A Baptism in Zaporizhzhia

A Baptism in Zaporizhzhia

From the darkness of imprisonment in Russia to the light of God’s love

(ANS – Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine – January 14, 2026) – “This Baptism has an important meaning not only for the personal life of the person who received it, but for the entire community of Zaporizhzhia. It is a sign of hope: the evil that tries to envelop our lives and extinguish the light of God’s love in our hearts is, in reality, powerless. Whatever evil we may encounter is never stronger than God’s love, which attracts, accompanies and guides man.” With these words, Bishop Maksym Ryabukha, Salesian of Don Bosco, bishop of the Greek Catholic Exarchate of Donetsk, recounted the Baptism he celebrated a few days ago in Zaporizhzhia: the recipient was a Ukrainian soldier, a former prisoner in Russian jails who had been freed. The Salesian prelate spoke about it on the occasion of the liturgical memorial of the Baptism of Jesus, last Sunday, January 11.

The “story” features a soldier who was defending his homeland and who, at a certain point, became a prisoner of war. “After months of torture and after experiencing all the drama that this experience entails,” says the Greek Catholic bishop of Donetsk, “it is inevitable that a person begins to reflect on the meaning of life, on the meaning of sacrifice and suffering. All this often leads to a search for a higher power, a search for God, someone who is beyond and above the human drama of existence.” The search for God becomes particularly intense when one is experiencing great suffering. “I believe,” Bishop Ryabukha notes, “that his interest in God was born precisely during his period of captivity.”

“After the grace of being freed following a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine, he returned home, but that deep search for God remained in his heart,” the prelate continued.

At that moment, something in his life had changed. He began to seek out other people who had experienced imprisonment, those who had the courage to speak about that drama and the strength to promote a rediscovery of God. His search is intertwined with another story, that of Fr. Bohdan Heleta, a Redemptorist religious who, together with another confrere, Fr. Ivan Levytskyi, was imprisoned in Russian jails for a year and eight months, sharing that tragedy with many others, military and non-military. In short, “a prisoner among prisoners.” After that experience, Fr. Heleta became the promoter of an initiative: a program of help and support, including spiritual support, for those who had lived through the same experience.

The soldier found the announcement and decided to participate. And, upon returning home, he contacted the parish priest of one of the Greek Catholic churches in Zaporizhzhia and asked to be baptized, as he had never been baptized. He had grown up in an atheist family of Soviet tradition and had never asked himself the question of seeking God. For two months, Fr. Oleksandr Bohomaz prepared him to receive the sacrament. It was a journey of light and inner liberation. “Through reading the Holy Scriptures,” says the bishop, “he discovered the wonderful plan that God has for humanity and the paternal love with which he accompanies every step of man throughout millennia of history. All this made him fall even more in love with God and gave him the courage to say “yes” to becoming a Christian, to recognizing himself as a child of God and to the desire to follow in the footsteps of Jesus from now on.”

His Baptism becomes a message of hope for the whole community. Bishop Ryabukha therefore describes it as “a small sign of victory: God’s victory over the evil we experience in our daily lives. A victory that brings strong hope which gives meaning to life and even to suffering. I believe that Jesus has never abandoned any of us. What we sang and experienced a few days ago at Christmas, proclaiming that God is with us, Emmanuel, has become alive and present in the life of this man. And for all of us, this is also one more reason to feel and express gratitude to God.”

Source: SIR