Zynoviy Kovalyk
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Zynoviy Kovalyk (
.Family background
Zynoviy Kovalyk was born in the village of
Ministry as a Redemptorist
After teaching in a primary school for a short period, he entered the novitiate of the Redemptorists (Congregation of the Holy Redeemer). He was 25 years old then, which made him older than most novices of that period. He made his first religious profession on 26th August 1926.
After the novitiate, he studied philosophy and theology in Belgium. He returned to Ukraine and was ordained a priest on 9th August 1932, celebrating his first Liturgy in his village of Ivachiv on 4th September 1932.[2]
Kovalyk then travelled with Bishop
Immediately before the
Arrest and death
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On 20 December 1940, the Soviet secret police took Kovalyk from his monastery on account of the sermon he had preached on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (8 December). He was accused of being a spy. For the six months of his incarceration at Brygidki prison, like many others, he was subjected to interrogation and torture. In prison, he continued his ministry by praying with the other prisoners, hearing confessions, giving spiritual exercises, teaching catechism classes, and comforting them with religious tales and stories from the Bible.[2]
On 22 June 1941, German troops began their offensive against the
On 24 April 2001, along with several other Redemptorists, Kovalyk was recognised by the
Legacy
In his memoirs, Yaroslav Levytskyi recounts Kovalyk's sermons and the risk they invoked. '[His] sermons made an incredible impression on his listeners. But in the prevailing system of denunciations and terror this was very dangerous for a preacher. So I often tried to convince Father Kovalyk... that [he] needed to be more careful about the content of his sermons, that he shouldn't provoke the Bolsheviks, because here was a question of his own safety. But it was all in vain. Fathey Kovalyk only had one answer:"If that is God's will, I will gladly accept death, but as a preacher I will never act against my conscience."'[6]
References
- ^ Ukrainian Catholic Redemptorist website: Blessed Zenon Archived December 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c d "Blessed Zynoviy Kovalyk (1903-1941)". cssr.com. Redemptorist Generalate. Archived from the original on 2017-09-23. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
- ^ Canadian Redemptorist website: Kovalyk Archived December 4, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Yorkton Redemptorist website: Blessed Zenon Archived December 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Canadian Redemptorist website:Kovalyk Archived December 4, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 966-561-345-6.
Other sources
- Biographies of twenty five Greek-Catholic Servants of God at the website of the Vatican
- Beatification of the Servants of God on June 27, 2001 at the website of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
- Francisco Radecki. Tumultuous Times: The Twenty General Councils of the Catholic Church and Vatican II and Its Aftermath. St. Joseph's Media, 2004.
- Blessed Zenon Kovalyk Patron Saints Index.
German language biography * [1]