The Union of Brest at 425

The UNION of Brest (1595–1596) aimed to heal the lack of canonical unity between the Churches. In the spirit of the 1439 Florentine Union, the Orthodox Church of Kievan Metropolia (today's Ukraine and Belarus) sought to rekindle ecclesial union with the Roman Apostolic See. Prominent Roman theologians and curialists made theological, canonical, disciplinary, and liturgical arguments why they should be forced to conform to the prevailing Roman Rite. Instead, Clement VIII achieved an authentic, enduring unity by confirming their ancient customs and particularities. 

Even after the Union, the bishops-delegates were interrogated by curial cardinals as to why they were not wearing the 'proper' vestments. Unity was achieved in diversity, although not all accepted union and "Uniates" were often treated a second-class Catholics.

When Eastern Catholic migrants came to the Americas and western Europe, similar arguments were made, that multiple Rites an Disciplines within the same territory would harm the unity of the Church. Local Roman bishops cited the newcomers' aversion to the majority Rite as proof of the inauthenticity of their Catholicism. They were accused of disobedience, divisiveness, and having schismatic proclivities. One curial cardinal even cited the Fourth Lateran Council.

On closer examination, those fears were more to do with controversies within the local Churches (such as conflicts with Protestants) than going to the peripheries and casting their nets into the deep waters.

Pope Leo XIII (in the 1890s) and Pope Pius XII (after the Second World War) intervened for the marginalised, when the local Churches were too beholden to their own interests to foster unity in diversity. Thus, their names are written in golden letters in the history of the Eastern Catholic Churches.

After 130 years, the Congregation for the Eastern Churches issued a document admitting that earlier curial policies had not properly provided for the early émigré minorities. Significantly, it also admitted that, as a result of those mistakes, 100,000 faithful abandoned the Catholic Communion.

The means used to achieve unity at Brest were far from perfect. Nevertheless, despite every hindrance from tyrants, churchmen, fastidious theologians, and positivist canonists alike, today the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church is a Church in its own right (ecclesia sui iuris), with an international hierarchy and more than 6 million faithful on 5 continents. 

Ut unum sint!

Yosyf Botsian: Bishop of Lutsk and Dreamer of the Revival of Eastern Catholicism

published in Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies, vol. 59 (2018) no. 1–4, p. 31–151.

Imagine the suffering to the heart of a bishop to see those faithful which God had entrusted to him, perishing without pastoral assistance, while he was bound hand and foot. — Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, November 1926

Abstract

Yosyf Botsian (1879–1926) is one of the important figures in the twentieth-century revival of Eastern Catholicism in Ukraine. Following his formation in several intellectual centers of Austria-Hungary, Botsian was brought into the chosen circle of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky's disciples.  Appointed rector of the Lviv Theological Seminary, he helped reform the institution according to Jesuit models, emphasizing spiritual development over external discipline. He also continued scholarly work and encouraged the social engagement of both seminarians and clergy. During the First World War, Botsian was sent into exile in Russia; before they were separated, Sheptytsky secretly ordained him as bishop of Lutsk, thus closely associating Botsian with his own dream of the restoration of Eastern Catholicism throughout the historical lands of the Kyivan Metropolia. Unfortunately, Botsian was never able to occupy his see. While Lutsk was incorporated into the new Polish republic following the First World War, neither Sheptytsky and Botsian nor the Oriental Congregation could overcome the opposition of the Polish government and of some Polish Roman Catholic hierarchs to the renewal of the Byzantine rite in eastern Poland. Effectively deprived of his episcopal rank in the last years of his life, Botsian endured disappointment, persecution, illness, and an untimely death. Groomed as Sheptytsky’s successor, Botsian never fulfilled this role, and his dream of the spread of Eastern Catholicism beyond Galicia and its return to the rest of Ukraine would not be fulfilled until after his death. 

Andrey Sheptytsky's Sacred Walking Stick

Жезлъ твой и палица твоѧ, та мя оутѣшиста. 
Thy crook and thy staff have comforted me. (Psalm 22/23)

As I near the end of a research project, my friend and colleague Gloria Romaniuk, Archivist of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Winnipeg, sent me a photo, for which I had been searching for a long time. It came from a collection belonging to the late Bishop Michael Hrynchyshyn, CSsR, longtime postulator of the cause of beatification of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky.  He received the photo from Dr. Pavlo Senytsia, alumnus of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Theological Academy in Lviv, and editor of a multi-volume collection of articles regarding that institution. The second and third volume of this work, entitled "Світильник Істини" (Beacon of Truth) contains a partial reconstruction of the story of this famous cane. I have used these and other sources in my work on Sheptytsky, which includes articles regarding his apprenticeship of two priests, each of which, at one time, he looked upon as his successor. Each one of them was to receive this cane as a symbolic gift, in dramatic and perilous circumstances of the First and later of the Second World War.

