THE PAPAL VISIT TO UKRAINE, JUNE 23-27, 2001
Biographies of Ukraine's newly beatified martyrs and servants of God
CONCLUSION
Following are biographical materials prepared by the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. The information is organized in chronological order.
SECOND ASSAULT
The prospect of the return of Soviet power to western Ukraine after the defeat of the German Army on the Eastern Front led the hierarchy and faithful of the UGCC to fear for the fate of the Church. All too painful were the still fresh memories of the violence of the Communist regime against the conscience of the faithful during the previous Soviet conquest of less than two years.
"The Bolshevik Army is approaching ... This news fills all the faithful with fear. Everyone ... is convinced that they are destined for certain death."
- From a letter of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky to Cardinal Tisserand on March 22, 1944.
"Because she was a nun"
Nun and Martyr Sister Tarsykiya Matskiv was born on March 23, 1919 in the village of Khodoriv, Lviv District. On May 3, 1938 she entered the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate. After professing her first vows on November 5, 1940, she worked in the convent, sewing clothes for the sisters and teaching the skill to others. Even prior to the Bolshevik arrival in Lviv, Sister Tarsykiya had made a private oath to her spiritual director, Father Volodymyr Kovalyk OSBM, that she would sacrifice her life for the conversion of Russia and for the good of the Catholic Church.
On July 17, 1944 Soviet soldiers surrounded the monastery, determined to destroy it. At 8 a.m. Sister opened the door, expecting a priest who was supposed to celebrate the liturgy. Without warning an automatic shot her dead. All her life she witnessed to the authenticity of the consecrated life. She died a martyr for the faith.
"Suddenly the bell at the gate rang. We thought it was the priest. Sister Tarsykia opened the door, asked Sister Maria for the key to the front door and went to the main entrance. Then a shot rang out and Sister Tarsykia fell down dead. The soldier who shot her did not really explain why he did it. Later they said that he said he killed her because she was a nun."
- From the testimony of Sister Daria Hradiuk.
Friendly missionary
Priest and Martyr Father Vitalii Bairak was born on February 24, 1907 in the village of Shvaikivtsy, Ternopil District. In 1924 he entered the Basilian monastery. He was ordained a priest on August 13, 1933. In 1941 he was appointed superior of the Drohobych monastery, in place of the recently martyred Father Yakym (Senkivskyi).
On September 17, 1945 the NKVD arrested Father Vitalii and on November 13 sentenced him to eight years' imprisonment "with confiscation of property" (though he had none). In life he was distinguished for his friendliness, his activeness in mission and preaching. He possessed the gift of spiritual direction. He died a martyr for the faith just before Easter 1946 after having been severely beaten in the Drohobych prison.
"Living in the territory that had been temporarily occupied by German forces..., he wrote an article with a negative position towards the Bolshevik Party, which had been published in the anti-Soviet calendar Misionar ["Missionary"] in 1942."
- From the personal file of V. V. Bairak in the archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Father-psalmist
Priest and Martyr Father Roman Lysko was born on August 14, 1914 in Horodok, Lviv District. He finished his theological studies at the Lviv Theological Academy. Possessing special poetic and artistic talents, he and his wife joyfully conducted youth ministry together. On August 28, 1941 he was ordained to the priesthood by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky.
He refused to sign a statement of conversion to Orthodoxy, remaining faithful to his Church and his people. On September 9, 1949 he was arrested by the NKVD and imprisoned in Lviv. Until 1956, according to information given after his family had been turned away many times, it was said that he died on October 14, 1949 from paralysis of the heart. But many witnesses report that they saw him in prison later, or they heard him singing psalms at the top of his lungs. It was reported that they sealed him up, alive, in a wall. He gave his life as a martyr for the faith. "He was imprisoned on Lontskyi Street. His mother brought him some packages. Sometimes his grandmother came from Zhulychi to visit him. At first the packages were accepted. The prisoner always had a right to thank the giver with the same card [with which the package was sent]. These cards were always sent back, even the bags in which they usually put packages. And there were always those cards, on which he wrote, 'Thank you. Many kisses,' and signed it.
