Canadian Greek-Catholic Statutes 1915

A facsimile of the 1915 Statutes (Norms) of the Ruthenian [Greek]-Catholic Church in Canada is now available online. The text of this document is reproduced in Ukrainian and English and analysed in Bishop David Motiuk's book Eastern Christians in the New World, and is also discussed in my historical biography of Blessed Nykyta Budka, God's Martyr, History's Witness (p. 85–88). The online scan of the original publication, intended for the use of the clergy only, provides a fascinating picture of the Greek-Catholic Church in Canada (which included Ukrainians, Rusyns, and Slovaks) in the setting of First World War Canadian society. Drafted by canonist. Rev Dr Amvroziy Redkevych (1880–1961), the norms were later approved by Bishop Budka with his clergy at the first diocesan synod in Yorkton, Saskatchewan in January 1915. This text interesting for its archaic Ukrainian orthography, which was in use among Galician Ukrainians until the end of the First World War. 

Budka Biography Available for Purchase in Winnipeg and Brampton

God's Martyr, History's Witness, a biography of Blessed Nykyta Budka, is now available for purchase at the following church book shops:

Holy Eucharist Ukrainian Catholic Church bookstore, 
Elmwood, Winnipeg

Saint Elias Ukrainian Catholic Church,
Brampton, Ontario

Nykyta Budka's University Diaries Discovered

            At the beginning of the current year, Nykyta Budka’s diary from his seminary-university years (1902–1905) was discovered by the archivist of the Archeparchy of Winnipeg, Gloria Romaniuk.  The 20 by 17cm notebook had been left by Bishop Budka at his chancery residence at 511 Dominion Street in Winnipeg, when he departed for Europe in December 1927.  Having been ordered to resign as bishop for Canada in November 1928, Budka was never permitted to return nor retrieve any of his belongings. His personal property was entrusted to the care of his brother Danylo, who had emigrated from western Ukraine (part of Poland, at the time) to Canada, earlier that year.  Although some of the bishop’s records passed to his successor, many of Budka’s effects were sold off and a quantity ended up in the possession of Ukrainian poet and church goodsman, Yakiv Maydanyk.  In the late 1950s Budka’s second successor, Metropolitan Maxim Hermaniuk, repatriated many of these items to the ownership of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

            During the 1980s, the first archivist of the Archeparchy, Sister Cornelia Mantyka, oversaw a complete reorganization of Bishop Budka’s correspondence, but the university diary was not inserted in this archival collection.  Metropolitan Maxim had kept them in his possession and, following his death in 1996, the diary was placed in one of several boxes containing his books and papers. After Hermaniuk’s successor, Metropolitan Michael Bzdel, retired in 2006, the boxes were consigned to the care of archeparchial archives. At first, they were stored in a room on the second floor in the old bishop’s palace, near the chapel. In the spring of 2015, the archivist began examining the contents of the boxes and discovered the diary. Romaniuk was able to identify the contents by Budka's name, clearly written on a number of theology textbook receipts and on other loose papers inside the notebook. She was then able to identify the handwriting in the journal and, from a cursory examination of the contents and the title "Моя теольоґія в Інсбруку" (my theology [studies] in Innsbruck), realized that she had discovered a memoir from Budka’s student days. 

       Given this source’s historical importance, Romaniuk immediately brought it to Metropolitan Lawrence Huculak and noted the journal’s discovery in her March 2015 report from the Archives, indicating that it would be added to the Nykyta Budka fonds (NB) within the Archives of the Archeparchy. Metropolitan Lawrence gave his blessing to me to consult the work. Upon my arrival in Winnipeg at the beginning of July, I digitally photographed each page and loose insert, which included textbook receipts, some history and theology class notes, and a photograph taken with two other men in the mountains (perhaps the Alps) during a vacation or outing.
Budka began writing the diary on 1 November 1902, although he backdated the entries to begin in Vienna, on the day after he completed his year of military service, 1 October 1902. The diary ends on 23 July 1905, the day he passed his last theology exam and was packing his books and personal effects, in preparing to leave Innsbruck. At the time, Budka’s written language was an archaic, western Ukrainian dialect.