Who did Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky look upon as his successor? Above all, he was looking for a someone who understood and was dedicated to his principal cause: promoting the union of the Orthodox Churches with Rome or, as he referred to it, “la Cause de l’Union.” During his long term as Metropolitan of Lviv-Halych, he considered several possibilities, among which was his own brother, Hieromonk Klymenti. However, above all others, two members of his clergy stood out for their moral and intellectual gifts, each of whom, at one time, the Metropolitan looked upon as a successor. Both men bore the same Christian name, Yosyf (Joseph). Both were chosen by Kyr Andrey to educate and form his clergy, as rector of his Major Seminary. Both were gifted academic theologians that had studied in Innsbruck and Vienna (and Rome). These men were Yosyf Botsian (1879–1926) and Yosyf Slipyi (1892–1984).

Father Botsian was the first to receive the cane, during the First World War, when he was accompanying Metropolitan Andrey to Kyiv. Sheptytsky had been arrested by Russian Imperial authorities, when they invaded Austrian Galicia and captured Lemberg (Lviv), in September 1914. He was deported to Kyiv and destined to spend the rest of the war in Russian confinement, at one point in a prison monastery for religious dissidents. The Tsarist authorities allowed three ecclesiastics to accompany him on the first part of his journey. These were Father Yosyf Botsian, the seminary rector, Father Dmytro Yaremko (1879–1915), the vice-rector, and Brother Yosyf Grodsky, the Metropolitan’s valet. They arrived in Kyiv and were confined at the city’s Hotel Continental.

In 1908, Kyr Sheptytsky had received special powers from Pope Pius X, confirming him as administrator of all Uniate eparchies that had been uncanonically suppressed by the Russian State, from 1772 to 1875. Among these powers was the right to ordain bishops for these dormant sees. After arriving in Kyiv, He spent several days in intense reflection and prayer. Fearing for the survival of the Greek-Catholic Church, Sheptytsky decided to make use of the special powers to ordain Botsian and Yaremko to the episcopacy. By virtue of the same faculties, he assigned them the suppressed bishoprics of Lutsk and Ostrih.

On 9/22 September 1914, Metropolitan Andrey told Yosyf Botsian to prepare himself to receive episcopal ordination the following day. The ordination took place in secret, on 10/23 September 1914, at the Hotel Continental. Kyr Andrey did not have all of proper vestments and sacred vessels, Thus, instead of the episcopal crozier, he presented Botsian with his walking staff, upon which he carved the following: “Д. І. Сеп. Р.Б. ≠ЦДІ А.Ш. И.Б” (On 10 day of September in the Year of the Lord 1914 Andrey Sheptytsky to Yosyf Botsian).” The newly consecrated bishops and Grodsky were permitted to return to Lviv, whereas Sheptytsky was deported to Nizhni Novgorod and thence to Kursk, Suzdal, and Jaroslavl, deep within European Russia. Kyr Andrey had the dubious fame of being the only Catholic bishop imprisoned during the First World War. While Petrograd claimed that this was necessary, due to evidence of political intrigue found during a search of the latter's papers, documents from Russian archives show that the decision to eliminate the Uniate leader was taken before the Tsar's armies invaded Austria-Hungary.

Botsian and Yaremko were deported to Siberia the following year. Yaremko did not survive his Siberian confinement, whereas Bostian’s health was ruined by it. Forced by illness to resign as rector in 1919, Botsian was never permitted to take possession of his eparchy. The Second Polish Republic, which had occupied Volyn and its capital Lutsk, imposed an invisible barrier (known as the Sokal Border) prohibiting Greek-Catholics from ministering east of the Lviv-Halych Metropolia. Shortly before Kyr Botsian's untimely death, Father Slipyi, who had been made rector in 1925, invited him to move to the Lviv Seminary, while quarters at the canons’ residence near Saint George’s Archcathedral were being prepared. On 21 November 1926, Slipyi administered the Sacrament of Holy Anointing to Botsian, whom he discovered lifeless, sitting in a chair in the seminary corridor. The following day, Slipyi preached a farewell sermon. The the funeral, which was the largest that Lviv had witnessed in many years. Writing to the Nuncio tweek weeks later, Slipyi commented: “We all regret the death of Bishop Botsian, because it is a great loss for our Church and a weakening of its situation.”

