List of martyrs according to Ikon

1. BISHOP SIMEON LUKACH

BLESSED SIMEON LUKACH was born on July 7, 1893 in the village of Starunya, Ivano-Frankivsk District. In 1913, he entered the seminary. In 1919 he was ordained a priest by Bishop Gregory Khomyshyn. He taught Moral Theology at the seminary in Ivano-Frankivsk until April 1945, it was suspected that Bishop Gregory secretly ordained him a bishop. On October 26, 1949, he was arrested, after numerous interrogations the KGB could not find a charge so he was finally set free on February 11, 1955. In July 1962 he was arrested once again. While in prison, he was stricken with tuberculosis, and died on August 22, 1964.

2. REVEREND PETRO (PETER) VERHUN

BLESSED PETER VERHUN was born on November 18, 1890 in Horodok, Lviv District. On October 30, 1927 he was ordained to the priesthood, and was appointed to be the priest for Ukrainian Catholics in Berlin, Germany. Later he became the Apostolic Visitor to Germany. In June 1945, he was arrested and sent to prison camps in Siberia. He died as a martyr of the faith on February 7, 1957, in the village of Angarskiy, in the territory of Krasnoiarsk, Russia.

3. BISHOP NYKYTA BUDKA

BLESSED NYKYTA BUDKA was born on June 7, 1877 in the village of Dobomirka, in the district of Zbarazh. In 1905, he was ordained to the priesthood. He was consecrated Bishop in Lviv on October 14, 1912. That same year he was appointed by the Holy See as the Bishop for Ukrainian Catholics in Canada. In 1928, he became vicar general of the Metropolitan Curia in Lviv. On April 11, 1945, the Soviet government imprisoned him with a sentence of eight years. He died in prison on October 1, 1949. His remains became the food for wolves.

4. REVEREND ARCHMANDRITE CLEMENT SHEPTYTSKY

BLESSED CLEMENT SHEPTYTSKY was born on November 17 1869, in the village of Prylbychi, in the district of Lviv. In 1911, he entered the Studites. On August 28, 1915, he was ordained to the priesthood. For many years he was the Prior of the Studite monastery at Univ, and in 1944 he became the Abbot. On June 5, 1947, he was arrested by NKVD and sentenced to eight years of hard labour. He died as a martyr for the faith on May 1, 1951 in the Vladimir prison.

5. BISHOP VASYL (BASIL) VSEVOLD VELYCHKOVSKY,C.Ss.R.

BLESSED VASYL VELYCHKOVSKY was born in 1903. He entered the Redemptorist Congregation in 1924. After being ordained a priest in 1925, Vasyl did missionary work in Halychyna and Volyn. He was arrested in 1945 and sentenced to die by a firing squad. After the sentence was commuted, he spent ten years in Soviet prisons before secretly being ordained a bishop in 1963. He was arrested again in 1969 and exiled to North America in 1972. Bishop Vasyl died in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1973.

6. BISHOP MYKOLAY (NICHOLAS) CHARNETSKY, C.Ss.R.

BLESSED NICHOLAS CHARNETSKY was born on September 14, 1884. He was ordained a priest 1909 and became a Redemptorist in 1919. In 1931, he was ordained a Bishop. Arrested in April of 1945, Bishop Charnetsky spent 10 years in Soviet prison camps. He died in Lviv in 1959.

7. BISHOP JOSAPHAT KOTSYLOVSKY, OSBM

BLESSED JOSAPHAT KOTSYLOVSKY was born on March 3, 1876 in the village of Pakoshivka, Lemkiv District. He graduated with a degree in Theology from
Rome and was ordained October 9, 1907 to the priesthood. He was appointed to be vice-rector and professor of Theology at the Stanislaviv Seminary. On October 2, 1911, he entered the novitiate of the Basilian order. He was ordained to the episcopacy on September 23, 1917, in Premeshyl. In September of 1945 the Polish authorities imprisoned him. He died a martyr for the faith on November 17, 1947, in a Kiev prison.

8. BISHOP HRYHORI (GREGORY) KHOMYSHYN

BLESSED GREGORY KHOMYSHYN was born on March 25, 1867, in the village of Hadynkivtsi, in the district of Ternopil. After ordination on November 18, 1893, he did further theological studies in Vienna from 1894-1899. In 1902, Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky appointed Fr. Gregory as Rector of the Seminary in Lviv. Fr. Gregory was ordained bishop for Stanislaviv in 1904. In 1939, he was arrested for the first time by the NKVD (KGB) and released. His second arrest was in April of 1945, and he was deported to Kiev. He died after torturous interrogations in Kiev’s NKVD prison on December 28, 1945.

