“Today our whole Church feels orphaned,” His Beatitude Sviatoslav

On May 25^th in Kolomyia, UGCC Head His Beatitude Sviatoslav headed the Requiem Liturgy for the departed Bishop Mykola (Simkaylo).  Concelebrants with UGCC Primate were: Bishop Volodymyr (Viytyshyn), Archbishop and Metropolitan of Ivano-Frankivsk; Bishop Vasyl (Semeniuk), Archbishop and Metropolitan of Ternopil-Zbruch; Bishop Sofron (Mudry), Archbishop-Emeritus of Ivano-Frankivsk Archeparchy; Bishop Dmytro (Hryhorak), Eparch of Buchach; Bishop Stepan (Meniok), Exarch of Donetsk-Kharkiv; Bishop Josaphat (Hovera), Exarch of Lutsk; Bishop Taras (Senkiv), Apostolic Administrator of Stryi Eparchy; Bishop Joseph (Milan), Auxiliary Bishop of Kyiv Archeparchy; Bishop Venedykt (Aleksiychuk), Auxiliary Bishop of Lviv Archeparchy; Bishop Milan (Shashik), Eparch of Mukachevo;  Roman-Catholic Bishops Petro (Malchuk) and Leon Dubrawsky);  Rev. Piotr Tarnawsky, Apostolic Nuncio and numerous other clergy.

Bishop Volodymyr (Viytyshyn), Archbishop and Metropolitan of Ivano-Frankivsk delivered the sermon (audio/video).  The Metropolitan recalled the life journey of the departed Bishop, who was “filled with a deep faith in God the Lord as well as a sacrificial love for his people.”  Also, the preacher emphasized, that Bishop Mykola built a monumental cathedral, ordained 60 priests, blessed 32 new churches, and opened an orphanage and a deacon-choirmaster school in Kolomyia.

At the conclusion of the sermon, Metropolitan Volodymyr asked thrice forgiveness in the name of the departed Bishop Mykola and passed on the flowers which UGCC Permanent Synod brought from Kazakhstan, the place of his birth.

After the Liturgy, His Beatitude Sviatoslav addressed those present.  “Today the Kolomyia-Chernivtsi Eparchy and our entire Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church feels orphaned.  Today Bishop Mykola is among us and with his wordless lips, he speaks to us in the mighty Word of God.  First of all, he is telling us that we need to live in such a way that at any moment we are ready to stand with a pure soul at God’s Judgement… The second word which he is saying to us, is that only God is the beginning and the end of a human life.  There is no other beginning than in God, and there is no other rest for us, than in our Creator…  And there is a  third word .  Ukrainian folk wisdom states: blessed is that man for whom the poor will cry at his departure.  Today, those whom the world rejects, those for whom he was St. Mykola, are grieving,” emphasized UGCC Head.

The words of UGCC Head were followed by the final farewell, an absolution prayer and pouring of anointing oil on the body of the departed (video).

There followed a procession around the cathedral.

Bishop Mykola was buried to the left of the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Christ in Kolomyia, near  the Confessor of Faith, Bishop Pavlo (Vasylyk) (video).

Note: Bishop Mykola (Simkaylo), Kolomyia-Chernivtsi Eparch, died on May 21, 2013 due to heart failure, in the Resuscitation Unit of Kolomyia Central Hospital.

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UGCC Department of Information