Archbishop-Metropolitan Joseph M. Schmondiuk (12/31/78)

Archbishop-Metropolitan Joseph M. Schmondiuk

Metropolitan Joseph was born on August 6, 1912, in Wall, Pa., a small community 10 miles east of Pittsburgh. He was the second of four children of Michael and Mary (Bocia) Schmondiuk. His father immigrated to the United States of America in 1909 from the village of Torske, western Ukraine.

His parents died in the influenza epidemic of 1919, and Joseph and his brother, Michael, were taken into St. Basil's Orphanage in Philadelphia by the Sisters of St. Basil the Great. The Bishop's younger brother, Emil John, being only three years old at the time of the death of his parents, was adopted by a family in Braddock, Pa., while his only sister, Mary, also fell victim to the epidemic.

In 1921, Joseph and his brother were transferred to St. Paul's Orphanage, Carnegie, Pa., where he remained until they returned to St. Basil's Orphanage in 1925.

Metropolitan Schmondiuk received his grammar school education at St. Peter's School. For one year he attended St. Francis Annex of Roman Catholic High School and he completed his high school education at St. Joseph Prep School, graduating in 1930.

On October 11, 1930, the future Metropolitan sailed to Rome for philosophical and theological studies in preparation for the priesthood. While in Rome he studied at the Angelicum, the University of the Propaganda Fide, and St. Josaphat's Ukrainian Catholic Seminary.

On March 29,1936, Joseph Schmondiuk received the Sacrament of the Priesthood from the late Bishop Alexander Stojka, Ordinary of Mukachiv-Uzhhorod. That same year he received his licentiate degree in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.).

Returning to the United States after ordination, the young priest was assigned as pastor of Ss. Peter and Paul Church in Aliquippa, where he served for six years.

Subsequent pastoral assignments saw him serving the Ukrainian Catholic faithful in Rochester, N.Y., Passaic, N.J., and Hamtramck, Mich.

During his tenure as pastor of the Immaculate Conception parish in Hamtramck, he built the new $450,000 parish school and auditorium and inaugurated the building of a $150,000 rectory.

In 1953, he was elevated by Pope Pius XII to the rank of Papal Chamberlain with the title of the Very Reverend Monsignor.

On August 8, 1956, Pope Piux XII named him Titular Bishop of Zeugma in Syria and Auxiliary Bishop to the late Archbishop-Metropolitan Constantine Bohachevsky.

Metropolitan Joseph was ordained a bishop on November 8, 1956, in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Philadelphia, by the late Metropolitan Bohachevsky, the late Metropolitan Senyshyn and Bishop Nicholas T. Elko, the then Exarch of the Pittsburgh Ruthenian Diocese.

While residing in Philadelphia, he was pastor of St. Nicholas Church.

Upon the death of Metropolitan Bohachevsky on January 6, 1961, Metropolitan Schmondiuk administered the Philadelphia See until August 14 of the same year, when Pope John XXIII named him Eparch of Stamford.

While Eparch of Stamford, Metropolitan Schmondiuk brought to completion a multi-million dollar building program at St. Basil's College, Stamford, the diocesan minor seminary; inaugurated the Stamford Charities Drive, in order to put the diocese on a firm fiscal basis; developed a 470-acre tract of the land in Hamptonburgh, N.Y., for us as a diocesan cemetery; promoted the renewal and expansion of the Diocesan Museum in Stamford; and by the special appointment of Pope Paul VI served as a member of the Papal Synod in October 1977.

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