Since Russia’s assault on Ukraine began early in the morning of Feb. 24, the world has watched in horror at this entirely unwarranted invasion. And for the average onlooker, it seems there’s nothing we can do. Contact elected officials, perhaps? But to say what? The solution suggested in a compelling Twitter thread? All our research feels insufficient, our voices too small.
Mercifully, concrete action in this world isn’t our only option. We can donate and petition and amplify marginalized voices, yes. And we must. But as Christians, we know that our prayers also hold power. They hold all the more power when amplified by our heavenly intercessors. Rather than turning our eyes away from the evil being wrought in Ukraine, rather than merely looking on with a sense of futility, let’s ask the intercession of the saints of Ukraine — men and women who know the hearts of the Ukrainian people (and some of whom know the dangers of Russian aggression, having themselves fallen victim to it). Though there are many, the stories that follow will serve as an introduction to these people of great faith.
St. Olga of Kyiv
St. Olga (d. 969) was the queen whose conversion ultimately brought the people of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine to Jesus. Born in modern-day Russia, Olga was married to Prince Igor I of Kyiv (today the capital of Ukraine). Olga was as violent and despotic as her husband, and after he was killed, she ruled with an iron fist on behalf of her 2-year-old son, Sviatoslav. To protect her throne (and his), Olga raised him to be cruel and cunning — a strategy that backfired when she suddenly found herself a believing Christian and discovered her son to be unconvertible.
Olga had harbored no intention of becoming a Christian; even on the day of her baptism, it’s possible that the move was purely strategic, as she vied for power among Christian monarchs in the region. But she experienced miraculous grace in the moment of her baptism and returned to her people longing to draw them to Jesus. No matter what she said, and no matter what missionaries she welcomed into the country, though, Olga failed, reaping the consequences of her life of cruelty and violence. When she died, she was one of the few Christians in the country. But from heaven, she interceded. And while her son didn’t come to know Jesus in this life, her influence (in life and in death) on her grandson, St. Vladimir of Kyiv, led to the conversion of her whole country and Olga’s title of Equal to the Apostles.
St. Vladimir of Kyiv
St. Vladimir (958-1015) was the grand prince of Kyiv and ruler of the Kievan Rus’. Known as Vladimir the Great, he was the grandson of St. Olga of Kyiv. When his father (the prince) died, Vladimir (the illegitimate son of a housekeeper) was not in line to rule. His brother, Yaropolk, took control and later murdered their other brother, Oleg, prompting Vladimir to flee the land. He returned four years later and wrested the country from his brother, ruling for eight years as a pagan prince, complete with 800 concubines.
But Vladimir was hungry for more and sent representatives throughout the world to learn about the major world religions and report back to him. The envoys to the Christians in Constantinople reported: “We knew not whether we were in heaven or on Earth. … We only know that God dwells there among the people, and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations.” Convinced, Vladimir was baptized, married a Byzantine princess and returned to Kyiv to destroy pagan monuments, build Christian churches and call all his people to receive baptism. With his grandmother, he is credited with bringing the Christian faith to the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian peoples and is called “Equal to the Apostles.”
St. Josaphat Kuntsevych
St. Josaphat Kuntsevych (1580-1623) was a Polish-Lithuanian man born in modern-day Ukraine to a Ruthenian Orthodox family. In 1598, the Union of Brest made it possible for certain Ruthenian eparchies (dioceses) to be united to Rome while retaining their own Eastern rites. Josaphat belonged to what is now the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (then the Ruthenian Uniate Church), and a few years later, he entered a Catholic monastery in what is now Lithuania. He was ultimately made archimandrite (abbot) and later archeparch (archbishop) of Plotsk.
As archeparch, he worked to bring all those subject to him into full communion with Rome (though many were suspicious that such unity would chip away at the beautiful Byzantine character of their faith). His work for unity made him much hated in certain circles — who accused him of having “gone Latin” — and he was hacked to death by a mob while visiting modern-day Belarus in an attempt to win the people there to the Catholic Church.
St. Zygmunt Szcesny Felinski
St. Zygmunt Szcesny Felinski (1822-95) was born in present-day Ukraine to a proud Polish family at a time when there was no independent Poland. His father died when he was 11; when he was 18, his mother was exiled to Siberia for her pro-Polish sentiment. Zygmunt himself was involved in a failed revolution against Russia (after earning degrees in mathematics and French literature and before becoming a diocesan priest).
