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In the morning of the 8th of September, the Icon was taken to Ľutina.  The town is famous for its private apparitions to St. Nicholas on the Feast of the Transfiguration in 1851, which have since been approved by the Vatican.  Many Greek-Orthodox groups go there on pilgrimage.  In 1988, the Holy Father - Blessed Pope John Paul II - consecrated the newly built shrine and pronounced it a Basilica Minor.

The Icon’s visit coincided with a youth pilgrimage to Ľutina.  The celebrations began at 10:00 o'clock in the morning and Archbishop Jan Babiak, SJ, the Prešov metropolitan archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Church in Slovakia, presided with forty concelebrating priests.  In his homily, Archbishop Babiak said that in her maternal love, Our Lady comes to her children with a clear pro-life message.  He described the pilgrimage of the Icon as 'a great act of faith in the victory of the Mother of God'. He reminded us that in the Eastern tradition, the Icon of Czestochowa is known as the ‘Invincible Victory’.  We must be aware that, left only to our own devices, we cannot win the battle against the extreme and aggressive death-dealing ‘spirit’ of our times.  We must implore the help of Our Lady, who protected the life of her Son, and likewise wants to protect contemporary women from the grave sin of abortion.  She has already trodden the Enemy underfoot.  Evil was not even able to touch her.  In her virginal purity, she yearns to protect the chastity of the modern young people – young men and women, as well as the married couples of today.  The Archbishop also exhorted all those present to never jeopardize innocent lives, but to protect life, contributing to the victory of the civilization of life over the culture of death.  Our Lady’s Icon was then carried away in a solemn procession and handed over to the Hungarians.

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