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Happy Feast of Pentecost!

Dear friends,

I have seen at least three icons of the recently glorified Ukrainian Greek Catholic new martyrs. I have also seen icons of the the 3 recently glorified Carpatho-Rusyn Greek Catholic new martyrs. Are there any icons of the 4 Russian Greek Catholic new martyrs?

Holy Russian Greek Catholic new martyrs and confessors, pray to God for us.

The only one I know of is the icon for St. Leonid Federov.

Speaking of new icons there is a new icon of the Bulgarian Catholic St. Kamen Vitchev at http://www.assumption.edu/brighton/archives/Martyrs.htm

Dear ROC,

Forgive my ignorance - who are the other three Russian Martyrs?

In addition, could not Russian Greek-Catholics venerate the Orthodox Russian New Martyrs as well?

Alex

*pops head in*

CIX!

This one venerates martyrs from both sides!

*pops head out again*

Dear Patriarch Edward,

I also venerate the martyrs of the Oriental Orthodox churches.

I really hope that Catholicos Mor Ephrem takes note of that!

Alex

Glory to God for all things!

Dear friends,

Russian Greek Catholics venerate four of the recently glorified new martyrs as Russians:

Leonid Feodorov
Klement Sheptytsky
Feodor Romza
Nikolaj Carneckij

St. Klement was appointed as Exarch of Russia and Siberia in 1939 by Metropolitan Andrej. He participated in synods and recruited Studite monks to serve as missionaries to Russia.

St. Feodor Romza was trained as a Russian Catholic priest at the Russicum. He follwed Russian practices after he returned to Carpatho-Rus' ( e. g. long beard and hair, Russian style vestments and riassa, Muscovite sluzhebnik, composing sermons and writing letters in Russian, etc. ) He even recruited Ruthenian seminarians to apply to the Russicum. He only gave up his missionary plans when he was elevated to the episcopate in 1944.

Nikolaj Carneckij helped recruit and train priests for the Russian Apostolate while serving as Apostolic Visitator in Eastern Poland. He performed hierarchical functions for Russian Jesuits, Marians and Russian Greek Catholic churches in the region. He even preached sermons in Russian. He also gave talks to students at the Russicum.

My point is that these martyrs were not exclusively Ruthenian or Ukrainian. They also wore a Russian klobuk.

Your thoughts.

Holy Russian Orthodox-Catholic martyrs and confessors, pray to God for us.

Yes, there are icons of all four of them. They were all beatified during the Holy Father's trip to Ukraine.

I thought perhaps you were referring to Patapy Emilianov, Eustachy Susalev, Ivan Deubner, Alexis Zerchaninov et. al.

While Blessed Theodore Romzha studied at the Russicum, he still followed his native South West Rus'(Ruthenian), recension of the Byzantine Church and not the Moscovite recension. He studied the Great Russian language and the history of Soviet Communism in order to help those Greek Catholic Churches (in Belarus and Ukraine proper) that were forced into the Russian Orthodox Church during the Czarist Imperialist days. I would not call him a "Great" Russian Greek Catholic.

Ung-Certez

...and I can recall seeing photos of Bl. Teodor Romzha clean shaven, in rather "Ruthenian" style episcopal vestments (with gloves, of course).

Hardly Moscovite!

Glory to God for all things!

Dear Ung-Certz,

After his return to the Mukachevo Eparchy in 1938 St. Feodor continued most of his Muscovite practices. He did not, however, force the "purified rite," as he called the Russian liturgy, on his Rusyn parishoners and seminarians. He did wear Ruthenian vestments and follow the Ruthenian service books.

He did periodically serve according to the Russian Synodal books. On those occaisions he wore the Russian-style vestments and pronounced the Slavonic according to the Russian manner. I suppose he wanted to be ready for missionary work in Russia.

Holy Russian Orthodox-Catholic martyrs and confessors, pray to God for us.

Dear Chtec,

St. Feodor retained his distinctive beard even after his 1944 episcopal consecration. He only removed it in 1947, I believe, to counter Soviet propaganda. In 1947 the Soviets claimed that St. Feodor had become Russian Orthodox. They used his beard as evidence. He shaved only to prove to his people that he was still Greek Catholic.

Holy Russian Orthodox-Catholic martyrs and confessors, pray to God for us.

Actually out of the four you mentioned, only Leonid Federov was ethnically Russian Catholic, being from St. Petersburg.

Nikolai Charnetsky and Klementy Sheptytsky were both Ukrainian and Theodore Romzha Rusyn. All were members of the synod of Blessed Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky who took the Russian Catholics under his omophor and all assisted in pastoral care of Russian Catholics. Exarch Leonid was the first Russian Catholic Exarch until his death in 1935.

Dear Russian-Orthodox Catholic:

I am happy that you find inspiration in the life and martyrdom of Blessed Theodor Romzha, and delight in his studying at the Russicum. Your suggestion that he is of the Russian Greek Catholic Church, however, does not show a proper respect toward either the idea of particular churches in general, or to the Church of Uzhorod in particular. What's your point?

What does the newly-published translation of Fr. Laszlo Puskas's biography of Blessed Theodore (Romzha) have to say about the topic?

(I don't have the book yet, although on first perusal I unfortunately found it to be very poorly edited, abounding with inconsistent and non-standard transliteration and anachronistic English usages, not the least of which is the term "Ruthenian" as an ethnic identifier.)

This essay covers some interesting ground:
http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/r/romza_t_j.shtml

It gives the idea that Blessed Theodore was training and ordained with the intention to do missionary work in Russia with the RGCC, but events leading up to WWII intervened, so back he went to Carpatho-Rus. So it makes sense that he could indeed be considered as a RGC, too.

The essay seems also (but the German is tough in spots) to suggest that while steering a cautious path between Russophile and Magyarphile ideologies, he saw the use of Russian language etc. as a means to further unity with the Russophile Orthodox in Carpatho-Rus - and that, in this light, was disinclined toward independent Ukrainian or Rusyn orientations.

The essay does not mention his the length of his hair - facial or otherwise, or his vestments.