VIRGIN MARY AND THE BORDER: IDENTITY POLITICS OF THE GREEK CATHOLIC CHURCH AT THE UKRAINIAN/SLOVAK BORDERLAND

The article analyses two apparitions of the Virgin Mary that presently take place on the two sides of the Ukrainian/Slovak border, within the context of church-state relations. In both cases the visionaries are members of the Greek Catholic Church and the authorities of this church have the main say in negotiations over the validity of the visionaries' experiences and over the status of pilgrimage sites that presently emerge. Although until the end of the World War II the territory, on which the apparitions take place, was under jurisdiction of one church administrative unit (Mukachevo Eparchy), at present they happen in two different states and come under jurisdiction of two different Greek Catholic bishops. The article argues that different organisation of church-state relations, especially in their financial aspect, is an important, if not decisive, factor accounting for difference in church hierarchy's treatment of the apparitions on the two sites of the border.