Ukrainians Purchase Anna Yaroslavna Church in France

On September 27, 2013, the Ukrainian Eparchy of St. Volodymyr in Paris, led by Bishop Borys Gudziak, president of the Ukrainian Catholic University,
purchased the church of St. Vincent Abbey in Senlis (45 km from Paris), which the Queen of France, Anna Yaroslavna, founded in 1060. Senlis is where
the daughter of Yaroslav the Wise lived in the eleventh century. Starting in November, the church will function as a church of the Ukrainian Greek
Catholic Church (UGCC), and will also house the Anna Yaroslavna Cultural Center, whose purpose is to represent and promote Ukrainian culture and
Ukrainian-European cooperation.

The newly acquired church will open its doors on November 16. On this day at 10:00 a.m. a Hierarchical Liturgy will be celebrated. And on November 17 Ukrainians can take part in a memorial Hierarchical Liturgy in the Cathedral of Notre Dame to pray together for the victims of the Holodomor.

“Today is a great day for the Ukrainian community in Paris, France, in all
of Europe, and for all Ukrainians, wherever they may be. We purchased the church in Senlis, the royal town in which Anna Yaroslavna lived, known to the world as Anne of Kyiv, Queen of France. With this ecclesiastical and legal act, we have shown that the sources of the Ukrainian Christian European tradition are alive and viable,” said Bishop Borys Gudziak.

He also said that the church will bear the name of the martyrs Borys and Hilb, Anna’s uncles. “Boris and Hlib represent virtue, which today we need the most - love and harmony among brothers, rejection of fratricidal strife. Anna represents high culture and
Europeanism and Christian spirituality,” said the bishop of the Eparchy of Paris.