            Most of Nykyta Budka’s extant writings are in the form of official correspondence with hierarchs, clergy, church congregations, and individual faithful.  This diary represents a rare example of his personal reflections, which he committed to writing primarily for private reference. It is possible that Budka, whose correspondence contains several references to his awareness of the importance of historical witness, also intended these reflections for posterity.

Alpine outing circa 1903

            Having only been discovered this year, this important source was not available to me when I was composing God’s Martyr, History’s Witness. Still, the information contained in the diary does not change the overall narrative of this biography for the years 1902–1905, which Prof. Oleh Turiy and I had based mainly on letters from Budka to Sheptytsky from the Central State Archives of Ukraine in Lviv (ЦДАУЛ).

        Nevertheless, the diaries contain more frequent personal information absent from Budka’s formal correspondence. The diary clarifies certain facts which were missing from my research. Among these details are the following: detailed chronology of his life as a seminarian and university student; the identities of his closest friends and associates during these years, in particular future-bishop Yosyf Botsian, both of whom lost younger sisters in 1904; additional information pertaining to his decision to pursue doctoral studies in Vienna, following the completion of his initial theological curriculum in Innsbruck; that his 18-year-old sister was named Hanya (Anna), and that the cause of her untimely death in the Spring of 1904, was an aneurism. Budka was not able to attend the funeral but had the opportunity to visit his grieving parents shortly thereafter, during the university Easter break. 

            The fact that Blessed Nykyta kept a diary in his youthful years raises the possibility that he might have committed other personal reflections to writing in later years, which have not yet come to light.  If such documents exist, did they survive and where are they now?  A closer examination of the Budka papers in the Lviv State Archives as well as unexamined materials in Ukrainian Catholic archives in Canada might, perhaps, result in the unearthing of as-yet-undiscovered writings of this important historical and religious figure.

Budka Biography Receives Manitoba Archives Award

The Manitoba Archives Association has selected the author of God's Martyr, History's Witness to be one of 10 recipients of the Manitoba Day Award. The Association established the Award in
2007 to recognize users of archives who have completed an original work of excellence. which contributes to the understanding and celebration of Manitoba history. The 9th annual presentation was held at University of Manitoba Archives Special Collections, Fort Garry Campus, 330 Elizabeth Dafoe Library, on 27 May 2015. The award was accepted by the author's parents, Professor Gerald and Irene McVay, together with Gloria Romaniuk, Archivist of the Archeparchy of Winnipeg, who assisted in the compilation of the book.

Budka Biography Presented in Rome

The presentation of God's Martyr, History's Witness, the historical biography of Blessed Bishop-Martyr Nykyta Budka, took place on 18 March 2015, at Centro Ecumenica in Borgo Pio, near the Vatican. Presentations were given by: Bishop Borys Gudziak, Ukrainian Eparch of France and Benelux and President of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv; Father James McCann, SJ, Rector of the Pontifical Oriental Institute, Dr. Gianpaolo Rigotti, Archivist of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches and Professor of the Oriental Institute, and the author. Father McCann acted as moderator.  Among those present were: His Beatitude, Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church; Bishop Hlib Lonchyna, Ukrainian Eparch of Great Britain and Apostolic Visitor of the Irish Republic, Bishop Irenaeus Bilyk, Canon of the Liberian Basilica of Mary Major, Her Excellency Tetiana Izhveska, Ukrainian Ambassador to the Holy See, clergy, religious, historians, archivists and other scholars. The presentation began with the singing of Царю небесний (O Heavenly King), led by Patriarch Sviatoslav.