"After the murder of Galan [a Communist agitator], they refused to accept the packages. But after six months when they started to accept packages again, then the relatives found a card with 'Thanks' and a signature written, but in a stranger's hand. It was a completely different handwriting."
- From an interview with his niece Lidia Kupchyk.
LIQUIDATION BY THE STATE
Immediately after the Red Army returned to western Ukraine in the summer of 1944 the previous limitations imposed on the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church were renewed. But the great authority possessed by the whole Church and its head, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, forced the state during the first period to avoid direct confrontation. The war with Nazi Germany was finishing, and the spiritual father of the Church and the people, Servant of God Andrey, passed into eternity in the odor of sanctity on November 1, 1944.
Then the Soviet security services prepared a special plan "for detachment of parishes of the Greek-Catholic (Uniate) Church in the USSR from the Vatican and their subsequent unification with the Russian Orthodox Church." This plan carried out Stalin's direct order and received his praise. On April 11, 1945 with no proof of guilt, Metropolitan Josyf Slipyj, Bishops Hryhorii Khomyshyn, Nykyta Budka, Mykola Charnetskyi and Ivan Liatyshevskyi were arrested. Soon after that the Bishops of Przemsyl, Josaphat Kotsylovsky and Hryhory Lakota, about 500 priests all over western Ukraine, in addition, almost all eparchial officials, professors of the Theological Academy and seminaries, the most gifted pastors.
With the combined efforts of party and government structures, the police organs and the Orthodox hierarchy, by means of open terror and false demagoguery, the "liquidation of the union" was proclaimed in 1946 in western Ukraine in the so-called "Lviv pseudo-Sobor ["Council"]" and in 1949 in Transcarpathia. Regardless of the persecution, the authorities were not able to break the will of the bishops and to convince one of them to renounce his Church for a career in the Church of the "regime," the Russian Orthodox Church. "...Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death ... At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." (Gospel of St. Matthew 24: 9-14)
Unbending fighter
Bishop and Martyr Hryhorii Khomyshyn was born on March 25, 1867 in the village of Hadynkivtsi, Ternopil District. After graduating from the Lviv seminary in 1893, he was ordained to the priesthood. He continued his theological studies in Vienna (1894-1899), earning a doctorate. In 1902, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky appointed Father Hryhorii rector of the Seminary in Lviv, and in 1904 he was ordained bishop of Ivano-Frankivsk.
In 1939, he was arrested for the first time by the NKVD. His second arrest was in April of 1945, after which he was taken to Kyiv's Lukianivska prison. Bishop Hryhorii remained an example for the Church of the bravery of a soldier of Christ, showing perseverance in God's truth in the most difficult moments of life. He died a martyr for the faith in the infirmary of the NKVD prison in Kyiv on January 17, 1947.
"At the Kyiv prison the interrogations were conducted by Interrogator Dubok. He was a horrible sadist. He investigated my case too This Dubok told me himself how he had killed the bishop: 'So you, Khomyshyn, spoke out against communism?' The bishop, as always, replied resolutely: 'I did and I will'. 'Did you fight against the Soviet authority? "Yes, I did and I will!' Then Dubok became outraged and grabbed some books written by the bishop, which lay on the table in front of him, and started cruelly beating His Excellency with them, on his head and everywhere else."
- From the testimony of Father Petro Heryliuk-Kupchynskyi.
Undying spirit of the Carpathians
Bishop and Martyr Theodore Romzha was born on April 14, 1911, in the village of Velykyi Bychkiv, Zakarpattia to a family of railroad workers. He finished his theological studies at the Papal Gregorian University in Rome. In 1938 he became pastor in the mountain villages of Berezevo and Nyzhnii Bystryi outside of Khust. Beginning with the fall of 1939 he taught philosophy and was spiritual director at the Uzhorod seminary. On September 24, 1944, soon after the arrival of the Soviet Army, he was ordained to the episcopacy.
