The village of Pohonia is a unique settlement in the Carpathian Foothills which has a rich millennial history. This place became famous in the time of Danylo Halytskyi for its holiness, and a monastery was set on the site of miraculous appearances of the Mother of God in the 17th century.
During the communist regime almost all buildings of the monastery were destroyed, and the church was burned. Only in the early 1990s the spiritual significance of this holy place was restored. In ten years a chapel and a church were built on a sacred spring, the monastery cemetery and the Stations of the Cross were renovated.
Today there is a monastery of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Order of St. Basil the Great, which has the status of a recessional place equal to Hoshiv and Zarvanytsia.
In the spring of 2001, an icon was found in the Pohonia, which is considered the original of the miraculous image of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Pohonia. This icon became famous due to the numerous miracles it had provoked. The first information of the miraculous icon is recorded in the monastery chronicle and dates back to the first half of the 17th century. According to the chronicle, as a sign of gratitude for the miracles of healing received due to the icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a new church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built there on donations of noblewomen Ivanna Velyhorska from Pototski and Sophia Zahvoiska from Uhrynski in 1736. The icon of the Mother of God in Pohonia became famous even later because of numerous miracles. Based on the decision of the Church Committee, bishop Athanasius Szeptyckyi declared this icon “blissful,” that is, miraculous.
On 9 June 1908, Pope Pius X implemented a decree on providing the main holy altar of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the privilege of four recessions every year.
After the liquidation of this Basilian monastery by the communists in 1946, a significant part of the property of the monastery church, which was destroyed in 1950, including a miraculous icon, was transferred to the parish church in Pshenychnyky near Pohonia at the request of the local parishioners.
In 1992, the miraculous icon was placed in the freshly built chapel on the territory of the Basil’s monastery in the village of Pohonia. After the restoration, on 27 June 2001, the icon was blessed by Pope John Paul II during his apostolic journey across Ukraine.
Dozens, hundreds, and sometimes thousands of pilgrims come here on holidays and weekdays to pray in front of thr miraculous icon and ask for the Mother for God’s help.