I
Isa_Almisry
Guest
In my old parish I’ve seen the home videos of those visiting “back in the old country” celebrating Divine Liturgy on the lawns of Churches their parents and grandparents built, now VERY CLEARLY STOLEN FROM THEM within the lifetime of generations still living.
Those who mourn Lvov but celebrate Brest seem to adamently against recognizing that many did not wait for the Soviet to “reunite” them to the Mother Church:
In the 1890s, 145 years after Orthodoxy had ceased to exist in the Carpathians, a ‘return to Orthodoxy’ movement began, reaching a high point in the 1920s. Many Greek Catholics who became Orthodox were arrested for treason and a few were even executed by the government, with the Talerhof Concentration Camp5 and Martyr-Priest Maxim Sandovich’s death in 1914 being the best known incidents. Meanwhile, the Russian Bolshevik Revolution was forcing Russians of the nobility and middle class to leave Russia, and many settled in the USA. These Russians arrived and began integrating into the American Russian Orthodox Church (the Metropolia) at precisely the same time that Carpatho-Russians in America were also returning to the Orthodox faith.6 Leading the charge was Fr. Alexis Toth, a former Greek Catholic priest who converted many to Orthodoxy (due to his initial efforts, over 50% of USA Rusyns are Orthodox). This American mixing further influenced events and persecutions back in the Carpathian homeland, where thousands of fleeing Orthodox Russians also settled, including monks who founded the Ladomirova Monastery
And what could be motivating those Orthodox Rusyn?
…Later in 1991, there were major protests, including physical attacks and hunger strikes when it was decided to give the cathedral back to the Greek Catholics. The Orthodox immediately set about to build the new Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Cross, under the guidance of Fr. Dmitrii (Dymytrij) Sydor, a Moscow Patriarchate priest (perhaps the most visible cleric in all modern Transcarpathia) who is extremely active in the Carpatho-Russian/Rusyn movement. The architecture of the new cathedral is based on the design of the famous and newly rebuilt ‘Cathedral of Christ the Savior’ in Moscow, which is the largest church in Russia. Currently, Orthodox believers are outraged at the impending construction of a new Roman and Greek Catholic cathedral complex in the vicinity of the Orthodox cathedral. So, they announced they would erect another church of their own in downtown Uzhgorod, right in front of the original Greek Catholic cathedral, tit-for-tat. The new church will be consecrated after St. Alexei Kabalyuk, a Rusyn Orthodox hero. Kabalyuk was born into a Greek Catholic family but converted to Orthodoxy, became a priest and played a major role in reviving Orthodoxy in Transcarpathia in the early 20th century. On the eve of WWI, Kabalyuk was jailed, and later was a major leader of the Carpathian Orthodox until his death in 1947. He was canonized in 2001, but as the primary Orthodox leader who assisted the Soviets in the 1946 liquidation, is offensive to the Greek Catholics.
simkovich.org/religion.htm
Since the move of the center of the union of Brest to Kiev, will this be the next “stolen” Church up for “return?”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Sophia_Cathedral_in_Kiev