After several years as a priest and philosophy professor, Father Felinski was made archbishop of Warsaw. His appointment having been approved by Moscow, Polish nationalists were suspicious of him, but Archbishop Felinski spoke passionately about the right of nations to an independent existence and eventually wrote to the czar demanding that Poland be granted autonomy. He had served in Warsaw for only 14 months before being sent into exile in Russia for 20 years. After his release, he was sent to modern Ukraine to live out his life in semi-exile, offering himself in service to Ukrainian and Polish Catholics.
Blessed Mykola Konrad
Blessed Mykola Konrad (1876-1941) was a working-class child who grew up to be a priest and an academic. He wrote in opposition to Ivan Franko’s critique of the doctrine of creation, though he was disdained by many for daring to go up against this great intellectual. The gentle Father Konrad loved children and became a teacher, working in schools and universities for many years as he and his wife raised four children of their own. He wrote many articles and taught sociology and philosophy, eventually becoming dean of the philosophy faculty at the Lviv Theological Academy. And all this in the midst of the political turmoil of the time, which occasionally saw Father Konrad be imprisoned for his faith.
He founded a student organization that took the motto “Ukraine for God” (rather than the secular motto of “Ukraine over all” so popular at the time). When Soviet troops arrived in Lviv in 1939, though, Father Konrad lost his job. With no way to earn a living, he and his family were forced to leave the city to stay with his sister. But when they were on their way, he passed through the village of Stradch, where the villagers (believing he was fleeing the country) called out to him that he ought to think of them, there without a priest and with no way to flee. And so the brilliant academic became pastor of a tiny village, where he made the acquaintance of Blessed Volodymir Pryjma (1906-41), a Ukrainian husband and father and a trained Byzantine cantor and church choir director.
Four days after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Father Konrad was summoned to the home of a sick woman who had requested the Sacrament of Reconciliation. His parishioners feared for his safety in such an uncertain time, but Father Konrad couldn’t refuse the woman absolution, even to save his own life. Rather than let him go alone, Pryjma joined him, but there was no safety in numbers. When the two were returning from their errand of mercy, they were captured, tortured and martyred by Soviets.
Blessed Emilian Kovch
Blessed Emilian Kovch (1884-1944) was a Ukrainian Catholic priest, husband and father of six. He repeatedly risked his life to preach against prejudice and anti-Semitism. For his troubles (and his ethnicity and his faith), he was arrested in the last days of Soviet rule. He and his two daughters managed to escape, learning soon after that all the prisoners in their group had been murdered by the Soviets as the Nazis approached. Father Kovch continued his work for justice under Nazi rule, baptizing many Jewish people in an attempt to save them from death. On one occasion, Nazi troops had chased some local Jews into a synagogue and were throwing firebombs inside. Without regard for his own safety, Father Kovch raced to the synagogue, blocked the doors and angrily ordered the soldiers to leave. To everyone’s shock, they did just that. Having stared down a mob of Nazis, Father Kovch ran into the synagogue to save the people burning within. Further efforts to protect Jews from the Nazis led to his arrest and imprisonment in a concentration camp.
When his children agitated to have him freed, he wrote them a letter, saying: “I understand that you are trying to get me released. But I beg you not to do this. Yesterday, they killed 50 people. If I am not here, who will help them to get through these sufferings? They would go on their way to eternity with all their sins and in the depths of unbelief, which would take them to hell. But now they go to death with their heads held aloft, leaving all their sins behind them. And so they pass over to the eternal city.” He died in that concentration camp and is considered a martyr by the Church.
Blessed Kliment Sheptytsky
Blessed Kliment Sheptytsky (1869-1951) was a Ukrainian Catholic legal scholar who was elected to the parliament of Austria, in which he served for seven years. He later withdrew from politics and became a monk in the Latin rite. But within a year, he had returned to his Eastern Catholic roots in a Studite monastery in Bosnia. After his ordination, he entered a monastery in Ukraine and was eventually made prior. He was targeted under Soviet rule, and several members of his family were killed. Before he could be arrested or killed by the Soviets, the Nazis invaded Soviet-occupied Ukraine, and the Ukrainian people experienced a new form of oppression.
