Invoke these saints of Ukraine as we pray for peace

Invoke    these   saints   of
Ukraine as we pray for peace
Since Russia’s assault on Ukraine began early in the morning
of Feb. 24, the world has watched in horror at this entirely
unwarranted invasion. And for the average onlooker, it seems
there’s nothing we can do. Contact elected officials, perhaps?
But to say what? The solution suggested in a compelling
Twitter thread? All our research feels insufficient, our
voices too small.

                             Worshippers light candles as they
                             attend a prayer service at St.
                             Michael’s Cathedral of the
                             Orthodox Church of Ukraine in
                             Kyiv Feb. 20, 2022.         (CNS
                             photo/Umit Bektas, Reuters)

Mercifully, concrete action in this world isn’t our only
option. We can donate and petition and amplify marginalized
voices, yes. And we must. But as Christians, we know that our
prayers also hold power. They hold all the more power when
amplified by our heavenly intercessors. Rather than turning
our eyes away from the evil being wrought in Ukraine, rather
than merely looking on with a sense of futility, let’s ask the
intercession of the saints of Ukraine — men and women who know

the hearts of the Ukrainian people (and some of whom know the
dangers of Russian aggression, having themselves fallen victim
to it). Though there are many, the stories that follow will
serve as an introduction to these people of great faith.

St. Olga of Kyiv
St. Olga (d. 969) was the queen whose
conversion ultimately brought the people
of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine to Jesus.
Born in modern-day Russia, Olga was
married to Prince Igor I of Kyiv (today
the capital of Ukraine). Olga was as
violent and despotic as her husband, and
after he was killed, she ruled with an
iron fist on behalf of her 2-year-old son,
Sviatoslav. To protect her throne (and
his), Olga raised him to be cruel and
cunning — a strategy that backfired when
she suddenly found herself a believing
Christian and discovered her son to be
unconvertible.

Olga had harbored no intention of becoming a Christian; even
on the day of her baptism, it’s possible that the move was
purely strategic, as she vied for power among Christian
monarchs in the region. But she experienced miraculous grace
in the moment of her baptism and returned to her people
longing to draw them to Jesus. No matter what she said, and no
matter what missionaries she welcomed into the country,
though, Olga failed, reaping the consequences of her life of
cruelty and violence. When she died, she was one of the few
Christians in the country. But from heaven, she interceded.
And while her son didn’t come to know Jesus in this life, her
influence (in life and in death) on her grandson, St. Vladimir

of Kyiv, led to the conversion of her whole country and Olga’s
title of Equal to the Apostles.

St. Vladimir of Kyiv
                    St. Vladimir (958-1015) was the grand
                    prince of Kyiv and ruler of the Kievan
                    Rus’. Known as Vladimir the Great, he was
                    the grandson of St. Olga of Kyiv. When his
                    father (the prince) died, Vladimir (the
                    illegitimate son of a housekeeper) was not
                    in line to rule. His brother, Yaropolk,
                    took control and later murdered their
                    other brother, Oleg, prompting Vladimir to
                    flee the land. He returned four years
                    later and wrested the country from his
                     brother, ruling for eight years as a pagan
prince, complete with 800 concubines.

But Vladimir was hungry for more and sent representatives
throughout the world to learn about the major world religions
and report back to him. The envoys to the Christians in
Constantinople reported: “We knew not whether we were in
heaven or on Earth. … We only know that God dwells there among
the people, and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of
other nations.” Convinced, Vladimir was baptized, married a
Byzantine princess and returned to Kyiv to destroy pagan
monuments, build Christian churches and call all his people to
receive baptism. With his grandmother, he is credited with
bringing the Christian faith to the Ukrainian, Belarusian and
Russian peoples and is called “Equal to the Apostles.”

St. Josaphat Kuntsevych
St. Josaphat Kuntsevych (1580-1623) was a
Polish-Lithuanian man born in modern-day
Ukraine to a Ruthenian Orthodox family. In
1598, the Union of Brest made it possible for
certain Ruthenian eparchies (dioceses) to be
united to Rome while retaining their own
Eastern rites. Josaphat belonged to what is
now the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (then
the Ruthenian Uniate Church), and a few years
later, he entered a Catholic monastery in what is now
Lithuania. He was ultimately made archimandrite (abbot) and
later archeparch (archbishop) of Plotsk.

As archeparch, he worked to bring all those subject to him
into full communion with Rome (though many were suspicious
that such unity would chip away at the beautiful Byzantine
character of their faith). His work for unity made him much
hated in certain circles — who accused him of having “gone
Latin” — and he was hacked to death by a mob while visiting
modern-day Belarus in an attempt to win the people there to
the Catholic Church.

