[2] The village is known for its icon of the Mother of God, reputed to work miracles, and is a popular site of pilgrimage, attracting Ukrainians both from the country as well as the diaspora scattered around the world.

In 1240, a monk fled the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, which was devastated by a Mongol invasion, and stopped in a secluded valley to drink water from a spring and pray to the Blessed Virgin.

News of the miraculous icon spread among the local population and reached the gravely sick duke of Terebovlia Vasylko (brother of the only Ukrainian king Danylo of Halych).

In 1867 Pope Pius IX granted Zarvanytsia the status of a sanctuary and the icon of the Mother of God was crowned, thanks to the efforts of local priest Fr Porfiriy Mandyczewsky.

Despite this, the Catacomb Church continued to function here, with the icons safely hidden and Divine Liturgy celebrated in private houses or the surrounding forests and even a secret seminary opened in 1975.

With the imminent collapse of the Soviet Union on 17 July 1988, over 10,000 faithful gathered in Zarvanytsia to commemorate the millennium of Christianity in Ukraine, celebrated by Bishop Pavlo Vasylyk.

During the pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Ukraine in 2001, he prayed before the icon of the Mother of God of Zarvanytsia in the church of St. Nicholas the Miracle Worker on Askoldova Mohyla in Kyiv.

The new church, largest in the Podolia and visible far outside the village and well inscribed into the landscape, has a single nave Byzantine cross-dome plan with five cupolas representing Christ and the four Evangelists.

Along with the gates, the church of Annunciation, bell tower and chapels it has been built largely by donations from the Ukrainian diaspora as the country's economic situation is still ravaged by extreme poverty.