Divine Mercy Parish (Zhytomyr)

Zhytomyr is the large city where the first steps towards establishing a Pallottine community in Ukraine were taken. In the late 1980s, Pallottine Fathers from Poland began visiting the city and maintaining contact with Fr Oleksandr Milevskyi, who served at the local cathedral. At the time, it was one of the few Catholic churches in Ukraine openly accessible to worshippers and attracted many of the faithful.

In 1988, Fr Oleksandr, who had joined the Pallottines, purchased a house in Zhytomyr’s Malovanka district. Initially a venue for meetings and a place of rest for priests and visitors from other countries, it later became the centre of Pallottine life in Zhytomyr.

In August 1990, two newly ordained Pallottine priests, Jarosław Olszewski SAC and Stanisław Firut SAC, arrived in Zhytomyr from Poland. Fr Andrzej Bafeltowski SAC followed in 1991. From 1993 to 1995, the house in Malovanka stood empty, with no permanent residents. Only after Fr Jarosław Olszewski’s return in 1995 did pastoral work and further development of a new chapel begin there.

With the help of an active parishioner, Mr Anton Sviderskyi, Divine Mercy Parish was registered in Malovanka on 28 March 1995. In 1997, the city authorities allocated land for a new church, but a lack of funds prevented construction from starting. On 6 May 1997, the diocesan bishop, Jan Purwiński, blessed the newly built chapel in the Pallottine house in Malovanka.

Another stage of development began in autumn 2005, after Fr Jarosław Olszewski returned once again. He resumed preparing the documents necessary to build a church on the previously allocated plot. In 2006, the city authorities formally leased it to the parish.

On 23 June 2007, Jan Purwiński, Bishop of Kyiv-Zhytomyr, blessed the land intended for the church, whose construction continues to this day. The chapel was blessed on 18 October 2013.

Source: Official parish website