A huge lake full of fish appeared in a time of starvation

Pilgrimage of the Icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Kazakhstan
Report of Fr. Ioan Chișărău, President of Gift of Life Association, Romania 

During 14-26 October 2016, at the invitation His Eminence Archbishop of Astana, Tomash Peta, the Icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Protectress of unborn children, had been present in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet Republic which gained independence from the USSR in 1992.

A huge country with an area of 2,724,900 km², about as large as the entire Western Europe but with a population of only 17,8 million people.

Most residents are Muslims (12 million), but there is also a strong Christian community, about 4,000,000 Christians, most of which Russian-Orthodox and a small minority of Catholics (Roman and Greek Catholics) about 250,000. Most Catholics have left after the collapse of the USSR and most of the German Catholics have emigrated in Germany (about 1 million).

It is interesting how the Catholic community in Kazakhstan was founded, because through this we can see that God never forgets the labors of his servants even if it seems to us that sometimes delays His answer.

Between 13th-14th centuries these territories of Kazakhstan were ministered by Giovanni of Montecorvino, a famous missionary who founded the 31 Catholic Dioceses in Far East Asia, one of these exists in today’s Kazakhstan territory.

But the vicissitudes of history made this Diocese disappear, and for 600 years, there was no Catholic Bishop in Kazakhstan. After 600 years, God remembered his people from Kazakhstan and after the collapse of the USSR, they founded a Catholic Archdiocese in Astana, two dioceses in Karaganda and Almaty and an Apostolic Administration in Atyrau, while the Catholic population here is composed of former deportees during the Stalinist tyranny. In 1936 the dictator Stalin deported hundreds of thousands of Catholic families, many of whom have arrived in Kazakhstan. Here they were deported to a concentration camp as big as France!!!

Here’s how the good God, from a great evil which Stalin did, has achieved a great good, renewing a Church after 600 years.

An extraordinary beautiful Church with good and pious priests and bishops, especially Tomash, Archbishop of Astana.

From the first day of her arrival in October 15, the Icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe, was already exposed in the Roman-Catholic Cathedral of Astana and Sunday, October 16, a Solemn Mass was celebrated in the presence of His Eminence Archbishop Tomash.

Inside the Cathedral exists a Chapel of Perpetual Adoration in which participate both lay people and sisters from various Catholic Congregations active in Astana. I attended a lecture about the Icon just inside where St. John Paul II celebrated the Holy Mass in Astana during his visit to Kazakhstan in 2001. Among those who attended the conference, there were few Muslims.

Monday, October 17, His Eminence Tomash called out all the sisters of the Catholic communities working in the Archdiocese, for a Pro-Life conference. After meal there was a procession of atonement with the Icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe, about 3 km from the former Soviet extermination camp, Algir, to the Catholic Church where we celebrated Holy Mass. His Eminence Tomash also participated at procession even if it was piercing cold.

I left the capital Astana and together with the franciscan priest Pawel Block I visited various parishes in different cities and towns, some at considerable distances. I estimated we traveled about 2,000 km across the Archdiocese of Astana.

In some parishes we have made the procession with the Icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe in atonement for the sin of abortion (see pictures), but in all parishes (what impressed me very much) one hour before the Holy Mass, the Blessed Sacrament was exposed, and people prayed the Holy Rosary.

Another interesting characteristic is that the people receive Holy Communion under both species while kneeling. (See pictures)

Here are some cities where the Holy Icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe arrived: Petroparlosk, Kochketon, Kellerora, Chkalovo, Tayinsha, Makinsk, Shchuchinsk, Novokutonka etc.

We ended our pilgrimaje at the Church of Oziornoe because there exists a National Sanctuary of the Church of Kazakhstan and of the whole Central Asia.

Here Our Lady made an extraordinary miracle during the last World War.

Oziornoe was a village composed of deported Poles, thet arrived there with Stalin’s decree in 1936. In 1941, when war broke out between Nazi Germany and the USSR, Stalin ordered to put all food in requisition, especially from deported people, which led to the starvation of the population in many areas were the people were deported. Poor deported Poles were threatened by starvation. But some residents from Oziornoe remembered the power of the Rosary and began to pray fervently, first individually, in houses, then in groups of families. In time the whole community prayed the Rosary…

And behold, suddenly, one night, near their village, a huge lake was formed, filled with fish that locals began to fish, but the fish in the lake did not decrease… So other residents from the surroundings found out and they came for fish, sometimes from about 600 km away.

This miracle lasted so four years, exactly in the period when war and hunger were in the region … Everyone was fishing in the lake, but the fish did not decrease. I mention that no other river or brook that flows in the lake.

Once hunger has passed, the lake began to diminish gradually until it became a small pond. In the center of the former lake was raised a pedestal with a statue of the Virgin Mary with a fish net in Her hand.

This year, the 75th anniversary of the miracle of the multiplication of the fish, the lake filled again for the first time after 75 years. No one knows the meaning of this new formation of the lake, maybe the future will tell us why at Oziornoe the Lord filled the lake again with water just now…

This Icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe arrived at the Enclosed Carmelite Sisters (see picture) who were very happy to receive it, then we celebrated Holy Mass at the Sanctuary of the Holy Mother in Oziornoe.

Interesting is that the whole Kazakhstan is consacrated to Holy Mary, Queen of Peace, and we can say that the Church of Oziornoe is a miniature of the Church from Medugorje.

On a hill near the Sanctuary (about 10 km) exists a Cross made of stone, identical with that from Krizevac, Medugorje. Unfortunately I could not pray there the Way of Cross because of the piercing cold (-10° C), especially of the driving wind that blows with power in the Kazakh steppe.

In conclusion I think this pilgrimage of Our Lady of Guadalupe showed once again the power of the Holy Mary to gather God’s people under Her sceptre. Not only Catholics came to the Icon, but also Orthodox, Protestants and even Muslims, as it happened in India when Hindu people came to worship the Icon.

What can I say at the end? Only this: if Our Lady of Guadalupe was able to convert to Catholicism an entire pagan nation as the Aztecs, why would She not do the same with the Kazakh people?

What would Our Lady not obtain from her Beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ?