The inhabitants of Nowica village prayed by a miraculous spring (photos by Petro Basałyga)

In Nowica, one of the few Lemko villages in Poland where the names of the villages appear both in Polish and in Lemko, there was the parochial feast day of Dormition of the Mother of God, celebrated by the local Greek Catholic Church. On 28 August 2016, many believers from other parishes in Lemkovyna and beyond came to Nowica to take part in the kermesh.

There are two churches in the village  – Saint Paraskeva, built in 1843, and a chapel of Dormition of the Mother of God from 1889, located about 1km away. It has become a tradition that on the feast day, the priests (Reverends Grzegorz Nazar, Peter Kachmar, Yaroslav Chuhta, Paul Syvec), as well as the believers come to the chapel and take part in the prayers during the time of the Divine Liturgy. Then, they make a procession with the cross to the miraculous spring that is located in the south part of Magura Małastowska. Having blessed the water, the priests blessed objects brought by the believers. The kermesh was accompanied by Novicanto choir, composed of participants of church singing course from Ukraine and Poland.

The photographs were sent to us by Petro Basałyga – thank you!