabarka for Polish Orthodox Christians can be compared only to that of the Black Madonna Shrine in Częstochowa for Roman Catholics.
The slopes of the Grabarka hill are dotted with thousands of votive crosses which have been placed by the pilgrims there down the years. The tradition of pilgrimages to Grabarka goes back to 1710, when the place was believed to have saved people from a cholera epidemic.
According to the Orthodox Church, there is up to half a million Orthodox Christians in Poland. In the 2021 national census in Poland, however, only 151 thousand people declared themselves as Orthodox Christians. Some Orthodox Church leaders consider the data as unreliable in view of the fact that the question relating to one’s religious denomination is optional in the census.
(mk/mp)