St. Zygmunt Szcesny Felinski
               St. Zygmunt Szcesny Felinski (1822-95) was born
               in present-day Ukraine to a proud Polish family
               at a time when there was no independent Poland.
               His father died when he was 11; when he was 18,
               his mother was exiled to Siberia for her pro-
               Polish sentiment. Zygmunt himself was involved
               in a failed revolution against Russia (after
               earning degrees in mathematics and French
literature and before becoming a diocesan priest).

After several years as a priest and philosophy professor,
Father Felinski was made archbishop of Warsaw. His appointment
having been approved by Moscow, Polish nationalists were
suspicious of him, but Archbishop Felinski spoke passionately
about the right of nations to an independent existence and
eventually wrote to the czar demanding that Poland be granted
autonomy. He had served in Warsaw for only 14 months before
being sent into exile in Russia for 20 years. After his
release, he was sent to modern Ukraine to live out his life in
semi-exile, offering himself in service to Ukrainian and
Polish Catholics.

Blessed Mykola Konrad
Blessed Mykola Konrad (1876-1941) was a
working-class child who grew up to be a
priest and an academic. He wrote in
opposition to Ivan Franko’s critique of
the doctrine of creation, though he was
disdained by many for daring to go up
against this great intellectual. The
gentle Father Konrad loved children and
became a teacher, working in schools and
universities for many years as he and his
wife raised four children of their own. He wrote many articles
and taught sociology and philosophy, eventually becoming dean
of the philosophy faculty at the Lviv Theological Academy. And
all this in the midst of the political turmoil of the time,
which occasionally saw Father Konrad be imprisoned for his
faith.

He founded a student organization that took the motto “Ukraine
for God” (rather than the secular motto of “Ukraine over all”
so popular at the time). When Soviet troops arrived in Lviv in
1939, though, Father Konrad lost his job. With no way to earn

a living, he and his family were forced to leave the city to
stay with his sister. But when they were on their way, he
passed through the village of Stradch, where the villagers
(believing he was fleeing the country) called out to him that
he ought to think of them, there without a priest and with no
way to flee. And so the brilliant academic became pastor of a
tiny village, where he made the acquaintance of Blessed
Volodymir Pryjma (1906-41), a Ukrainian husband and father and
a trained Byzantine cantor and church choir director.

Four days after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Father
Konrad was summoned to the home of a sick woman who had
requested the Sacrament of Reconciliation. His parishioners
feared for his safety in such an uncertain time, but Father
Konrad couldn’t refuse the woman absolution, even to save his
own life. Rather than let him go alone, Pryjma joined him, but
there was no safety in numbers. When the two were returning
from their errand of mercy, they were captured, tortured and
martyred by Soviets.

Blessed Emilian Kovch
                 Blessed Emilian Kovch (1884-1944) was a
                 Ukrainian Catholic priest, husband and father
                 of six. He repeatedly risked his life to
                 preach against prejudice and anti-Semitism.
                 For his troubles (and his ethnicity and his
                 faith), he was arrested in the last days of
                 Soviet rule. He and his two daughters managed
                 to escape, learning soon after that all the
                 prisoners in their group had been murdered by
the Soviets as the Nazis approached. Father Kovch continued
his work for justice under Nazi rule, baptizing many Jewish
people in an attempt to save them from death. On one occasion,
Nazi troops had chased some local Jews into a synagogue and

were throwing firebombs inside. Without regard for his own
safety, Father Kovch raced to the synagogue, blocked the doors
and angrily ordered the soldiers to leave. To everyone’s
shock, they did just that. Having stared down a mob of Nazis,
Father Kovch ran into the synagogue to save the people burning
within. Further efforts to protect Jews from the Nazis led to
his arrest and imprisonment in a concentration camp.

When his children agitated to have him freed, he wrote them a
letter, saying: “I understand that you are trying to get me
released. But I beg you not to do this. Yesterday, they killed
50 people. If I am not here, who will help them to get through
these sufferings? They would go on their way to eternity with
all their sins and in the depths of unbelief, which would take
them to hell. But now they go to death with their heads held
aloft, leaving all their sins behind them. And so they pass
over to the eternal city.” He died in that concentration camp
and is considered a martyr by the Church.

Blessed Kliment Sheptytsky
Blessed Kliment Sheptytsky (1869-1951) was
a Ukrainian Catholic legal scholar who was
elected to the parliament of Austria, in
which he served for seven years. He later
withdrew from politics and became a monk in
the Latin rite. But within a year, he had
returned to his Eastern Catholic roots in a
Studite monastery in Bosnia. After his
ordination, he entered a monastery in
Ukraine and was eventually made prior. He
was targeted under Soviet rule, and several members of his
family were killed. Before he could be arrested or killed by
the Soviets, the Nazis invaded Soviet-occupied Ukraine, and
the Ukrainian people experienced a new form of oppression.

