Mykolay Tscharnezkyj

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Mykolaj Tscharnezkyj CSsR ( Ukrainian Микола́й Чарне́цький, Polish Mikołaj Czarnecki , born December 14, 1884 in Semakiwzi near Towmach in Austria-Hungary (today Ukraine ); † April 2, 1959 in Lemberg , Ukrainian SSR ) is a Greek martyr of the Ukrainian Catholic Church and titular bishop . He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on April 24, 2001 .

Life

Mykolay Tscharnezkyj was the oldest of nine children. His parents were farmers and lived in modest circumstances. The peasant family was pious and lived according to Christian guidelines. The pupil Mykolaj attended the village school of Towmatsch and then switched to the St. Nikolaus grammar school in Stanislau, today's Ivano-Frankivsk . At an early age, the gifted student expressed his intention to become a priest . In 1904 Bishop Hryhorij Khomyschyn of Stanislau sent him to Rome and also donated him to priestly ordination on October 2, 1909, during a short visit to the Ukraine .

After ordination Tscharnezkyj continued his studies continued and completed his doctorate at the Pontifical Urban University to Theologiae Doctor . In 1910, after he had returned to Stanislau, he taught philosophy and dogmatic theology at the seminary there . At the same time, he was spiritual for the candidates for the priesthood . During this time he met the Belgian Redemptorist Father Josef Schrijvers and decided to join the religious community . His novice period began in 1919 in the Redemptorist Novice House in Zboiska near Lemberg. On October 16, 1920, Father Mykolaj made his perpetual vows . In 1926 the now religious priest was given the management of the mission house in Kovel in Volhynia . He practiced and promoted the Byzantine rite of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and quickly gained recognition from the faithful and confreres.

This successful work did not go unnoticed, Pope Pius XI. (1922–1939) appointed him titular bishop of Lebedus on January 16, 1931 and assigned him the task of apostolic visitor for the Ukrainian Catholics in the area of ​​Volhynia and Pidliashsha . The episcopal ordination donated him his patron Bishop Hryhoriy Khomyshyn on 2 February 1931. The Soviet rulers expelled in 1939, the Redemptorists from the territory of Western Ukraine . Bishop Tscharnezkyj had to leave the area and fled to Lviv. From 1941 he taught philosophy, psychology and moral theology at what was then the Greek Catholic Academy .

martyrdom

With the renewed seizure of power in Ukraine by Soviet troops in 1944, the suffering began for Bishop Mykolay Tarnezkyj. On April 11, 1945 he was arrested and tortured and interrogated in a prison of the Soviet secret police NKVD . In 1946 he was taken to a prison in Kiev and tried before a military tribunal . He was sentenced as an "agent of the Vatican" to ten years ' imprisonment . In the Siberian city ​​of Mariinsk he was imprisoned with the later Cardinal Jossyf Slipyj , whom he had ordained bishop in 1939 as co-consecrator. Until his release in 1957, he was held in more than 30 prisons. During the last few years of his imprisonment, he had to spend several times in the prison hospital. In order not to have to expose himself to the charge of driving Bishop Tscharnezkyj to his death in captivity, the Soviet authorities released him to Lviv. He moved into an apartment in Lviv with a Redemptorist brother and, contrary to expectations, was able to recover. He led a spiritual life and spent much time praying and reading. During this time he ordained several candidates for priesthood as priests. But after a short time he died on April 2, 1959.

Beatification process

Icon of Mykolay Tarnezkyj

On April 4, Bishop Mykolay Tscharnezkyj was buried and soon afterwards the desire arose to canonize this bishop. Many believers made a pilgrimage to his grave in the Lychakiv Cemetery . The most significant miracle reported is that a woman was healed through the earth of the grave. Thus began the belief that the earth around his grave would have miraculous powers. The beatification process was opened in 1960 and was concluded on March 2, 2001 in the Ivano-Frankivsk Archeparchy . On April 24, 2001, the beatification decree was signed by Pope John Paul II and Bishop Mykolaj Tscharnezkyj was made a “martyr for the Christian faith”. His ecclesiastical feast day was set for April 2nd.

See also

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Tscharnezkyj, Mykolay
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Charneckyj, Mykola; Charnetsky; Czarnecki; Tsjarnetskyi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ukrainian bishop, martyr, blessed
DATE OF BIRTH December 14, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Semakiwzi , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH April 2, 1959
Place of death Lviv , Ukrainian SSR