Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, Lviv

One of the places that attracts with its beauty, elegance, and restraint is the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lviv. The Greek Catholic church is located in the largest residential district of Lviv, Sykhiv. It is one of the largest parishes in Ukraine. According to polls conducted in early 2005, about 10,000 Greek Catholics, residents of Sykhiv (a large residential area of Lviv), consider themselves its parishioners.

On April 17, 1990, the foundation stone for the church was dedicated. Hieromonk Vasyl Voronovskyi of the Studite Order was appointed the first rector of the community. Soon after, a temporary chapel was erected near the dedicated stone, and the first service was held there on September 21, 1991. Later, Father Yevhen Boyko was appointed the new rector of the church. At that time, the Altar and Marian Wives were founded.

In order to build the church, an exhibition-competition of church projects was held. Among the various options, the project by Canadian architect of Ukrainian descent Radoslav Zhuk won. The design provided for the work to be performed by a significant number of unskilled workers in order to attract volunteers and residents of the neighborhood to the construction.

In April 1994, Father Orest Fredina was appointed administrator of the parish, and in 1995 the construction of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary began.

On October 8, 2000, the new church was dedicated by the auxiliary bishop of Lviv, Bishop Lubomyr Husar. On June 26, 2001, Pope John Paul II met with young people near the newly built church, which gathered about half a million people. Since then, the square near the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been named after John Paul II. On September 28, 2007, a solemn groundbreaking ceremony was held near the church for the John Paul II Park.

In 2001, another important event took place in the life of the community of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary: the relics of the Bishop Auxiliary of the UGCC Diocese of Przemysl, the blessed new martyr Gregory (Lakota), were transported from Abezi (northern Russia, Komi Republic) through the efforts of the church's pastor, Fr. This bishop served ten years of hard labor in the Vorkuta camps and for his humanity and humility was called by the convicts an angel in a human body. In addition to the remains of Blessed Gregory (Lakota), the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary contains parts of the relics of Saints Josaphat and Panteleimon.

In 2009, according to a survey of 100 Lviv architects conducted by architects Bohdan Cherkes and Anton Kolomoitsev, the church was recognized as the best example of modern architecture in Lviv.

On June 26, 2011, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the visit of Blessed John Paul II, a solemn Bishop's Divine Liturgy was held at the church, led by His Beatitude Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

By Presidential Decree No. 1079/2011 of November 29, 2011, Radoslav Zhuk, Zenoviy Pidlisnyi (posthumously), Sviatoslav Vlada, and Orest Fredina were awarded the State Prize of Ukraine in Architecture for the architecture of the church.

In front of the church is a monument to John Paul II, presented by Leo Moll.

The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary differs from other shrines. It has a minimal number of details, as if it were made of cubes, the ends of which are parabolic domes. It is impossible not to notice the bright building with golden tints.

There are many beautiful places in Lviv. The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary is one of them.