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Vasiliy VelichkovskiyUkrainian Greek Catholic Bishop, Blessed Martyr
Date of Birth: 01.06.1903
Country:  Ukraine |
Content:
- Early Life and Education
- Priestly Vocation and Religious Life
- Missionary Work and Opposition
- Secret Life and Persecution
- Imprisonment and Spiritual Leadership
- Episcopal Ordination and Secret Activities
- Second Arrest, Exile, and Death
- Beatification and Exhumation
Early Life and Education
Born on June 1, 1903, in Stanyslaviv (now Ivano-Frankivsk), Ukraine, Vasyl Velychkovsky was the son of a hereditary priest. After completing his primary education, he attended the Institute of St. Josaphat, run by the Basilian monks. In 1918, he joined the Sich Riflemen, a paramilitary organization. From 1920 onward, he studied at the Lviv Seminary.
Priestly Vocation and Religious Life
In 1924, Velychkovsky entered the Eastern branch of the Redemptorist Order. He took religious vows and was ordained a priest on October 9, 1925, by Bishop Josyf Bocjan of Lutsk and Volhynia. Velychkovsky served as a teacher at a junior seminary and as a pastor in Galicia and Volhynia, promoting the reunification of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church with the Catholic Church.
Missionary Work and Opposition
Velychkovsky reconfigured a Latin-rite church in Kovel into a Greek Catholic church in 1930 with the permission of Marshal Piłsudski. However, in 1935, Polish authorities forced him to leave Volhynia, and he returned to the monastery in Stanyslaviv. In 1936, he was a key speaker at the Unification Congress of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Lviv and planned the construction of a large Greek Catholic cathedral, which was banned by the Polish War Ministry.
Secret Life and Persecution
Velychkovsky's first encounter with the NKVD occurred in 1939, but he was released. In 1941, he traveled to Kamianets-Podilskyi at the request of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and a local Orthodox community. However, the German commandant ordered him to leave the city within 24 hours under threat of execution. Subsequently, he became the superior of the Redemptorist monastery in Ternopil.
Arrested by the NKVD in the night of April 10-11, 1945 (or June 26), Velychkovsky refused an offer to convert to the Russian Orthodox Church, which would have ensured his release. Sent to Kyiv for trial, he was sentenced to death, later commuted to a 10-year prison term.
Imprisonment and Spiritual Leadership
Velychkovsky served his sentence in a labor camp near Vorkuta. He celebrated the liturgy under harsh conditions, using the abandoned gallery of a mine. Accused of organizing a prisoner strike in 1953, he was transferred to Vladimirskaya Prison but later returned to the camp after proving his innocence.
Upon his release, Velychkovsky returned to Lviv and worked to organize the Greek Catholic Church underground.
Episcopal Ordination and Secret Activities
In 1959, Pope John XXIII appointed Velychkovsky as bishop, but there were no bishops in Ukraine to ordain him. This only became possible on February 4, 1963, when Metropolitan Josyf Slipyj, who had been released from prison, ordained him in Moscow during a brief stopover.
As Bishop of Lutsk and Locum Tenens of the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine with direct responsibility for the Lviv Archeparchy, Bishop Vasyl Velychkovsky secretly ordained over 40 new priests. He also wrote a book on the veneration of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
Second Arrest, Exile, and Death
On January 2, 1969, Velychkovsky was arrested again and sentenced to three years in prison, which he served in the city of Komunarsk in the Donbas. After his release in 1972, he was expelled from the USSR.
After spending some time in Rome, Velychkovsky accepted an invitation from fellow Redemptorist Metropolitan Maxim Hermaniuk to come to Winnipeg, Canada. He visited Ukrainian Greek Catholic parishes throughout Canada and the United States.
There are allegations that during his second imprisonment, Velychkovsky was injected with a slow-acting poison that led to his premature death on June 30, 1973. He was buried in "Saints Cemetery" near Winnipeg after a requiem mass at the Ukrainian cathedral of St. Vladimir and Olga.
Beatification and Exhumation
The official beatification process at the diocesan level began in 2000. On March 2, 2001, the materials were sent to Rome, where theological and cardinal commissions confirmed his martyrdom on April 6 and 23, respectively. The decree of beatification was signed by Pope John Paul II on April 24, and on June 27, 2001, the Pope proclaimed Vasyl Velychkovsky as Blessed during a Ukrainian-rite liturgy in Lviv.
On September 16, 2002, Blessed Vasyl Velychkovsky's body was exhumed and found to be incorrupt. Dressed in new vestments, it was enshrined at the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church of St. Joseph in Winnipeg on September 22, 2002.
