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Church of St. Demetrius the Great Martyr Byzantine Ukrainian Catholic Церква Св. Димитрія Великомученика Візантійська Українська Католицька 2020 135 La Rose Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M9P 1A6 Phone: 416-244-5333 Fax: 416-249-5204 E-mail: st.demetriu s@ sympatico.ca Web: www.stdemetrius.org ST. DEMETRIUS CLERGY STAFF In addition to the duties and services relating to liturgical celebrations and the dispensing of the sacraments, St. Demetrius clergy staff work collaboratively as a team with various parish organizations as well as with Bishop Chmilar at the Eparchial level. Fr. JOHN TATARYN Fr. PETER SHUMELDA Fr. IVAN PALISA Rev. BOHDAN SWYSTUN Pastor Associate Pastor Associate Pastor Associate Pastor Rev. N. YURCHUK Rev. M. MELNYK Rev. E. DORONIUK Rev. S. KASYANCHUK Rev. G. ANDRENACCI Rev. G. DUTKIEWICZ Rev. M. DYCZOK Rev. S. GOLDMAN Rev. M. STOIKO Protodeacon Deacon Deacon Deacon, on leave in Ukraine Subdeacon Subdeacon Subdeacon Subdeacon Subdeacon ST. DEMETRIUS OFFICE AND CHURCH STAFF Sr. RACHEL TATARYN IRENE NAZAR BARBARA KOSTYK VOLODYMYR DZHALA ROMAN PETRUNKO MARY BYLSKYJ LUBA SLAVATYNSKYY JULIA POPOWYCZ SVITLANA LYSOGOR JANE HRYNICK Events Coordinator Office Manager Office Assistant Cantor and Custodian Custodian Children’s Catechism Children’s Activity Program Marian Girls Leader Children’s Choir Director Church Archives MYRON MAKSYMIW MARKO HORBACH HELEN ANDRENACCI CHRISTINE HLYNSKY OKSANA ROZANEC PETER ROZANEC TERESA MASLIWEC JULIA HUSAKIWSKY MARTA REPLANSKY ZBIGNIEW SIATKOWSKI Choir Director UCCC Cantor Eng. Liturgical Leader Eng. Liturgical Leader Cantoring Singer Cantoring Singer Cantoring Singer Ukr. Liturgical Responder Ukr. Liturgical Responder Ukr. Liturgical Responder MODERN SAINTS OF UKRAINE Saint Josaphat INTRODUCTION Over the centuries opponents of the This year, the theme of our calendar is Saints of Ukraine , with a particular focus on Catholic Church have tried to tarnish recent saints. We may be familiar with our ancient Saints, but it is a good thing to know the reputation of Saints and destroy that saints don’t belong just to the ancient past. At times it may seem to us that our their relics. St. Thomas Becket was problems and daily lives are too different and complicated from the lives of the ancients, canonized a saint by Pope Alexander and we don’t have a personal connection. If we remind ourselves of the saints from the III. Becket, as the Catholic Archbishop recent past and foster a connection to them in our personal lives, especially in prayer, of Canterbury, was murdered by King then the Holy Spirit will certainly grace us with his presence and guidance. Henry II because Becket opposed the King’s attempt to control the Catholic This calendar offers short biographies of some of our martyr saints of the past century Church in England. Becket’s tomb who died for Church unity. The hope is to inspire readers to pray to these saints for became the object of many pilgrimages their help in their daily lives — for peace and unity in families that suffer from where many miracles occurred until disharmony, for communities that are divided, and the Church, East and West, which still the Protestant Reformation. During suffers from disunity. the Protestant Reformation Becket’s tomb was destroyed and his remains Why do we venerate the Saints? were burned. Recently, John Hudson, professor of Medieval History at We should remind ourselves that Catholics venerate the Saints, but adore God. St. Andrew’s University described Becket as being “greedy”, To “venerate” somebody means to hold somebody in high esteem, to honor them. To “hypocritical”, “founder of gesture “adore” means to offer the highest form of worship, honor and homage which we reserved politics” and “master of the for God alone. soundbite.” This same kind of defamation and attempts to destroy So, why do we venerate or honor the Saints? There are two reasons. First, to honor Saints the relics of St. Josaphat also befell is Biblical. our great Saint. The relics of St. Josaphat have a remarkable In the Old Testament the Ten Commandments explicitly command us to “Honor your history which is detailed in the father and your mother.” The saints can be considered to be our fathers and mothers in months of November and December in faith. In the same way that children imitate their parents, Christians should imitate this calendar. the Saints. Martyrdom of Josaphat Kuntsevych , by Jozef Simmler, c. 1861. St. Josaphat was born in 1584 into a In the New Testament St. Paul writes that Christians should offer “respect to whom noble family of the Ruthenian Church respect is due, honour to whom honor is due.” (Rom 13:7) The Saints, while living on (now known as the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church). He became