In 1939, Yosyf Slipyi began his own episcopal ministry as a clandestine bishop. Like Botsian, his nomination remained secret for just a little over two years and did not appear in any official church publication. After sending a personal courier to Rome, Metropolitan Andrey received word indicating that that Pope Pius XII had acceded to his request for a successor. In a letter, written in code, Cardinal Eugène Tisserant told the Metropolitan: “you may consider Your beloved disciple to be Your coadjutor and successor. You may proceed to make him such with the necessary function.” In other words, he could go ahead with the episcopal consecration. Describing the ceremony, Slipyi later wrote to a friend in Switzerland:

In place of a bishop’s crozier I received the Metropolitan’s wooden walking staff which, already once in Kyiv, he had given to Bishop Yosyf Botsian, of blessed memory, as a shepherds crozier, and also the same episcopal ring and the same hieratikon [that he had give Botsian]. These items had been rescued, in a very mysterious way, before the Bolsheviks destroyed the Major Seminary. In this, I specifically perceived the hand of Divine Providence.

Metropolitan Andrey intended this deliberate gesture to contain various layers of meaning: it symbolized that Slipyi was following in Botsian’s footsteps as Sheptytsky’s chosen successor; it also signified that, as Botsian had been consecrated secretly in emergency circumstances, so too Slipyi was being called to exercise his episcopal ministry in hardship and peril. This symbolic act was a clear indication that the “torch” had (literally) been passed from Botsian to Slipyi.

In a letter to Pope Benedixt XV in 1917, Sheptytsky had himself observed that it was that very Hand of Divine Providence which had freed him and Bostian from Siberia and brought down the mighty colossus, which had held the Uniate Churches captive for centuries. However, Providence also decreed that Slipyi was destined to share in many aspects of his predecessors’ fates. After having served 8 years in prison, he was exiled to Yenissey and Krasnoyarsk in Siberia where, almost forty years before, Bishop Botsian had been held. Following eighteen years in the Gulag, upon his elevation to the sacra porpora in 1965, Cardinal Yosyf Slipyi paid tribute to the earlier Father Yosyf who, but by the same mysterious Providence, might have taken his place as Metropolitan Andrey’s successor. 

The Coat of Arms of Kyr Andriy (Rabiy)

A Revolution of Quality

            The coat-of-arms of Bishop-elect Andriy Rabiy, by heraldic artist and draftsman Matthew G. Alderman, represents a “revolution of quality,” in the world of Ukrainian ecclesiastical heraldic design. After years of waiting for such an opportunity, it is my pleasure to present this magnificent example, in the creation of which I had the honour to act in a small advisory role.

Arms of Andriy Rabiy

            The arms of Kyr Andriy (Rabiy), newly-elected Auxiliary bishop of the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Philadelphia, represents one of the most refined examples of contemporary Ukrainian ecclesiastical heraldry, and this for three reasons: because it was created by a professional heraldic artist; because it is faithful to the laws of ecclesiastical heraldry; and because of its simplicity. 

            Coats of arms consist of two components: a shield and its external ornaments. The symbols (charges and ordinaries) upon the shield represent the identity of the person who bears the arms, while the external ornaments denote their rank and position. Each arms is described in a heraldic language; an archaic form of English containing Norman-French terminology. In that language, Rabiy’s arms are to be officially described as follows:

Or, in base three hillocks vert, from the central hillock a cross couped azure of three bars, the central bar longer than the upper and lower bars; on a chief enarched of the third, three mullets of five points argent in arc. The whole placed on a mantle purpure, tasselled and corded or, lined argent, ensigned with a Greek mitre, all set over an Eastern crozier and processional cross in saltire.

            In heraldry, the two metalic tones of gold and silver are equivalent to the colours yellow and white. They are described as “or” and “argent.” Other colours are similarly described with archaic terms: green=vert, blue=azure, purple=purpure. A hillock is a small hill; “couped” means that the cross’s arms do not extend to the edge; mullets are stars with straight edges. “Saltire” means the episcopal cross and crozier are arranged in an “x” shape.