Report in Ukrainian by UGCC Press Service

"Immigrant bishop, builder, martyr" by Laura Ieraci

Vatican Radio Interview with Christopher Wells

Rome Presentation of Budka Biography

News of Bishop Budka's Death Reaches Rome

New icon of Blessed Budka
from St. Basil's Seminary,
Stamford, CT

On 26 November 1956, the Sacred Congregation for the Eastern Church (known today as Congregation for the Eastern Churches) published a notice in it's publication, Servizio Informazione delle Chiese Orientali (Information Service of the Eastern Churches). The notice stated that word had finally reached the Vatican of the death, seven years previously, of Bishop Nykyta Budka. 

Recently, the source of this information was discovered in the Archives of the Congregation. On 28 September 1956, Archbishop Ivan Buchko, Apostolic Visitor for Ukrainian Catholics in Europe, sent a letter to the head of the Congregation, Cardinal Eugène Tisserant, stating:

I am only now able to confirm to Your Most Reverend Eminence, that I have definitively ascertained the sad news that, on the 6th [sic] day of October 1949, His Excellency Bishop Nykyta Budka, titular bishop of Patara, died in a forced-labour camp at Karaganda. The city of Karaganda is located at the geographical intersection of the 50th degree of latitude and the 73rd degree of longitude. [...]

Contrary to what had been claimed, until now, that he had been reduced by mistreatment to a state of semi-consciousness, these rumours have now proven to be false (and were probably spread by the Bolsheviks themselves). It is now known with certitude that he truly heroically endured all the persecutions and died as a Confessor of the Faith, while thanking the Lord for having allowed him to suffer insults for Jesus. [...]

The source of this information is not yet known. Following the death of Stalin, in 1955 Bishop Ivan Liatyshevsky was released from the gulag and allowed to return to western Ukraine. The following year, he wrote to Father Hryniokh that Budka had died, but did not provide a date.  On 20 January 1956, Pope Pius XII issued an apostolic letter entitled Novimus nos, to mark the millennium of St. Olha's baptism in 955. In the list of of addresses, the later Bishop Budka's name still figured, as the Apostolic See did not learn of his death until September of that same year.

Soviet documents discovered in the 1990s, allegedly reporting Budka's death and burial, give the date of death as 28 September, coincidentally the same date Buchko wrote to inform the Apostolic See. 

Interviews and Press Releases

Archbishop Cyril Vasil, SJ
Secretary of the Vatican department
 for the Eastern Churches,
receives the Budka biography

"Russia and Ukraine: A Violent Past, a Cloudy Future," Dorothy Cummings McLean for Catholic World Report. Includes info on the Budka Biography

"Historian Takes a Hard Look at Budka's Accomplishments" Ramon Gonzalez for Western Catholic Reporter

"Biography of Bishop Nykyta Budka Launched in Edmonton" Press release of CIUS (Українською)

Budka Book Launch (CIUS) with photos

"Banff Symposium a Timely Examination" Press release of UofA Wirth Institute

Video Interview with Jan Bentz for EWTN
English  German

Budka Biography Launch

Participating in the presentation: Jars Balan (CIUS), Father Peter Babej (St. Josaphat Cathedral) Volodymyr Kravchenko (CIUS), Father Peter Galadza (MASI), Orest Eveneshen and Serge Cipko (Budka Society), Father McVay, Bishop David Motiuk.  

Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Edmonton

Praise for Budka Biography

Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies has issued the following communique, announcing the publication of the God's Martyr, History's Witness: Blessed Nykyta Budka the First Ukrainian Catholic Bishop of Canada:

Sheptytsky Institute Co-publisher of Groundbreaking Biography

Father Athanasius McVay, a Canadian Ukrainian Catholic who has spent years working in the Vatican archives, has just published his long-awaited biography of Bishop Nykyta Budka. The Sheptytsky Institute was pleased to be the co-publisher along with the Eparchy of Edmonton. The 614-page book is meticulously researched and illustrated with rare photographs. 

“With this publication, Father McVay has established himself as the premier historian of the modern Ukrainian Catholic Church,” said Fr. Peter Galadza, acting director of the Sheptytsky Institute. “We await many more publications from this outstanding scholar.”

Following the official launch in Edmonton on 24 October 2014, the book will be available for purchase from Sheptytsky Institute and the Edmonton Eparchy.

