Catholics of the Byzantine ritual tradition in the Austro-Hungarian Empire were known in church terminology as Ruthenians. Large numbers of them began to immigrate to the United States in the late 1870s. A priest of their own arrived in 1884, Father John Wolansky and blessed their first church building in Shenandoah, Pa., that same year. These Catholics were placed under the jurisdiction of the Latin ordinaries of the places of residence by virtue of the Apostolic Letter of Leo XIII Orientalium Dignitas (1895).
A BRIEF HISTORY: Ukrainian Catholic Metropolitan Archeparchy of Philadelphia
By Ukrainian Weekly Editor5 Mins Read