            The internal elements (charges and ordinaries) of a new coat of arms can be chosen with a certain degree of freedom, provided they conform to heraldic principles. The external ornaments, however, are determined by heraldic law. A good heraldic artist will select (or help the bearer of the arms select), arrange, and depict elements and colours of the arms tastefully. The internal elements of these arms were carefully selected by Bishop-elect Andriy himself, after a period of reflection and prayer. When doing so, he wisely chose to follow the rule of noble simplicity.

            The “charges” and “ordinaries” on the shield symbolize various aspects of Andriy Rabiy’s life and mission, which began in Ukraine and continue in the United States of America. The upper heraldic “field” (background/zone) is blue and contains three white stars arranged in an arch. These symbols come from the arms and flag of the United States of America and also represent the Archeparchy of Philadelphia, where he serves. The curve of the blue field can be said to recall the curve of the heavens and the protective mantle of the Mother of God.

The lower field is yellow and contains a blue three-barred cross mounted on green hills. Blue and yellow are the colours of Ukraine and a cross with three vertical bars is the symbol of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. The first hill recalls Mount Sinai, where Moses received The Law. The second— Golgotha, where Christ became the New Law in fulfilling the Old Covenant. The third symbolizes two hills in the city of Lviv, Kyr Andriy’s birthplace: the first is the hill on over which the city’s namesake, Prince Lev, built the High Castle (a symbol of the city); and the second, the hill on which Saint George’s Archcathedral stands, where Rabiy served as a young man, and where he will be ordained a bishop.

The form of the shield was chosen to best depict the internal elements, while drawing on a number of typical late medieval/ Renaissance Central European examples.

            The external ornaments of the arms are the episcopal mantle, an Eastern crozier with two serpents entwined around the Cross (recalling Moses’ healing staff), and the processional cross carried before the bishop (In heraldry, only an archbishop has a double bar on this cross). While the internal elements are characterized by the simplicity of their number, colour, and arrangement, the externals are designed to reflect the dignity and solemnity of the episcopal office.

            As an additional decoration, the heraldist trimmed the mantle with a yellow and blue band containing wheat and grapes, symbolizing the priesthood and the Eucharist. The mantle (mandyas) is ornamentally tied with chords to reveal the shield.

            The Greek (Byzantine) mitre is ornamented like a crown with precious stones. This symbolizes the bishop’s authority, while reminding us of the crowns which the just shall received from Christ. Crowns are important in Byzantine sacramental theology and are used for the Mystery of Holy Matrimony (also known as Crowning).

            Episcopal mottos are not mandatory but are very common. Kyr Andriy chose a portion of a verse from the Holy Scriptures that summarizes his high-priestly calling and also alludes to his studies in Church Law. Psalm 118 (119) verse 77 is a prayer for God’s mercy upon those who follow His Law: “Show me your compassion that I may live, for your law is my delight.” (In the original Church Slavonic: “Да прїидутъ мнѣ щедрѡты твоѧ, и живъ бyду, іакw законъ твoй поучeнїє моє єсть.”

Yosyf Botsian: The Forgotten Ukrainian Bishop

In memory of 

Bishop 

YOSYF BOTSIAN
on the ninetieth anniversary of his death

Lviv, 21 November 1926

-Born in Busk of Kamienets, 10 March 1879

-seminary companion of Blessed Nykyta Budka, Innsbruck 1902

-ordained priest, Univ, 21 August 1904

-doctor of theology, Vienna 1905

-rector of the Lviv Greek-Catholic Seminary, 9 October 1910

-ordained Bishop of Lutsk, Hotel Continental, Kyiv, 21 September 1914

-arrested by Russian occupiers, Lviv, 18 February 1915

-exiled to Yenissey, Siberia, 28 May 1915

-released by Provisional Government, 3 March 1917

-assisted at recognition of relics of St. Josaphat, Vienna, 31 August 1917

-returned to Lviv and resumed rectorship, 10 September 1917

-appointed vicar for Kholm Eparchy, March 1918

-interned in Lviv Seminary by Polish army, 3 November 1918

-resigned as rector due to ill health, April 1919

-Benedict XV confirmed as Bishop of Lutsk, 23 February 1921

-scholarly work at Pidhirtsi Monastery (old Lutsk Eparchy) 1922

-auxiliary bishop of Lviv, 20 October 1924
-ordained Blessed Vasyl Velychkovsky (future Bishop of Lutsk) to the priesthood, 9 October 1925

