Orthodox Bishop Paisiy dies at age 84 (02/15/98)

Orthodox Bishop Paisiy dies at age 84

SOUTH BOUND BROOK, N.J. - Bishop Paisiy, former bishop of South America and bishop emeritus of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A., died on February 3 in Minneapolis, where he had been living in retirement. He was 84.

The bishop was born Vasyl Iwaschuk in the village of Duben, in Volyn, Ukraine, in 1913. He completed his education in 1935, graduating from the Teachers' College in Kremianets and began his career as an educator. He taught in several village schools and went on to become director of the Gymnasium of Symon Petliura in his native village of Duben, where he also taught courses on the history of Ukraine. When the public schools were closed during the Nazi occupation, Mr. Iwaschuk continued to teach with other Ukrainian educators in the Prosvita organization, which the Germans still tolerated. In 1943 he was taken by the Germans to Austria and placed into forced labor.

After the second world war, Mr. Iwaschuk was a student at the Ukrainian Free University in 1945-1949 in the faculty of philosophy; at the same time he studied at the Theological Academy. Both of these educational institutions were located in Munich.

In 1949 he immigrated to the United States where he helped to organize, and was then appointed director of, the Ukrainian School affiliated with St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Chicago.

He felt compelled to satisfy his lifelong desire for knowledge and higher education and in 1953 enrolled at the Northwestern University Library School in Chicago, from which he graduated in 1957 with a master's degree in library science. He became the librarian of the Cook County School of Nursing and served in that capacity for nine years.

Throughout all his years as an educator and librarian, Mr. Iwaschuk never separated himself from his Church and remained active in parish life in the Chicago area. Metropolitan Mstyslav called him to the service of the Church, ordaining him as deacon on April 16, 1977, and then as priest the next day, on April 17.

The Rev. Iwaschuk was then called to the Metropolitan Center of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in South Bound Brook, N.J. in May 1977, and appointed by the metropolitan as librarian of St. Sophia Seminary. At the same time he was assigned as pastor of St. Sophia Ukrainian Orthodox parish in Bayonne, N.J. He served in this capacity for 12 years.

When the Rev. Iwaschuk's wife, Evhenia, died in January 1988, he was chosen by Metropolitan Mstyslav to become bishop of South America, a branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the omophorion of the metropolitan of the Church in the U.S.A. Metropolitan Mstyslav and Bishop Iziaslav of the Belarussian Orthodox Church consecrated Bishop Paisiy in St. Andrew Memorial Church in South Bound Brook, on February 26, 1989.

The Rev. Iwaschuk requested Paisiy as his monastic name. St. Paisiy (Velychkovskyi) was a Ukrainian monk of Mount Athos in the 18th century and was a model for the Rev. Iwaschuk throughout his life. In 1978 he had the opportunity to visit Mt. Athos.

Bishop Paisiy then traveled to his diocese in South America, but because of poor health, was unable to live in the difficult southern climate for any length of time. Though he returned to the United States, he continued to visit his diocese frequently to care for the spiritual and administrative needs of the clergy and faithful he loved dearly.

He was convinced that there was a need to establish a seminary in South America and chose the administrative center of the diocese in Curitiba, Brazil, as the site for that seminary. He began a fund-raising campaign in the parishes of the U.S.A. and raised enough funds to purchase a building and begin the educational work that was so dear to him.

Bishop Paisiy presented the funds collected to his successor bishop in South America, Bishop Jeremiah, during the latter's episcopal consecration in Curitiba in 1993. Bishop Paisiy never had the opportunity to visit the newly established seminary prior to his death, but he was able to meet with the first seminarians from the school who are now enrolled for further studies at St. Sophia Seminary in South Bound Brook.

Due to ill health, Bishop Paisiy was unable to continue episocpal service on a full-time basis. During the last years of his life, however, he remained active in the life of the Church. He continued to serve in various parishes, most recently as temporary pastor of St. Michael Parish in Minneapolis. He traveled to many conferences and continued to build on his knowledge until the last days of his life.

He was particularly interested in the youth of the Church and attended all conventions of the Ukrainian Orthodox League, where he was always a speaker at the junior convention. He touched the lives of the young people in much the same way as a grandfather might and the young people adored him for his patience and constant willingness to teach them more about their faith, their heritage and about the privilege they had living in the United States.

Bishop Paisiy was a lover of books and donated his personal library to the St. Sophia Library at the Consistory in South Bound Brook. He never lost the desire to teach and to the very end of his life was willing and able to enthrall an audience in a discussion on a variety of topics, most especially when it involved the history of Ukraine, its Church and the relationship of the two to the rest of the world.

He was a member of the Council of Bishops and the Metropolitan Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. He represented the Church in Ukraine at the funeral services for Patriarch Volodymyr and was attacked along with other worshipers during the burial service at the wall surrounding St. Sophia Cathedral. His mitre was damaged by a billy club wielded by one of the "special security forces" who were ordered to disperse the funeral crowds. The bishop wore that damaged mitre to the end of his life as a mark of courage and to remind himself of how difficult life still is in his native land.

Bishop Paisiy often commented in recent years that the most emotional and spiritually uplifting moment of his life was when he stood in the great Church of Constantinople as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church finally took its rightful place among the Orthodox Churches of the world, and he heard his own faithful sing the "Creed" ("Viruyu") and the "Lord's Prayer" in Ukrainian in prayerful unity with the ecumenical patriarch and the hierarchs of the Holy Synod of Constantinople.

Surviving Bishop Paisiy are his daughter, Iryna Stepovy, with whom he lived in Minneapolis; his daughter, Maria Trusevych and her husband and three children in Chicago; three sisters, Olena, Hanna and Paraskevia, and one brother, Teodosij, all in Ukraine.

Funeral services were conducted beginning with a parastas at the church of St. Michael in Minneapolis on Saturday, February 7. Services continued at St. Andrew Memorial Church at the Metropolitan Center of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. in South Bound Brook. The funeral rite (Odpivannia) was served by the hierarchs of the Church on February 9 and divine liturgy and burial on February 10.

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