Оmelyan Hryhorovych Kovch ( uk, Омелян Григорович Ковч; August 20, 1884,

Kosmach Kosmach ( uk, Космач) is a village located in Kosiv Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Kosmach rural hromada, one of the hromada A hromada ( uk, територіальна громада, lit=territ ...

— March 25, 1944) was a

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

priest murdered in

Majdanek concentration camp Majdanek (or Lublin) was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had seven gas chambers, two wooden gallows, a ...

. He was born in a peasant family in the town of Tlumach in the

Kosiv Kosiv ( uk, Ко́сiв) is a city located in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, in western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Kosiv Raion (district). Kosiv hosts the administration of Kosiv urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: ...

region of Western

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 ...

, and was ordained in 1911 by Hryhorij Chomyszyn after graduating from the Sts. Sergius and Bacchus College in Rome.Gudziak, Boris ( August 26, 2012)
The witness of the Ukrainian Catholic priest-martyr of Majdanek, Omelian Kovch
The Ukrainian Weekly 35, 8 In 1919, he was a field chaplain for the Ukrainian Galician Army. He served as a parish priest from 1921 to 1943 at the church of St. Nicholas in the village of

Peremyshliany Peremyshliany ( uk, Перемишляни, pl, Przemyślany, yi, פּרעמישליאַן) is a town in Lviv Raion, Lviv Oblast (region) of Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Peremyshliany urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Pop ...

. Prior to his imprisonment, Fr. Kovch conducted his priestly ministry in Przemysl, while attending to his parishioners' social and cultural life. He fathered six children, and devoted himself to helping the poor and orphans. In the spring of 1943 he was arrested by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

for harboring

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, specifically for providing Jews with more than 600 baptismal certificates (alternative date from another source: He was arrested by the Gestapo on December 20, 1942). On March 25, 1944 he died in the infirmary of Majdanek concentration camp near

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. On September 9, 1999, the Jewish Council of Ukraine awarded him the title of "Ukraine's righteous." His

beatification Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

took place on June 27, 2001 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 Ukraine ...

, during the

Byzantine rite The Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite or the Rite of Constantinople, identifies the wide range of cultural, liturgical, and canonical practices that developed in the Eastern Christianity, Eastern Christian Church of Constantinople. Th ...

liturgy conducted 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 ...

Quote

In a letter, Fr. Kovch wrote: "I understand that you are trying to free me. But I am asking you not to do anything. Yesterday they killed 50 people here. If I were not here, who would help them to endure these sufferings? I thank God for his kindness to me. Apart from Heaven, this is the only place I'd like to be. Here we are all equal: Poles, Jews, Ukrainians, Russians, Latvians, and Estonians. I am the only priest here. I couldn't even imagine what would happen here without me. Here I see God, Who is the same for everybody, regardless of the religious distinctions which exist among us. Maybe our Churches are different, but they are ruled by the same all-powerful God. When I'm celebrating the holy Mass, everyone prays... Don't worry and don't despair about my fate. Instead of this, rejoice with me. Pray for those who created this concentration camp and this system. They are the only ones who need prayers... May God have Mercy on them.".

References

External links

Patron Saints Index
1884 births 1944 deaths People from Tlumach Ukrainian Austro-Hungarians People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Ukrainian Eastern Catholics Members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Catholic resistance to Nazi Germany Soviet civilians killed in World War II Soviet people who died in Nazi concentration camps People killed by gas chamber by Nazi Germany People who died in Majdanek concentration camp Martyred Roman Catholic priests 20th-century Eastern Catholic martyrs Eastern Catholic beatified people Ukrainian beatified people Ukrainian Righteous Among the Nations Ukrainian anti-fascists People from Peremyshliany {{UkrainianGreekCatholic-bio-stub