The Church of the Prophet Elias (Elijah) in Chernobyl (source)
The only church in Chernobyl dedicated to the Old
Testament Prophet Elijah is first mentioned by chronicles
in the 16th century. Following the accident at
the Chernobyl nuclear power station in April 1986 the
church was closed. Services in it were resumed in 2001.
The church contains the revered icons of “The
Saviour of Chernobyl” and of St. Nicholas the
Wonder-Worker...
In April 2011, on the 25th anniversary of the
Chernobyl catastrophe, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All
Russia visited Chernobyl. The head of the Russian Orthodox
Church served a funeral service (panikhida) there for the
repose of the accident victims. The Patriarch then noted
that the containment and stoppage of the nuclear power
station accident “became a great moral feat for
thousands of people” and called upon the gathered
people not to forget the Chernobyl disaster victims.
The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant happened on
April 26, 1986, due to an explosion in the fourth
power-generating unit. As a result of the disaster 19
Russian regions with a total area of about 60,000 square
kilometers (23,166 sq. mi.) and a population of 2.6
million people, and 46,500 square kilometers (17,954 sq.
mi.) of the neighboring territory of Belarus (23% of its
total area) suffered from the radioactive fallout. The
overall area of radiation pollution in the Ukraine was
50,000 square kilometers (19,305 sq.mi.) in 12 regions.
Icon of Christ "The Savior of Chernobyl", with the Theotokos and the Archangel Michael, the cross-shaped tree, the Star mentioned in the Revelation, and personifications of the victims and the first aid workers (source)
The
icon “The Saviour of Chernobyl,” in Prophet
Elijah Church, painted (written) after the disaster,
has a unique history. According to the web site of the
Church of St. Theodosius in Kiev, the icon’s
prototype appeared several times in dreams to Yuri
Andreev, an atomic energy worker who received an
enormous dosage of radiation at the time of the
accident. Andreev dismissed the visions as simple
dreams, or even heresy, but eventually decided to ask
Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev (now recently-reposed) if
it would be possible to have an icon made showing the
Saviour, together with the people of Chernobyl who
risked or sacrificed their lives to save others from
the radiation. Metropolitan Vladimir gave his blessing.
The icon depicts The Saviour, the Mother of God, and
the Archangel Michael at the top of the icon. At the
bottom left are the souls of the victims who died from
the accident; on the bottom right are the workers who
knowingly stayed in the deadly radiation in order to
contain the accident. Between them is a pine tree,
shaped like a trident, that stood at Chernobyl.
“Workers of the Chernobyl nuclear plant were all
non-believers,” said Andreev, as reported by
The Voice of Russia,
“until they witnessed something which can only be
interpreted as the power of God. In the very first
seconds after the explosion on the fourth reactor a
cloud with uranium particles moved towards the
neighboring town of Pripyat,” only 1800 meters (1
mile) away. “A pine stood in the way of the
radioactive cloud. Before it reached the tree, the
cloud broke into two halves and instead of covering the
town, it passed it by a mere several meters from
residential areas. No one can explain this to this
day."
During WWII, the pine had been used by fascists to hang
Russian soldiers on.
The Icon has been the source of miraculous healings,
according to the St. Theodosius Church web-site. During
the consecration of the icon, a miracle occurred witnessed
by thousands of people: a dove flew over the icon, a
rainbow appeared in the sky in the shape of a halo (though
there had been no rain), and then an Orthodox Cross
appeared in the sky, with the sun in the center of it.
The tree in the shape of the Holy Cross at Chernobyl (source)
20 April 2011, 18:33
The only church open in Chernobyl zone
shows the minimum radiation level
Kiev, April 20, Interfax - During 25
years from the date of Chernobyl accident the radiation level in the
area of St. Elijah Church, the only church operating in the exclusion
zone, was well below the level across the zone, Chernobyl disaster
liquidators state.
"Even in the hardest days of
nineteen eighty six the area around St. Elijah Church was clean (from
radiation - IF), not to mention that the church itself was also
clean," president of the Ukrainian Chernobyl Union Yury Andreyev
said in a Kiev-Moscow video conference on Wednesday.
Now the territory adjacent to the
church has the background level of 6 microroentgen per hour compared
with 18 in Kiev.
Andreyev also said many disaster
liquidators had been atheists. "We came to believe later
after observing suchdevelopments which
could be explained only by God's will," he says.
In particular, according to him, a few
seconds after the explosion in the fourth unit of the Chernobyl PP
the cloud containing uranium particles started moving in the
direction of Pripyat, a city located about 1,800 meters from the
plant. There was a pine-tree on its way (it is featured on a
well-known ic
on Chernobyl's Savior.)
"The cloud stopped short of this
pine, divided into two parts by some unknown reason and
continued moving to the left and right
sides of the city instead of covering its residential areas.
The radiation level in contamination
areas was four or five roentgen per hour, and the city showed only
half a milliroentgen," Andreyev said.
St. Paisios the Athonite, depicted being blessed by Christ, together with his heavenly patrons: St. Euphemia and St. Arsenios of Cappadocia (source)
St. Paisios the Athonite (+1994) said: "There, in the Revelation, St. John the Theologian mentions that he saw a great star, burning, fall from heaven, polluting, making bitter, and fatally poisoning the water and the springs of the waters...
And the name of the star is Wormwood! (in Ukranian, Chernobyl)!" (Revelation 8:11)
Icon depicting the Revelation to St. John the Theologian (source)
Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!
