Blessed Budka biography published in Canada

2014/9/2 18:39:20

God’s Martyr, History’s Witness: Blessed Nykyta Budka the First Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Bishop of Canada has been published by the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Edmonton and the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies.


From RISU:

 

God’s Martyr, History’s Witness: Blessed Nykyta Budka the First Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Bishop of Canada has been published by the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Edmonton and the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies.

 

God’s Martyr, History’s Witness is the first complete historical biography of Bishop Nykyta Budka. The author of the biography is Dr. Athanasius McVay.

 

“With this publication, the name and life of Blessed Bishop Nykyta Budka will find their proper place in the history of Ukrainians in Canada, in Canadian Catholic history, and in the history of Ukraine,” says Dr. Stella Hryniuk.

 

In his commentary to RISU Fr. McVay noted that Nykyta Budka is an important figure in Ukrainian, Canadian, and Catholic history. His appointment on 15 July 1912 was the first time the Apostolic See of Rome named an Eastern Catholic bishop will full jurisdiction outside of the old continents of Europe and Asia. From an early age he became an educator and supporter of the Ukrainian people and supported their political and cultural freedom. He became one of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian immigrants and encouraged Ukrainian immigration to Canada throughout his life, his mission being to sustain Canadian Ukrainian Greek-Catholics in their faith. Budka achieved government recognition of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada as a legal entity. Facing the reality of assimilation he encouraged his flock to become good Canadians but dedicated himself to preserving Ukrainian religious and cultural identity. Bishop Budka’s story is one of endurance. For fifteen years he traveled unceasingly, visiting the Ukrainian settlements scattered across Canada and church communities, celebrating the sacraments, teaching, preaching and comforting the faithful. He invited many Ukrainian priests from Europe and ordained local recruits to serve as missionaries in Canada. He relied upon religious sisters, brothers, and priests to promote Catholic and bilingual education. He sponsored lay people in higher education so that they would become conscientious and self-sacrificing community leaders. He was a poor administrator but a fantastic missionary. He did not receive sufficient financial support from his flock and was forced to rely on grants from Roman Catholic bishops and organizations. He faced bankruptcy on several occasions. In a climate of intense proselytism he battled with many political and religious opponents who sought to draw his flock away from their Catholic Faith. He proved his overwork, stress, and harsh conditions destroyed his delicate health. After requesting for an assistant bishop, finally he was asked to resign. For the next seventeen years he provided moral support and ministered to Ukrainians under oppressive Polish, Nazi and Soviet regimes. Together with his fellow Ukrainian Catholic bishops, clergy, religious and laity, he was condemned by Soviet authorities. He died in a prison camp in far-away Kazakhstan. The Catholic Church numbers him among the heavenly martyrs and confessors of the Faith. His story can be described as a life of obedience, work, and love of the Lord Jesus Christ and God’s pilgrim people.

 

Nykyta Budka was born on September 7, 1877, in the town of Dobromirka in the             municipality of Zbarazh District, Ukraine. He arrived in Winnipeg on December 19, 1912. On December 22, his investiture was held in St. Nicholas Church. He initially resided at 511 Dominion Street at the corner of Westminster. The tasks for the first bishop were monumental as his diocese stretched from the Pacific to the Atlantic and encompassed approximately 150,000 Ukrainians and approximately 80 churches and chapels. Initially there were only 13 secular priests and 9 monks, including the bishop's secretary, Rev. Joseph Bala, who accompanied him to Canada.

 

The bishop's work focused mainly on visiting the faithful, strengthening them in their faith and organizing new parish communities. He worked hard on the Incorporation Act to legally safeguard church property which before his arrival was often the cause of misunderstandings and led to divisions within parishes. The bishop directed much of his effort to building educational institutes and boarding houses for Ukrainian students and organizing parochial schools and catechism instruction for children. Of great assistance to the bishop were the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate who had arrived in Canada ten years earlier. Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky's visit to Canada m 1921 added impetus to Bishop Budka's work. During his meetings with the faithful, the Metropolitan continually encouraged them to remain united, to further their education, and to preserve their religious and cultural traditions. In 1927, after 15 years of hard work in strengthening and expanding the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada, Bishop Nykyta returned to Europe to submit his report on his work to the church authorities in Rome. His health did not permit him to return to Canada. He became the Vicar General (Protosyncellus) to Metropolitan Sheptytsky in Lviv. He was also appointed canon  to the "kapitula"  council of consulters.     

 

The Soviet army invaded western Ukraine in 1939 and within a year exiled hundreds of thousands of people to eastern lands in the Soviet Union. The Nazi forces pushed the Soviet Army back in 1941, but not before the latter murdered countless people and often with unspeakable methods (read the  lives   of the  new  Ukrainian   Martyrs beatified in 2001...) Church leaders warned the nation of the danger of the Nazi regime and it soon became obvious that they were no better than the Soviets. The Soviet forces returned at the close of World War II to occupy all of Ukraine, and this time... they stayed. The Church was respected as a strong moral voice among the people and therefore the Russian occupying forces hesitated to take on the Church directly.    However, when Metropolitan Sheptytsky died on 1 November 1944, leaving another strong leader, Metropolitan Joseph Slipyj as his successor, Moscow decided that action had to be taken soon. On April 11,1945  the Communist authorities arrested  Blessed Nykyta together with all Ukrainian Catholic Bishops and hundreds of priests, sisters and lay  leaders. Blessed Nykyta was sentenced to eight years of hard labor in Siberian exile. When there, even though he himself was subjected to the same miserable regimen of hard labor, hunger, torture and cold, he continued to be a loving pastor, offering what spiritual comfort he could to those in exile with him. Within four years. Blessed Nykyta died on October 1st, 1949 in a prison hospital in northern Kazakhstan. One account relates that his body, as was the usual practice, was left to the wild animals in the surrounding forest. In Lviv, Ukraine on June 27, 2001, Pope John Paul II declared Nykyta Budka a martyr for the Faith.

 

For more about blessed bishop Nykyta Budka http://www.umanitoba.ca/colleges/st_p ... sues/CCHA1988/Hyrniuk.pdf

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