Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary [Ukrainian]

History of the Parish

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was founded on August 15, 1911 — the Feast of the Dormition — by Eastern European immigrant coal miners working the anthracite seams beneath what is now the ghost borough of Centralia. The first Liturgies were celebrated in 1912. For roughly fifty years the church served a thriving multi-parish mining community, but everything changed in May 1962 when a mine fire ignited in the coal seams under the town. The state eventually relocated the residents and, under a $42 million federal grant administered by Columbia County, demolished virtually every structure — but not Assumption. In 1987, after the parish appealed, subsurface core drillings found the church built on solid bedrock, not on coal-bearing strata. That geology saved the building and the parish. The congregation's refusal to abandon the church — through decades of depopulation — eventually drew the attention of the worldwide Ukrainian Catholic Church and, in November 2015, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych visited and proclaimed the site an official pilgrimage church.

• Founded August 15, 1911
• First Liturgies held in 1912
• Mine fire ignited May 1962
• Subsurface survey (1987) found bedrock foundation
• Demolition plan abandoned
• Pilgrimage designation by Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk (2015)
• Centennial celebrated 2011 with Archbishop Stefan Soroka

Pilgrimage Site

Today Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary functions as both a parish church and a Ukrainian Catholic pilgrimage site, drawing several hundred pilgrims each August. The first official pilgrimage, organized under the decree of Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk and facilitated locally by then-Metropolitan Archbishop Stefan Soroka, was held in 2016 on the theme 'Beseeching God's Mercy — Praying for the Intercession of the Mother of God.' Subsequent pilgrimages — running annually in the summer — have brought hierarchs from across the Ukrainian Catholic world, including Metropolitan Borys Gudziak of Philadelphia, and have been broadcast on EWTN, reaching thousands more. During the 2016 Jubilee Year of Mercy, the church was also designated a Holy Door of Mercy, allowing pilgrims to pass through it for special indulgences.

• Declared an official Ukrainian Catholic pilgrimage site, 2015
• First annual pilgrimage held August 2016
• Designated a Holy Door of Mercy in 2016
• Pilgrimages televised on EWTN
• Led by successive hierarchs including Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Stefan Soroka, and Borys Gudziak

Marian Treasures: Sacred Icons & Relics

The parish's identity as a pilgrimage church is rooted in three Marian treasures that were brought to it by the will of the Major Archbishop himself. In his 2015 visit, Patriarch Sviatoslav saw an 18th-century copy of the Icon of Our Lady of Pochaiv at a nearby church and requested it be moved to Centralia so it could become the focal point of prayer for the new pilgrimage site. He also brought with him the Icon of Our Lady of Persecuted Christians, which had been blessed by Pope Francis. To these has been added the Holy Shroud of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, venerated by pilgrims as the highlight of the annual feast.

• Icon of Our Lady of Pochaiv
• Icon of Our Lady of Persecuted Christians (blessed by Pope Francis)
• Holy Shroud of the Dormition

Clergy

The pastor of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is Rev. Archpriest Michael Hutsko, who as of the most recent reporting was in the parish's sixth year and serving on the staff of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia. Fr. Hutsko has been the public face of the pilgrimage movement at Centralia, quoted in multiple news features about the meaning of the church's survival above the mine fire.

• Rev. Archpriest Michael Hutsko — pastor

Liturgical Life

Weekday-liturgical life at Assumption is intentionally simple, reflecting the size of the surviving congregation. The parish celebrates the Byzantine-rite Divine Liturgy each Sunday at 10:30 AM and on Holy Days at 9:00 AM, with services in English and Ukrainian (and elements of Church Slavonic, as is customary in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic tradition). Confessions are heard before every Liturgy. In a town with no other functioning institutions and only a handful of buildings left, the regular ringing of the church's bells continues as the most recognizable sound of Centralia.

• Sunday Divine Liturgy, 10:30 AM
• Holy Day Divine Liturgy, 9:00 AM
• Confessions before all Liturgies

Why Visit / Why Belong

A visit to Assumption is, first, a visit to a place where a community refused to give up. With about fifty families the parish is small, but it is consistently filled by pilgrim worshippers from across the country who come for the August Dormition pilgrimage and for the calm of an Orthodox-style Liturgy on a hilltop. Newcomers and travelers are welcomed by a pastor who sees Centralia itself — not the mine fire and the demolitions, but the persistence of the church — as the message. As Fr. Hutsko has put it, the bells ring out across the valley to proclaim that 'through it all, God is with us… always giving hope that in Him there is life.'

Visiting Centralia

The church sits on North Paxton Street, two blocks north of PA Route 42, on a hilltop just outside the borough line. Because the surrounding town has been largely demolished and the streets are unsafe in places due to the underlying fire, visitors on non-pilgrimage weekends are advised to come directly to the church; those planning to attend the annual Dormition pilgrimage should follow the archeparchy's published pilgrimage schedule, which runs from noon into the late afternoon with the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy, rosary, moleben, and anointing.

• Address: N. Paxton St., Centralia, PA 17927
• Two blocks north of PA Route 42
• Phone: 570-339-0650
• Email: [email protected]