Because Bishop Theodore bravely refused to cooperate with the authorities in the liquidation of the Greek-Catholic Church and separate from the Roman Apostolic See, government organs decided to destroy him. On October 27, 1947 a military vehicle ran into the bishop's horse-carriage. When the soldiers saw that he didn't die in the accident, they beat him and his companions into unconsciousness. On November 1 of that year when Bishop Theodore was beginning to recover, he was poisoned in the Mukachiv hospital by workers cooperating with the security services. He died a martyr for the faith.
"According to the instructions of Khruschev, a member of the Politburo (Central Committee of the Communist Party) of Ukraine and the first secretary of the same, according to the plan developed by the Ministry of State Security in Ukraine and approved by Khruschev, Romzha was eliminated in Mukachiv. As the head of the Greek-Catholic Church, he had actively opposed the uniting of Greek-Catholics to Orthodoxy."
- From a letter of Pavlo Sudoplatov, general of state security, to delegates of the 23rd Assembly of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
"Deported" into eternity
Bishop and Martyr Josaphat Kotsylovsky was born on March 3, 1876 in the village of Pakoshivka, Lemkiv District. He graduated with a degree in Theology from Rome in 1907, and later on October 9 of that year he was ordained to the priesthood. Not long after that he was appointed vice-rector and professor of Theology at the Ivano-Frankivsk seminary. In 1911 he entered the novitiate of the Basilian order. He was ordained a bishop on September 23, 1917 in Przemysl (Peremyshl) upon the return of Metropolitan Andrey (Sheptytsky) from captivity in Russia.
In September of 1945 the Polish Communist authorities arrested him and on June 26, 1946, after his next arrest, they forcibly took him to the USSR and placed him in a prison in Kyiv. Throughout his life he showed his perseverance of service, to make the Christian faith firm and to grow in human souls. He died a martyr for the faith on November 17, 1947 in the Chapaivka concentration camp near Kyiv.
"I came to Protection Monastery and the hegumena [prioress] told me the story. When they arrested Bishop Kotsylovsky they arrested their Orthodox bishop of Kyiv at the same time. When they brought a package to Chapaivka, that Orthodox bishop said: 'Uniate Bishop Josaphat Kotsylovsky is confined in the same camp with me.' And he asked those nuns, if they could, to bring a package to Bishop Josaphat as well. So they brought a package for the one bishop and for the other ... Once when she brought a package, the bishop said that Kotsylovsky had died. And he asked her, because the dead were all thrown into one hole, if they could borrow some money or get some money somewhere. He asked her 'to bury him in a separate grave, because this was a holy man."
- From the testimony of Father Josaphat Kavatsivo.
Archpastor in three parts of the world
Bishop and martyr Nykyta Budka was born on June 7, 1877, in the village of Dobomirka, Zbarazh District. In 1905 after finishing theological studies in Vienna and Innsbruck he was ordained to the priesthood by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. From the very beginning he gave great attention to the ministry for Ukrainian emigrants. The Holy See appointed him first bishop for Ukrainian Catholics in Canada in July 1912, and he was ordained bishop on October 14, 1912. In 1928 he returned to Lviv and became vicar general of the Metropolitan Curia in Lviv.
On April 11, 1945, he was imprisoned together with other bishops and sentenced to eight years imprisonment. He was the embodiment of constant consolation and spiritual support for his fellow prisoners in the labor camp. He died a martyr for the faith in Karaganda, Kazakstan, on October 1, 1949.
"The nurse in the Siberian camp gave the following account: 'When patients died, their hospital gowns were removed. They placed the bodies in paper bags, numbered them and attached a card to the bag with personal data. Then they transported the bodies to the nearest forest where the wild Siberian animals ate them.' According to the nurse's account the bishop foresaw his own death: 'By sunrise tomorrow I will not be here any more.' And that is what happened. To show his respect and to acknowledge the bishop's dignity, the camp guard left the prison clothes on the bishop's corpse. His remains were taken and left in the forest, just as was done with the bodies of his predecessors. Thinking about the goodness of this man of God, who had served his brothers to the last, many of the convicts got together the next morning to have a last look at this man who was the embodiment of angelic goodness for so many. But all they found was a piece of his shirt sleeve."
