Hryhoriy Khomyshyn (also ''Hryhorij Khomyshyn'', uk, Григорій Лукич Хомишин, pl, Grzegorz Chomyszyn) was a Ukrainian Greek Catholic

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 ...

and

hieromartyr In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, a hieromartyr is a martyr (one who dies for his beliefs) who was a bishop or priest. Analogously, a monk who is a priest is known as a hieromonk A hieromonk ( el, Ἱερομόναχος, Ieromonachos; ka, � ...

. Khomyshyn was born on 25 March 1867 in the village of Hadynkivtsi, eastern Galicia, in what is now

Ternopil Oblast Ternopil Oblast ( uk, Тернопі́льська о́бласть, translit=Ternopilska oblast; also referred to as Ternopilshchyna, uk, Терно́пільщина, label=none, or Ternopillia, uk, Тернопілля, label=none) is an obl ...

."Biographies of twenty five Greek-Catholic Servants of God"
at the website of 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 ...

He graduated from Lviv

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy ...

and was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

on 18 November 1893."Beatification of the Servants of God on June 27, 2001"
at the website of the

Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church , native_name_lang = uk , caption_background = , image = StGeorgeCathedral Lviv.JPG , imagewidth = , type = Particular church (sui iuris) , alt = , caption = St. George's ...

He continued to study

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...

from 1894 to 1899, and in 1902, Metropolitan

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 ...

appointed Khomyshyn the

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of the Greek Catholic Theological Seminary in

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 ...

. In 1904, he was consecrated as the bishop for Stanyslaviv (now Ivano-Frankivsk) at St. George's Cathedral, taking the episcopal motto "Подъ твою милость" ( Church Slavonic for " Beneath thy mercy"). Throughout his tenure, spanning over four decades, he was considered the second most powerful figure in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Unlike Sheptytsky, Khomyshyn believed that the UGCC should adopt a more westward orientation, further emphasizing the Uniate Church's relationship with Rome. This meant introducing Latinized practicies such as the

Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...

and a strict adherence to clerical celibacy, which were met with controversy in his eparchy. During the 1930s, Khomyshyn was responsible for organizing the Ukrainian Catholic People's Party, which briefly held seats in the

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...

and Senate.

Ivan Katchanovski Ivan Katchanovski, ua, Іван Гнатович Качановський (born 1967) is a Ukrainian and Canadian political scientist based in Ottawa, teaches at the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. He specializes in re ...

, Zenon E. Kohut, Bohdan Y. Nebesio, Myroslav Yurkevich.
Historical Dictionary of Ukraine
'. Scarecrow Press, 2013. pg 263-264 He is noted as being one of only a handful of members of the Catholic hierarchy in

interwar Poland The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...

to publicly oppose

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

; his tolerance towards

Galician Jews Galician Jews or Galitzianers () are members of the subgroup of Ashkenazim, Ashkenazi Jews originating in the levant having developed in the diaspora of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, from contemporary western Ukraine (Lvivska, Lviv, Ivan ...

likely owing to his own experience as part of Poland's Ukrainian minority. As a result of his moderate approach to Ukrainian nationalism, he would be labeled a "sellout" by the OUN and was left fearing for his life.Myroslav Shkandrij.
Ukrainian Nationalism: Politics, Ideology, and Literature, 1929-1956
'. Yale University Press, 2015. pg 31-32 Khomyshyn was first arrested in 1939 by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

. A critic of the Soviet system, having called the occupying forces "fierce beasts animated by ... the devil," he was arrested again in April 1945, and was then deported to

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...

. In prison, he was tortured and advised to renounce the

Union of Brest The Union of Brest (; ; ; ) was the 1595–96 decision of the Ruthenian Orthodox Church eparchies (dioceses) in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to break relations with the Eastern Orthodox Church and to enter into communion with, and place i ...

, which he refused to do.Willem Adriaan Veenhoven, Winifred Crum Ewing, Stichting Plurale Samenlevingen.
Case studies on human rights and fundamental freedoms: a world survey
'. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1975. pg 477 Khomyshyn died in the

Lukyanivska Prison Lukianivska Prison ( uk, Лук'янівська в'язниця, transliterated: "Luk'janivsjka v'jaznitsja") is a famous historical prison in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, located in the central Lukianivka neighborhood of the city. It is officiall ...

hospital in Kyiv on 17 January 1947. He was beatified by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

on 27 June 2001, as one of Mykolai Charnets'kyi and the 24 companion martyrs. The

sesquicentennial An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded in a previous year, and may also refer to the commemoration or celebration of that event. The word was first used for Catholic feasts to commemorate saint ...

of his birth in 2017 was marked by celebrations in both Ukraine and Poland, along with examinations of the bishop's social impact in academic circles.

Quote

"At the Kyiv prison the interrogations were conducted by Interrogator Dubok. He was a horrible sadist. He investigated my case... This Dubok told me himself how he had killed the bishop: 'So you, Khomyshyn, spoke out against communism?' The bishop, as always, replied resolutely: 'I did and I will.' Did you fight against Soviet authority?' 'Yes, I did and I will!' Then Dubok became outraged and grabbed some books written by the bishop, which lay on the table in front of him, and started cruelly beating His Excellency with them, on his head and everywhere else." - From the testimony of Father Petro Heryliuk-Kupchynysky.

References

External links

Blessed Hryhory Khomyshyn
at CatholicSaints.info

at

Catholic-Hierarchy.org ''Catholic-Hierarchy.org'' is an online database of bishops and dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Catholic Churches. The website is not officially sanctioned by the Church. It is run as a private project by David M. Cheney in ...

Bl. Gregory Chomyshyn
(in Polish)
"Story of faith, of secrecy, of death -- and life"
2001 article in the '' Baltimore Sun'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Khomyshyn, Hryhoriy 1867 births 1947 deaths People from Husiatyn People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Ukrainian Austro-Hungarians University of Vienna alumni Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church 20th-century Eastern Catholic bishops Members of the Diet of Galicia and Lodomeria Ukrainian politicians before 1991 Ukrainian writers Polish anti-fascists Ukrainian anti-communists Inmates of Lukyanivska Prison Ukrainian people who died in Soviet detention 20th-century Eastern Catholic martyrs Ukrainian beatified people Eastern Catholic beatified people Beatifications by Pope John Paul II People of the Second Polish Republic