Ukrainian Catholics to commemorate baptism of Kievan Rus’ by renewing baptismal vows

July 26, 2013

In commemoration of the 1,025th anniversary of the baptism of Kievan Rus’, the medieval Slavic state that helped give birth to modern Russia and Ukraine, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has instructed Ukrainian Catholics to renew their baptismal vows on July 28.

“We need to remember and renew our baptismal vows,” Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk said in a message translated by the Religious Information Service of Ukraine. “Their meaning remains the same – to free yourself of any bonds of slavery, which have been imposed on the human race by the devil since our forefather Adam, and wear the baptismal garments of freedom and love, which are the shining garments of the risen Christ.”

The head of the largest Eastern Catholic church said express hope that the renewal of the vows would “restore our faithfulness to Christ as the only source of the revival of the Ukrainian people” and “strengthen our church and national unity.”

 

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Further information:

• Patriarch Shevchuk Calls on Greek Catholics to Renew Baptismal Vows (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)
• 1025th anniversary of baptism of Kievan Rus’ (CWN, 7/23)