Achille Delaere (born 1868,
Lendelede,
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
) was a Flemish priest who served on the Canadian prairies. He was one of the founders and organizers of the
Ukrainian Catholic Church, with the Byzantine-Ukrainian rite, for Ukrainian immigrants in Canada.
Biography
Achille Delaere was the son of a farmer, and since his father needed help, worked on his father's farm. As a young man Achille joined the
Redemptorists
The Redemptorists officially named the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer ( la, links=no, Congregatio Sanctissimi Redemptoris), abbreviated CSsR,is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men (priests and brother ...
in 1889 and was ordained in 1896. Growing up on a farm, ordination did not change the disposition Delaere had acquired for rough and ready circumstances. His brother was a priest teacher in
Bruges
Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the country by population.
The area of the whole city a ...
. Achille Delaere was frank with people, telling them what he thought of them. Even Canada's Apostolic Delegate
Andrea Cassulo Andrea Cassulo (30 November 1869 – 9 January 1952) was an archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church and a representative of the Holy See in Egypt, Canada, Romania and Turkey from 1921 to 1952.
Biography
He was born in Castelletto d'Orba in 1869 and ...
learned about Delaere's frankness. Delaere once told him that only
liars and scoundrels wrote to complain to the
Apostolic Delegate
An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international o ...
. The Delegate replied with a smile that sometimes
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...
s and
Archbishops also wrote to the Apostolic Delegate.
[Laverdure, Paul, Achille Delaere and Origins of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Western Canada]
In the summer of 1898, Father Delaere was recruited as one of three Belgian Redemptorist monks by
French-Canadian Archbishop
Langevin who visited the Provincial Superior of the Belgian Redemptorist province at
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
asking for help with the large immigrant population from
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...
arriving on the
Canadian Prairies
The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie Provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These provin ...
. Father Delaere spent a year in the Galician town of
Tuchów
Tuchów is a town in Tarnów County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland, with a population of 6,476 (2004). It lies on the ''Biała'' river, at the height of above sea level. The distance to Kraków is , and to the border with Slovakia, approx ...
in
Galicia, learning
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
, before leaving for Canada to minister to the
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
and
Ukrainian immigrants in the Brandon-Shoal Lake district of
Manitoba
, image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg
, map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada
, Label_map = yes
, coordinates =
, capital = Winn ...
.
[Martynowych, Orest T. Ukrainians in Canada: The Formative Period, 1891–1924. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, University of Alberta, Edmonton, 1991,]
He was sent to
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
on the ''Scotsman'' out of
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
. It wrecked off
Belle Isle; sixteen people died. Delaere survived and continued his journey to
Brandon
Brandon may refer to:
Names and people
*Brandon (given name), a male given name
*Brandon (surname), a surname with several different origins
Places
Australia
*Brandon, a farm and 19th century homestead in Seaham, New South Wales
*Brandon, Q ...
, arriving October 11, 1899. He was welcomed by his fellow Redemptorists as the Apostle to the Poles.
![Filas Platonides](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Filas_Platonides.jpg)
Around 1903, Delaere and other Redemptorists working in the
Brandon
Brandon may refer to:
Names and people
*Brandon (given name), a male given name
*Brandon (surname), a surname with several different origins
Places
Australia
*Brandon, a farm and 19th century homestead in Seaham, New South Wales
*Brandon, Q ...
area began to visit the
Yorkton
Yorkton is a city located in south-eastern Saskatchewan, Canada. It is about 450 kilometres north-west of Winnipeg and 300 kilometres south-east of Saskatoon and is the sixth largest city in the province.
As of 2017 the census population of the ...
area once a month. Delaere himself was stunned by the amount of work required and reported that the territory was actually half the size of Belgium with only thirty to forty English families and was entirely neglected by any other Catholic clergy since the
Oblates had moved out.
Serafimists,
Russian Orthodox
Russian Orthodoxy (russian: Русское православие) is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Church Slavonic language. Most ...
priests, and
Protestants had all established themselves in the area. The Redemptorists reported seventeen Protestant ministers in the Yorkton region. Delaere immediately begged for help, encouraged French Canadian seminarians to study different languages, and brought in Father Kryzhanowsky, a
Basilian monk
Basilian monks are Roman Catholic monks who follow the rule of Basil the Great, bishop of Caesarea (330–379). The term 'Basilian' is typically used only in the Catholic Church to distinguish Greek Catholic monks from other forms of monastic l ...
, to help him in the various colonies.
Father Achille Delaere also worked closely with Father Platonides Filas, the Provincial of the Basilians in Canada.
![St](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/St._Joseph%E2%80%99s_College%2C_monastery_of_the_Redemptorist_Fathers_and_Ukrainian_Catholic_church%2C_Yorkton%2C_Saskatchewan%2C_1920.jpg)
Delaere became aware that the majority of Galicians attending his services were actually Eastern-rite
Ruthenians. In the struggle between the
Eastern church
Eastern Christianity comprises Christian traditions and church families that originally developed during classical and late antiquity in Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Northeast Africa, the Fertile Crescent and ...
and the
Latin church
, native_name_lang = la
, image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg
, imagewidth = 250px
, alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran
, caption = Archbasilica of Saint Joh ...
