Metropolitan
Wasyly,
OC (November 1,
1909 – January 10, 2005) was the
Primate of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of
Canada (UOCC) from 1985 until his death in 2005.
Metropolitan Wasyly was born Wasyl’ Fedak on
November 1, 1909 in Kadobivtsy,
Ukraine
. Together with his parents and five siblings,
he immigrated to Canada
and settled
in Sheho
, Saskatchewan
. In young adulthood, he became a teacher: a
career that lasted 14 years. He then studied at a seminary of the
UOCC from 1941 to 1944. He was ordained into the
diaconate on September 27, 1944 and shortly
thereafter into the
priesthood on October 1.
As a
priest, he served parishes in Manitoba
and Ontario
.
In 1951,
he arrived in Hamilton,
Ontario
to serve the parish of St. Vladimir. He served this
parish for 29 years, seeing the parish grow from 47 to 500
families.
His wife, Paraskeviya Tymofij, whom he married in 1932, died in
April 1976. Two years later, an Extraordinary
Sobor (general council) of the UOCC elected him as its
candidate for bishop. On July 16, 1978, he was consecrated as the
Bishop of Saskatoon at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Winnipeg by
Metropolitan Andrew, Archbishop
Boris, and Bishop Mykolaj. Following the death of then Archbishop
Mykolaj in 1981, Bishop Wasyly became the acting Bishop of the
Eastern Eparchy. He was elevated to Archbishop of Toronto in 1983.
Then in 1985, the 17th Sobor of the UOCC selected Wasyly to be its
Metropolitan and Primate with the
honorific "His Beatitude" (because he was the head
of his own church. After the UOCC joined the Patriarchate of
Constantinople, Metropolitans are now addressed as: His Eminence),
and he will be the last Hierarch (bishop) to hold that title in the
UOCC, as decided by
Patriarch Bartholemew
I.
As
Primate, he was the spiritual leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church of Canada and Chancellor of its seminary, St. Andrew's
College
.
Under the leadership of Metropolitan Wasyly, the UOCC came into
full communion with the
Patriarchate of Constantinople
in 1990. In 1993, he was made an Officer of the
Order of Canada.
Metropolitan Wasyly reposed on January 10, 2005. His funeral took
place on January 21-22 at Holy Trinity Metropolitan Cathedral in
Winnipeg. He is buried at Glen Eden Cemetery. With his wife
Parskeviya, he had three sons: Eugene (who has served on the
church's Consistory board twice), Yaroslaw and Emil.
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