The Influence of Clergy and Fraternal Organizations

Transcription

The Influence of Clergy and Fraternal Organizations on the Development
of Ethnonational Identity among Rusyn Immigrants to Pennsylvania 1
Richard D. Custer
(With minor revisions to original version in Carpatho-Rusyns and Their Neighbors: Essays in Honor of Paul
Robert Magocsi. Edited by Bogdan Horbal, Patricia A. Krafcik, and Elaine Rusinko. Fairfax, VA: Eastern
Christian Publications, 2006, pp. 43-106.)
A dense concentration of the earliest
Rusyn settlements in the United States is
found in northeastern Pennsylvania. As
Interstate 81 winds its way north
through the heart of the anthracite coalmining region past such communities as
Minersville, Mount Carmel, Frackville,
Shenandoah, Mahanoy City, McAdoo,
Nanticoke, and Wilkes-Barre, distinctive
onion-domed churches dot the
landscape. East of Scranton,
Pennsylvania Route 6 leads past another
succession of towns noted in Rusyn-,
“Russian-”, and Ukrainian-American
Original cemetery cross in Shenandoah: “Here lie Rusyns of the
Greek Catholic faith, who have died from the years 1885 to 1889…”
history: Olyphant, Jessup, Jermyn, and
Mayfield. Exiting at Carbondale and
heading a mile north on Route 171, one
will reach Simpson, a town of few
distinctive structures save two
remarkably similar white churches
topped with onion domes and three-bar
crosses. If the curious traveler
investigates the churches in the area, he
might notice a cornerstone naming the
church as “Russian” or “Ruthenian,”
perhaps “Greek Catholic,” perhaps
“Orthodox,” while the church sign
declares the parish’s ecclesiastical
affiliation as Ukrainian Catholic or
Historical marker identifying the Shenandoah church as
perhaps even Russian Orthodox Church
founded by Ukrainian immigrants.
Outside Russia. In the parish cemeteries,
one might find Church Slavonic, Russian, and Ukrainian carvings on gravestones alongside
Slovak- or Hungarian-language stones bearing the very same surnames. The variety of
cultural markers might lead one to expect that any one of these parishes must have
represented a wide variety of differing cultures, languages, and nationalities. Asking church
members about their ethnic background might seem to confirm that suspicion.
However, further investigation reveals that in every one of these communities, the families
are originally from the same small geographical area of Europe and perhaps from the very
same village as the families in another onion-domed church community in the same town.
How can this be, if one church is “Ukrainian” and the other “Russian”? In this paper I will
demonstrate that the ethnonational orientation of the clergy leaders and the fraternal
organizations that were most popular in the community were the most influential
determinants of the prevailing ethnonational identity of the residents. In fact, they were as
important as – or perhaps even more important than – religious affiliation or denomination.
Ethnonational Orientation in Galicia and Hungary at the time of the Emigration
Coming from a geographically isolated and technologically backward region with one of the
lowest literacy rates among all ethnic groups of the Habsburg Empire, the national
consciousness of Rusyn peasants was limited to their region and/or their religion. On the
other hand, East Slavic intellectuals in Galicia, where the historic name Rus’ described their
territory and the name Rusyn described the population, were generally of two mutually
exclusive national orientations – Russophile and Old Ruthenian.
The Russophile orientation, characterized by a love for the Orthodox Church of Russia (even
though many of its subscribers were actually Greek Catholics), the Tsar, and all things
Russian, was a viable ideology in Galicia during the first half of the nineteenth century.
Greek Catholic priests, particularly in the Lemko Region, were proponents of this ideology
(Himka 143-48). The Kachkovskii Society, a movement of Galician Rusyn intellectuals
founded in Kolomyia in 1873, was an umbrella organization primarily for Russophiles, but it
also included members of the Old-Ruthenian orientation, which held that the term Rusyn was
sufficient to describe this population, and that while they shared many traits, most especially
spiritually, with other East Slavs, their regional distinctions were the defining characteristics
of their ethnonational identity. Reading rooms associated with the Kachkovskii Society were
established in many Rusyn villages throughout the Lemko Region, and the society made
important contributions to the development of regional Lemko Rusyn culture and national
consciousness (Duc’-Fajfer 90; Magocsi “Kachkovs’kyi Society”).
