The New Martyrs of Kholm and Pidlyashya

“I firmly believe that some of the murdered pastors of my diocese will be accounted by our Church into the ranks of Saints.” Metropolitan Ilarion (Ohiyenko)

On June 7-8, 2003, in the ancient city of Kholm in eastern Poland the Hierarchs, Priests and faithful of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Poland solemnly canonized 8 new martyrs, 7 of them priests and one the wife of one of the martyred priests. They represented the hundreds and perhaps even thousands of Orthodox Christians tortured and killed during the political and religious turmoil brought about by the second world war. Their memory is celebrated on the first Sunday of June each year.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada has a special connection to these Saints. First it is because a good many of them were ethnic Ukrainians. Such make up a large proportion of the Orthodox in Poland. Second, our Church’s first Metropolitan, Metropolitan Ilarion (Ohiyenko) of blessed memory, was the bishop of the region during this most difficult time. In his archpastoral encyclical on Pentecost in 1944 he wrote the memorable words: “I firmly believe that some of the murdered pastors of my diocese will be accounted by our Church into the ranks of Saints.”

The time finally came and the Martyrs were recognized and celebrated. That such a canonization took place in Poland in 2003 is a sign of the happy fact of the unfolding there of a democratic society in which people of diverse backgrounds can live normal lives, celebrating their joys and weeping over their tragedies. We also recall that Poland was the first to recognize a sovereign Ukraine in 1991 and that Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski was among the statesmen who helped to achieve the success of the Orange Revolution whose goal was the growth of such a society in Ukraine after the moral and spiritual devastation of the land by Communist ideology.

I am grateful to Fr. Arkadi Mironko, an Orthodox priest from Poland who currently pastors a Church in New Jersey, for materials he sent on the lives of these Martyrs. Their veneration by our Church was blessed by Metropolitan Wasyly (Fedak) of blessed memory who ordained to the priesthood, Fr. George Brygidyr, who pastored our Hromada for 17 years.

As I did more research on the internet I found that there are also two other communities who remember their own “Martyrs of Kholm” (Chelm in Polish). One is the Jewish community which was virtually destroyed by the Nazi invaders. The other is the Polish community which marks the martyrdom in Pratulin (in the Chelm diocese) on January 24, 1874, of 13 “Unici” as they are called in Polish, faithful of the Christian community which developed out of 1596 Union of Brest by which Orthodox Bishops of Ukraine and Poland accepted the authority of the Pope while retaining their Orthodox worship and traditions (including married clergy). These were also ethnic Ukrainians who surrounded their Church, refusing to give it up to the soldiers of the Tsar who had ordered that it be given to the Orthodox Church. They prayed and sang religious songs as they were shot. They were canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1996.

Martyrdom can be seen in different ways. It is possible to focus on the tragedy of it, since people are unjustly and cruelly put to death. The memory of such martyrs can inspire a sense of being victimized, bringing about resentment and the desire for vengeance which often makes new martyrs on the other side. It can also be a call to love and forgiveness as was the case with our Lord Who forgave and prayed for His tormentors (it is possible to see each of us among these) upon the Cross.

We must recall that the essential meaning of the word “martyr” is “witness”. The way in which these martyrs accepted their suffering and death is a testimony of faith in the Lord of love and joy Whose suffering and death brings peace and reconciliation to the world. The right way to venerate martyrs, after having sung of them and venerated their Icon is to go forth and strive ourselves to be faithful witnesses in what we do and say – and especially by our humble and penitent way of life – to make this world for which our Lord (and they) died ever more manifestly “the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ” (Revelation 12:10). Amen.