Icon of Our Lady of Victories
- CMA - Guest Post
- Oct 8
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 9
It was an immense privilege to witness the blessing of our Icon of Our Lady of Victories yesterday.
Created using centuries-old techniques in a Lviv studio, the Icon survived an extraordinary journey secured by an unnamed Ukrainian soldier who risked bombardments to ensure its delivery to the UK.
As an Association with a devotion to Our Lady of Victories we had been on the look out for an Icon of our patroness for years, but without success. When the war in Ukraine started we decided to show our solidarity with the communities there by seeing if we could commission an Icon. We sketched a design and sent it to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), asking if they could help. They linked in with iconographers in Ukraine. We couldn't quite believe our hopes would become reality, but we prayed. For some time the contact we were working through went quiet; he had been called up to active service. We prayed for him and waited and eventually communications resumed and the Icon was finished. It then survived a perilous journey out of the country to eventually arrive, unmarked and unannounced, at the ACN office.
"For the people of Ukraine their faith is really important to them and for them to know that we are united with them, not just militarily and financially, but also in prayer and this Icon signifies that, which I think that is a very important piece of the whole thing." - Bishop Paul Mason
Capt Francis Osborn, CMA Chairman, went to collect it and had the surreal experience of actually holding this extraordinary work which until that point had only seemed to exist as a sketch and a hope.
Having received it we then began to fundraise in earnest to pay the Ukrainians for their good work, and were delighted that so many of our Members were able to contribute towards it. This Icon is by the military community, for the military community, largely funded by the military community. The Catenians, who we have been affiliated with since 2022, also contributed financially and practically, helping us to plan the blessing event.
"Today is the feast of our Lady of Victories who is the patron saint of the Catholic Military Association, and we are using the feast as an opportunity for the blessing of the icon that we've commissioned from Ukraine. It is a symbol of our prayer for peace. People risked their lives to get it here. It's really a sign of the ultimate victory of peace. It is a very moving icon, it portrays an intention that we are here as a force for good in the world. We have invested a lot of time in training Ukrainian troops and the opportunity to be in fellowship with them through this icon is significant." - Commander James Francis
Bishop Kenneth Nowakowski OBE and Bishop Paul Mason presided over the ceremony, with Major General Christopher Barry CBE, CMA's Honorary President, reading a lesson. Traditional Ukrainian hymns in honour of Our Lady were sung by the VIVO Vocal Quartet.
Many of the CMA's Members assisted on the day and without their support this event could not have run. We are extremely grateful to them and honoured to have helped build this community.
"We wanted something permanent as a foundation that our members could look to for solace and encouragement. An Icon is a really ancient way of showing faith - its beauty speaks right to the soul. It means a tremendous amount that it has got a home in Aldershot and that it will be seen by a lot of people, and they can benefit from it.” - Capt Francis Osborn
The event was reported in several major news outlets:
Comments