Let's write about religious martyrs

 Catholic Man of the Month of April, 2022 - echo report published in the April Columbia Magazine. 

For five decades, after World War II, the Soviet Union attempted to erase the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. But, the underground UGCC became the largest illegal Christian community in the world and remained steadfast through the indomitable witness of leaders like Bishop Mykola (Nichola) Charnetsky.

Blessed Bishop Charnetsky a Greek Catholic martyr (1884-1959)

Born into a devout peasant family in western Ukraine, Charnetsky felt called to the priesthood at a young age. After studies in Rome, he was ordained in 1909, and became a seminary professor and spiritual director in Ivano-Frankivsk. In 1919, Father Charnetsky joined the missionaries of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer and worked zealously for the reconciliation of Catholics and Orthodox, giving popular missions in northwest Ukraine. 

In 1926, Pope Pious XI appointed him apostolic visitor to Greek Catholics in the region. Five years later he was ordained a bishop.

When Soviet forces invaded in 1939, Bishop Charnetsky fled to Lwow, Poland - later Lviv, Poland. In 1945, he was arrested by Soviet secret police as a "Vatican agent" and was sentenced to hard labor in Siberia. According to official records, Bishop Charnetsky underwent 600 hours of interrogation and torture and spent in 30 Soviet prisons and camps over the next 11 years. All the while, he offered comfort and counsel to his fellow prisoners, heard their confessions and he secretly celebrated the Divine Liturgy.

Released from prison at the point of death in 1956, Bishop Charnetsky made a remarkable recovery and served the church for three more years -- a much as by his prayerful presence as by clandestintly preparing and ordaining candidates for the priesthood. He died a martyr, as a result of his suffering, on April 2, 1959.

Together, with 23 martyred companions, Bishop Mykkola Charnetsky was beatified in Lviv, by Saint John Paul II, on June 27, 2001.