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Pilgrimage offers special remembrance of late archbishop
The pilgrimage, sponsored by the Sisters of the Order of St. Basil the Great, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Province, will feature special remembrances of the late Metropolitan Archbishop of Pittsburgh Judson Procyk and newly beatified Ruthenian Bishop-martyr Theodore G. Romzha, whose path to sainthood is rooted in Mt. St. Macrina and the Byzantine Catholic Church in America. Giving added meaning is that Procyk was a native of Uniontown.
According to Sister Ruth Plante, OSBM, provincial for the Basilian community, the pilgrimage marks the first occasion for Byzantine Catholics from across the country to come together to commemorate Procyk, who died unexpectedly April 24 after only six years as head of the nationwide province that includes the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh and the Eparchies of Passaic, N.J., Parma, Ohio, and Van Nuys, Calif. A panachida memorial service in his memory will follow a 7 p.m. Hierarchical Divine Liturgy at Mt. Macrina Cemetery on Saturday.
She added the archbishop also was a strong promoter of the Cause for Canonization of four hierarchs of the Ruthenian Church, including Romzha, who advanced one step closer to sainthood with his beatification in June by Pope John Paul II during a papal visit to Ukraine. It was in Uniontown, she said, that the formal Cause for Canonization was announced 15 years ago.
On Sept. 1, 1986, during the 52nd annual pilgrimage, the late Metropolitan Archbishop Stephen J. Kocisko, in collaboration with all the bishops of the Byzantine-Ruthenian Metropolia in the United States, inaugurated the formal Cause for Canonization of Bishop Romzha and his brethren bishops, Paul Gojdich, Basil Hopko and Alexander Chria, who were persecuted, exiled, imprisoned and martyred for their faith under the Communist regime of the former Soviet Union.
In recalling Procyk, Sister Ruth described him as a fervent advocate of the annual spiritual retreat. "We had a planning meeting in March and the archbishop, who was 70 at the time, said he never missed a pilgrimage since its inception in 1934. From the time he was a baby, his mother brought the whole family. His parents would come to work and he and his brother and sister would help wherever needed.
"It's going to be very unusual not having him walking up and down and greeting people. I mean, he will be here for pilgrimage. I know that. I trust that. But, you go to the cemetery and his grave is there and it's just like ...
"Last year," she continued, "he was celebrating the cemetery liturgy and rain was threatening with thunder and lightning. He was preaching and I was thinking, archbishop, we aren't going to make this. Well, we had some rain, but actually it didn't rain much on the cemetery. Who would think that now this year he's with the Lord. But he had a beautiful death. He died the way he would have wanted, busy up until the last moment.
"As I said, I know that he will still be with us because the pilgrimage was such an important part of his life - always. We will have a memorial service after the cemetery liturgy Saturday in his memory because it will be the first time that the entire church, from all over the country, can come together and remember him."
The sister said the service will be very moving for some of the pilgrims who remember him. "Someone said it best at his repast following his funeral. She said, `Many people have bishops, but how many people can say that their bishop was their friend?' After he met you once, he just treated everyone as someone special and that's why so many people called him friend. He was never distant or too above people to be with them, but very down to earth and people appreciated that. People felt comfortable in his presence. (His death) is a great loss for our church and for our community."
Theme for this year's pilgrimage, "The Holy Eucharist: We Bless, Thank, Worship and Glorify God!" focuses on the place of the Holy Eucharist in everyday lives as a sacrament of unity. "One of the most striking aspects of the annual pilgrimage is how it brings together people from all over the metropolitan province," said Sister Ruth. The four-day event, Friday through Sept. 3, is filled with opportunities to participate in liturgical prayer, devotions and personal prayer.
Veronica Varga, who handles publicity for the province and who has been in attendance at the pilgrimage with her family since an early age, said she is pleasantly surprised by the noticeable increase in the number of young people who attend.
Sister Ruth interjected, "Definitely. Our children's procession from the Retreat Center to the Mother of God Shrine had about 500 children participating last year."
She credits children's enrichment programs inaugurated eight years ago with this success. "The children have their own area where they can go and be involved in lessons, crafts and singing. I think young children and even teens might use the term just boring while walking around. But when they see others their age and there are people to talk with and challenging kinds of discussions and so forth, it makes a big difference."
She added, "The other thing that helped increase the teen attendance was last year when we had a Byzantine Youth Rally with about 400 teen-agers from all across the country. It was a wonderful experience and they themselves bonded so well. Many left saying, `See you at the pilgrimage.'"
Varga says with the activities, the teen-agers don't have to be attached to their parents' hips anymore. "They get to get out on their own."
Both are in agreement that volunteers add greatly to the pilgrimage's success each year. Varga said a whole family came for a week in July to help and Sister Ruth noted a busload from a Tarentum parish was expected this past week to help get ready for the pilgrimage. From preparing special pilgrimage cookies to painting and mowing grass on the spacious grounds, "volunteers are here much of the summer lending helping hands," the sister said.
Sister Innocentia Subrick takes special pride in tending to her own special project at Mt. St. Macrina. The Shrine of St. Ann is situated in a shaded ravine on the 200-acre religious center that was originally the Oak Hill estate of coal baron J.V. Thompson.
According to Sister Innocentia, "My family is from Canonsburg and the shrine was donated in memory of my grandmother who had a special devotion to St. Ann, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary."
She showed a picture of the site and what it looked like during Thompson's years. "Back then it was a Japanese sunken garden and they would have parties there in the evenings because it was always cool. They even stored ice in the base that the shrine is now located on. Today, I see the shrine as being hidden in the valley, where St. Ann is secluded in solitude and prayer."
Walking from the dormant setting, Sister Ruth offered that miracles do happen at the mount. "I'm not talking about miracles the way some people might expect them in terms of cures, but miracles of the heart where people who perhaps have been alienated from God and church have found their way back into the church. People who have had animosity toward family members and others have been able to find ways of letting their pain and problems go and once more become united as families. Individuals, who came perhaps because Mom came years and years ago and just decided to see why are now experiencing it for themselves.
"There has to be more than meets the eye. You have to ask yourself why would all these thousands of people take Labor Day weekend, which is the end of summer and with vacations and the like, to travel all those miles and take time to come to a place to pray. A lot of folks can't understand that, but many of the pilgrims who do come year after year say you just cannot explain it. You have to experience it yourself.
"It has to be God," Sister Ruth concluded. "I'm convinced, nothing would last for 67 years if is was not of God. Not of this nature."
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