www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Rev Joseph P Hanulya and Rev Emil I Burik

Hello Fellow Forum Members:

My name is Deborah Burik, brand new to the forum as you can probably tell, and am the great granddaughter of Rev Hanulya and Rev Burik.

I joined the forum hoping to gather from the members as much information, history and pictures(?) as possible regarding my great grandfathers. I know there was a book published by John Slivka and I would love to know where I could purchase a copy of the hardcover book.

Thank you in advance for any assistance you may be able to provide.

Regards,

Deborah Burik

Welcome to byzcath. God bless your search!

Deborah,

Welcome to the forum.

The book you are seeking is, I believe, Historical Mirror: Greek Rite Catholics 1884-1963 by Rev. John Slivka. The full text of it is available and readable on-line here [archive.org]. An actual paper copy, last time I saw onr on-line, was running about $175 and, from the description, its condition would be described as 'fair'.

Not knowing what info you may already have, I apologize in advance for any repetiton.

Father Joseph Hanulya, of blessed memory, was particularly prominent in the history of the Greek-Catholic Church and the Carpatho-Rusin community in Cleveland. He pastored Holy Ghost Byzantine Catholic Church there until his retirement in 1953. I believe that he remained there, in residence, until his repose in 1962. (Interestingly, Holy Ghost was founded by your other great-grandfather, Father Emil Burik, of blessed memory). Holy Ghost, regretably, was suppressed in Nov 2009. You can see photos of it at our Directory entry and a history of it here [tremonthistory.com]

Exactly when he was first assigned to Holy Ghost is a bit harder to nail down. I've seen him listed as arriving there in either 1908 or 1918 [freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com]. From 1921-1924*, he was at St Gregory the Theologian Greek Catholic Church [freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com], 2037 Quail St, Lakewood, OH.

Father Joseph was instrumental in establishment of the Rusin Cultural Garden [culturalgardens.org], erected in 1939. It is one of 20 such gardens dedicated to ethnic groups prominent in Cleveland and if you use the garden as a search term in either Yahoo or Google you will inevitably find mention of him.

There's a biographical entry [ech.case.edu] on him in the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, which is available on-line. He's also prominently mentioned in the encyclopdia's entry on Byzantine Rite Catholics [ech.case.edu]. The biographical entry provides his dates of birth, marriage, ordination, immigration, and death. It also indicates the village in which he was born and names your great-great grandparents, his wife - your great-grandmother, one of your grandparents, and those who would be your grandaunts and granduncles. He served parishes in PA before his arrival in OH, one being Ss Peter & Paul in Duquesne - another being in Allegheny, possibly also at St Nicholas in McKeesport.

He was very involved in the fight to obtain a Greek Catholic bishop in the US and also in the battle against Rome's imposition of a celibacy requirement for Greek Catholic priests in the US.

He authored more than a dozen books - several of which were texts for use in the parish school. You can find information on some of them here [carpatho-rusyn.org] and if you search his name at www.alibris.com [alibris.com] , www.abebooks.com [abebooks.com] , or www.amazon.com [amazon.com] , you will find a few of his books available for purchase from used booksellers - one on Rusyn literature, one on Rusyn ritual.

Father Joseph and Matushka Mary are buried at Holy Spirit Byzantine Cemetery [holyspiritbyzantine.org] in Cleveland.

Father Emil Burik, of blessed memory, was pastor of St John the Baptist Greek Catholic Church [tremonthistory.com] in Cleveland from 1906 to 1908.

In 1907, he was present at a meeting to plan a welcoming for Bishop Soter Ortinsky, the first Greek-Catholic bishop sent to the US and in 1908 both he and Father Joseph were signatories to a letter of protest sent to Rome by the Greek-Catholic clergy in the US.

In 1909, he founded Holy Ghost and served there until 1913 when he became the first pastor of the new Ss Peter & Paul Greek-Catholic Church in Erie, PA [archeparchy.org], where he remained a year.

In 1919, he became pastor of St John the Baptist Greek Catholic Church in Bayonne, NJ, where he remained until 1920 or 1921 and oversaw the construction of a new temple. *From 1921-1924, he was back at Holy Ghost in Cleveland, while Father Joseph was at St Gregory the Theologian in Lakewood.

He reposed in 1943, when his obituary [hudsoncountynjgenealogy.org] appeared in a Bayonne, NJ, newspaper. Where he was assigned in the 2 decades from 1924 to 1943, I don't know.

Many years,

Neil

Deborah,

In re-reading your post, I see you indicate that you want a hardcover copy of Father Slivka's book. I just checked and see a single copy at amazon - at $175, as I warned

here [amazon.com]

Many years,

Neil

Also of interest:

Slivka, Fr. John, "The history of the Greek Rite Catholics in Pannonia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Podkarpatska Rus' 863-1949" (no place of pub., 1974).

Elias

Bless, Father Elias,

Nice to see you!

Yes, there are copies of that text available several places on-line and it's more reasonably priced than the other. I hadn't mentioned it because my sense was that Deborah was looking for info specific to the Carpatho-Rusyns in the US, but she might indeed be seeking to go back further.

Many years,

Neil

Deborah,

You might be interested in the fact that there was another Greek Catholic priest surnamed Burik in the US around the turn of the century - both his first name and where I saw that info escape me at the moment - but his first initial may have been 'A'.

