He should have died of hypothermia in Soviet jails

Synthèse :

Josyp was born on 27 October 1943 in Kelechyn (Ukraine). He was the son of a well-known Communist leader who mysteriously disappeared after missions abroad, probably liquidated by Stalinist repression. His maternal grandmother, Anna Sophia Fales, who brought him up, was an ardent Uniate Catholic and she passed on her deep faith to him. From the age of six, he would recount, he accompanied her to clandestine Catholic masses in the woods. At the age of fourteen, he became an active member of Catholic Action and a fervent devotee of Eucharistic adoration.

In early 1962, when he was engaged to be married and hoped to start a family, Josyp was arrested for his faith. Refusing to recant, he was taken to Vladimir prison near Moscow. Six months later, he weighed only fifty kilos. He wrote to Brezhnev asking to be treated at least as well as the neighbouring police dogs. Above all, Josyp prayed in his cell.

After years in prison, on 12 February 1970, he was at the end of his rope, slowly freezing, and thought he was probably going to die there. But suddenly an inner warmth came over him, and a light appeared in which he saw the Virgin Mary. She invited him to forgive unconditionally, especially his enemies, the Communist Russians. Mary also gave him this prediction: "You still have years of trials and humiliations ahead of you. Russia remains in darkness and error. Until the people repent and do the work of my Son, there will be no peace, for peace can only come where there is justice. Pray for your enemies, forget them and a path of light will open before you."

Two years later, to the day, on 12 February 1972, Josyp was detained incommunicado in a terrible prison where the temperature had dropped below -20°C. His jailers had put him there to die "without a trace". Josyp felt death creeping inside him in the night and, in despair, lay down on his straw mattress. "At that moment," he recalls, "I felt the touch of a woman's hand, as soft as milk. I felt warm again. I could feel the heat in the room. I thought I was hallucinating on account of my hypothermia. But then I heard a voice: "You called me and I came to you. Don't you think it's me?"" It was Mary again who told him that he wasn't going to be released from prison straight away, that he was only "halfway" through his trials, but that she was staying with him. The prisoner said that he had started to feel very hot, and was walking around in his undershirt. Alerted by his sudden and unexplained burst of energy, his jailers had him examined by a psychiatrist, who was convinced that Josyp had survived thanks to a yoga technique.

He was not finally released until July 1976, fourteen years after his imprisonment. His fiancée had been waiting for him all this time and he was finally able to marry her. But in 1978, he was arrested again and held incommunicado for three years. Released in 1982, he formed a group to obtain the legalisation of the Uniate Church. He was arrested again and released in 1984. He then published the Chronicles of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in samizdat. He was arrested again and sentenced to twelve years in prison. Fortunately, the beginnings of perestroika led to his release on 5 February 1987.

He then went to Hrushiv, a Ukrainian Marian shrine where the Virgin Mary had appeared several times since the 17th century. The Virgin Mary appeared to him again, as she had to many other people, with this message: "My daughter, my daughter Ukraine, I have come to you. You are the most enslaved, you are the one who has suffered most for faith in Christ."

Josyp then fled his native country to live with his family in Toronto, Canada, in October 1987. It is said that more than two hundred prophecies about the end of time were revealed to him. He has met Pope John Paul II on thirty-six occasions and has championed the cause of the Ukrainian Uniate Church.

Au-delà des raisons d'y croire :

By strengthening Josyp Terelya's testimony of faith, the apparitions of the Virgin have a significant historical importance: they heralded and accompanied perestroika. Indeed, through his Christian resistance, Josyp Terelya took part in the movement that led the reluctant regime to put an end to persecution.

Aller plus loin :

Josyp Terelya, Witness, To Apparitions and Persecution in the USSR: An Autobiography, Faith Publishing and Riehle Foundation, 1991.

En savoir plus :

• Catholic Exchange article "The Madonna of Kyiv & Mary’s Message in Hrushiv"
• On the Prophecies for Our Time website, the article " Hrushiw (1987): 'Ukrainian Fatima' ".