- From the words of Archbishop Volodymyr Sterniuk.
Angelic bishop
Bishop and martyr Hryhorii Lakota was born on January 31,1883, in the village of Holodivka, in Lviv District. He studied theology in Lviv. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1908 in Przemsyl (Peremyshl). In Vienna in 1911 he received his Ph.D. in theology. In 1913 he became a professor at the Przemysl seminary, later becoming its rector. On May 16, 1926, he was ordained to the episcopacy and was appointed auxiliary bishop of Przemysl.
On June 9, 1946, he was arrested and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment. In exile in Vorkuta, Russia, he was distinguished for his great humanness, his humility, his desire to take the most difficult labor on himself and to make the unbearable conditions of life easier for others. He died a martyr for the faith on November 12, 1950, in the village of Abez near Vorkuta.
"Exiled to a labor camp, in the middle of human misery, I also met real angels in human bodies, who by their lives were the earthly representatives of the cherubim, glorifying Christ, the King of Glory. Among them was the confessor of the faith, Hryhorii Lakota, auxiliary bishop of Przemysl. From 1949 to 1950, by his example of Christian virtues, his life witnessed to us who were weakened by life in the labor camp."
- From the written account of Father Alfrysas Svarinskas.
Aristocrat of the spirit
Priest and martyr Archimandrite Klymentii Sheptytsky, the younger brother of the Servant of God Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, was born on November 17, 1869, in the village of Prylbychi, Yavoriv region. He studied law in Munich and Paris and received a doctorate at the University of Krakow. He was a legate of the Austrian Parliament and member of the National Council. In 1912 he entered the Studite monastery as a late vocation; by so doing he renounced his successful secular career. He completed his theological studies in Innsbruck. On August 28, 1915, he was ordained to the priesthood. For many years he was the hegumen (prior) of the Studite monastery at Univ, and in 1944 he became the archimandrite (abbot).
During World War II, he gave refuge to persecuted Jews. On June 5, 1947, he was arrested and sentenced to eight years' imprisonment by a special meeting of the NKVD in Kyiv. He died a martyr for the faith on May 1, 1951, in a harsh prison in Vladimir, Russia.
"Tall, 180-185 centimeters, rather thin, with a long white beard, a little stooped, with a cane. Arms relaxed, calm, face and eyes friendly. He reminded me of St. Nicholas We never expected such a rascal in our room Some sisters had passed three apples to him, real rosy red and ripe. And he gave one apple to Roman Novosad, who often had stomach problems. He said: 'You need to take care of your stomach,' and the others he divided among us."
- From the memories of Ivan Kryvytskyi.
APOSTLES OF THE GULAG
The unbending faithfulness to Christ and His Church of Confessor of the Faith Metropolitan Josyf Slipyj and all the Greek-Catholic hierarchy, their deep certainty in the victory over evil and their special witness of fidelity to the Roman Apostolic See served as an inspiring example and supported the faith and hope of laity and clergy alike who had avoided arrest and exile and had not spent time in prison.
Prayerful parent
Priest and martyr Father Mykola Tsehelskyi was born on December 17, 1896, in the village of Strusiv, Ternopil District. In 1923 he graduated from the Theological Faculty of Lviv University. On April 5, 1925, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky ordained him to the priesthood. He was a zealous priest who cared for the spirituality, education and welfare of his parishioners.
After the war he was repressed by the Bolsheviks because he refused to convert to Orthodoxy. Father Tsehelskyi drank deep from the bitter cup of intimidation, threats and beatings. On October 28, 1946, he was arrested, and on January 27, 1947, he was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment. He was deported to Mordovia, Russia, but his wife, three children and daughter-in-law were taken to Russia's Chytynska region. He lived in extremely horrid conditions, in a camp that was notoriously strict and cruel. He suffered from severe pain due to illness, but this did not break his strong spirit. He died a martyr for the faith on May 25, 1951, and is buried in the camp cemetery.
"My dearest wife: the feast of the Dormition was our 25th wedding anniversary. I recall fondly our family life together, and every day in my dreams I am with you and the children, and this makes me happy I give a fatherly kiss to all their foreheads, and I hope to live honestly, behaving blamelessly, keeping far from everything that is foul. I pray for this most of all."