The second half of the nineteenth century saw the rise of the populist Ukrainophile
movement among Galicia’s East Slavs. The Prosvita (Enlightenment) Society propagated the
Ukrainophile ideology through cultural activities, reading rooms, and literature. The
conservatism of the Rusyns of the Lemko Region helped to hold off the development of
Ukrainian identity in the region until well after the major emigration to the United States
(Duc’-Fajfer 88-89). It was not until after World War I and the brutal fate of the Russophile
Lemko Rusyn intelligentsia at the Talerhof concentration camp 2 that there is evidence of
support for the Ukrainian national movement in the Lemko Region. While the Prosvita
Society was the most important Ukrainian secular organization in Galicia before World War
I, there were few Prosvita-affiliated reading rooms in the Lemko Region. Those that did exist
were shut down by the Polish authorities in the early 1930s (Kravtsiv). Thus the national
orientation of Rusyn immigrants from Galicia who established communities in northeastern
Pennsylvania can be said to have been primarily Old-Ruthenian or Russophile.
Rusyns in Hungary lagged behind their Galician brethren in the Lemko Region in terms of
national consciousness. Some influential clergy, such as Aleksander Dukhnovych and
Aleksander Pavlovych, mixed a Rusyn regional identity with an intellectual, spiritual
Russophilism, which was compatible with the peasants’ identity. A strong “magyarone” or
cultural/political pro-Hungarian sympathy was present among the clergy of the Greek
Catholic Church, but these clergy were found mainly in the territory of the Eparchy of
Mukachevo, the present-day Transcarpathian oblast of southwestern Ukraine. The clergy of
the Prešov Eparchy in present-day Slovakia were by and large Russophiles. A Ukrainian
orientation per se was not being articulated in Hungary at the time of the mass emigration. In
general, the primary source of any ethnonational identity among the generally illiterate
Rusyn peasants in Hungary was nationally-conscious clergy, and to a much lesser extent, the
parish cantor/teacher (Magocsi, Rusyns of Slovakia 53; Simon 180-200).
Settlement
Rusyns began to settle in the anthracite mining districts of central and northeastern
Pennsylvania in the late 1870s. The centers of this immigration were Scranton, Wilkes-Barre,
Hazleton, and smaller towns such as Centralia, Lansford, Mahanoy City, Mount Carmel,
Mahanoy Plane, Saint Clair, and five we shall examine in this paper: Shenandoah, Shamokin,
Olyphant, Mayfield, and Simpson. These earliest Rusyn settlements were composed
primarily of immigrants from the Prešov Region of present-day eastern Slovakia and the
Lemko Region of present-day southeastern Poland. There was a much higher rate of
emigration from these regions than from Carpatho-Rusyn areas further east, and this
emigration began somewhat earlier (Bachyns’kyi 88). Of the oldest Rusyn settlements in
Pennsylvania, a few were partially composed of immigrants from the more eastern counties
of Uzh and Bereg in historic Subcarpathian Rus’, the present-day Transcarpathian oblast of
Ukraine, but in general, the Transcarpathian element in these communities was negligible or
insignificant.
The five Rusyn communities of northeastern Pennsylvania examined in this paper were
chosen because they were settled at approximately the same time, the main local occupation
– coal mining – was the same, the native village backgrounds of the settlers are similar
(primarily Lemko with a Prešov Region minority, along with a small number of Galician
Ukrainians and other East Slavs), and the community’s religious affiliations today are
primarily with either the Ukrainian Catholic Church or the Russian Orthodox Church.
Furthermore, these communities all had some interaction in their formative years by sharing
clergy and leadership in fraternal organizations. I will discuss the pattern of chain migration
that determined the regional makeup of each community, analyze the clergy that served each
community in its formative years, and discuss the fraternal organizations that were the
dominant forces in these communities. Finally, I will show how these factors combined to
help determine the prevailing ethnonational identity that developed among the Rusyn
immigrants and their descendants in each community.
The Greek Catholic Union (Soiedinenie)
The period of the late 1880s and early 1890s was a busy time for organization in the Rusyn
community in the United States. Predating or coinciding with the formation of churches was
the formation of “brotherhoods” or burial societies, which would pay benefits to the
surviving family members of miners killed or seriously injured in the all-too-frequent mine
accidents. By 1892 some of these brotherhoods affiliated themselves with the fraternal
benefit societies that had already been established by Slovak immigrants, particularly the
Roman Catholic “First Catholic Slovak Union,” popularly called “Jednota.” Recognizing the
danger of assimilation posed by membership in Slovak Roman Catholic societies, a group of
six Greek Catholic priests, all of Subcarpathian Rusyn origin from Hungary, along with
fourteen Greek Catholic parish “brotherhoods,” met in Wilkes-Barre in February 1892 to
establish the Union of Greek Catholic Russian Brotherhoods (Soiedinenie GrekoKafolicheskikh Russkikh Bratstv), later known simply as the Greek Catholic Union (GCU)
(Magocsi, Our People 45).
