The national pilgrimage to the national sanctuary of Our Lady of Budslav – the great Marian shrine of Belarus – was held in recent days (30 June-1 July). Over 30,000 pilgrims converged on Budslav from all over the country and also from neighbouring countries; most of them arrived on foot and some had walked for days in sunshine or in the rain, accompanied by their bishops and priests. The pilgrimage is a tradition of Catholics in Belarus whose origins can be traced back some 500 years. The first pilgrimage to Budslav in fact set out from Vilnius, in what is now Lithuania. This year’s pilgrimage tried to recreate this by following the same route, the same stages, and by carrying the same wooden cross, weighing 200 kilograms, made at the time by Cistercensian monks. In Vilnius Cathedral Cardinal Avdris Iiuozas Backis blessed the pilgrims before their departure; they then boarded small ferryboats, bearing the cross with them, and set sail for the river Budslav where in the meantime the pilgrims from Belarus had arrived on foot. The climax of the pilgrimage was the vigil presided over by the Bishop of Vizebsk, Vladislav Blin, together with other Belorussian bishops. The celebration ended with a torchlight procession, bearing the icon of Our Lady of Budslav, round the park in front of the basilica. Mass on Sunday morning, 1st July, was celebrated by the apostolic nuncio in Belarus, Monsignor Martin Vidavic.
