www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Recent visit to Slovakia

I recently visited Slovakia to visit the village of my paternal grandparents, Slovinky. I stayed a week in the village and spend a considerable amount of time talking to Father Vladimir Varga, the Greek Catholic priest.

I also visited the neighboring village of Helcmanovce and a short pilgrimage to Litmanova, where the Bohorodicen reportedly appeared to two Greek Catholic children.

For anyone who has questions I will do my best to answer them; please forgive me for any delays because I'm back to work now, my garden is full of weeds, and I'm trying to put together a presentation to my sister parish in Sykesville, which was founded by emigrants from the two villages.

I will begin by saying the the Divine Liturgy is celebrated in Slovak in Slovinky and Helcmanovce; in Church Slavonic in Litmanova.

Father Deacon Paul

It is sad to hear that the Rusyn villages of Slovinky and Helcmanovce are Slovakized. At least Litmanova still has a Church Slavonic DL.

Unhcsertezs

Fr. Deacon Paul, maybe a slide show is in the works???

Inquiring minds want to know

Doesn't Slovinky have a very traditional Orthodox parish now? I'm sure their liturgy is in Church Slavonic.

Ungcsertezs

I would need some instructions on how to do it. I have the pictures on CD.

Fr Deacon Paul

If you have Windows XP, I beleive you should have Windows Movie Maker (try looking at Start/Programs/Accessories), which enables one to make a slideshow from images. You can then upload the slideshow to YouTube.

Even though I visited for a week it wasn't enough time. I didn't get time to visit the Orthodox parish. The Greek Catholic Church was more significant because of family history.

I understood that the Orthodox church was built in the 1990's, probably around the return of St. George Church to the Greek Catholics. The village seems split fairly even between the Greek Catholics and the Orthodox. The GC church was outlawed and its property given to the Orthodox for decades so it lost a lot of people.

There are plans to build a Roman Catholic Church in lower Slovinky, near Krompachy where there is already a RC Church.

I was there four days before I even met any of my relatives; the time just flew by and not having a readily available interpreter held things up a lot.

Thanks, Roman. I'll have to organize some pictures and have my grandson do the Utube part.

or just use photobucket or one of them, but YouTube would get a lot of viewings for sure.

I finally put together some pictures which is posted on the site below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXdMmOxL78Q

This is my first attempt at Movie maker so it is very unprofessional, but it does get the pictures on a public forum with some narration.

I still have some video; a friend is putting it on DVD so I hope to have more posted some time in the future.


Father Deacon Paul

Father Deacon Paul

Wow that was wonderful! Thank you for taking the time. Geesss there were so many things I found interesting. I will watch them again with Fr. Deacon Stan tomorrow. Thanks again for taking the time to share. Pani Rose

Fr. Dn. Paul,

I like the traditional Ikonostas in the Slovinky church except the 'removed Deacon Doors". Why this has been occurring in the Greek Catholic Churches in Eastern Slovakia, I have no idea. It is also sad that they have abandoned Church Slavonic.

Ungcsertezs (I pray that I will visit again with my Rusyn relatives in Valkovce/Matovce soon, Daj Bozhe!)

Dear Father Deacon Paul,

Gosh how BEAUTIFUL! I'm such a romantic!

God Bless,

Zenovia

You the man, Deaon! Give yourself a raise. Heck, double your salary. Tell the Eparch I said it was ok. We're tight! (Right!!!!)

Tim

Thanks for your kind comments.

Ung-Certez

That was a very keen observation about the lack of deacon doors.
Even the church in Litmanova, where the DL is in Church Slavonic, does not have deacon doors.

I can only guess that the deacon doors were removed because they only have "transitional" deacons. I don't expect that they will even address the diaconate until the seminary enrollment drops off to a much smaller number.

At some point soon they will have to be building and staffing many, many churches in the cities where there has not been a Greek Catholic presence, otherwise our church will die out as is threatened here in the USA. The Greek Catholic Church is a rural church, but as in the USA, the young educated people are moving to the cities. In Poprad, a large city, the Divine Liturgy is celebrated in a Roman Catholic Church. A church is being built, I believe. But one church for a city that size is not going to bring growth.

http://www.byzcath.org/forums/images/icons/default/grin.gif
grin Tim, double my salary?? I still couldn't buy a cup of coffee. http://www.byzcath.org/forums/images/icons/default/grin.gif
grin