Turning the pages back... June 23, 1993 (06/21/98)

Turning the pages back...

June 23, 1993

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Patriarch Mstyslav I of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. And, it was only five years ago that Ukrainians around the world had mourned the death of the patriarch of Kyiv and all Ukraine.

Patriarchal funeral rites were conducted on June 21-23, 1993, at St. Andrew's Ukrainian Orthodox Church Center in South Bound Brook, N.J.

As churches bells tolled mournfully on Wednesday, June 23, 2,000 mourners came to pay their last respects to His Holiness Mstyslav I. In all, some 3,000 clergy and laity attended the three-day funeral. Political figures and diplomats from Ukraine, including national deputies and Ambassador to the U.S. Oleh Bilorus, as well as countless representatives of Ukrainian diaspora organizations also took part.

An international gathering of the faithful, political dignitaries and Church hierarchs of various denominations paid their last respects to the man who, for many, came to symbolize aspirations for an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Everywhere on the grounds of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church compound flags flew at half mast to honor the departed. After a three-hour service, a multitude surged forward for the final "tsilovannia" (kiss of farewell).

Metropolitan Stephen Sulyk read a letter from Cardinal Myroslav Lubachivsky, who wrote that "the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church will always preserve the memory of His Holiness, particularly for his participation in the Second Vatican Council, for his meetings with the late Patriarch Josyf Slipyj in 1968, and, finally for his participation in the ceremonial reinterment of our unforgettable patriarch and confessor in Lviv." The letter also mentioned that "history will remember him as a man of the Church, who strove for the unity of the Church and of the Ukrainian people."

Metropolitan Wasyly of Canada offered healing words about Metropolitan Mstyslav's great stature as a political and religious leader, whose steps toward unity the Church should follow. Metropolitan Constantine of the U.S.A. praised him as a "brilliant individual with a lofty spirit and an unshakable faith and will." Archbishop Antony of New York and Washington spoke about the patriarch's service to his Church and his people.

Patriarch Mstyslav's testament was read during the tryzna (memorial dinner). In it the patriarch called upon the clergy and the hierarchs of the Church to work "for the sake of God, the martyrs of the Church and the people" to achieve the goal of a sovereign Church dependent on no one.

Source: "Thousands mourn patriarch," June 27, 1993, Vol. LXI, No. 26, and "Global gathering mourns patriarch," July 4, 1993, Vol. LXI, No. 27, The Ukrainian Weekly.