Uncovering of the relics of Holy Princess Juliana Olshanskaya
After the annexation of Kiev to Lithuania, the city was ruled by the Olshansky family of princes. In the first quarter of the XVI century one of them, Prince Yuri Dubrovitsky-Olshansky, had a daughter, Juliana, who reposed as a virgin at the age of sixteen. Her father was a benefactor of the Kiev Caves Lavra, and that is why the body of the Princess was buried near the church of the Great Lavra.
On July 6, 1540 in the time of Archimandrite Elisha Pletenets of the Caves1 some monks were digging a grave for a certain virgin who had reposed in Kiev, near the Dormition Cathedral, in front of the chapel of Saint John the Forerunner. Suddenly, they found a coffin containing the incorrupt body of a girl. On a silver tablet of the coffin was an inscription: "Juliana, Princess Olshanskaya, who reposed in her sixteenth year." The Princess lay in the coffin as if alive, in a white dress, sheathed in gold, with many precious ornaments. She appeared to be alive, as if she had just fallen asleep, and her relics were transferred to the Great Lavra church.
Many miracles and grace-filled healings occurred at the shrine with Saint Juliana's relics. One example was when a thief snuck into the church and stole a precious ring from her relics, but as soon as he left the church, he cried out in a loud voice and dropped dead.
One day, in the XVII century, Saint Juliana appeared to Archimandrite Peter Mogila2 of Saint Michael's Monastery in Kiev, and reproached him for his lack of reverence and for neglecting her relics. She told him, "I am Juliana, whose relics lie in the church of the Caves. You regard my relics as nothing. Therefore, the Lord is sending you a sign so that you may understand that God has numbered me among the Holy Virgins who have pleased Him."
After that, the Archimandrite ordered her relics to be placed in a precious shrine with the inscription: "According to the will of the Creator of Heaven and Earth, Juliana, the helper and great intercessor in Heaven, ... rests here for all time. Here are the bones ... healing all the passions ... You adorn Paradise, Juliana, like a beautiful flower....”
Since that time, the veneration of Saint Juliana has increased more than ever before.
In 1718, a fire in the Dormition church made it necessary for the Saint's relics to be moved to another church. Her relics were placed in a new shrine and moved to the Near Caves of the Kiev Caves Lavra. The Holy Righteous Virgin Juliana was the second of the holy women of Russia to be buried in the Lavra's Caves. Saint Juliana is depicted in the Icon of the Synaxis of the Holy Fathers of the Kiev Caves Lavra.
Saint Juliana is the first helper of Russian women for healing afflictions of the soul, offering supplications for them before the Lord's Most Pure Mother, together with other Saints of the Russian land, and with the Theotokos, before the Throne of the Most Holy Trinity. Let us pray to the Holy Righteous Virgin Juliana, Princess of Olshansk, for her earthly sisters – the women of Russia, so that she may help to heal their souls, and to find spiritual joy and comfort.
1 Some sources say that he was the Igoumen between 1599–1624.
2 The future Metropolitan of Kiev.