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UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OF THE USA
21. Joseph (Žuk) of New Jersey

http://orthodoxwiki.org/Joseph_(%C5%BDuk)_of_New_Jersey

In 1921 at the request of Pope Benedict XIV he came to North America to assist in the religious need of the massive Ukrainian Catholic migration and to prepare himself for the appointment to Bishop of all the Eastern Rite Catholics on the continent. With the untimely death of Pope Benedict and the elevation of Cardinal Ratti, aka Pope Pius XI, (former Nuncio to Poland) to the papacy, everything changed. Pope Pius XI was Fr Joseph's superior in the Vatican diplomatic corps. They often clashed on delicate matters with Pope Benedict and Cardinal Pachelli (pope Pius XII) nuncio to Germany often interceding on Father Joseph's behalf. In response to the new Pope's policy to Romanise the Eastern Rite believers in North America, Fr Joseph started a newsletter with many of the parishes across the whole continent following the unfolding battles which often including vicious legal actions brought on by the local Roman Catholic apparatus. This fomented much unrest and ultimately led to Fr Joseph's excommunication in 1928. In this process Fr. Joseph helped lead 500,000 Catholics to Orthodoxy. In 1928, he joined with other Ukrainian Catholic clergy and left the Catholic Church to join the Orthodox Church. He became associated with the American Orthodox Catholic Church led by Archbishop Aftimios Ofiesh. Serving as a priest, Fr. Joseph served parishes in Syracuse, New York; Passaic, New Jersey; and Allentown and McAdoo, Pennsylvania.
In 1931, Fr. Joseph was nominated to become the bishop of a group of Ukrainian Orthodox that became the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA. In September 1932, Fr. Joseph was consecrated an auxiliary bishop by Abp. Aftimios and Bp. Sophronios Beshara in New York City to serve the Ukrainian diocese and to help develop a pan orthodox Christianity for North America. Bp. Joseph presided over this Ukrainian diocese in America, leading a flock of about six parishes for just 17 months.

SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

22. Gorazd (Pavlik) of Prague (former Latin rite Catholic priest)
http://orthodoxwiki.org/Gorazd_%28Pavlik%29_of_Prague

Our father among the saints Bishop Gorazd (Pavlik) of Prague was the hierarch of the revived Orthodox Church in Moravia, the Church of Czechoslovakia, after World War I.

Matthias (or Matej) Pavlik was born on May 26, 1879, in the Moravian town of Hrubavrbka in what would later be the Czech Republic. Born into a Roman Catholic society of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Matthias continued into the Roman Catholic theological faculty in Olomouc after finishing his earlier education. He was subsequently ordained a priest. During his studies he was interested in the mission of Ss. Cyril and Methodius and of Orthodox Christianity. With the end of World War I and the establishment of the new country Czechoslovakia the legal constraints forcing Roman Catholicism were broken. In this environment many people left the Roman church, and many looked to Orthodox Christianity. Fr. Pavlik was among them. The Serbian Orthodox Church provided a shelter for those looking to Orthodoxy. As a leader in Moravia, the Church of Serbia agreed to consecrate Fr. Pavlik to the episcopate for his homeland. On September 24, 1921, was consecrated bishop with the name of Gorazd.

My in-laws, when they were in Prague, went to the Orthodox Cathedral there and were given icon prayer-cards with St Gorazd by an ethnic Ukrainian priest of the Czech Orthodox Church.

He was a very brave man who defended his people during a very dark period of history - for which podvig he suffered martyrdom.

He took his Christian name from one of the five disciples of Sts Cyril and Methodius. He ought to be venerated by one and all!

Also, lots of former RC, EC and even Protestants who became Orthodox have made great Orthodox leaders and even Saints (i.e. St Arsenius Matsievich of Rostov, St Procopius of Ustiug etc.).

I think that when the Orthodox Church gets a convert from the RC/EC world, its spiritual and moral standards really do get a very big boost! (I'm also thinking of our Recluse here . . .).

Alex

Alex

As far as I can tell by these online biographies of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, self-ruled, all of the bishops were born into Orthodox families.
http://antiochian.org/bishops

Yes. I know of Mother Ines, in Guatemala
http://hogarafaelayau.org/cms/pages/who-we-are.php

And RC's can also be very wary of Eastern Catholics as they know of the attraction for EC spirituality that RC's feel . . .

Alex

Is it the ECs' fault for such an attraction; or is the RC fault for creating such a situation with their liturgical multiplicity?

Enlightened people would, I believe, say the latter!

Alex