Dear brothers and sisters!

Today, we remember a great saint — the Venerable Onuphrius the Great. His feat shows how man can touch the infinite depth of the presence of God while moving away from the noise and vanity of this world. Saint Onuphrius is an example of true freedom. Not that freedom which they like to speak of in the world but the one which can be given only by the Holy Spirit — freedom from passions, from any lies, from fear. It is life in which everything is for God and for the sake of God.

It is on the day of his memory that we pray for and congratulate His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy, the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, on his name day.

Our Primate carries out his ministry in one of the toughest and most anxious periods in the life of the Church and society. He is an archpastor who leads the flock entrusted to him without abandoning faithfulness to the Gospel, canons, and centuries-old traditions. Regardless of faint-hearted reproaches, he walks the well-known path — he follows only Christ without straying either left or right.

It is incredibly tough for him today. He is often criticised: for silence, for outward calmness, for restraint, for the alleged absence of a clear position. But the truth is that the main activity of the Primate, and of every clergyman and every Christian, is prayer. And His Beatitude is not silent: he incessantly cries out to the One Who alone is able to correct everything — to the Almighty God.

The Church is strong and invincible when she firmly follows the teaching of Christ, serves only Him, and does not budge on her traditions and core canons. And despite all the inhuman pressure over several years, overt persecution, seizures of churches, and arrests of hierarchs and priests, Metropolitan Onufriy has prevented the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from slipping to an uncanonical path. No matter how members of the authorities or false brethren push him onto this path, no matter what they threaten with, no matter what temptations they offer, he has invariably rejected all of it for the sake of the good of the Church. 'Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them', says Christ.

Now is when our Primate needs our unity, our faithfulness, our support — prayerful, wholehearted, real — more than ever. Today, we, faithful children of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, especially need to stand by him who stands in front of us — who stands for all of us.

Your Beatitude!
On this day of your Heavenly Patron, I prayerfully wish you spiritual and bodily strength, peace in your heart, gracious joy, and strength to bear your cross. May the Lord fortify you, keep you, and give you many and blessed years!
Happy name day!