the Archbishop of earth, lived lives that brought glory to God. As their eternal reward they received Polotsk in 1617 and was martyred on November 12, 1623. He was assassinated and his “unfading crowns of glory.” In the same way that we honor artists, sportsmen, scientists body profaned. His mortal remains were recovered after five days in a river, and exposed who have achieved unequalled success in their field of endeavour, likewise, we honor for nine days, constantly emitting a fragrance of roses and lilies. About five years after Saints who, not unlike artists and sportsmen, have achieved outstanding St. Josaphat’s martyrdom his body was found intact, though the clothing had rotted away. accomplishments in their sanctification. Again in 1637 it was still white and supple. A beautiful silver reliquary was made for it, with a life-size image of the reclining Saint surmounting it. The body was examined and The second reason we venerate Saints, is because they can help us here on earth. found still intact in 1767. Pope Leo XIII canonized St. Josaphat in 1867. His relics were St. Domenic’s last dying words to his brother monks were: “Do not weep, for I shall be transferred to Rome and interred in St. Peter’s Basilica in 1963. more useful to you after my death and I shall help you then more effectively than during my life.” St. Therese of Lisieux said similarly: “I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth.” Did you know , …that in order to celebrate a Divine Liturgy there must be a special cloth, the antiminsion , on the altar which contains a small relic of a saint sewn into it. The antiminsion can only be consecrated by a bishop and is signed by him before it can be used by a priest. It lies underneath the Gospel book on the altar. It is unfolded during the Divine Liturgy before the Holy Gifts are brought to the altar and they are placed on top of the antiminsion for consecration. A Divine Liturgy cannot be celebrated without it in the Eastern Churches, while in the Latin Church the relic is placed under the altar or in an altar stone built into the altar itself. The practice of celebrating the Divine Liturgy over the graves of saints stems from the early Church. Some of the earliest churches are actually built over the tombs of saints, such as St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome — the high The relics of St. Josaphat in St. Peter’s altar is built over the burial site of St. Peter. Basilica, Rome. BLESSED MARTYRS OF PRATULIN The Martyrs of Pratulin are not well which today is in the Diocese of Siedlce, Poland. When the area came back under Poland known saints of our Church, but it is after WWI there were people who remembered their roots and made an effort to preserve worth getting to know them. Before the the history and the names of those who gave their lives defending their Church. Communist persecution of our Church in the 20th century, Tsarist Russia had It is important to recognize the work of the Holy Spirit in such events. The Pratulin the same policy. In the late 19th Martyrs were Ukrainian Greek-Catholics martyred for their faith whose beatification century, when Russia took control of process was initiated by Latin Rite Polish Catholics in the 1930’s. It is also important to the Cholm region, the Greek Catholic note that Polish-Ukrainian relations at that time were not very good. It is also worth Eparchy was destroyed. The Ukrainian noting that these saints were beatified in the year celebrating 400 years of the Union of Greek-Catholics had two choices, Brest, when our Church renewed its union with Rome. Today these are saints celebrated renounce their Byzantine tradition and in the Latin Church and our Greek-Catholic Church, in Poland, Ukraine and around the enter the Roman Catholic Church or to world as saints of unity. This remarkable work of the Holy Spirit should continue to submit to the Russian Orthodox inspire us to love our neighbors and to stay strong in our faith. Church. Priests who did not accept Russian Orthodoxy were exiled to A Prayer to the Martyrs of Pratulin Siberia and the bishop was forced to flee. In one parish, in the village of Pratulin, the villagers refused to allow an orthodox O, thirteen glorious martyrs, you endured a priest to enter their parish church. They did not succumb to threats by the Russian terrible death undeservingly, you bravely stood up authorities. In late January 1874, the men in the village formed a line in front of their for the defense of the holy faith, now you are church refusing to allow it to be transferred to the Russian Orthodox. Facing the peaceful clothed with heavenly glory, and are numbered protesters were Russian soldiers with guns and bayonets who attacked the crowd. among the righteous, with whom we glorify you.

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