The surname also shows up in parishioner lists from Latin Slovak parishes in Cleveland around the same era.

Also, a Father Augustin or Augustine Burik is referenced as having performed a marriage in the Old Country (what would now be Slovakia) in 1882 (I think). That reference is on one of the Carpatho-Rusyn or Slovak genealogy sites.

Many years,

Neil

My mother's family lived in Bayonne, NJ and my dad was from Elizabeth, NJ. I suspect that Fr. Burik returned from Cleveland to Bayonne in the early 1920's and remained there until his death. My grandfather spoke often of him as did my father, who spoke of him in connection with Fr. Orestes Koman of Elizabeth and their roles in the on-going attempts to persuade the Vatican to reconsider 'ea semper' and 'cum data fuerit' and within the GCU at that time. That leads me to believe that he was the pastor in Bayonne during the period of my parents' youth and young adulthood - years that were quite tumultuous in both parishes. I will check with my uncle to see if he can recall. Hope this helps.

Deborah,

My friend, DMD, and I had another discussion about this topic and he mentioned Father Lawrence Barriger's books, Good Victory and Glory to Jesus Christ, which are histories of the coming to existence of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Diocese (ACROD - Johnstown). Both are readily available for purchase from any of several on-line sites and often reasonably priced [orthodoxgoods.com].

Although I don't know that there are references to either of your great-grandfathers by name there, they might well be worth you reading for background as to the struggles in which they were involved over the celibacy issue.

Many years,

Neil

Deborah,

Do you know of/have contacted Margaret Benyo-Burik? She lives in Lakewood, Ohio and is Nicholas Benyo's (the choir director's) daughter. She may have some good insights into the lives of your family members!? I am only 22, and belong to St. Mary's in Cleveland now, but my whole extended family, the Batcha's went through Holy Ghost.

Michael

Thank you for the news that Fr. John Slivka's "Historical Mirror..." is available on-line and searchable (!). Fr. John was the last married priest ordained (1926) by Bishop Takach before the onset of the Celibacy controversy of the 1920-30s. I think his home parish of Jessup PA (Holy Ghost) should erect a memorial to Fr. Slivka, the modern-day Eusebius of the Rusyn Greek Catholic church.

Michael,

Welcome to the forum and thanks for contributing this information.

John,

Would have let you know sooner than this, had I realized you were not aware of it. The search function seems to work pretty well. Pagination between index and text appears to be a bit off in some cases.

Many years,

Neil

There is an excellent biography of Fr. Hanulya in the "Enclyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture." Fr. Hanulya wrote a history of the Pittsburgh Exarchate as of the early 1950s. It was never published and all copies seem to have vaporized!

Hi Deborah,
How great to respond to Fr. Hanulya's great-grandaugher. I am also new to the forum especially to make contact with you. I am curator of the newly formed Carpatho-Rusyn Heritage Museum in Parma Oh at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist center. It is housed in the same space as the Bishop Emil J. Mihalik Byzantine Catholic Cultural Center.

The eparchial cultural museum was started back in the 80's by Susan Mandzak, a member of Holy Ghost Church where your great grandfather was a priest for many years. Susan did a fabulous collection of everything that took place at Holy Ghost. The museum had been closed for quite a few years because Susan ran the museum by herself and as her health failed wound up in a nursing home. Aware of the collection that was up there and feeling a need to preserve these items, the Cleveland Chapter of the Carpatho-Rusyn Society approached Bishop John Kudrick, Bishop of the Eparchy of Parma, in January of 2009 to go through the collections and try to make it presentable for the 40th anniversary in June of 2009.

Many professional volunteers came forward and we now have a magnificent space to share religion and culture. Some of the exhibits featured "Leaders", clerical and lay people. Your great-grandfather was featured along with Fr. Gulyassy. These two priests were remarkable in attending to the needs of the new immigrants in the Cleveland area. I did not know your great grandfather but everyone spoke so highly of him. In preparing the display, I can tell you he was one amazing priest and you should be very proud to be related to him. Neil did a great job of explaining a lot about his history but after going through much of the written information and pictures, there is a place in my heart for Fr. Hanulya that goes way beyond historical facts. I was at the last Liturgy of Holy Ghost in November 2009 (100th anniversary) out of repect for him and what he did for Holy Ghost and its members. I felt I needed to be there.

We have tons of pictures, all the books he wrote, a portrait that was painted by a famous Rusyn artist, Erdeli in 1927 (which is exhibited) and a portrait of family members taken at one of his anniversaries just to name a few.

Our future plans are to do a full exhibit and time line of Holy Ghost. Right now we have a time line of the history of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist exhibited which is the Mother Church of Ruthenian Greek Catholics in the Midwest at the time of its founding. We have so much more on Holy Ghost because of Susan's great collection.

We tried to contact family members of Fr. Hanulya in the Cleveland and Youngstown areas as special guests for the 40th anniversary but did not get a response. It is exciting to know there is someone out there wanting to know more about and remembering Fr. Hanulya.

I was a member of St. Gregory's in Lakewood for a number of years and the Burik name is very familiar to me. I know there are members who still belong with that name. I can investigate more as to their relationship to Fr. Burik if you like.

Bonnie

Bonnie,

Welcome to the forum. It's great to learn more about the museum and I hope that you'll keep us posted as plans progress, as I'm certain that it's of great interest to many of our members.

Many years,

Neil