CANADA COURIER: The many faces of sainthood (12/17/95)

CANADA COURIER

by Christopher Guly

The many faces of sainthood

Beyond its publishers - the Ukrainian Catholic Brotherhood of Canada (UCBC's) seniors' club - one person who especially hopes the book, "Words of the Servant of God: Metropolitan Sheptytsky," sells is the Rev. Andriy Chirovsky.

The director of the Ottawa-based Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at St. Paul University heads an academic center that bears the Ukrainian prelate's name, and the thesis of his 1990 doctorate in theology examined the mystical wisdom of the metropolitan.

"His gift of gentleness entered into so many different facets of the life of Ukrainian Catholics," explained the Rev. Chirovsky. "He loved his people deeply, and you just have to look at the breadth of the pastoral letters he issued to see how. They covered everything from hygiene to the steps to follow in leading to [Ukrainian] nationhood."

Roman Maria Alexander Sheptytsky, born a count in western Ukraine in 1865, went on to become metropolitan of Lviv, where he died in 1944 at the age of 79. Before his father allowed him to become a Basilian monk, the young Sheptytsky served in the Austrian Army, earned a doctorate of laws (he later received two others in theology and philosophy), and traveled throughout Europe. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1892.

Throughout his episcopal career, which began in 1899 when he was consecrated bishop of Stanyslaviv (today's Ivano-Frankivske), the metropolitan blended philanthropy with the pastoral process the Rev. Chirovsky celebrates. As a count, he transferred some of the wealth from his family's funds into the construction of hospitals, orphanages and co-ops. As a pastor, Metropolitan Sheptytsky spent much time with pen and paper in hand.

During the first Soviet occupation of Ukraine between 1939 and 1941, his pastoral letters urged resistance to atheism. During the subsequent Nazi occupation, he sent a letter to German Gestapo leader Heinrich Himmler condemning the persecution of Jews.

But the UCBC is focusing more on the metropolitan's spiritual writings. Specifically, two works, "On Prayer," written in 1932, and "The Gift of Pentecost," penned in 1937, form the basis of the new Canadian-printed tome. A group of men involved with the brotherhood, along with two Ukrainian Catholic priests in Britain, devoted two and a half years to translate the essays from Ukrainian to English into a 200-page, illustrated hard-cover book.

They printed 1,200 copies, which sell for $15 plus postage, and have distributed 800 to English-speaking Latin-rite Roman Catholic hierarchs around the world.

"We see this as being a stepping stone to declare Metropolitan Sheptytsky a saint," explained Michael Cybulsky, one of the book's translators. Rumors abound that Pope John Paul II may use next year's 400th anniversary of the Union of Brest - when Eastern Ukrainian Orthodox bishops from the Kyivan region pledged their allegiance to Rome - to fast track the former metropolitan of Lviv from Servant of God status to sainthood. (Ironically, the See of Lviv, which Metropolitan Sheptytsky administered from 1900 to 1941, did not join Rome until a century later.)

Although Ukrainian Catholics had lobbied the Vatican to beatify Metropolitan Sheptytsky as early as 1950, the process stopped in 1968 when Paul VI offered the Ukrainian Catholic archbishop his only distinction to date.

But some members of the community don't feel they have to wait for Rome to confer saintly status on Ukraine's 6-foot-7-inch "gentle giant." The Rev. Chirovsky suggests that other Ukrainian saints, such as Prince Volodymyr and his grandmother, Olha, were never canonized, but were given that status by the ancient, Eastern-rite authority of the Church. "Thousands of people are praying to, not praying for, Metropolitan Sheptytsky, today," he said.

And while Ukrainian Catholics are campaigning for Andrey Sheptytsky's cause, they might wish to consider Josyf Kobernytsky-Dychkowsky Slipyj's.

Another physically imposing figure, Metropolitan Sheptytsky's successor virtually administered the see in pectore, while serving time in Soviet concentration camps. He, too, might be worthy of sainthood, said the Rev. Chirovsky.

"While Metropolitan Sheptytsky was gentle, Patriarch [which is what the cardinal and his followers called him, though Rome would not] Josyf could be one of the most ornery creatures on the face of the planet. But like John the Baptist, who had an awful personality and would refer to people as a 'brood of vipers,' Jesus said there was no greater man than John. People confuse etiquette with sainthood. Just because someone is a nice guy doesn't make him a saint. And just because someone is not so nice a guy, that doesn't qualify him either," said the Rev. Chirovsky.

The Ottawa professor got to know Cardinal Slipyj, who died in Rome in 1984 at the age of 92, as a student. Despite the white-bearded man's crusty nature, the 39-year-old priest noted that he would "die for that man."

Worrying that polarizing the two great metropolitans' personalities belittle their legacy, the Rev. Chirovsky added, "I have dedicated my life to seeing that their vision and their legacy be put to work in our Church, for the sake of the Church's renewal. They are the two guiding lights of my life."

Indeed, the heroism of both Ukrainian primates - one a Servant of God, the other considered a martyr-like Confessor of the Faith - speaks for itself in both their ecclesiastical and secular worlds.

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