8:35 AM Today's saint | |
Mykolay Charnetsky was born in a hamlet near Horodenka in western Ukraine, on 14 December 1884. Like many others of that time and place, he came from a large family and was the eldest of nine children. Alexander and Parasceva Charnetsky and their children were devout members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church which is in communion with the Bishop of Rome and is distinct from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. From a young age, Mykolay had expressed a desire to become a priest and when he was 18 years of age, the Ukrainian Catholic Bishop Hryhory Khomyshyn (who was himself to be martryed) sent him to study at the Ukrainian College in Rome. After his ordination to the Catholic priesthood in 1909, Father Mykolay returned from Ukraine to Rome so that he might complete a Doctorate in Theology, which he did the following year. Upon completion of his doctorate, Father Mykolay returned to his homeland in order to teach Dogmatic theology and philosophy at the Ukrainian Catholic seminary in Ivano-Frankivsk (then called Stanislaviv) where he remained for the next nine years, also serving as spiritual director to any student who wished. For some time, Father Mykolay had desired to live a more austere life than that of a seminary professor. In 1913 the Belgian province of the Redemptorists had established a mission in Ukraine and this included a novitiate near Lviv for those interested in joining the congregation. Like Father Ivan Ziatyk who was to follow him some years later, Father Mykolay entered the novitiate in 1919. As he was already an ordained priest, after his first profession in 1920, Father Mykolay immediately began working in a nearby parish before being sent to teach at the minor seminary (for students in their teens) run by the Redemptorists. However, in 1926 the congregation opened a mission in the Volhynia region of northern Ukraine, the main purpose of which was to promote a better relationship between Catholic and Orthodox Ukrainians. As Father Mykolay had been ordained in the Ukrainian Catholic Rite, he was well acquainted with the Liturgy and Christian spirituality as lived by those of the Orthodox churches and this gained him much respect amongst their people and clergy. His devotion to the people together with his tireless efforts at fostering Orthodox-Catholic relations caused Pope Pius XII to name him as Titular bishop of Lebed and Apostolic visitor to Ukrainian Catholics in the Volhynia region as well as those in Podlaskie (Ukr: Pidlashia) in southern Poland. In1939 Soviet armed forces invaded western Ukraine, causing the Redemptorists to flee to Lviv where here worked as a labourer in order to make a living. Two years later, Bishop Mykolay took up a professorship at Lviv Theological Academy (now the Ukrainian Catholic University) which was revived in 1941. In 1944 the Soviets invaded for a second time and the following year all the Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishops were placed under arrest as part of the Soviet plan to suppress the Church and transfer its property to the state-sanctioned Orthodox Church. During his time in prison Bishop Mykolay endured frequent violent interrogations. He was found guilty of collaborating with the Nazis when they occupied Poland as well as being an agent of a foreign power i.e. the Vatican; as a result he was sentenced to hard labour. Initially, one of his prison compatriots was the famous Cardinal Josyf Slipyj when both were imprisoned in Mariinsk, southern Siberia. Between his arrest in1945 and his release eleven years later, Bishop Mykolay was moved around a number of prisons. It was reported that, during all this time, he maintained a dignified, gentle and calming presence in spite of enduring over 600 hours of interrogation, which included torture. By 1956, the bishop’s health was in such a dismal state that a shroud had already been prepared; the prison authorities then decided to release him in order that he die elsewhere. However, he made enough of a surprising partial recovery that he was able to pastor the Ukrainian Catholic community, which was then operating clandestinely. Although he lived under constant surveillance, one of his most important acts was to secretly prepare and ordain young men called to the Priesthood. On 2 April 1959 Bishop Mykolay died and was buried in Lviv two days later. Due to many regarding him as a saint, people began visit his grave and to ask for his heavenly intercession immediately. Today people continue to claim that miracles happen through his intercession. On the 23rd of April 2001 bishop Charnetskyi's martyrdom was verified by the assembly of Cardinals. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II during his pastoral visit to Ukraine on 27 June 2001. This date was significant as it is the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the patroness of the Redemptorists. Bishop Omelan Kovch Blessed Оmelyan Kovch (August 20, 1884, Tlumach — March 25, 1944) was a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic priest murdered in Majdanek concentration camp. He was born in a peasant family in the town of Tlumach in the Kosiv region of Western Ukraine, and was ordained in 1911 after graduating from the Sts. Sergius and Bacchus College in Rome. He served as a parish priest from 1921 to 1943 at the church of St. Nicholas in the village of Peremyshliany, and was the father of six children. In the spring of 1943 he was arrested by the Gestapo for harboring Jews. On March 25, 1944 he was gassed at Majdanek concentration camp near Lublin, Poland. On September 9, 1999, the Jewish Council of Ukraine awarded him the title of "Ukraine's righteous". His beatification took place on July 27, 2001 in Lviv, during the Byzantine rite liturgy conducted by Pope John Paul II. Other new-martyrs of Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church
New Martyrs of UGCC are bishops, priests, monks and nuns, one layman who suffered and died as martyrs for the faith between 1935-1973 years, during the communist persecution in Ukraine. Decree of the Vatican confirmed the martyrdom of 26 candidates of arheparchial process that culminated March 2, 2001 in Lviv. Documentation for each of them contained a biography, information about martyrdom and theological analysis of their works were sent from Lviv The deaths of the Servant of God Bishop Nicholas Charnets'kyj and his 24 colleagues were recognized as martyrdom. A separate decree was about the martyrdom of the bishop of Mukachevo Eparchy Bishop Theodore Romzha. Another decree recognized the reality of miracles that occurred through the intercession of Sister Josaphata Hordashevska, cofounder of the community of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate. On April 24 at Vatican, in the presence of Pope John Paul II was proclaimed the decrees of martyrdom, heroic virtues and miracles 52 Servants of God Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The Rite beatification were held on June 27, 2001 in Lviv during the liturgy in the Byzantine rite with the participation John Paul II. Church has these new martyrs: Venerable Josaphata (Michele Hordashevska)
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