A total of twenty-two Ukrainian soldiers made a pilgrimage to Mount Athos. In search of physical and mental peace, the soldiers set off by bus from the Ukrainian city of Lviv and traveled more than 1,000 km to Mount Athos in the hope of escaping their intrusive memories of the battlefield. According to a Reuters report, during their five-day stay, the soldiers – some with amputated legs and arms, others with scars on their heads – made a pilgrimage to twelve monasteries. All the monasteries visited were Greek (although the Russian one has been inhabited and run mainly by Ukrainian monks for years, and in the Serbian and Bulgarian ones they would not have had a language barrier). Their visit to Mount Athos is part of a psychological support program organized by the Ukrainian authorities.
“Many soldiers are suffering from the events of the past three years. Many of them have various illnesses – they are wounded and need rehabilitation,” says Father Mykhailo Pasyrsky, a Ukrainian Orthodox priest who is accompanying the men on their journey.
Twenty-two-year-old Ivan Kovalik is one of the soldiers who lost both of his legs while on the front lines until September 2023. “Of course, coming here helped me a lot because I got rid of stress,” he says of his visit to Mount Athos, which he plans to repeat. “When I visited Mount Athos, I felt God’s grace, God’s blessing, God’s greatness,” says Orest Kavetsky, an employee of the Lviv administration who is helping organize the trip. According to him, these five days on Mount Athos in terms of their impact on the soldiers’ psyche correspond to a year of rehabilitation in medical centers.
Participation in military operations, especially on the scale and in the bloodshed in Ukraine, creates severe trauma for soldiers, who then have problems in their resocialization. The unnatural violence and killings deeply wound the psyche. Specialized care is required to overcome post-war stress, so that these young people can return to peaceful life, albeit with varying degrees of physical disability.
Illustrative Photo by Serafeim Barakos: https://www.pexels.com/photo/external-view-of-agiou-pavlou-monastery-mount-athos-chalkidiki-greece-20190447/