, the immigrants to whom Delaere ministered were being alienated by the unmarried Roman Catholic priests and their Latin rite. No matter how the Roman Catholic church tried to keep them in its fold, it was only a transfer to the Eastern rite that had a chance. Delaere faced increasing hostility, defections, and the lack of help from Archbishop Langevin. He established the Redemptorists' monastery in Yorkton on January 12, 1904, to care for the Galicians. It still exists, as St. Gerard's parish, a Roman Catholic parish in the
Archdiocese of Regina
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina ( la, Archidioecesis Reginatensis) is a Roman Catholic archdiocese comprising the southern part of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, as far north as the 30th township, or about 51°30' lat. The metropo ...
. Finally, on March 9, 1906, Delaere obtained permission from
Pope Pius X to practice the
Byzantine Rite. Father Delaere celebrated Mass in the Byzantine Rite for the first time on September 26, 1906.
The other Belgian priests soon followed suit.
Unable to pronounce his name properly, the Ukrainians called Delaere: Father Dollar. John Bodrug in his memoir
writes a first hand account of Delaere: "In
Sifton, there had been built a small Greek Catholic Church, which was occasionally visited by Father Zaklynsky, but more often served by Father Dollar. Delaere had learned to read mass in
Old Church Slavonic and he dressed according to
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
ritual, but he delivered his sermons in
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
."
As for his language skills and his knowledge of the Eastern rite, his closest associates declared that he never learned
French properly and at best was mediocre in
Ukrainian, but his zeal and his capacity for work made him indispensable to his superiors even though they did not care for his rustic ways.
Father
Nestor Dmytriw was the first to advocate for a separate Ukrainian Catholic church in Canada in 1897. In 1911, at Delaere's urging, Archbishop Langevin finally submitted to the idea of the appointment of a
Ukrainian Catholic bishop, and informed the
Vatican
Vatican may refer to:
Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum
The Holy See
* The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
of his change of heart. "In May 1912, Delaere was summoned to confer with Pius X, and on July 15, after consulting the Ukrainian Catholic hierarchy in Galicia, Rome appointed Fr.
Nykyta Budka
Nykyta Budka ( ua, Никита Будка aka Nikita, Mykyta, or Nicetas Budka; June 7, 1877 in Dobromirka, Austria-Hungary – October 1, 1949 in Karaganda, USSR) was a clergyman of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church who lived and worked in A ...
bishop of Ukrainian Catholics in Canada."
At the same time Fr. Nykyta Budka was appointed
Titular Bishop
A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese.
By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox ...
of
Patara and was
consecrated by
Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky
Andrey Sheptytsky, OSBM (; uk, Митрополит Андрей Шептицький; 29 July 1865 – 1 November 1944) was the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church from 1901 until his death in 1944. His tenure span ...
OSBM of
Lviv
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...
and the co-consecrators Bishop
Konstantyn Czechowicz (
Eparchy of Przemyśl) and Bishop
Hryhory Khomyshyn
Hryhoriy Khomyshyn (also ''Hryhorij Khomyshyn'', uk, Григорій Лукич Хомишин, pl, Grzegorz Chomyszyn) was a Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishop and hieromartyr.
Khomyshyn was born on 25 March 1867 in the village of Hadynkivtsi, ...
(
Eparchy Stanislaviv) on 13 October 1912.
Having been instrumental in bringing Budka into Canada, Delaere now found himself having to deal with him. There were moments of doubt, when Delaere was disconcerted by Budka's "cold neutrality", and counselled by those around him to abandon the Ukrainians in Canada, but he remained steadfast.
Father Delaere served on the Canadian prairies from the time of his arrival in 1899, for forty years, until his death in 1939.
See also
*
Tin Can Cathedral
*
Nestor Dmytriw
References
Bibliography
* Bodrug, Ivan. ''Independent Orthodox Church: Memoirs Pertaining to the History of a Ukrainian Canadian Church in the Years 1903–1913'', translators: Bodrug, Edward; Biddle, Lydia, Toronto, Ukrainian Research Foundation, 1982.
*
* Martynowych, Orest T. ''Ukrainians in Canada: The Formative Period, 1891–1924''. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, University of Alberta, Edmonton, 1991.
External links
Achille Delaere in the bibliographic databaseof the (
WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
)
Five Door Films, Romance of the Far Fur CountryYereniuk, Roman, A Short Historical Outline of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada(PDF)
Laverdure, Paul., Achille Delaere and the Ukrainian Catholic Church(PDF)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Delaere, Achille
1868 births
1939 deaths
Flemish priests
19th-century Belgian Roman Catholic priests
19th-century Canadian Roman Catholic priests
20th-century Canadian Roman Catholic priests
Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada