Votive offerings from the XVIII–XX centuries near the icons in the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic (Ruthenian Catholic) churches: based on materials from Volhynia, Galicia, Zakarpattia, and Podillia.

Abstract

Research aim. To analyze the practices of implementation, public representation, and preservation of votive gifts (vows, votive offerings, consecration gifts, vow gifts) in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic (previously Ruthenian Catholic) Churches of the 18th–20th centuries. Based on materials from monasteries and parishes in Volhynia, Galicia, Zakarpattia, and Podillia. To highlight the importance of researching this segment of piety, which, supported by the church authorities for centuries, formed a significant layer of spiritual phenomena and material culture artifacts, but was repressed by the Russian secular and church authorities, as well as the communist authorities as part of the policy of destroying the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Research aim. To analyze the practices of implementation, representation, and preservation of votive gifts (votive offerings, votive gifts, ex-voto gifts) in the Ruthenian Catholic i.e., Ukrainian Greek Catholic, Church of the 18th–20th centuries. Based on materials from monasteries and parishes in Volhynia, Galicia, Zakarpattia, and Podillia.

Scientific novelty. In this study, the culture of votive offerings is examined as a holistic phenomenon, rich in symbolism and governed by internal principles. In contrast, previous research has predominantly focused on its individual aspects or exclusively on specific artifacts, such as miraculous icons and the gifts placed beside them.

Conclusions. Analysis of information from archival and published sources from the 18th to 20th centuries from Ruthenian Catholic i.e., Ukrainian Greek Catholic, pilgrimage centers confirms the presence of icons that had official miraculous status or simply a corresponding reputation among believers, as well as a large number of votive offerings associated with spiritual and physical healing. In the tradition of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, gifts symbolizing gratitude to God from individuals who have already been healed have been and continue to be the norm throughout the centuries. Vows of gratitude, as an advance payment to God for future healing, did not develop widely due to their potential connection with magic: attempts to influence higher powers, to bribe them. Warnings against the temptation to “bribe God,” recorded in some folklore stories, were intended to illustrate the punishment for such attempts. Ordinary jewelry, specially made “votive tablets,” and “votive offerings in forma” were recorded as votive offerings in churches. The latter, in the form of hands, feet, hearts, and other organs and body parts, visually explained the meaning of human gratitude. A separate form of votive offerings was crowns for icons. This phenomenon later took on the character of official church acts, such as the coronation of revered shrines, with the highest being papal crowns, consecrated by the Pope. However, the widespread presence of crowns on various icons testifies to the existence of a tradition of “popular” coronation alongside the official one. Over time, some pilgrimage centers accumulated so many gifts from pilgrims that the most valuable ones had to be kept in treasuries. First, the persecution of the UGCC by the Russian authorities during the tsarist era, and then communist persecution, led to the destruction of the culture of consecrated gifts along with the structures of the Church. Nevertheless, this culture has been preserved in the western Ukrainian lands and has been revived.