UOC believers participate in procession with St. Spyridon's relics in Corfu

UOC pilgrims from Bukovyna. Photo: UOJ

A pilgrimage group of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church made a journey to the Orthodox shrines of Greece. On the island of Corfu, the faithful participated in the annual religious procession with the relics of Saint Spyridon of Trimythous, which took place through the historic streets of the city of Kerkyra on August 11, 2026, reports a UOJ correspondent.

The pilgrims also took part in the concelebrated hierarchal Divine Liturgy. Four times a year, Corfu holds major processions – litanies – with the relics of St. Spyridon, which are brought out of the church and carried upright. These processions commemorate the miraculous deliverance of the island’s residents from famine, epidemics, and the Turkish siege. They traditionally include clergy, faithful, choirs, local philharmonic orchestras, and government officials.

The UOC pilgrimage group is led by Mitrophore Archpriest Andriy Serman, head of the Pilgrimage Department of the Chernivtsi-Bukovyna Eparchy.

The faithful also plan to visit the holy sites of Mount Athos, a church in Markopoulo on the island of Kefalonia, where snakes appear every year on the feast day of the church’s patron saint, as well as the Monastery of St. Demetrios the Great Martyr in Thessaloniki and other holy places.

Earlier, the pilgrims visited the Sioni Cathedral in Tbilisi, where the tomb of His Holiness Patriarch-Catholicos Ilia II of All Georgia is found. The pilgrims offered prayers for the repose of his soul and continued their journey to Orthodox holy sites in Greece.

As the UOJ reported, "the snakes of Virgin Mary" have once again appeared in the churches of Kefalonia before the Dormition feast.

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