Blessed Vasyl Velychkovsky (1903-1973) was a bishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which is in communion with Rome, and a martyr. He had a tremendous zeal for the salvation of souls and lived a life of great virtue amid great hardships. His feast day (and that of Blessed Nykyta Budka) is June 27.

He was born in what is today western Ukraine; his father, Volodymyr, was a married priest, part of the tradition of many Eastern Catholic churches. His mother, Anna, was devout. As a teen, he developed a desire to enter religious life. At age 15, he joined the Ukrainian Galician Army to fight for Ukraine’s independence during World War I.

Vasyl entered the seminary in Lviv in 1920, and made vows with the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists). He was ordained a priest in 1925.

As a priest, he taught and led missions, and became a religious superior. During this time, the Church was experiencing increasing persecution from Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union. When World War II began in 1939, the Nazis occupied Ukraine, followed by the Soviets at the end of the war. The Communists had Father Vasyl and other clerics imprisoned for “anti-Soviet activities.” He was sentenced to death by firing squad in 1946, later commuted to 10 years of hard labor.

Father Vasyl began his prison ministry ministering to those who had lost hope. Prisoners called him their chaplain. Despite the harsh conditions and hard labor, he was able to build a small chapel in a coal mine, teach the basic truths of the faith, hear confessions and celebrate Divine Liturgy using prison bread and wine made from raisins. He also used the prison bread and string to make a rosary, which he prayed faithfully. 

He was released in 1955 and returned to Lviv. He celebrated the Divine Liturgy daily, conducted spiritual exercises and provided spiritual leadership to his community. He was ordained a bishop in a Moscow hotel room by Metropolitan Josyf Slipyj in 1963, who had just been released from prison and was making his way to the Second Vatican Council.

Bishop Vasyl was again arrested in 1969 after writing a book on Our Lady of Perpetual Help. His treatment in prison was harsh; he was drugged and tortured, irreparably injuring his health. He was exiled from Ukraine in 1972 and made his way to Canada, where he died from injuries relating to his imprisonment the following year.

He was beatified in 2001. His incorrupt body is in St. Joseph’s Ukrainian Catholic Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In 2014, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk proclaimed Blessed Vasyl patron of prison ministry for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.