Patriarch Sviatoslav Receives Budka Biography

Metropolitan Lawrence, Patriarch Sviatoslav,
Bishop David, Bishop Ken (photographer)

On 10 September 2014, during the Synod of the Hierarchy of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Lviv, Ukraine, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Major-Archbishop of Kyiv-Haklych and Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, was very pleased receive a copy of my biography, God’s Martyr, History’s Witness: Blessed Nykyta Budka the First Ukrainian Catholic Bishop of Canada. It was presented to him by Bishop David Motiuk and Metropolitan Lawrence Huculak.

Reported by 
Eparchy of Edmonton 

and Archeparchy of Winnipeg

Budka Biography Published

God's Martyr, History's Witness: 

Blessed Nykyta Budka 

the First Ukrainian Catholic Bishop of Canada 

has been published by the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Edmonton 

and the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky
Institute of Eastern Christian Studies.

An abridged table of contents of the 615 page book may be found here.

A private launch for contributors and benefactors took place on 22 August (photo)

Copies are available via the Edmonton Eparchial Chancery
and Sheptytsky Institute 

at a cost of $25

The publication is announced at Edmonton Eparchy,
the Archeparchy of Winnipeg, and RISU.

Budka Biography Sent to Press

This morning, my biography of Blessed Nykyta Budka was submitted to the printer. It will take about six weeks to print and then an additional few weeks to bind.  Stay tuned for updates.  Here is a history of the book's composition and an abridged table of contents.

Bishop Budka on Ukrainian Independence

"As I write this, I feel that I am in Lviv, where a war is going on after the world war. It is a war for values that in theory have already been won in the world, but in our homeland they are yet being birthed in blood and agony. Merciful God, how bitter it must be to live there—have mercy upon us and finally grant us peace! The Faith of our brothers and national freedom are constantly foremost in all our thoughts. We know little of what is happening there, but we believe that one and the other are progressing."  

— To Metropolitan Sheptytsky, November 1918, during the war for Ukrainian independence (p. 275 of the upcoming bio)

Bishop Budka Biography

A Life of Obedience, Work, and Love

God's Martyr, History's Witness, the first complete historical biography of Bishop Nykyta Budka, is about to be published by the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Edmonton in conjunction with the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies.  

Copies of the 600+ page book, containing numerous photographs, will be available for purchase from the Edmonton Eparchy at the cost of CAD $25. 

"With this publication, the name and life of Blessed Bishop Nykyta Budka will find their proper place in the history of Ukrainians in Canada, in Canadian Catholic history, and in the history of Ukraine."  – Dr. Stella Hryniuk, Forward 

Below is an abridged version of the table of contents:

Preface

Archival and Published Sources - Terminology - Division - Abbreviations

Introduction

Historical Importance – Genesis of the Book – Specifics to Church History – Commendation from the Vatican Congregation for the Eastern Churches

Chapter 1. Pastoral Care for Ukrainians in North America

Immigration to the United States and Canada – Calls for a Ruthenian Bishop – Apostolic Visitations to North America – Nykyta Budka’s Early Life – The Selection Process – Nomination – Journey to Canada

Chapter 2. “The Need to Organize”                                                          

Incorporation and Statutes – First Pastoral Letters – Relations with Roman Catholic Clergy –  Decree Fidelibus Ruthenis – Ukrainian Clergy and their Churches – Education and Sisters – Finance and Administration – Proselytism

Chapter 3. The First World War

Pre-War Memoranda – The Summer of 1914 – Two Pastoral Letters – Under Suspicion – Clergy Investigated and Arrested  – Forbidden to Leave Canada – Ukrainians Interned – Arrest in Hafford – Exoneration and Naturalization –Ukrainian Independence – The Canadian Ukrainian Orthodox Movement

Chapter 4. The Post-War Years 

New Recruits – Challenges with Secular Clergy and Religious Orders –  Deteriorating Health – Surgery and Convalescence  – Request for an Auxiliary Bishop

