Ukraine is a secular state, but some religious holidays have become an integral part of the lives of our citizens, regardless of their religion. For many centuries, one of the most revered and beloved holidays has been the Intercession of the Mother of God, whose history in our land began in the distant tenth century and gained particular development during the Zaporizhzhia Sich. According to the historian and archaeologist Dmytro Yavornytskyi, the first wooden church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Sich was built in 1576. The Cossacks considered the Virgin to be their patroness. It was on this day that the Cossack army gatherings were held to elect the Cossack otaman. The Mother of God was also depicted on the banners under which the Cossacks marched. Her icon was in every Cossack kurin’. Before each campaign, they would kneel down to pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary: “We run to Your mercy.” The well-known Ukrainian ethnographer Oleksa Voropai wrote that after Ekaterina II destroyed the Zaporozhian Sich, the Cossacks, going across the Danube, carried with them an icon of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a sign that even after losing the Sich, the soldiers did not lose their faith.

In the twentieth century, faith sustained the morale of the soldiers of the UPR army in 1917-1920, who adopted the military symbolism of this holiday, and in the 1940s the UIA soldiers also began to consider the Intercession as their patroness. Continuing the traditions of our glorious ancestors, it is on the Intercession Day that we have been celebrating the Day of the Ukrainian Cossacks since 1999, and since 2015 – the Day of Defenders of Ukraine as a symbol of the unbreakable bond between all generations of Ukrainians who have fought for our independence with honor and dignity for centuries, and now, 33 years after its restoration, continue to defend our land from the Russian invasion.

With great gratitude to those who are now on the front line and wishing them a speedy return from the campaign with victory, as well as with a bright memory of those who gave their lives for this struggle, we offer to get acquainted with the works of Feodosii Humeniuk – Shevchenko Prize laureate (1993), member of the Union of Artists (1993), Honored Artist of Ukraine (1995), professor of the Kyiv Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design named after Mykhailo Boichuk (2003), People’s Artist of Ukraine (2009).

Born in 1941 in Vinnytsia region and spending his youth in Dnipropetrovs’k, the works of Feodosii Humeniuk are almost always dedicated to the historical past of Ukraine, its rituals and beliefs, and its great figures.

According to the artist Hryhorii Mishchenko: “In Humeniuk’s historical paintings, the presence of a special solemn mood adds a peculiar context to them. Probably, because the work on historical themes absorbed the artist’s reflections on everything that has happened and is happening in Ukraine through a look into the past…”.

In order to understand the artist’s paintings, it is important to dive into the context of their creation. After all, he began working on his own style in 1972 with the painting “Loyalty to Ukraine” during the so-called Briezhniev stagnation, when free thinking and formalism, and even more so, conscious manifestations of thoughts about national revival could be very severely punished. At that time, the artist lived in Leningrad (where he graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Painting named after I. Repin) and united with local nonconformist artists. He took part in official and unofficial exhibitions with paintings that were clearly dominated by his involvement in the tradition of Ukrainian painting, for which he was soon persecuted and deprived of his residence permit. He returned to Dnipropetrovs’k, but it turned out that artists in their native land were subjected to even greater persecution and pressure, so he was forced to return to Leningrad, where, paradoxically, he could freely use literature and historical documents banned in Ukraine in local museums and libraries. This included information about the life and work of the Boichukists. This strengthened his confidence in the correctness of his path. After the restoration of independence, he returned to Ukraine, where he lives to this day.

“Humeniuk addresses us constantly – this is the activity of his art, which gives us hope and strengthens our faith. Perhaps this is the strongest thing we should expect from art, and the most honorable thing for an artist, when he dares to create for the people, touching the depths of their history and culture. Humeniuk’s work can only be described as a dedication, because in his 1988 painting Dedication he himself programs the sacredness of the oath to be faithful to truth and goodness, because otherwise human activity in society loses its meaning.” – Volodymyr Ovsiichuk, Doctor of Art History.