Vitaliy Bayrak ( uk, Віталій Байрак), sometimes referred to as Volodomyr Bayrak ( uk, Володоир Байрак; February 24, 1907 April 21, 1946), was a Ukrainian Catholic priest and

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

. Born in Szajkowce in

Austrian Galicia The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria,, ; pl, Królestwo Galicji i Lodomerii, ; uk, Королівство Галичини та Володимирії, Korolivstvo Halychyny ta Volodymyrii; la, Rēgnum Galiciae et Lodomeriae also known as ...

(now Shvaikivtsi, near

Ternopil Ternópil ( uk, Тернопіль, Ternopil' ; pl, Tarnopol; yi, טאַרנאָפּל, Tarnopl, or ; he, טארנופול (טַרְנוֹפּוֹל), Tarnopol; german: Tarnopol) is a city in the west of Ukraine. Administratively, Ternopi ...

in modern-day

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

), he entered a Basilian monastery in 1924 and was ordained a priest on August 13, 1933. He was appointed superior at the Drohobych monastery on in place of

Yakym Senkivskyi Yakym Senkivskyi ( uk, Яким Сеньківський; 2 May 1896 – 29 June 1941) was a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest and martyr. Life Senkivskyi was born in the village of in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (present-day Velyki H ...

. Throughout his life, he was considered to be a very active and friendly missionary, who possessed a great gift for giving spiritual direction. On September 17, 1945, Bayrak was arrested and, on November 13, was sentenced to imprisonment for confiscating property, even though he had none. On Easter 1946, he died a martyr for the faith after having beaten in the Drohobych prison.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bayrak, Vitaliy 1907 births 1946 deaths 20th-century Ukrainian people Clergy from Ternopil Oblast Ukrainian Austro-Hungarians Ukrainian people who died in Soviet detention Ukrainian Eastern Catholic priests Order of Saint Basil the Great Ukrainian anti-communists 20th-century Eastern Catholic martyrs Ukrainian beatified people Eastern Catholic beatified people