- From the letters of Father Mykola Tsehelskyi written in Mordovia.
Suffered on Good Friday
Priest and martyr Father Ivan Ziatyk was born on December 26, 1899, in the village of Odrekhiv, near Sianok. After finishing his theology studies in Przemysl (Peremyshl) seminary in 1923, he was ordained to the priesthood. In 1935 he entered the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists). He was a teacher of dogmatic theology and holy scripture, and also known as a good administrator. During the Nazi occupation he was acting superior of the monastery in Ternopil and later in Zboiski near Lviv. After the official liquidation of the UGCC and the exile of Protohegumen Yosyf de Vokhta, Father Ivan took on his duties.
On January 5, 1950, he was arrested and found guilty of "preaching the ideas of the pope of Rome regarding the spread of the Catholic faith among nations of the whole world." At first he was imprisoned in Zolochiv and later was sent to Ozerlah, Irkhutsk region, Russia. In all he lived through 72 interrogations. On Good Friday in 1952 he was severely beaten, drenched with water and left to lie in the cold. He died in the prison infirmary on May 17, 1952, a martyr for the faith.
"He stood and prayed the whole day; for whole days he prayed every moment. He was such a pleasant person to talk to. You could hear many wise and instructive words from him; this was especially so in my case, as at that time I was a youngster."
- From an interview with fellow prisoner Anatolii Medelian.
A mother to her sisters
Nun and martyr Sister Olympia Olha Bida was born in 1903 in the village of Tsebliv, Lviv District. At a young age she entered the congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph. In 1938 she was assigned to the town of Khyriv where she became superior of the house. After the establishment of the Soviet regime, she and the other sisters suffered a number of attacks on the convent. She, nevertheless, continued to care for children, to catechize and organize underground religious services (often without a priest).
In 1950 she was arrested by soldiers of the NKVD and taken to a hard labor camp in Boryslav. Eventually she was sentenced to lifelong exile in the Tomsk region of Siberia for "anti-Soviet activities." Even in exile, Sister Olympia tried to perform her duties as superior. She provided support for her fellow sisters. She patiently endured inhuman living conditions. She died a martyr's death on January 23, 1952.
"God Almighty, God's Providence will not allow His little children to perish in a foreign land. For He is with us here, in the midst of these forests and waters. He doesn't forget about us Because of our faith, because of a divine matter, we suffer, and what could be better than this? Let's follow Him bravely. Not only when all is well, but even when times are bitter, let us say: Glory to God in all matters."
- From Sister Olympia's letter to her provincial superior, Sister Neonylia.
Faith amid hopelessness
Nun and martyr Sister Lavrentia Herasymiv was born on September 31, 1911, in the village of Rudnyky, Lviv District. In 1931 she entered the congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Tsebliv. In 1933 she made her first vows. Together with Sister Olympia, in 1938 she went to the house in Khyriv, and their fates were crossed until death. In 1950 she was arrested by the agents of the NKVD and sent to Boryslav.
Eventually, together with her fellow sister she was sentenced to lifelong exile in the Tomsk region. She was sick with tuberculosis when she arrived to her designated place of exile and so only one family would agree to give her a roof over her head. This was in a room where a paralyzed man lay behind a partition. She prayed much and performed various forms of manual labor. She patiently endured the inhuman living conditions and the lack of medical attention. She died on August 28, 1952, as a martyr for the faith in the village of Kharsk in Siberia's Tomsk Region.
"The NKVD agents attacked our convent. They spent a long time breaking down the door. It was nighttime; the sisters were terrified. Sister Lavrentia ran to the cellar and escaped into the garden through a little window. A cold rain started to fall. When the NKVD broke into the house they immediately noticed the open window and ran to look for her. It was dark and with their bayonets they poked every bush. A few times the bayonet was right in front of Sister's eyes. Not finding her, the NKVD went away, but sister was out in the rain until the morning. She came to the house exhausted and frozen. After this incident she got seriously ill, and lay in bed. They took her to prison when she was infirm."
