Albert Vasilievich Mina (Minya), father of the Rev. Ivan Mina, Ph.D., of Clairton, passed away peacefully at the family home in San Diego Friday, Sept. 25, 2009. On Sept. 16, he had celebrated his 93rd birthday. Born in Okruhla (Kerekhegy), Maramaros County in the Kingdom of Hungary, which is today in the Tyachiv district of the Transcarpathian region of the Ukraine, he completed high school at Uzhhorod. He went on to study law at Charles University in Prague. Albert returned to Uzhhorod, which had been annexed by Hungary. That autumn, he registered at Sopron University in the botany/forestry department. His studies were again interrupted in 1941 by Hungary's entry into war against the Soviet Union. Albert served as a lieutenant on the Eastern Front until the overthrow of Hungary's royal government by the Nazis in 1944. At that point, Albert changed sides and served in the Soviet army until his demobilization in Vienna. Again, Albert returned to Uzhhorod, which became part of the USSR. Unwilling to live under godless totalitarianism, Albert escaped in 1945 to Prague, where there was still a coalition government. He continued his botany/forestry studies at university, supporting himself by working as a Russian and Hungarian translator at Radio Prague. In February, 1948, the communists seized power in Czechoslovakia. Just before the border was sealed, Albert boarded the train to Paris. In France, Albert was accepted into graduate studies at Nancy, where he successfully completed his comprehensive examinations in 1951 and was admitted into the doctoral program. In 1949, Albert married Mila Koenig, a Czech student who had also fled from the communists in 1948. The couple met in Paris. In 1950, a son, Ivan, was born in Nancy. Because of the hardships of life for political exiles in post-war Europe, the family moved at the end of 1951 to the United States, settling in Youngstown, Ohio. Two sons were born there: Peter (1955) and Michael (1957). In 1959, the family moved to Burbank, Calif. They became early members of St. Mary's Byzantine Catholic Church (now Cathedral) in Van Nuys. In 1960, a daughter, Maria, was born. Albert eventually worked as a teacher and college instructor. Mila devoted her talents as an iconographer to the service of our churches. The family moved in 1971 to Goleta in Santa Barbara County. In 1988, the retired couple bought a house in San Diego so they could be closer to our church. Peter and Maria also moved there, while Michael, who was already married, remained in Goleta. Throughout his long life, Albert preserved his love for his church and his homeland. He also had a special love for Russian language and literature, which he knew extremely well. With the fall of communism, Albert traveled almost every year to Eastern Europe. Often he was accompanied by his wife, Mila, or his son, Father Ivan. He followed especially closely the restoration of the Greek Catholic eparchies and the causes of the four holy Ruthenian hierarchs, all of whom he knew personally. Albert had a beautiful voice and an extensive knowledge of church chant, which he had learnt at his father's knee and then at Uzhhorod Cathedral. The tenth out of eleven children, Albert was preceded in death by his parents, Vasil and Anna (Lucksa) Minya; and his siblings, Ljudovik, Blanka, Emiljan, Vasil, Iosif, Fedor, Margareta, Ivan, Anna and Evhen. The Right Rev. Monsignor Ljudovik (Leontij) Minya, Ph.D., was canon of Uzhhorod Cathedral and rector of Uzhhorod Seminary. Ordered to the West by Bishop Blessed Theodore Romzha, he eventually became a Redemptorist missionary in Canada. The Rev. Ivan Minya, a married priest, was sent to the Gulag in Siberia and spent many years in exile in Soviet Central Asia. Albert is survived by his wife, Mila; children, Father Ivan, Peter, Michael and Maria; and a grandson, Nicholas, who has just started college in Santa Barbara. Friends will be received 7 to 9 p.m. Friday with a Parastas service at 7:30 p.m. in the A.J. BEKAVAC FUNERAL HOME. A Panachida service will be held at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the funeral home with a Funeral Service at 10 a.m. in Father Mina's Church, Ascension of Our Lord Byzantine Catholic Church. Procession and burial to follow at the family plot at Mt. St. Macrina in Uniontown.
