EDITORIAL: Remembering Patriarch Mstyslav I (07/06/03)

EDITORIAL

Remembering Patriarch Mstyslav I

June 11 marked the 10th anniversary of the death of Patriarch Mstyslav I, a truly extraordinary man who embodied the best qualities of a Churchman and national leader, a hierarch who led the Church during some of its most turbulent and its most joyous times. As bishop, archbishop and metropolitan - and later as patriarch - he worked tirelessly toward unifying Ukrainian Orthodox faithful around the globe.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. marked the anniversary of the patriarch's repose with special services at the crypt where he is buried beneath St. Andrew Memorial Church on the grounds of the Ukrainian Orthodox Center (see last week's issue). As noted by a longtime co-worker of Patriarch Mstyslav, Mykola Francuzenko, who spoke at the 10th anniversary memorial dinner held in tribute to the Church leader, the hierarch was no doubt destined for the role he was to play. Born as Stefan Ivanovych Skrypnyk on April 10, 1898, in Poltava, he came into a family of noted religious and political leaders.

His own life's path was remarkable as well, encompassing the military, political activity and the religious life. His world view was shaped by both the Soviet and Nazi occupations of Ukraine, and his work for his Church and his nation spanned Ukraine, western Europe, Canada, the United States and then, once again, Ukraine.

Here in the United States, Metropolitan Mstyslav was perhaps best known for his decades of work to establish the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's worldwide center in South Bound Brook, N.J. It was at the Church's center that Metropolitan Mstyslav had built St. Andrew Memorial Church, which is dedicated to the memory of the victims of the 1932-1933 Great Famine in Ukraine. (This magnificent Church served as the focal point of the entire Ukrainian American community's solemn observances of the 50th anniversary of the Great Famine in 1983.)

A most tangible recognition of his strength of character and his leadership came during the synod on June 5-6, 1990, of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church when Metropolitan Mstyslav of the UOC-U.S.A. was elected as the first patriarch of the reborn Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Less than five months later, on October 20, 1990, Patriarch Mstyslav returned triumphantly to Ukraine - at the age of 92 and after an absence of 46 years - in preparation for his enthronement. His first destination on that fateful day in 1990 was St. Sophia Sobor, where the patriarch fell to his knees and kissed the ground thrice. Inside the cathedral he celebrated a moleben of thanksgiving. The next day he officiated at an archpastoral divine liturgy at St. Andrew Cathedral, where he had been consecrated as bishop back in May of 1942. Finally, on November 18 he was enthroned as patriarch of Kyiv and all Ukraine.

Alas, his tenure as patriarch was short-lived. Patriarch Mstyslav I died at the age of 95 on June 11, 1993. Patriarchal funeral rites were offered in South Bound Brook over the course of three days on June 21-23, with some 3,000 hierarchs, clergy and laity - faithful of the Orthodox and other Churches - from around the globe coming to pay their last respects. It was vivid testimony to Patriarch Mstyslav's far-reaching influence and the esteem in which he was held.

Patriarch Mstyslav's testament, read at the memorial tryzna after the religious rites were concluded, was an exhortation to unity "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. It is a testament worth recalling and a noble goal still worth striving for today, 10 years after the patriarch's passing.

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