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Blessed Bishop Vasyl Velychkovsky, C.Ss.R., Bishop and Martyr (Ukrainian)
(Born June 1, 1903, Died June 30, 1973).
Appointed as bishop of this underground church in Lviv, Ukraine.
Secretly ordained as Bishop in 1963.
Beatified on June 27, 2001.

I.F.

Around the time of his arrest, Blessed Vasyl appointed and consecrated, with others, as Locum Tenens of the Underground Church Archbishop Volodymyr Sterniuk - both men were Redemptorists.

Sterniuk was also arrested and spent ten years in Siberia after which he returned to Lviv and since he wouldn't stop catechising and ordaining priests he was placed under house arrest no fewer than 18 times.

I had the great blessing of meeting and having dinner with Archbishop Volodymyr once on a visit to Canada. We met at my aunt's place as he was a relative.

He constantly fingered his beads as did Bl. Vasyl throughout his Siberian ordeal. Unceasing prayer is what pulled them through.

May the New Martyrs of our Church intercede for us always.

Alex

Blessed Vasyl Velychkovsky, intercede before God for us!

It is a wonderful post.

God bless and keep you....

Holy Hieromartyr Vasyl, pray to God for us. We were blessed to have taken part in the procession and enshrinement of his relics in Winnipeg.

He was a firm believer in using the traditional rescension as received; and lived the maxim of St. Pius X, quoting it often in his writings, nec plus, nec minus, nec aliter .

According to the recent book BLESSED BISHOP Nicholas Charnetsky, C.Ss.R. and Companions - edited by Fr. John Sianchuk, C.Ss.R., which is the story of four modern Ukrainian Redemptorist martyrs, Nicholas Charnetsky, Vasyl Velychkovsky, Ivan Ziatyk, and Zenon Kovalyk (Published by Liguori Press), Blessed Bishop Nicholas, when he did his work in Volyn, attracted many Orthodox to the UGCC because of his insistence on celebrating all the services, and strictly according to traditional practice (no "butchering", no latinizations, etc.). He insisted that all priests who would serve there, under his omophor, had to do the same. It's been a month since I read the book, but I believe that this book points out that Blessed Bishop Vasyl took the same approach. One would think that others would "take a page" from "their book".

Dn. Robert

I had been once told that although blessed Wasyl had only lived in Winnipeg (Manitoba) for the last year of his life, the Canadian Government and Roman Catholic Church consider him to be a 'Canadian', and that over time when he is beatified he will honored as a Canadian saint. The same was said about UGCC Nikita Budka who had served for a number of years as a bishop in Canada but had returned to Ukraine where he was martyred. Does anyone know if this is true ?

I.F.

Dear Father Deacon Robert,

Yes, indeed!

In his memoirs, Bl. Vasyl was adamant about maintaining all local Orthodox traditions and even Orthodox saints.

He actually criticizes Eastern Catholics for "making fun" of Orthodox saints. He himself always wore an Orthodox three-bar pectoral cross etc.

In fact, when he was in Rome, Bl. Vasyl provided information for the introduction of the Causes of five New EC Martyrs - three of them were former Pochaiv monastics and two priests - all five of whom came into communion with Rome under Bl. Vayl's omophor.

Bl. Vasyl is descended from the family of St Paissy Velichkovsky, the great Orthodox saint and teacher of the Jesus Prayer (glorified by world Orthodoxy in 1988). As such, his family name worked to his benefit!

In his memoirs, Bl. Vasyl writes about this memory when he was a seminarian in Lviv when the Rector was the Rev. Fr. Professor Joseph Slipyj under Met. Andrew Sheptytsky.

"It came the time for my final oral examination in theology on which depended my ability to graduate and be ordained. My examination was held in the Metropolitan's palace with the Metropolitan (Andrew) himself sitting across the table from me, together with the Rev. Fr. Rector Joseph Slipyj.

"The Rector put three questions to me, one after another, to which I gave my answers. After each of my answers, the Rector simply said, 'Insufficient.'

"After my third 'insufficient' from the Rector, the Metropolitan, who had apparently been resting with his eyes half-closed, sat up and said, 'What was that? What was that?"

"'The candidate gave insufficient answers . . . came the stern reply from the Rector. 'Oh, I didn't hear. Please ask him again!' requested Metropolitan Andrew.

"And again the Rector put the same questions to me, and again, I replied with the same answers as before. But, this time, instead of the Rector's 'insufficient' comment, the Metropolitan quickly interjected after each of my answers with, 'That's fine, that's fine . . .'"

"I passed my examination thanks to the Metropolitan. Fr. Rector was well within his rights to prevent me from passing, however!"

Prior to his Beatification, the local church authorities discovered the KGB document that gave the death sentence on Bl. Vasyl Velichkovsky - by way of special lethal injection that was slow acting.

It finally killed him in Winnipeg where his shrine now is.

Blessed Vasyl is every bit a "Canadian saint" as are the eight North American Jesuit Martyrs from France!

Alex

Dear IF,

Yes, this is already true in the cases of both of these New Martyrs, they are truly Canadian saints.

In Lubensk in Ukraine, there is the shrine of St Athanasius "the Sitting" Patriarch of Constantinople.

He died near Poltava on his way home and was buried at Lubensk in the sitting position on a throne (whence the title "the Sitting").

Due to the many miracles at his tomb, Constantinople gave permmission for the Kyivan Orthodox Metropolitan to proceed with his glorification as a saint. St Athanasius was also declared a patron saint of Poltava and surrounding area. And he had no direct relation to Ukraine other than the fact that he was Patriarch of Constantinople and reposed there!

The same is true of St Gregory V, New Hieromartyr and Patriarch of Constantinople who was hanged over the doorway of his residence and then thrown into the Bosphoros by the Turks.

His body was recovered by Ukrainian sailors who took it to Odessa where they discovered who this "monk" really was! He was honoured locally as a hieromartyr and a patron of Odessa. The Ukrainian Orthodox have recently declared him as a saint of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (his relics were returned to Athens after Greece obtained her freedom).

And St Paissy Velichkovsky, the ancestor of Bl. Vasyl, renewed the Church of Roumania and so there he is called "St Paisios of Roumania" even though he always signed his name, 'Native of Poltava."

Saints can be shared . . .

Khrestos Khreschayetsia! Vo Yordani!

Alex

Indeed Fr. Deacon. Other lifes of Blessed Vasyl, such as Batchalowsky's, also demonstrate his great love for the liturgical tradition.

In his address at the Conference for Church Unity in 1936 he strongly defended the fuller use of the tradition without latinizations in his work in Volyn, quoting those words of St. Pius X as well as the mandates given him by Blessed Mykola (Charnetsky) and Metropolitan Andrey. He mentions the use of the curtain, the full Liturgy, etc. in his chapel in Kovel'.

He is living proof that the fuller "Ruthenian Rescension" was celebrated, was a real thing (not some theoretical construction in the mind of a few liturgists) and was very successful in evangelical endeavors when celebrated.

He furthermore is living proof that the fuller Rescension as noted in the Rome books was not the wim of a single person (Cyril Korlovesky) as some would like us to believe, and in fact Metropolitan Andrey made those recommendations to him based on the results of real pastoral experience of the likes of Bl. Vasyl; and thus it was a real, received tradition.

Alex,

I wonder whether this was discussed in the room in Moscow in 1963.