www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Photo Gallery Transfiguration Ukrainian Catholic Church, Shamokin, PA

Here are some photographs from one of the more historic parishes of Greek Catholicism in the United States, Transfiguration Ukrainian-Greek Catholic Church, in Shamokin, PA.

I understand that some rather important events happened here - I'll let the forum historians discuss them (please, discuss)! History is no fun if it's not told.

As you can see, there are some period-pieces in this church. As one priest (not the pastor there) said "They should leave it the way it is just so that we remember where we once were..."

This parish hosts a classic coal region block party every August, and their homemade pyrohy, breads, and rolls are rock-on delicious. They still operate a (good) parochial grade school as well. There are two SSMI sisters in the convent. It is a very proud parish - in the best sense of the word.

It says Ruska Cat. Cerkov-Rusyn Catholic Church.

They are using the all-inclusive, "Ruthenian Recension" translation of "Ruska (or Rus'ka)", the ecclesiastical use which was then translated into English as "Ruthenian". While these original immigrants were both from Austria-Hungary, Subcarpathian and Galician Rusyns, the later immigrants from Galicia after WWI were already identifying themselves as "Ukrainians".

Ung

A number of parishes which originally began under the moniker of "Ruska Kat." eventually became Ukrainian Greek Catholic after the separation of the exarchates first under the administrators Frs. Poniatyshyn and Martyak and later under the respective Exarchs Konstantin (Bohachevsky) and Basil (Takach).

Transfiguration, founded in 1886, is another successful joint undertaking between Galician Ukrainians and Carpatho-Rusyns. You can still get into arguments about whether parishes such as Transfiguration should have been affiliated with either the Ukrainian or Ruthenian exarchates when they were established in 1924. Andrew Hodobay's "Conscriptio", prepared in 1905 in elegant hand-written Latin, is a kind of census of early Greek Catholic parishes by diocese of origin. His data show that Transfiguration membership was 80% Galician and 20% Rusyn. So, the subsequent affiliation was correct. Nonetheless, Rusyn identify was not lost: the parish for years had an active GCU lodge and gave one vocation to the Byzantine Catholic Diocese of Passaic.

Perhaps as the memberships of both the Byzantine Catholic and Ukrainian Catholic Churches continue to draw down, there may be more "joint undertakings" to come and these early parishes such as Transfiguration may important lessons to offer.

Thanks for the info, John. You really do have the resources!

I found out this past winter that my grade-school principal, a Felician (a largely Polish community) was from this parish, and two of her uncles were priests - one a monk at St. Procopius and the other I think is the Passaic priest you may be thinking of. When her birth-father was killed her mother married again and she and her siblings went to the closer Polish parish. She is very proud of her Greek-Catholic heritage, nevertheless.

Jon: I had in mind Fr. George Kandra, who for my years was pastor of St. John's in Bayonne NJ. St. Procopius, of course, is now the Benedictine College of Illinois in Lisle. Please continue with your pilgrimage of parishes in the Coal Region.