-presented as archpriest of Lviv Metropolitan Chapter of Canons, July 1926.

longer article to follow

Rome Presentation of Budka Biography

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

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

The Resignation of Patriarchs and Popes

Only a few days ago, it seemed impossible that a Pope would resign.  Then, in the words of  the dean of the College of Cardinals, the world was struck by a “lightening bolt in clear skies” when Benedict XVI announced his abdication as Bishop of Rome and Head of the Universal Church. Since February 11 we have all been reflecting on the significance of the papal decision.  And no doubt Eastern Catholics will be reflecting on it from their own unique perspective, as Orthodox Christians in full ecclesial communion with the Roman Pontiff.

Pope Benedict’s gesture is only possible, and perhaps only warranted, in the our day and age. No Pope has stepped down for six-hundred years and, until the late twentieth century, bishops only resigned in extraordinary circumstances. When a bishop was no longer fit to govern his diocese, a coadjutor was appointed to govern while the bishop officially retained his headship.

Then came the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) and the sweeping reforms that followed.  Of these reforms was the introduction of mandatory retirement for all pastors of souls and for church officials. Bishops and priests were required to submit their resignations upon reaching the age of seventy five.  In 1970 Pope Paul VI extended this law to cardinals who, nonetheless, were permitted to continue to take part in the College of Cardinals until the age of eighty years, at which time they automatically ceased to be decision-making members of the Roman Curia.  Yet the head of the Universal Church, the Pope, was not subjected to this legislation (indeed the Roman Pontiff is the lawgiver).

Mandatory retirement caused controversy within church circles. Some protested, some complained, some grumbled under their breath, while others accepted retirement willingly and even gladly.  Over the years, once bishops had submitted their resignations, the Pope sometimes chose to extend their governance beyond the retirement age, until a suitable replacement could be found.  At the end of the twentieth century, Pope John Paul II mitigated his predecessor’s law somewhat, allowing cardinals the over-eighty to take part in initial conclave discussions, up to but not including the closed voting in the Sistine Chapel.

In the Eastern Catholic Churches the introduction of mandatory retirement for bishops caused not a little controversy. Some argued that such a reform did not suit the traditions nor theological sensibilities of the East. An key issue concerned the Fathers and Heads of Eastern Catholic Churches, such as patriarchs and major-archbishops.  Many argued that, like the Pope, heads of their Particular Churches (sui iuris), should not be subject to mandatory retirement. 

In the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church Cardinal Yosyf Slipyj strongly opposed such reforms and would not retire at eighty.  Two other Ukrainian bishops followed his example: Neil Savaryn of Edmonton and Isydor Boretsky of Toronto.  In the case of the two Ukrainian Canadian bishops, the Apostolic See appointed administrators to effectively replace them.  In Slipyj’s case, however, Pope John Paul II convoked the Synod of Ukrainian Bishops to elect a coadjutor and future successor, while Slipyj continued to head the Church until his death in 1984.

Part of the retirement issue was resolved in 1990 when John Paul II promulgated the Code of Canons of the Eastern Catholic Churches.  While requiring all Eastern Catholic priests and bishops to submit their resignations, the Eastern Code did not make a similar stipulation regarding patriarchs and major-archbishops. Neither does it stipulate what measures should be taken when the Head of the Particular Church reaches the point where he is unable to effectively govern. 

Both Slipyj and his successor Myroslav-Ivan Lubachivsky became very frail at the end of their mandates. While their spiritual headship was preserved, the important question arose as to who was to govern in their stead.  To resolve such questions the Apostolic See appointed administrators. The Synod of Ukrainian Bishops selected Bishop Lubomyr Husar as locum tenens and, upon Lubachivsky’s death in in 2001, it chose Husar as Major-Archbishop. Within hours of confirming the election, Pope John Paul conferred the cardinatial dignity upon Husar, making him a member of the de facto Senate of the Universal Church.

Over the centuries, not a single one of the Ukrainian cardinals (Isydor of Kyiv +1463, Mykhaylo Levytsky +1858, Sylvestr Sembratovych +1898) attended a conclave. In 1978 Slipyj was excluded due to age and, thus, in 2005 Lubomyr Husar became the first Ukrainian cardinal to cast his vote in a papal election. However, by that time, he had already lost his eyesight and had to recite the oaths from memory, which eventually led Husar to ponder if he could continue to effectively lead the Ukrainian Church. 