Chapter 5. Bishop Budka’s Resignation  

Calls for Budka’s Resignation – 1927 Annus Horribilis – Ad Limina Visit to Rome – Leave of Absence – Papal decision – Resignation – Final Pastoral Letter

Chapter 6. From Rome to Lviv  

Obstacles to Becoming Auxiliary Bishop – Choosing a new Bishop for Canada – Financial Conundrum – Canadian Citizen to the End

Chapter 7. Nykyta Budka Returns to Western Ukraine 

Ministry in the Lviv Archeparchy – Lay Organizations – Rebuilding Zarvanytsia Shrine – Response to Holodomor

Chapter 8. Martyrdom for the Faith                                                      

Two Soviet Occupations – The Arrest of the Hierarchy – Trial – World Reaction – Imprisonment and Death – Earthly Rehabilitation and Glorification – In Search of a Martyr’s Grave

Chapter 9. Conclusion                                                                            

Failings – Successes – Evaluation – Not the Last Word

Timeline – Bibliography – Index of Proper Names and Places

Budka Biography: Update

St. Augustine's Seminary, Toronto 1913

The Bishop Budka biography was publicly announced by Bishop David Motiuk on 12 June 2012. This anticipated announcement was made even though the work was not completed, in order to coincide with the official celebration of the Budka centenary which, in turn, was made to coincide with Patriarch Sviatoslav's pastoral visit to Canada. Since then, the centenaries of Budka's nomination (15 July), ordination (14 October), arrival in Canada (6 December), and enthronement (22 December) have come and gone. Nevertheless Budka celebrations are continuing throughout 2013, to commemorate the first steps of his Canadian mission. Some of those events can be found on the Budka website. Below is is a brief summary of the stages involved in producing this thoroughly researched biography:

- July 2008: the Edmonton Eparchy commissioned a research paper/small booklet on the history of Nykyta Budka's nomination to Canada.

- 2009: The Ukrainian Catholic Bishops of Canada asked for the project to be expanded into a full biography.

- A team of historians from the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv (UKU) was brought on board the project to provide materials from Budka's early and later life, before and after his mission in Canada.

- 2009–2011: the author performed intense research in seven Vatican and Canadian archives.

- 2011–2012: a draft of a full biography was composed in eight chapters. Materials from UKU were translated and thoroughly reworked.

- April —July 2012: first draft of the book was corrected and edited by six linguists, scholars. historians, church advisors and editors.

- July 2012: The Metropolitan Sheptytsky Institute was asked to co-publish the work. As part of their procedure, they submitted the draft to three scholars specialized in Ukrainian Canadian history.

- August 2012: UKU historians provided clarifications of their contribution and further material.

- September—October 2012: The three Canadian scholars submitted their comments on the first draft to Sheptytsky Institute, which approved the publication.

- November—December 2012. The first draft was thoroughly edited according to the scholars' submissions.

- A second draft of the biography was completed in December 2012.

- A title was chosen for the book, God's Martyr, History's Witness: Blessed Nykyta Budka, the First Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Bishop of Canada.

- A foreword was contributed by Dr. Stella Hryniuk, the first scholar to treat Budka from an historical perspective in the 1980s.

- January 2013: copy-editing and layout of the manuscript commenced. Photographs were collected and their location in the text determined.

- February 2013: a draft layout of the first section of chapter was prepared.

- Due to serious illness, copy-editing and layout temporarily stopped.

- April 2013: copy-editing and layout resumed. a draft layout of the first chapter was completed.
- April–July 2013: The layouts of the entire book are completed.  Copy editing began.

- December 2013: First copy-edit and index are completed.
- May–June 2014: Final copy edit completed
- Sent to the printer 4 July 2014.

The First Biography of Bishop Budka

Bishop Budka, Fathers Jean and Bala.
Sifton, January 1913

In such a situation the responsibility before God and history is great.