9. BISHOP IVAN SLEZIUK

BLESSED IVAN SLEZIUK was born on January 14, 1896 in the village of Zhyvachiv, Ivano-Frankivsk District. In 1923 he was ordained to the priesthood. In April of 1945 Bishop Gregory Khomyshyn ordained him as his co-adjutor with right of succession. On June 2, 1945, Bishop Ivan was arrested and deported for ten years to the labor camps in Vorkuta, Russia. After his release on November 15, 1954, he returned to Ivano-Frankivsk. In 1962, he was arrested again and imprisoned for five years in a camp of strict regimen. After his release on November 30, 1968, he had to go often to the KGB for regular "talks." The last visit was two weeks before his death, which occurred December 2, 1973, in Ivano-Frankivsk.

10. BISHOP HRYHORI (GREGORY) LAKOTA

BLESSED GREGORY LAKOTA was born on January 31, 1883 in the village of Holodivka, in the region of Lemko. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1908 in the city of Peremyshl. On May 16, 1926, he was ordained to the episcopacy and was appointed auxiliary bishop of Peremyshl. On June 9, 1946, he was arrested and imprisoned for ten years in Vorkuta, Russia. He died as a martyr for the faith on November 12, 1950, in the village of Abez, near Vorkuta.

11. REVEREND MYKOLAJ (NICHOLAS) TSEHELSKY

BLESSED MYKOLAJ TSEHELSKY was born on December 17, 1896 in the village of Strusiv, district of Ternopil. After Mykolaj married, the archbishop ordained him to the priesthood on April 5, 1925. On October 28, 1946, he was arrested. On January 27, 1947, he was sentenced to ten years in prison and was deported to labour camps in Mordovia. He lived in extremely horrid conditions, in a camp that was notoriously strict and cruel. He died on May 25, 1951, as a martyr for the faith and is buried in the camp cemetery.

12. REVEREND EMILIAN KOVCH

BLESSED EMILIAN KOVCH was born on August 20, 1884 in Kosmach near Kosiv. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1911. During World War II he bravely carried out his priestly duties, preaching love to people of all nationalities and rescuing Jewish people from destruction. He was arrested by the Gestapo on December 30, 1942. He displayed heroic bravery in the concentration camp, protecting the prisoner sentenced to death from falling into despair. He was burned to death in the ovens of the Majdanek Nazi death camp on March 25, 1944.

13. REVEREND LEONID FEODOROV

BLESSED LEONID FEODOROV was born to a Russian Orthodox family on November 4, 1879, in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1902 he left his Orthodox seminary and travelled to Rome, where he became Catholic. On March 25, 1911, he was ordained to the priesthood in the Eastern-rite in Bosnia. There, in 1913, he became a Studite. Afterwards, he returned to St. Petersburg and was subsequently arrested and sent to Siberia. In 1917, he was released and appointed to be the head of the Russian Catholic Church of the Eastern-rite, with the title of Exarch. His second arrest came in 1923, and he was sent to prison. He died as a martyr for the faith on March 7, 1935.

14. REV. ZENOVIJ (ZENON) KOVALYK, C.Ss.R.

BLESSED ZENON KOVALYK was born on August 18, 1903 in the village of Ivakhiv, in the district of Ternopil. He was professed as a Redemptorist on August 28, 1926 and ordained a priest September 4, 1932. He was arrested on December 20, 1940, and was martyred by crucifixion against a prison wall on Zamarstynivska Street in Lviv in June 1941.

15. REVEREND IVAN ZIATYK, C.Ss.R.

BLESSED IVAN ZIATYK was born on December 26, 1899 in the village of Odrekhova near Sanok. In 1923 he was ordained to the priesthood. In 1935 he joined the Redemptorists. On January 5, 1950 he was arrested and sent away to prison in Ozerlah, in the region of Irkutsk, Russia. On Good Friday in 1952 he was severely tortured by clubbing and died on May 17.

16. REVEREND SEVERIAN BARANYK, OSBM

BLESSED SEVERIAN BARANYK was born on July 18, 1889. On September 24, 1904, he entered the Basilian Order and made his final vows on September 21, 1910. He was ordained to the priesthood on February 14, 1915. In 1932 he became the Superior of the Basilian monastery in Drohobych. On June 26, 1941, the NKVD arrested him, after which he was never seen alive again, however a boy later witnessed to seeing the tortured swollen corpse of Fr. Severian, marked with a cross-shaped knife slash on his chest.

17. REVEREND YAKYM SENKIVSKY, OSBM

BLESSED YAKYM SENKIVSKY was born on May 2, 1896 in the village of Hayi Velyki, in the district of Ternopil. He was ordained as a priest on December 4, 1921. In 1923 he became a novice in the Basilian Order in Krekhiv. In 1939, he was appointed to be Superior at the monastery in Drohobych. On June 26, 1941 he was arrested by the Communists and on June 29 he was martyred by being boiled to death in a cauldron in the Drohobych prison.

