Pilgrims in Velehrad commemorated Sts. Cyril & Methodius

The National Pilgrimage to Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Velehrad culminated yesterday, 5th July 2014, with the mass celebrated by bishops of the Czech Republic, priests and some 30 thousand people. At the end of the celebration, attended by representatives of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops as well, several people were awarded with prizes of the Czech Bishops’ Conference.

Velehrad: Clouds, covering the sky over Velehrad for the entire morning and sprinkling the pilgrims with rain-showers from time to time, made way to sun at half past 10, enabling it to shine on the way of the liturgical procession. The mass opened with this procession was presided over by Archbishop Jan Graubner of Olomouc and the pilgrims gathered in front of the basilica as well as those who followed the celebration via television of radio were addressed by Cardinal Dominik Duka, archbishop of Prague, as a preacher.

He recalled the last year’s celebration of the Sts. Cyril and Methodius Jubilee – the 1150^th anniversary of their arrival to Great Moravia – and said: “We must be really grateful that it united in cooperation several Christian churches and many personalities from cultural, scientific, and political worlds not only to reflect history, but also to deepen our perception of the significance and inspiration stemming from this heritage.”

Cardinal Duka then underlined the idea of transferring the statehood from Great Moravia to Bohemia by means of the Palladium of Bohemia. According to him, the heritage of faith is not just some historic monument. “Faith, as a living gift of living God, is a permanent form of life that grows and is based on new impulses, findings, and reflections. (…) Faith and reason need each other and they both are driving forces of development of man as well as the entire society.”

Before the end of the celebration, traditional awards of the Czech Bishops’ Conference were given to several people. Honorable mention as a sign of thanks was awarded to two makers of a Way of the Cross in Prague-Řepy, poet Alois Volkman and woodcarver Pavel Hladký, to artist Jan Jemelka and to composer Václav Hálek. Commemorative medal of the Czech Bishops’ Conference was awarded to Father Jiří Šlégr from the Pontifical Missionary Works in the Czech Republic, theologians Cyril Martinek and Květoslav Šipr, painter Jiří Holý and Father Václav Mašek from the Czech community in the Banat, Romania.

In the end, several guests addressed the gathering in front of the basilica, among them Jindřich Forejt, a representative of the President of the Czech Republic, and president of the Ecumenical Council of Churches in the Czech Republic Daniel Fajfr. Bishop Patrick Zurek of Amarillo, Texas, who headed the delegation from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and is of Czech origin, addressed the pilgrims in Czech: “I am grateful that I can celebrate the feast of our great patron saints Cyril and Methodius together with you. I will pray for you and your families,” he said, concluding thus his address and also the entire mass of the National Pilgrimage to Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Velehrad.