During the Nazi occupation of Ukraine, Sheptytsky worked with
his brother (Venerable Andrey Sheptytsky, metropolitan
archbishop of Lviv) and Blessed Emilian Kovch to hide Jewish
people in various monasteries and help them to escape to free
territories; for his work, he was declared Righteous Among the
Nations by the nation of Israel. After the war, Sheptytsky was
made archimandrite (abbot) of the Studite order. When the
Soviets arrested many of the high-ranking clergy in Ukraine,
Archimandrite Sheptytsky became the de facto leader of the
Church. He was later arrested by the Soviets for refusing to
renounce Rome and died in prison.

Blessed Laurentia Herasymiv
                  Blessed Laurentia Herasymiv (1911-52) was a
                  Ukrainian Catholic religious sister plagued
                  by a Soviet government that was attempting
                  to eradicate Catholicism. She developed a
                  chronic illness after spending a night
                  hiding outside as Soviet soldiers searched
                  her convent. Arrested for refusing to
                  abandon the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
                  for Orthodoxy, Sister Laurentia and Blessed
                  Olympia Bida (1903-52) were sent to
Siberia. Sister Laurentia’s tuberculosis made it difficult for
them to find anyone who would take them in, but finally a
family with a seriously ill family member was convinced. The
sick man complained incessantly, but Sister Laurentia tried to
be gentle and loving.

Everyone was forced to work (no matter how infirm), so Sister
Laurentia made artificial flowers as she prayed for strength
to survive without the sacraments. Sister Olympia died a year
and a half after they arrived and Sister Laurentia followed
seven months later. As she lay dying, Sister Laurentia begged

for the Eucharist, calling out in her delirium, “Jesus, I do
not want to die without you!” She died — as she had lived for
two long years, without the Eucharist — and was fully united
to Jesus at last.

Blessed Pavel Peter Gojdič
Blessed Pavel Peter Gojdič (1888-1960) was a
Ukrainian Catholic monk and bishop serving in
Slovakia. He was outspoken in defense of the
Jewish people, particularly after they were
ordered expelled from Slovakia. This order was
promulgated by the collaborationist president
of the Slovak Republic, Father Jozef Tiso,
whose crimes against humanity led Bishop
Gojdič to argue that he ought to be laicized or compelled by
Rome to resign as president.

Bishop Gojdič’s loud support of Slovakian Jews led many of his
priests to call for his resignation as bishop; when he
complied, he was assigned to another diocese. There, he
continued to work to save Jews, including by receiving them
into the Church. He is credited with saving at least 17 Jewish
lives and has been declared “Righteous Among the Nations” by
the nation of Israel. Though he survived the Nazis, Bishop
Gojdič’s ministry led to a life sentence under the Soviets;
the many letters written by Jews who were grateful for his
work had no effect on this sentence, which held as long as he
refused to become Orthodox. Bishop Gojdič died of cancer after
10 years in prison.

Blessed Vasyl Velychkovsky
                  Blessed Vasyl Velychkovsky (1903-73) was a
                  Redemptorist priest and then a bishop of the
                  Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. After
                  fighting in the First World War,
                  Velychkovsky entered seminary (during which
                  he also studied law). He ultimately entered
                  the Redemptorists and was ordained a priest,
                  after which he spent a decade as a teacher
                  and a missionary, building chapels and
                  churches especially for the Galician people.
But he was under pressure from the Polish government (which
opposed the Greek Catholic Church in favor of the Roman
Catholic Church of Poland) and was recalled to his monastery,
from which he continued to travel and offer retreats
throughout the region, speaking to hundreds of thousands of
people in the first 15 years of his priesthood.

After the Soviet invasion, though, there was far less
leniency. Father Velychkovsky was arrested and sent to do
forced labor in the coal mines of northern Russia, where he
toiled for 10 years. When he returned to Ukraine, he was able
to continue serving only in secret, leading secret retreats
and running a secret seminary. He was selected as bishop in
1959 but was unable to be consecrated since every other bishop
in Ukraine was in prison. After four years, he was summoned to
Moscow, where he was consecrated in a secret hotel-room
ceremony by a bishop who was being sent into exile. He served
for six years (consecrating several other bishops so that the
Church would never be without an active prelate again) before
being arrested once more. He was tortured for three years
before being sent into exile in Canada, where he died shortly
after his arrival.

Meg Hunter-Kilmer is the author of “Saints Around the World”
(Emmaus Road Publishing, $22.95).