- From the memories of a relative, Anna Harasymiv.
Berlin founder
Priest and martyr Father Petro Verhun was born on November 18, 1890, in Horodok, Lviv District. He held a Ph.D. in philosophy. On October 30, 1927, he was ordained to the priesthood by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky at St. George's Cathedral and was appointed to be the pastor and later the apostolic visitator for Ukrainian Catholics in Germany. Priests and all the faithful, whom fate had brought to a foreign land, gravitated to Father Verhun because they felt he was a good shepherd who would give his life for his sheep.
In June 1945 he was arrested by the Soviet security services in Berlin and sent to Siberia, sentenced to eight years of hard labor. But even there, amid unbearable living conditions, he knew how to gather the faithful around him, giving his own personal example of perseverance in the faith. He died as a martyr for the faith on February 7, 1957, in exile in the village of Anharsk, in the Krasnoyar territory.
"My life is very monotonous. I have enough to eat. I cook for myself. My greatest joy is that I can pray every day without disturbances Finally I don't need anything. I feel that my head is tending little by little to my eternal rest. But I really would rather die in the monastery."
- From the letters of Father Petro Verhun written in Siberian exile.
Pastor of the East
Priest and martyr Father Oleksii Zarytskyi was born in 1912 in the village of Bilche, in the Lviv District. From 1931 to 1934 he studied at the Lviv Theological Academy. He was ordained to the priesthood by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky in 1936. During his ministry in the village of Strutyna near Zolochiv he gained the special favor of his parishioners. In 1948 he was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment in the camps of Siberia and Kazakstan for refusing to convert to Orthodoxy.
After his rehabilitation in 1957, he returned to western Ukraine a number of times but again returned to the east. Amid inhuman conditions Father Zarytskyi had a wide field for pastoral ministry to people in a foreign land. He tirelessly took care not only of Ukrainians but Poles, Germans, Russians, Greek and Roman Catholics. He visited Metropolitan Josyf Slipyj in exile.
Father Zarytskyi was sentenced a second time: two years for "vagrancy." The guardian of children, youth, the poor, he will forever remain in people's memory an example of the embodiment in life of the commandments to love God and neighbor. He died a martyr for the faith on October 30, 1963, in a labor camp in a village in Karaganda. His mortal remains were reburied in 1990 in the village of Riasna-Ruska near Lviv.
"That was in 1957 during Lent, on Palm Sunday. Almost the whole village was waiting for him. There were even people who went to the Orthodox Church, who hadn't made their confession; they were still waiting ... And they waited until he came. When we told them that Father Zarytskyi was here, everyone came to us to confess. Confessions started in the evening and lasted almost to the morning. At dawn Father Zarytskyi celebrated the divine liturgy. Very many people took advantage of the opportunity: young and old. They got married, children were baptized. Father Zarytskyi stayed with us the whole summer. But on September 21 he had to leave for Karaganda; he had to return because they were waiting for him there"
- From an interview with Sister Konstantsia Seniuk.
LIGHT IN THE CATACOMBS
Stalin's death in March 1953 and Khruschev's "thaw" began a new period in the way of the cross of the UGCC: the catacombs. The main protagonists of this period of the Church's life were the bishops, priests, monks, nuns and faithful who had returned home from the camps and exile. Having survived unspeakable physical and moral tortures, they encountered a different western Ukraine: bloodless, frightened by the terror, deceived by the atheist-communist ideology, but in spite of all that it was still alive and waiting for the resurrection.
These people who knew how to preserve in their hearts faith in Christ and faithfulness to their Church became little islands around which the gradual renewal of Church structures began. Thanks to the unbending character of the martyr bishops, the perseverance of the clergy and the faithfulness of the laity, the UGCC survived the period of official "liquidation," organized the underground and gave birth to a new generation of Church leaders. For almost half a century it was the largest illegal Christian community in the world and at the same time the largest organism of social opposition to the totalitarian system of the USSR.