Although not required to resign, Patriarch Lubomyr could certainly do so voluntarily. In 2011 confered with Pope Benedict before making his decision to step down. And since then two other Eastern Patriarchs have followed Husar’s example and retired due to age and infirmity.  Perhaps Benedict XVI considered these resignations in making his own decision to abdicate.

In 2011, the Synod of Ukrainian Hierarchs selected a very young and energetic successor to Husar, Sviatoslav Shevchuk. Immediately after his election, Major-Archbishop (Patriarch) Sviatoslav traveled to Rome to manifest ecclesial communion with the Roman Pontiff.  It was very telling to witness the Universal Pontiff addressing this young man as “Your Beatitude”, and to hear the new Head of our Church call the Bishop of Rome “Most Holy Father.”

Once again, in 2013 no Ukrainian cardinal will be able to take part in the impending conclave. Cardinal Husar turns eighty only a few days before, and the retired Latin Archbishop of Lviv, Cardinal Marian Jaworski, exceeded the age-limit in 2006.

While all Catholics feel a great loss at the abdication of their Universal Father, Ukrainian Catholics still look forward to the day when, God willing, Pope Benedict’s successor will call upon Patriarch Sviatoslav to join the universal Senate, becoming perhaps the youngest member of the College of Cardinals.

Evolutio:  Despite the absence of Ukrainians within the electoral college, the new Pope's white cassock might be sewn by two women from Lviv who, for in recent years, have been working for the papal taylor Annibale Gammarelli.

Bishop Budka's Enthronement

"Bishop Budka Enthroned on Sunday Last"

(22 December 1912)

With Father Dydyk, Toronto 1913

Immense Concourse of Ruthenian Catholics Assemble for the Ceremony at St. Nicholas Church and Thousands Failed to Secure Admission

 In last week’s issue we announced the arrival on Thursday morning of His Lordship Bishop Budka, head of the Ruthenian Catholic Church in Canada, and we recited in a general way the joy experienced by the Ruthenian Catholics at his arrival. He was met at the station by a representative delegation of priests and laymen and escorted to St. Nicholas presbytery. On Friday His Lordship paid a visit to St. Boniface. Since then he has been exceptionally busy and has accomplished a great deal.

Bishop Enthroned

On Sunday [22 December] Bishop Budka was enthroned in his new episcopal seat at St. Nicholas Church on MacGregor St. Wearing the gorgeous robe of the Ruthenian episcopate and with a crown on his head His Lordship Bishop Budka proceeded from the residence of the Basilian Fathers to the Church where he was received by the representatives of the congregation and where he was presented with the keys to the church by Rev. Father Filipow, Superior of the Basilians, as a token of submission. The church was packed to its utmost capacity at the pontifical High Mass which was celebrated and fully two thousand Ruthenian Catholics were obliged to remain outside during the services. His Lordship Bishop Budka officiated, assisted by Rev. Fathers Dydyk, Delaere, Kryzhanovsky, and Hura, the two later being from Mundare, Alberta, respectively. Rev. Father Sembratovych acted a Master of ceremonies and was assisted by the Bishop’s secretary Rev. Father Bala.

Eloquent Sermon

After taking his nomination Bulla Bishop Budka addressed the congregation in an eloquent sermon in which he recited the past achievements of the Ruthenian people and their heroic struggles for the Catholic Faith. After the ceremony the Te Deum was chanted and the procession re-formed and processed to the residence of the Basilian Fathers. [...]

Basilian Fathers as Hosts

In the afternoon a dinner was given by the Basilian Fathers in honour of the new bishop. Among the guests were His Grace Archbishop Langevin. The Pope, King George, and Archbishop Langevin were toasted by His Lordship Bishop Budka.

— Exerpts from Northwest Review (28 December 1912)

Blessed Nykyta and Saint Nicholas

St. Nicholas side altar in Budka's home parish,
Dobromirka, Zbarazh District, Ukraine

Providential Coincidences in the Life of Nykyta Budka

The life of Blessed Martyr Nykyta Budka is characterized by several interesting coincidences. Some of these have to do with coinciding dates of key events in his life.  Another coincidence is his connection with the person of Saint Nicholas, who is called the Wonderworker in the Byzantine tradition. 

