Catholic Heroes… Blessed Vasyl Velychkovsky

By CAROLE BRESLIN

Many Christians make pilgrimages to Europe and the Holy Land and to Mexico City to see the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. For those who do not wish to leave the North American continent, there are popular destinations in Canada and the United States, such as St. Joseph Oratory of Mount-Royal begun by Brother André and the Basilica of Sainte Anne de Beaupré in Quebec.
In Libertyville, northwest of Chicago, the National Shrine of Maximilian Kolbe has lovely grounds and overnight accommodations. In addition there is the National Shrine of Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Md., just ten miles north of Gettysburg. The lesser-known shrine at St. Joseph’s Ukrainian Catholic Church holds the remains of Blessed Vasyl Velychkovsky, bishop and martyr, in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Vasyl was born in Stanislaviv in Western Ukraine on June 1, 1903. Like Mary and Joseph, the parents of Vasyl Velychkovsky were humble people. His father, Volodymyr, was an assistant at the cathedral where Vasyl was baptized. (The family belonged to the Ukrainian Catholic Church, which is in union with Rome. They have been described as a priestly family.) Anna, Vasyl’s mother, devoted to her family and the faith, taught Vasyl at home.
When Vasyl was only eight years old, his grandfather took him to a mission in a church in Probizhnia. Vasyl sited this mission, when he dedicated himself to the Mother of God, as the turning point in his life.
However, during World War I (July 1914 to November 1918), Vasyl joined the Ukrainian Galician Army in 1918 to fight for Ukrainian independence.
When the war was over, Vasyl entered the Lviv Seminary and Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, archbishop of Lviv, ordained him as deacon in 1924. After careful discernment, Vasyl joined the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, founded by St. Alphonsus Liguori. These priests are commonly called Redemptorists.
After Vasyl professed his vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in 1925, he completed his studies to become a missionary priest. Bishop Josyf Botsian of Lutsk ordained Vasyl on October 9, 1925 in the chapel in Zboisk.
Fr. Velychkovsky taught at the minor seminary for the next two years, all the while longing to do missionary work.
His superiors quickly realized Vasyl’s great gift for preaching and assigned him to his first mission in Stanislaviv and another in Volyn in 1928. For the next seven years he served the Orthodox faithful in Kovel, who wished to join the Catholic Church. He also worked among Halychyna immigrants from Ukraine, demonstrating great understanding for the ways of the Eastern Orthodox.
The tensions developing between the Ukrainians and the Poles forced Vasyl to leave Volyn in 1935. Having returned to Stanislaviv, he lived in the Redemptorist community there. He preached two-week missions in many villages where he reached hundreds of thousands of souls.
During World War II when the Soviets occupied Ukraine, he suffered from the persecution of his people — especially the poor who came to Stanislaviv, hoping to find work to feed their families.
Fr. Vasyl dared the Soviets by organizing a procession on the Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in 1940. Over 20,000 participants joined in the devotion, leading to his immediate arrest. The Soviets, however, feared for their lives because the people were so upset by the apprehension. Thus, they released the beloved priest.
The civil authorities also threatened Fr. Vasyl when he went to Greater Ukraine which was occupied by the Germans in 1944. His success in spearheading a spiritual revival angered the Germans, who forced him to leave.
Then Fr. Vasyl volunteered to go to Ternopil in 1944 even though the Soviet bombardment had begun there. As a true soldier of Christ, he fearlessly continued to serve and care for his flock. While there, he became the superior of the Dormition monastery.
On April 10, 1945, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishop was arrested and the Soviets also sought to arrest Fr. Vasyl. Because of their desperate quest for him, he clandestinely traveled from one village to another, barely eluding his pursuers. Finally, they caught up to him and arrested him at the Ternopil monastery on August 7, 1945.
For one year the priest endured tortures, interrogations, and threats if he did not deny his faith and leave the Catholic Church, but he remained faithful even in the face of death.
Ten months after his arrest, the courts ultimately sentenced him to death. For the next three months he lingered on death row, making great use of his time. Fr. Velychkovsky first taught his fellow prisoners to pray. He also catechized them and prepared them to receive the sacraments.
Just before his execution date, his sentence was changed from death to a ten-year term in the coalmines of northern Russia — perhaps a sentence to a slower death. Even though he spent long hours in the mines, he did his best to celebrate Mass every day, using whatever vessels he could find for the consecration, such as a worn spoon.
In the frigid prison work above the Arctic Circle, Fr. Vasyl went deep into the mines. There he made a small chapel where he would pray the rosary for the prisoners and the guards, hear Confessions, and provide counsel and comfort.
In July 1955, they released Fr. Vasyl and he returned to Lviv. He found a small room and began serving the underground Catholic Ukrainian Church by celebrating Mass, leading spiritual retreats, and providing spiritual direction.
The Apostolic See ordained Fr. Vasyl bishop of the underground Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in 1963 in a Moscow hotel room by Metropolitan Josyf Slipyj.
As Bishop Velychkovsky, he strengthened the Church, but was again arrested in 1969, this time for writing subversive and treasonous material — such as a devotional booklet on Our Lady of Perpetual Help, for whom the Redemptorists have a great devotion.
This time they also charged him with anti-Soviet agitation. They sentenced him to three years in a psychiatric hospital where they again tortured him. They were determined to extract information about the leaders and members of the underground Church, but he never surrendered any information despite their cruel treatment.
Bishop Vasyl was then released in June 1972 and exiled from Ukraine. First he went to Yugoslavia and from there to Rome where he met Major Archbishop Josyf Slipyj and Pope St. Paul VI. He also met the Ukrainian Catholic archbishop of Winnipeg in Manitoba. The archbishop brought Vasyl back to Canada to be with other Ukrainian refugees.
Bishop Vasyl spent his last year giving retreats to the clergy, but the recent imprisonment had so ruined his health that he died on June 30, 1973 at the age of 70.
His funeral Mass was celebrated in St. Vladimir and Olha Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral, after which he was buried in All Saints Cemetery near Winnipeg on July 5.
Thirty years later his body was exhumed and was found mostly incorrupt — the exception being his toes that had fallen off and were used as relics.
On June 27, 2001, Pope St. John Paul II beatified Bishop Vasyl Velychkovsky in the Lviv Hippodrome, Ukraine. His shrine is located in St. Joseph’s Ukrainian Catholic Church in Winnipeg. His feast is celebrated on June 27.

+ + +

(Carole Breslin home-schooled her four daughters and served as treasurer of the Michigan Catholic Home Educators for eight years. For over ten years, she was national coordinator for the Marian Catechists, founded by Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)