"And so take up every divine weapon so that you can stand fast during the storms and, overcoming everything, survive. Stand up, therefore, girding your thigh with truth and clothing yourself with the armor of justice ... But above all take in your hands the shield of faith, with which you will be able to defeat the fiery arrows of the Evil One. And take up the helmet of salvation and the spiritual sword, which is the word of God."
- From a letter of Metropolitan Josyf Slipyj, written in exile, February 17, 1961.
Healer of souls
Bishop and martyr Mykola Charnetskyi was born on September 14, 1884, in the village of Semakivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk District. After he completed his studies at the local seminary in Rome, he was ordained to the priesthood in 1909. He obtained his doctorate in dogmatic theology from Rome and became a spiritual director and professor at the seminary in Ivano-Frankivsk. In 1919 he entered the novitiate of the Redemptorist Fathers in Lviv, and in 1926 he was appointed apostolic visitator for Ukrainian Catholics in Volyn, Polissia, Kholm and Pidliashia. A model religious leader and missionary, he zealously worked for the union of the Holy Church. He was ordained to the episcopacy by Bishop Hryhorii Khomyshyn in Rome on February 2, 1931.
He was arrested by the NKVD on April 11, 1945, and sentenced to six years of hard labor in Siberia. According to official data, he underwent 600 hours of interrogation and torture and spent time in 30 different prisons and camps. Terminally ill, in 1956 he was permitted to return to western Ukraine, where he secretly continued to fulfill his episcopal obligations. In the midst of the cruelty and oppression which he suffered in imprisonment and in exile, he was distinguished for his evangelical patience, gentleness and limitless goodness; already during his life he was considered a holy man. As a consequence of his sufferings, he died a martyr for the faith on April 2, 1959, in Lviv.
"I saw him. He was a very humble person. The first time I came for instruction from the bishop, he was sweeping the house. I wanted to help him, to take the broom, but he didn't let me. He himself swept. 'Have a seat,' he said. I was embarrassed that the bishop was sweeping, but I was sitting, because he wouldn't let me. He told how many priests who had signed over to Orthodoxy, came to him to confess nearly 300 priests, they repented and came to him."
- From an interview with Father Vasyl Voronovskyi.
Discrete member of the underground
Bishop and martyr Semeon Lukach was born on July 7, 1893, in the village of Starunia, Ivano-Frankivsk District. In 1913 he entered the seminary. He finished the seminary in Ivano-Frankivsk and was ordained a priest in 1919. In December 1920 he was appointed professor of moral theology at the seminary where he had earlier studied. He secretly received episcopal ordination in the spring of 1945 before the arrest of Bishop Hryhorii Khomyshyn. On October 26, 1949, he was arrested by the Soviet secret police. Sentenced in August 1950 to 10 years of imprisonment, he carried out hard labor in a lumber camp in Krasnoyarsk. He was freed on February 11, 1955, and returned to his native land. In July 1962 he was arrested for a second time and was sentenced to five years in a severe colony. During his interrogations he showed his unbroken perseverance, discretion and faithfulness to the Catholic Church. In March 1964 because of his critical condition, tuberculosis of the lungs, he was taken to his native village, Starunia. He died a martyr for the faith on August 22, 1964.
"I celebrated divine liturgy in an apartment and in a few houses. From one to 30 people took part in the services I also baptized and celebrated marriages But conscience does not allow me to mention their names, so that my mistake will not cause those people who sought spiritual help from me to suffer. I acted in good faith, serving God's will, so I was in danger of colliding with state laws. If the state finds me guilty, I myself will take the responsibility."
- From the autobiography in the court case written after his arrest in 1949.
Unbroken "conversationalist"
Bishop and martyr Ivan Sleziuk was born on January 14, 1896, in the village of Zhyvachiv, Ivano-Frankivsk District. After graduating from the eparchial seminary in 1923 he was ordained to the priesthood. He served as a catechist and spiritual director in Ivano-Frankivsk. In April of 1945 Bishop Hryhory Khomyshyn secretly ordained him a bishop. On June 2, 1945, Bishop Sleziuk was arrested, and a year later he was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment. He served his sentence in camps in Vorkuta and Mordovia, Russia. Released from prison, he returned to Ivano-Frankivsk and carried out the duties of administrator of the eparchy.
