A new auxiliary bishop has been appointed for the Kyiv Archeparchy

On April 16, 2009, at 13:00, the Vatican announced that His Holiness Benedict XVI has blessed the decision of the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church to appoint Fr. Yosf (Milyan), a monk of the Studite order and pastor of the Church of the Annunciation of the Holy Mother of God at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, as auxiliary bishop of the Kyiv Archeparchy. The titular see of Drusiliana will be given to the new bishop. Biography of Fr. Yosyf (Milyan) He was born on July 6, 1956, in the village of Dobryany, Horodok District, Lviv Region, in a Greek-Catholic family. From 1963 to 1971 he went to the eight-year school of Dobryany. In 1974 he finished secondary special education. From 1974 to 1976 he served in the army. Right after completing military service he became more deeply interested in the Church and its teaching. At this time an underground community, the illegally operating Greek-Catholic Parish of Saint John the Theologian in Dobryany, Horodok, was served by Fr. Vasyl (Voronovskyj), from whom Fr. Milyan learned about monasticism, in particular the Studites and the underground seminary. On January 5, 1979, he received the blessing of Fr. Yuliyan (Voronovskyj), then the abbot of the Studites, at the beginning of his candidacy period in the monastery. On March 8, 1983, he professed eternal vows and accepted the name of Yosyf (his worldly name was Ivan). During the underground period, monks tried, as possible, to live a common monastic life. He took seminary courses and went through priestly and monastic formation under the direction of Fr. Yuliyan Voronovskyj, other Studite priests, and eparchial clergy. In the 1980s, meetings with Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sterniuk), who prepared part of the examinations in theological subjects, took place. On May 9, 1984, he was ordained a deacon and on December 30, 1984, a priest (the ordaining bishop was Volodymyr (Sterniuk)).  From 1984 to the time the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church came out from the underground, he worked at the Lviv factory Biofizprylad. As a priest in the underground he worked catechizing groups of children and youth. He ministered to the faithful in different parishes of Yavoriv, Peremishlyany, and other districts of the Lviv Region. After the exit of the Church from the underground he ministered in the parish of the village of Univ and surrounding villages of the Zolochiv District. Later, as the first Greek-Catholic priest after the legalization of the UGCC, he ministered in the Studite Monastery of Saint Elias the Prophet in Yaremcha and ministered at the parish of the town of Yaremcha-Dora and the village of Yamna Nadvirnyany, in a deanery of the Ivano-Frankivs’k Eparchy.  In autumn 1990, after the return of Saint George’s Cathedral for almost a year he ministered there as assistant pastor. In 1992 he was called by the leaders of the Studite order to the Monastery of Saint Joseph in Lviv and appointed superior. In 1992 he began studies at the Institute of Liturgical-Pastoral Formation of Lublin Catholic University. In June 1996 he defended his master's work at Lublin Catholic University and received a master's degree in theology. On June 12, 1997, he successfully took licentiate examinations and received the degree of licentiate and continued studies on a doctoral work entitled «Christian formation of the laity in light of the writings of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky» at the same university. In May 1993 His Beatitude Myroslav-Ivan (Lubachivsky) appointed him the spiritual guardian of Christian youth organizations. In February 1997 by the decree of the auxiliary bishop of the Head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church he was appointed head of the Patriarchal Commission on Youth Matters.  In March 1997 he was appointed the pastor of the Church of the Most Holy Eucharist, the UGCC’s Pastoral Center for Youth. In 1998 he initiated and organized the conduct of the annual Christmas festival «Great Carols.» In May 1998 he received the blessing of the Head of the UGCC to work on the European Committee for Academic Chaplaincy, created by the Pontifical Congregation for Catholic Education and the Roman vicariate. By the decree of the Head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Lubomyr, on November 1, 2008, he was appointed pastor of the Church of the Annunciation of the Holy Mother of God at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ and appointed by another decree the head of the Commission on Culture of the Kyiv Archeparchy.

Information Department of the UGCC

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