The

Most Reverend The Most Reverend (abbreviated as The Most Revd or The Most Rev) is an honorific style (form of address), style given to certain (primarily Western Christian, Western) Christian clergy and Christian minister, ministers. It is a variant of the mor ...

Ján Hirka (16 November 1923 – 10 April 2014) was a

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of the

Slovak Greek Catholic Church The Slovak Greek Catholic Church or Byzantine Catholic Church in Slovakia, is a ''sui iuris'' (autonomous) Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholic church based in Slovakia. As a Catholic particular churches and liturgical rites, particular ch ...

Life

Hirka was born in Abranovce, Czechoslovakia and was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

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 deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

on 31 July 1949. Hirka was appointed

Apostolic Administrator An apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...

of the

Archeparchy of Prešov Eparchy ( ''eparchía'' "overlordship") is an Ecclesiology, ecclesiastical unit in Eastern Christianity that is equivalent to a diocese in Western Christianity. An eparchy is governed by an ''eparch'', who is a bishop. Depending on the administra ...

when it was revived on 2 April 1969, after years of suppression under the

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

regime. This was in place of the existing

Auxiliary Bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions. ...

Basil Hopko Basil or Vasiľ Hopko (21 April 1904, Hrabské — 23 July 1976) was an eparch (bishop) of the Slovak Greek Catholic Church. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 14 September 2003 for his martyrdom under Communist occupation. Life Basil ...

, who had survived years of imprisonment and torture at the hands of the Communists, because of complaints by nationalist members of the Church, who believed that a native Slovak should be the one to head the Church there. He was appointed

eparch Eparchy ( ''eparchía'' "overlordship") is an Ecclesiology, ecclesiastical unit in Eastern Christianity that is equivalent to a diocese in Western Christianity. An eparchy is governed by an ''eparch'', who is a bishop. Depending on the administra ...

on 21 December 1989 and ordained as a bishop on 17 February 1990. Hirka retired on 11 December 2002.

External links

Catholic-HierarchyPrešov Archeparchy
(Slovak) 20th-century Eastern Catholic bishops 21st-century Eastern Catholic bishops Slovak Eastern Catholic priests Slovak Greek Catholic bishops Slovak Eastern Catholics 1923 births 2014 deaths People from Prešov District {{Portalbar, Biography, Catholicism, Christianity, Slovakia