In 1962 he was arrested for the second time, together with Bishop Semeon Lukach, and was sentenced to five years' imprisonment in harsh camps. After his release in 1968 he ordained Basilian Sofron Dmyterko a bishop. Bishop Dmyterko succeeded him in guiding the eparchy. In his final years Bishop Sleziuk was often called to the KGB for regular "conversations." After one of these "conversations" he fell ill and never recovered. He died a martyr for the faith on December 2, 1973, in Ivano-Frankivsk.
"As the deceased himself said, they locked him in a separate isolated area, and no one visited him. He stayed there for two hours. Then they told him: 'You're free to go.' It was difficult for him to walk because, as he himself said, after this he felt dizzy, as if he had a fever, his skin was burning. The Sisters of St. Vincent, who helped him out, also said that the bishop returned from this 'conversation' with a very red face, he felt exhausted, stayed in bed and died two weeks later. There was and still is a suspicion that the KGB used radiation to get rid of one more Uniate bishop."
From the testimony of Bishop Sofron Dmyterko.
Worthy acting head
Bishop and martyr Vasyl Velychkovsky was born June 1, 1903, in Ivano-Frankivsk. In 1920 he entered the seminary in Lviv. In 1925 in Holosko, near Lviv, he took his first religious vows in the Order of the Most Holy Redeemer and was ordained a priest. Father Vasyl became a missionary in Volyn. In 1942 he became the hegumen (prior) of the monastery in Ternopil, where he was arrested in 1945. He was then taken to Kyiv. His death sentence was soon commuted to 10 years of imprisonment and hard labor. He returned to Lviv in 1955, where he continued his pastoral work.
In 1963 he was secretly ordained an archbishop in a Moscow hotel by Metropolitan Josyf Slipyj, who, on his way to exile in Rome, passed Bishop Velychkovsky the responsibility for the catacomb Church. Predicting his own possible arrest, he ordained new underground bishops in 1964. Among them was his successor, Archbishop Volodymyr Sterniuk, who eventually led the Church out of the underground. In 1969 Bishop Velychkovsky was arrested a second time, but after three years of imprisonment he was deported outside the USSR. He died in Winnipeg on June 30, 1973, as a consequence of serious heart disease which began when he was in prison.
"After many years spent in prisons and labor camps, how pleasant it is to be free with my fellow Ukrainians. What joy to go to pray freely in a Ukrainian church, where no one will send you to the camps or prison because of your prayers The prisons and camps ruined my health and my strength, but this was my fate, the Lord God placed this cross on my shoulders."
From the last speech of Bishop Vasyl Velychkovsky to the faithful in Canada, June 17, 1973.
IN LIEU OF AN EPILOGUE
"The metropolitan lay calmly with eyes shut and breathed with difficulty, as he had previously. Then he began to pray again. He opened his eyes and began to talk to us: 'Our Church will be ruined, destroyed by the Bolsheviks, but you will hold on, do not renounce the faith, the Catholic Church. A difficult trial will fall on our Church, but it is passing. I see the rebirth of our Church, it will be more beautiful, more glorious than of old, and it will embrace all our people. 'Ukraine,' the metropolitan continued, 'will rise again from her destruction and will become a mighty state, united, great, comparable to other highly-developed countries. Peace, well-being, happiness, high culture, mutual love and harmony will rule here. It will all be as I say. It is only necessary to pray that the Lord God and the mother of God will care for our poor tired people, who have suffered so much and that God's care will last forever.'"
From an interview with Father Yosyf Kladochnyi about Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky's last moments of earthly life.
Source: The official website of the papal visit to Ukraine, www.papalvisit.org.ua. Oleh Turii, candidate of historical studies and acting director of the Institute of Church History at the Lviv Theological Academy, prepared this text on the basis of materials of the Postulation Center for the Beatification and Canonization of Saints of the UGCC and the archives of the Institute of Church History at the LTA.
CONCLUSION
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, July 8, 2001, No. 27, Vol. LXIX
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