During the Nazi occupation of Ukraine, Sheptytsky worked with his brother (Venerable Andrey Sheptytsky, metropolitan archbishop of Lviv) and Blessed Emilian Kovch to hide Jewish people in various monasteries and help them to escape to free territories; for his work, he was declared Righteous Among the Nations by the nation of Israel. After the war, Sheptytsky was made archimandrite (abbot) of the Studite order. When the Soviets arrested many of the high-ranking clergy in Ukraine, Archimandrite Sheptytsky became the de facto leader of the Church. He was later arrested by the Soviets for refusing to renounce Rome and died in prison.
Blessed Laurentia Herasymiv
Blessed Laurentia Herasymiv (1911-52) was a Ukrainian Catholic religious sister plagued by a Soviet government that was attempting to eradicate Catholicism. She developed a chronic illness after spending a night hiding outside as Soviet soldiers searched her convent. Arrested for refusing to abandon the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church for Orthodoxy, Sister Laurentia and Blessed Olympia Bida (1903-52) were sent to Siberia. Sister Laurentia’s tuberculosis made it difficult for them to find anyone who would take them in, but finally a family with a seriously ill family member was convinced. The sick man complained incessantly, but Sister Laurentia tried to be gentle and loving.
Everyone was forced to work (no matter how infirm), so Sister Laurentia made artificial flowers as she prayed for strength to survive without the sacraments. Sister Olympia died a year and a half after they arrived and Sister Laurentia followed seven months later. As she lay dying, Sister Laurentia begged for the Eucharist, calling out in her delirium, “Jesus, I do not want to die without you!” She died — as she had lived for two long years, without the Eucharist — and was fully united to Jesus at last.
Blessed Pavel Peter Gojdič
Blessed Pavel Peter Gojdič (1888-1960) was a Ukrainian Catholic monk and bishop serving in Slovakia. He was outspoken in defense of the Jewish people, particularly after they were ordered expelled from Slovakia. This order was promulgated by the collaborationist president of the Slovak Republic, Father Jozef Tiso, whose crimes against humanity led Bishop Gojdič to argue that he ought to be laicized or compelled by Rome to resign as president.
Bishop Gojdič’s loud support of Slovakian Jews led many of his priests to call for his resignation as bishop; when he complied, he was assigned to another diocese. There, he continued to work to save Jews, including by receiving them into the Church. He is credited with saving at least 17 Jewish lives and has been declared “Righteous Among the Nations” by the nation of Israel. Though he survived the Nazis, Bishop Gojdič’s ministry led to a life sentence under the Soviets; the many letters written by Jews who were grateful for his work had no effect on this sentence, which held as long as he refused to become Orthodox. Bishop Gojdič died of cancer after 10 years in prison.
Blessed Vasyl Velychkovsky
Blessed Vasyl Velychkovsky (1903-73) was a Redemptorist priest and then a bishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. After fighting in the First World War, Velychkovsky entered seminary (during which he also studied law). He ultimately entered the Redemptorists and was ordained a priest, after which he spent a decade as a teacher and a missionary, building chapels and churches especially for the Galician people. But he was under pressure from the Polish government (which opposed the Greek Catholic Church in favor of the Roman Catholic Church of Poland) and was recalled to his monastery, from which he continued to travel and offer retreats throughout the region, speaking to hundreds of thousands of people in the first 15 years of his priesthood.
After the Soviet invasion, though, there was far less leniency. Father Velychkovsky was arrested and sent to do forced labor in the coal mines of northern Russia, where he toiled for 10 years. When he returned to Ukraine, he was able to continue serving only in secret, leading secret retreats and running a secret seminary. He was selected as bishop in 1959 but was unable to be consecrated since every other bishop in Ukraine was in prison. After four years, he was summoned to Moscow, where he was consecrated in a secret hotel-room ceremony by a bishop who was being sent into exile. He served for six years (consecrating several other bishops so that the Church would never be without an active prelate again) before being arrested once more. He was tortured for three years before being sent into exile in Canada, where he died shortly after his arrival.
Meg Hunter-Kilmer is the author of “Saints Around the World” (Emmaus Road Publishing, $22.95).
