Turning the pages back... October 6, 1887 (10/06/96)

Turning the pages back...

October 6, 1887

One hundred and nine years ago, Ioan Teodorovych was born in Krupets, Dubno County, in the Volhynia Gubernia. Ordained as a priest in 1915, in the midst of the first world war, he worked for the Red Cross on the southwestern front.

In 1918, the Rev. Teodorovych served as divisional chaplain of the Ukrainian "Sirozhupannyky" (Graycoat) division of the Austrian Army, and later for various units of the Ukrainian National Republic Army in the Kholm, Kyiv and Podilia regions.

In 1920, he joined the newly formed Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) and was consecrated as bishop of Podilia and a metropolitan of the Church by Metropolitan Vasyl Lypkivsky.

At the request of Orthodox Ukrainians in North America and following a decision of the All-Ukrainian Orthodox Church Council, Metropolitan Teodorovych was sent to the U.S. in 1924.

In June 1924, he was elected bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the U.S.A., the UOC-USA, and the following month, as bishop of the UOC in Canada, although he remained in Philadelphia, where he settled.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Metropolitan Teodorovych worked to unite the two major Ukrainian Orthodox jurisdictions in the U.S., the UOC-USA and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of America (UOCA), but the leaders of the latter opposed him, questioning the canonicity of his consecration in the UAOC.

In 1949, he was reconsecrated by the patriarch of Alexandria in the U.S., and in 1950 most parishes of the UOCA began to recognize his leadership. However, this rapprochement angered some hierarchs in the Canadian UOC, and he eventually resigned as a bishop of that Church (1952).

In 1968-1970, a three-volume collection of his theological works, sermons, meditations and short fiction was published under the title "U Velyke Nevidome" (Into the Great Unknown).

Metropolitan Teodorovych died in Philadelphia on May 3, 1971.

Source: "Teodorovych, Ivan," Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Vol. 5 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993).