– Budka to Cardinal Sincero, 14 January 1928

One-hundred years ago, on Friday, 6 December 1912, Bishop Nykyta Budka arrived in Canada.  He and his two priest companions, Lev Sembratovych and Yosyf Bala, had boarded the Canadian Pacific ship Empress of Britain at Liverpool, England, on 29 November and after a rough Atlantic crossing the ship docked at the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, one week later.  

Only a few months before, in August, the Empress of Britain had been forced to return to port after colliding with a cargo vessel, and the Titanic had sunk off the coast of Newfoundland in April 1912.  Neither Budka nor Bala had ever travelled on an ocean liner and both became very sea-sick during the crossing. The experienced Sembratovych had been across the ocean several times, having served as a missionary in the United States and Canada since 1907.  He was the nephew of two Ukrainian Catholic metropolitans, Yosyf (1821–1900) and Sylvester (1836–1898), the latter having been made a cardinal in 1895.  Father Lev was acting as a guide and advisor to the new bishop whereas the recently-ordained Bala had accepted Budka's invitation to be his secretary.

Sembratovych and Budka,
Kolomya 1912

On Saturday, 7 December the Empress of Britain continued on to St. John, New Brunswick, where Budka and his companions disembarked.  They continued on to Montreal and celebrated their First Divine Liturgy on Canadian soil on Sunday, 8 December.  Bala went on to Winnipeg to prepare for the bishop's enthronement while Budka and Sembratovych visited Canadian church and civil dignitaries in Ottawa and Toronto.  They arrived in Winnipeg on 19 December, the feast of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker according to the Julian Calendar. Three days later, on Sunday, 22 December 1912, Bishop Budka was enthroned at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church.

After only three months in Canada, in March 1913, Budka sent Sembratovych back to Austrian Galicia (western Ukraine) to recruit priests to serve in Canada.  A year later, in January 1914, Bala asked to return to his homeland in order to enter the religious life as a Redemptorist.  Bishop Budka reluctantly gave Bala permission to do so on condition that he would return to Canada upon completion of his noviciate training.  However, when the First World War broke out in August 1914, neither Bala nor Sembratovych were in a position to leave Austria-Hungary, let alone come to Canada, a country with which this Empire was at war. Following the War Father Sembratovych returned to serve in the United States, and Father Bala kept his promise and, returned to Canada to served in the Eastern-Rite Redemptorist missions.

After Bishop Budka's return to Ukraine in 1929 he was somewhat forgotten in Canada. Father Yosyf Bala, however, had not forgotten him. As works began to appear describing the bishop in a negative light, Canadian Ukrainian Catholics decided to tell another side of the story of their first hierarch. And who better to tell it than the only living eyewitness to the beginning of that mission, Budka's first secretary. In 1952 Bala published the first biography of Nykyta Budka entitled Перший Український Єпископ Канади Кир Никита Будка: В сороклітній ювілей оснування українсько-католицької ієрерхії в Канаді (The First Ukrainian Bishop of Canada Kyr Nykyta Budka: on the Fourtieth Anniversary of the Founding of the Ukrainian-Catholic Hierarchy in Canada).  This book is now available online.  In his biography Bala described their sea crossing, their arrival in Canada, and the many challenges of their first year of missionary labour among the Ukrainian immigrants. 

Until  now Bala's work, a mixture of hagiography and history, had remained the only biography of Bishop  Budka. In 1991 the Bishop Budka Council of the Knights of Columbus in Regina, Saskatchewan, released Bala's work in English (with other articles) in a volume entitled Pioneer Bishop: The Story of Bishop Nicetas Budka’s fifteen years in Canada.

A comprehensive historical biography is soon to be released by the Eparchy of Edmonton and Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute.  It's title is God's Martyr, History's Witness: Blessed Nykyta Budka, the first Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Bishop of Canada.

Responsabilitas coram Deo et historia est in tali situatione magna.