18. REVEREND VITALIJ BAYRAK, OSBM

BLESSED VITALIJ BAYRAK was born on February 24, 1907 in the village of Shvaikivtsy, in the district of Ternopil. On September 4, 1924, he entered the Basilian Order and was ordained a priest on August 13, 1933. Beginning in 1941 he was appointed Superior of the Drohobych monastery. On September 17, 1945, the NKVD arrested Fr. Vitalij and he was sentenced to eight years in a labour camp. Just prior to Easter of 1946, Fr. Vitalij died after having been severely beaten in the Drohobych prison.

19. REVEREND ANDRIJ (ANDREW) ISHCHAK

BLESSED ANDRIJ ISHCHAK was born on September 20, 1887 in Mykolayiv, in the district of Lviv. He was ordained in 1914. Beginning in 1928, he taught at the Lviv Theological Academy. On June 26, 1941, he was caught by the Soviet army while serving the village of Sykhiv and was executed.

20. VOLODYMYR PRYJMA

BLESSED VOLODYMYR PRYJMA was born on July 17, 1906 in the village of Stradch, Yavoriv District. After graduating from a school for cantors, he became the cantor and choir director in the village church of Stradch. On June 26, 1941 agents of the NKVD mercilessly tortured and murdered him along with Fr. Nicholas Konrad in the forest near their village as they were returning from the home of a sick woman, who had requested the sacrament of penance.

21. REVEREND OLEKSIJ ZARYTSKY

BLESSED OLEKSIJ ZARYTSKY was born in 1912 in the village of Bilche, in the region of Lviv. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1936. In 1948, he was imprisoned for ten years and deported to Karaganda. Shortly after his early release in 1957, he was imprisoned again for a three-year term. He died as a martyr for the faith on October 30, 1963, in a labour camp in a village near Karaganda.

22. SISTER LAURENTIA HERASYMIV, SSJ

BLESSED LAURENTIA HERASYMIV was born on September 31, 1911 in the village of Rudnyky, in the district of Lviv. In 1931 she entered the Sisters of St. Joseph, and in 1933 she made her first vows. In the spring of 1950, she was arrested by the agents of the NKVD and sent to Borislav. Thereafter, she was exiled to Tomsk in Siberia. On June 30, 1950, she was relocated to the village of Kharsk. There she cared for a paralysed man suffering with tuberculosis. She continued to pray and did much demanding manual labour. She patiently endured subhuman conditions. She died on August 28, 1952 in the village of Kharsk in the Tomsk Region of Siberia.

23. SISTER TARSYKIA MATSKIV, SSMI

BLESSED TARSYKIA MATSKIV was born on March 23, 1919 in the village of Khodoriv, Lviv District. On May 3, 1938 she entered the Sister Servants of Mary Immaculate. After professing her first vows on November 5, 1940, she worked in her convent. Even prior to the bolshevik arrival in Lviv, Sr. Tarsykia made a private oath to her spiritual director, Fr. Volodymyr Kovalyk OSBM, that she would sacrifice her life for the conversion of Russia and for the good of the Catholic Church. The bolsheviks were determined to destroy the monastery. On the morning of July 18, 1944 at 8 a.m., a Soviet soldier rang the convent door. When Sr. Taryskia answered the door she was shot without warning, and died.

24. SISTER OLYMPIA BIDA, SSJ

BLESSED OLYMPIA BIDA was born 1903 in the village of Tsebliv, Lviv District. She entered the Sisters of Saint Joseph and served in various towns and villages as a catechist, director of novices, attendant to the aged and infirm. She was appointed superior of the convent in the town of Kheriv. In 1950, she was arrested with two other sisters, and was soon exiled to the Tomsk region of Siberia. Succumbing to a serious illness, she died on January 23, 1952.

25. REVEREND ROMAN LYSKO

BLESSED ROMAN LYSKO was born on August 14, 1914 in Horodok, in the district of Lviv District. After marrying, he was ordained to the priesthood on August 28, 1941. On September 9, 1949, he was arrested by the NKVD and put into a prison in Lviv. He died in prison on October 14, 1949. Some accounts say he was sealed into a wall and left there to die.

26. REVEREND MYKOLA (Nicholas) KONRAD

BLESSED NICHOLAS KONRAD was born on May 16, 1876 in the village of Strusiv, in the district of Ternopil. In 1889, he was ordained to the priesthood. On June 26,1941, while a parish priest in the village of Stradch, near Yaniv, (despite great danger) he went to visit a sick parishioner with the Holy Eucharist. On his way, he was abducted by the bolsheviks and shot, dying a martyr’s death.