Nicholas, Bishop of Myra in Lycea, is a very popular saint in the Byzantine Churches.  Virtually every icon screen includes his image.  In Ukraine, many churches and monasteries have him as their patron and the Church celebrates him with two important feast days: December 6/19, known popularly as "winter Nicholas," and May 9/22, known as "summer Nicholas." The second commemoration was introduced by the Slavic Churches to commemorate the "transfer" of his relics by the Crusaders to Bari, Italy, where they are venerated until the present day.

Although he is known by the title of Myra in Lycea (Мир Ликійський), Saint Nicholas did not originate in Myra.  He was born in nearby Patara (Παταρευς), named after Apollo's son, Patarus, who was said to have founded the city. Patara is mentioned once in the Holy Scriptures, in the Acts of the Apostles, in a account of a sea journey to Tyre by Saint Paul the Apostle (Acts 21:1–3).

In August 1912 the Apostolic See of Rome designated the city of Patara as the titular (honourary) seat of Bishop Budka's bishopric.  The reason for this was that Budka had not been appointed bishop over a territory per se, since there were no Byzantine-Rite eparchies in Canada, only Latin dioceses. Budka was given personal jurisdiction over all Ruthenian Greek-Catholics in Canada and his diocese was called an "ordinariate" (later re-named apostolic exarchate in accord with Eastern Christian nomenclature).

Titular sees were bishoprics that had ceased to function as real dioceses.  Many of them were ancient Christian centres located in territories which had since fallen under Islamic Rule.  Often, as in the case of Patara in Anatolian Turkey inside the Ottoman Empire, there were no Christians living there at all.  Titular sees were given to curial bishops and auxiliary bishops who were not appointed to govern dioceses of their own, or to bishops such as Budka who held jurisdiction over certain faithful but not over a territory per se.

The possibility of creating a territorial diocese for Nykyta Budka had been discussed. This would have involved subtracting territory from an existing Roman-Rite diocese, perhaps where there was a large Ukrainian population, and giving it to Budka.  The reason why this option was rejected was that, in order to minister to Greek-Catholics outside that small territory, Budka would have still required additional, delegated jurisdiction from every Roman Catholic bishop in whose dioceses those faithful resided.  Instead, the Apostolic See of Rome, with its the universal jurisdiction, placed all Ruthenian Greek-Catholics in Canada under his spiritual care and assigned Budka a dormant titular see, designating the city of Winnipeg as his real seat.

Titular sees were a kind of legal fiction so, when composing the papal bull, the Apostolic Chancery used the following technical wording to have Pope Pius X nominate Budka: "because the church of Patara is numbered among the merely titular sees, We grant that you are in no way obligated to go to it nor personally reside there."

Saint Nicholas of Myra, the Wonderworker
St. Nicholas Church, Winnipeg

While not obligated to reside in Patara, Bishop Budka was indeed bound to take formal possession of his ordinariate at Winnipeg.  In doing so, three coincidences occurred:  The new bishop arrived in Canada on 6 December, the feast of Saint Nicholas according to the Gregorian Calendar.  He arrived in his de facto episcopal seat, Winnipeg, on 19 December, Saint Nicholas Day in the Julian Calendar.  Finally, Bishop Nykyta was enthroned in the parish church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on 22 December 1912.  It is also interesting to note that, from 1922 to 1928 drawn-out negotiations were taking place that would likely have made Saint Nicholas, the first Ukrainian church in Winnipeg, Bishop Budka's cathedral church. 

Two other key dates in the bishop's life of service were 28 September and 14 October.  Budka was ordained a deacon on 28 December 1905.  We now know that this was also the date of his birthday into heaven, the date that his Soviet captors in Kazakhstan recorded on his death certificate in 1949.  Further Blessed Nykyta was ordained a priest on the feast day of the Protection (Patronage) of the Mother of God, 14 October (Julian Calendar). This was the same date that he had chosen to receive the episcopal consecration in 1912.  Kazakhstani records also indicate that he was admitted to a military hospital on this day in 1947, his thirty-fifth episcopal anniversary.  It is not clear whether he ever left this facility before his death two years later.

From an historical point of view, these dates are simply interesting coincidences, From a Christian perspective, which sees God's hand working the human history, we can rightly refer to these dates a signs of Divine Providence in the life of Blessed Martyr Nykyta of Patara in Lycea, bishop of the Ruthenian-Ukrainian Catholics of Canada.

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.