Audience of the Saints and Blessed

One Hundred Years since Pius X received Nykyta Budka

Blessed Nykyta Budka often recalled his life-changing meeting with the reigning pontiff, Pope Pius X, on 7 November 1912. On his way from Austrian Galicia to Canada, Budka stopped in Vienna for an audience with his sovereign, Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria-Hungary, and in Rome with the Pope. Pius X was a rigorous man with a gentle heart. The Servant of God, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, also had life-changing meetings with this saintly Pope. The following is Blessed Budka's account of the papal audience written on the occasion of his Ad limina apostolorum visit to Rome in December 1922:

The words of the Holy Father Pius X of worthy memory, spoken to me in blessing my mission, are truly the following: “Your diocese is the largest in the whole world. But I rejoice in seeing you so young. You have a very wide territory so you can fly. You cannot do everything, so do what you can. You cannot lose your people because you have two treasures. I well know thus about the Ruthenian people: your people loves the Most Blessed Virgin Mary and the Most Blessed Sacrament [of the Eucharist]. With these treasures, you cannot lose your people. Go with confidence. 

Five years later, in an official report to the Apostolic See, Budka again recalled the holy pontiff's words:

The words said to me by the Holy Father Pius X, of most pious memory, [...] are always in my ears and were a stimulus to me, a help, and consolation, and often an admonition to go forward more and more.

This was the first and last time Budka would meet the Pope who appointed him.  Budka was not able to return to Rome for another ten years.  Meanwhile, broken-hearted by the news of the outbreak of the First World War, Pius X died on 20 August 1914.  He was beatified in 1951 and canonized in 1954. 

[An sorter version post was published in 2010]

Announcing the Blessed Bishop Budka Biography

"I am pleased to announce that Bishop Nykyta Budka's story will be told in greater detail and authority in a soon to be published biography researched and written by Rev. Dr. Athanasius McVay, a church historian and priest of our Eparchy of Edmonton." 

– Bishop David Motiuk, Greeting to Patriarch Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) on the 100th Anniversary of Budka's appointment

The upcoming biography of an historical record and analysis of the life and ministry of Nykyta (Nicetas) Budka, the first Ukrainian Greek-Catholic bishop of Canada. It is not a popular biography nor a hagiography (lives of the saints).

It is based largely on archival sources from the Vatican Secret Archives, The Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Lviv; the Archives of the Ukrainian State Security in Kyiv; the Archives of New State Records in Warsaw; the Archives of: the Congregation for the Oriental Churches; of the Archeparchy of Winnipeg; of the Eparchy of Edmonton and of the Archdiocese of St. Boniface, and the Archives of the Basilian Order of St. Josaphat in Rome.

What to look for in the Budka Biography:

Little known or forgotten details about the life and work of Nykyta Budka including: 

- Details about his early years in Austrian Galicia (Western Ukraine).

- Accounts from his seminary years in Lviv and graduate studies in Innsbruck and Vienna.

- A in-depth analysis of the selection process of Greek-Catholic bishops in 1912.

- details about other candidates for the Canadian mission.

- Budka's ordination, journey to Canada and first accomplishments in his new charge.

- Financial and administrative challenges, the newspaper and student residences.
- Franco-Canadian missionaries, Ukrainian Basilians, Redemptorists and secular clergy.

- Sisters, schools, seminary training, building new churches
- Challenges in maintaining the faith of his flock, religious proselytism.

- Religious conflict within the Ukrainian Canadian community.

- The Bishop's activities during the First World War and its immediate aftermath.

- English translations of Budka's official reports to the Apostolic See of Rome, & other correspondence.

- Details regarding the Bishop's heath and resignation. Candidates to succeed him. 

- Returning to the Archeparchy of Lviv to assist Metropolitan Sheptytsky.

- Details concerning Budka's Canadian citizenship status.

- Soviet persecution: surveillance, arrest, trail and sentencing. Prison camp and death.

- Nykyta Budka's burial site. His political rehabitilation and religious glorification.

- Historical evaluation of Bishop Budka's mission.

- A collection of photographs and samples of the bishop's handwritten reports.

-Quotations from the source documents in their original languages (Latin, French, Italian, Ukrainian, Polish, German, English).

Stay tuned for further details and dates