www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Church Slavonic among Poland's Lemkos

I am an American researching liturgical languages among the Orthodox & Greek Catholics in Poland. I have heard that Greek Catholic Lemko churches (some of them?/all of them?) still use Church Slavonic in the liturgy. I must confirm this & also I would like to know what is the total number of these parishes. I am curious who has made the decision about Church Slavonic. I will be grateful for any information.

Stojgniev
zebrzydowice@yahoo.com

I've been to Poland several times, and always found modern Ukrainian in Greek-Catholic liturgical use (with the exception of the parish in Kostomloty, which is not Lemko by any definition). The person to ask is Metropolitan John Martyniak.

Incognitus

Historically, Lemko churches used Church Slavonic.
I have a Lemko prayerbook (contains complete Divine Liturgy) that is in the Church Slavonic language. It was printed in Peremysl in 1912, but instead of using Cyrillic script, it uses the Latin script (Polish transliteration).

I know most of the Orthodox Lemko churches still use Church Slavonic. Try the www.Lemko.org [lemko.org] site and see if it has and info about Lemko liturgical customs.

Ung-Certez

Thanks for the response!

I was in Przemysl at the cathedral for Easter & talked with a Lemko priest. He led me to believe that all the Lemko Greek Catholic churches have Ukrainian services.

Can you tell me about the liturgical language in Kostomloty? Does anyone have details on Orthodox or Greek Catholic services in Belarusian?

Yesterday by chance I found an article in a Slovak publication on Lemkos who live in western Poland, based on interviews with young people. The article suggests that the church(es?) in the community is Orthodox & clearly states that the liturgy is in Church Slavonic.

My interest in this began several months ago when I visited an Orthodox church in Wroclaw. THe liturgy was in Polish! Except for Hospodi pomiluj, which was rendered as Kyrie eleison. Apparently Wroclaw has the only church (diocese?) where Polish is used in the liturgy.

I will be grateful for any additional information!

Stojgniev

Thanks for your interest. The Lemko people have a very unique history and culture . The have sufferred greatly for defending their faith and their East Slavic ethnicity. It is good to know that some of the Lemkos have returned to their ancestral Carpathian homeland, after years of living in exile. May God grant them many years! Mnohaja i Blahaja L'ita!

Ung-Certez

The Greek-Catholic (or "neo-Uniate") parish in Kostomloty is well worth a visit. Divine Services are in Church-Slavonic, with just a smidgin of Polish. The parish is remarkably active, although finding it can be tricky - there are two villages of the same name within a couple of miles of each other, believe it or not.

Incognitus

"neo-Uniate" is an interesting title, not before encountered! Can I qualify to be a "neo-Uniate" or am I doomed to be forever "old-Uniate"?

Nick

Or even a "paleo-uniate".

Yes, the famous Starouniaty.

Actually I prefer "Staropramen" (pijte na zdorovja!)

Ung-Certez

Me too, it's better than Pils Urquell in my humble opinion.

Don't forget East Slovakia's own �ari�.

--tim

Thank you, Incognitus, for the info on Kostomloty, also for the book title. I need to pull out my Polish atlas, but I assume Kostomloty is somewhere between Lublin & Bialystok.

If you happen to know WHICH parts of the liturgy are in Polish, I would appreciate that information very much.

I've just received several responses, I think from western Poland. No one has been able to confirm that the Lemko Greek Catholic liturgies are still in Church Slavonic. I was told that the Ukrainian language of the Greek Catholics in Poland is rather dated (the translation was supervised by Cardinal Slipij). I have been attending a weekly liturgy in Lodz. The parishioners are all Ukrainian & the priest is from Ukraine. I previously noticed that his version of the liturgy differs a little from the printed materials used by parishioners.

Stojgniev

You may visit their website:

http://www.kostomloty.prv.pl

AFAIK there is not any clear system, it differs
on various occasions.

I know Slavonic language is still used in some
Lemko churches in Lemko region (especially in its
Western part). I am not aware of any precise numbers.

Well, the problem is that celebrants (presbyters,
deacons) use 1997 or 2003 text, but the laity
remains faithful to the Slipyj (1968) translation.
Well, it isn't easy to teach people new texts
(just remember that we dropped Slavonic about
ten years ago, adopting Slipyj text instead),
especially as they have no such prayerbooks.

The unique example I certainly know abut is our
parish in Warsaw, served by Basilian Fathers.
They use new text for both celebrants and people.

Sincerely,
deacon Peter

Thank you, Deacon Peter!

Through the link, I found the website of the UGCC in Poland, which I did not know existed. Very helpful.

I was told recently that some Warsaw parishioneers at the Ukrainian monastery church on Miodowa would like to introduce some Polish. I don't have any detials, but I think it is only in a bi-lingual (Ukr-Pol) prayerbook that has been proposed, not in the liturgy. Does anyone have any information on that?

From the Kostomloty website, I assume that Polish is used sometimes in that parish. They have Pol. translations of the liturgies of St. John Chrysostom & St. Basil.

Somewhere in storage I have an excellent article on prominent Poles (ethnic & assimilated Poles) who were Greek Catholics.

Another question I need help with: I am told that the language used in the Polish Orthodox Church reflects the old borders of the partitions, so that there is a "synodal" pronunciation in the former Russian partition, and a Ukrainian/Lemko pronunciation in Galicia. Can anyone give some precise details? I assume /g/ vs /h/, but probably there are others also? How would one describe the homilies in Poland's Orthodox churches? In Warsaw I took the homily as Russian. But surely Russian is not used in homilies in Galicia.

Not really related to language: I attended an Orthodox service at Sapanta (next to the famous "Merry Cemetery") in Romania & found that the melodies of the Divine Liturgy (though entirely in Romanian) were identical to those of the Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic Church in America.

As an ethnolinguist, I am fascinated by all those junctures of tradition, culture & ethnicity. It's unfortunate that some of the clergy see such things as divisive. I guess that's the reason details are not well-documented. I have been trying to get details on when Ukrainian was introduced in Greek Catholic churches in Poland, but they now have quite vague recollections. "Sometime in the 1990s" is what everyone says.

Thanks again for your patience with what some people consider tedious, boring, divisive issues of language! (For me, they are just a mark of the beautiful diversity of God's creation).

Stojgniev