- This is Saint Javelin.
She's the unofficial saint of the Ukrainian resistance
against the Russian invasion --
a re-imagined image of the Virgin Mary
holding a weapon of war.
You can see her on Ukrainian soldiers' uniforms
and in resistance artwork throughout
the devastated country.
Even Ukrainian President Zelenskyy
has a Saint Javelin T-shirt. - A foreigner.
He came up with this image of Saint Javelin.
Saint Javelin made specially for you.
- He's raised over $1 million for Ukraine, going to charities,
Zelenskyy's drone program,
and other needs for the Ukrainian army.
- Now this is cool.
- But Saint Javelin started out as a meme.
- I wanted to take this meme that I had seen online.
And my goal was, like, to raise 500 bucks.
I thought I'd sell, you know, 50 of them
or something like that at 10 bucks a piece.
So I put up a really simple website,
took my like 30 minutes.
We got two orders.
I woke up the next morning, it did $1,000.
And then the next day, it was $5,000.
- Searches for Saint Javelin increased 100 times
by early March 2022.
People on the front lines of Ukraine
started thanking her for protecting them.
- My goal really is, like, let's make this a global brand
that is made in Ukraine, employs Ukrainians.
- But Christian Borys wanted to do more than just send funds,
so he started planning trips to Ukraine
to create more Saint Javelin merchandise
with local artists and manufacturers.
Together, they have turned Saint Javelin into a $1 million meme.
- Yesterday, we went viral again,
because I just shared a picture of,
like, the "Made in Ukraine" tag.
A friend of mine said that he was at the airport,
and he was wearing this shirt,
and somebody just yelled, "Saint Javelin!"
And then they came up, and they hugged each other.
- So why is it that the Virgin Mary
seems to resonate with so many during war?
- There's a rise in fact
of these sort of miraculous images of Mary
that tend to happen in times of tremendous
social uncertainty and upheaval.
- Saint Javelin isn't the first time a symbol of Mary
has been used to symbolize a resistance.
During the French Revolution, World War II,
and other major conflicts, throughout history,
Mary was one of several saints consistently called upon
to protect those in battle.
- She's an image of comfort and of care and protection.
And I don't know about you, but in times of crisis,
we want a sense of being protected
or that we can be empowered ourselves.
- It's what I want people to understand, like,
it's not supposed to be a religious scandal,
it's supposed to be a symbol of support.
- Though, Borys says he didn't co-opt the image of Mary
to make any particular connection
to history or religion.
Her features in the javelin meme make her identity unmistakable.
- The halo, instead of being gold,
it becomes replaced with blue
but also with the yellow trident of Ukraine.
- Unique from other depictions of Mary throughout history,
Saint Javelin's most iconic feature
is right there in her name.
She's holding a javelin, a guided anti-tank missile
that's been essential to Ukraine's defense.
- I think the reason why that image resonates
and why it works so well is, the Mother Mary obviously is,
you know, a symbol of moral support,
and then the javelin is a tangible,
physical symbol of Western support of Ukraine.
- There's so many easy ways, you know,
to show you are the aggressor.
And everything about this image subverts that.
Ukraine is presented as someone holy, submissive, non-combative,
just seeking divine protection
and the protection of its friends.
- Initially, funds went to a non-profit called
Help Us Help Charity,
a Canadian organization operating in Ukraine
that helps the families of killed soldiers and veterans.
For a time, all the money raised by Saint Javelin
went directly to Ukraine's drone program.
Borys and his team officially partnered with UNITED24,
the general staff of the Armed Forces
and the Ministry of Digital Transformation
to raise money for the country's Army of Drones project.
Now they're shifting focus to raise another $1 million
to purchase winter gear for units of the Ukrainian army.
- It's like a morning show.
Somebody just said an article in Polish about us.
- It makes me feel like I'm doing something very direct
to help the relief effort in Ukraine.
- My friends, even, they don't know
that I'm a part of Saint Javelin.
They know the result.
- So, while war isn't new, and the use of Mary in wartime
certainly isn't new,
the online presence of the war in Ukraine is a new phenomenon.
And that's why Borys thinks Saint Javelin
has garnered a massive following.
- We're going from, like, meme factory
to everything made in Ukraine.
We -- I have no idea what the...
we're doing, but we're trying to make it up as well
as possible.