The founding lodges of the GCU were located mainly in Pennsylvania, as well as in
Brooklyn, New York, Passaic, New Jersey, Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Streator, Illinois.
The Pennsylvania lodges included the brotherhoods in Olyphant, Shamokin, and two in
Shenandoah, all four of which had a majority of members from the Lemko Region of Galicia.
The mixed geographical origin of GCU members prompted a dual “Uhro-Rusyn” (Rusyns
from Hungary) and “Galician Rusyn” editorship of the GCU’s newspaper Amerikansky
Russky Viestnik (Dionyzii Pŷrch of Olyphant represented Galician Rusyns and Pavel
Zhatkovych of Passaic, New Jersey was the representative of Uhro-Rusyns) (Roman 44). The
GCU, under clerically-dominated leadership, became preoccupied with Rusyn affairs in
Hungary and enunciated a generally pro-Hungarian (after 1918, pro-Czechoslovak) political
stance. This alienated the significant membership from Galicia, and many lodges seceded
from the GCU in 1894 to form a new organization.
The Rusyn/Ukrainian National Association (Ruskii Narodnŷi Soiuz)
Thirteen lodges of the GCU met in conference in Shamokin to form a new society that would
be more faithful to the Rusyn identity, an identity which at that time included all the East
Slavs of Austria-Hungary. Of the thirteen founding lodges, five were from the Rusyn
communities under discussion: Shenandoah, Shamokin, Olyphant, and Mayfield (two
lodges). The Association went through several name changes with respect to ethnic identifier.
In 1894 it was known in English as the Russian National Union, later (1900) as the Little
Russian National Union, then as the Ruthenian National Association (1911), and finally by
1914 as the Ukrainian National Association (UNA) (Kuropas 73-76). 3
While historians have written about the RNS split with the GCU in terms of a conflict
between Subcarpathian Rusyns and Galician Ukrainians, an analysis of the background of the
individuals involved shows that the situation was much more complex. Of the national
officers elected at the founding RNS convention, nearly half were Rusyns from the
Hungarian Kingdom, and among these was the Russophile priest Alexis Toth, also from
Hungary, who had converted to Orthodoxy in 1891 (Kravcheniuk, “Pershi uriadovtsi”). A
number of lodges that switched their allegiance from GCU to RNS in the early years of RNS
would later change affiliation again, either to the Russian Orthodox Catholic Mutual Aid
Society (ROCMAS) or to the Russian Brotherhood Organization (RBO). It is likely that this
initial secession from the GCU was not a simple assertion of Rusyn/Ukrainian identity, but
rather a protest against the clerical domination of the GCU.
Nevertheless, the clear orientation of some of the founders of this organization was evident
already at the first convention in 1894, at which the Ukrainian national anthem “Shche ne
vmerla Ukraïna” was sung. The continued participation of newly-arrived Greek Catholic
priests from Galicia known as
“the American Circle” would
lay the groundwork for the full
conversion of this society’s
national identity. In the words
of Myron Kuropas, historian of
the Ukrainian American
community, the American
Circle
was initiated by seven
Lviv seminarians, all
close personal friends,
who vowed to take up
their pastoral duties in
the U.S. and to organize
the Rusyn community
along Ukrainian
ethnonational lines …
Politically active in
Galicia, Circle members
were part of a new
The “American Circle” of Ukrainian-oriented Galician Greek Catholic clergy.
generation of Rusyn
Clockwise from top: Ivan Konstankevych (served in Shamokin), Nestor
Dmytriv (served in Mount Carmel, Pa.), Mykola Stefanovych, Ivan Ardan
priests who were
(served in Olyphant), Antin Bonchevs’kyi, Stefan Makar (served in Mount
sympathetic to the ideals
Carmel), Pavlo Tymkevych, Mykola Pidhorets’kyi.
of the Radical Party, a
socialist group that
included the poet Ivan Franko … Composed of unusually competent, highly
motivated and militant individuals, the American Circle led the Rusyn-Ukrainian
fight against Latinization, Russification and Magyarization … [I]t was the American
Circle that eventually took control of the RNS, and involved the organization in the
establishment of reading rooms, enlightenment societies, cultural enterprises, youth
organizations and ethnic heritage schools (77).
In 1910 Greek Catholic Bishop Soter Ortyns’kyi attempted to change the character of the
RNS to a religious, particularly a Greek Catholic, organization. A number of lodges seceded
and formed a “New RNS,” headquartered in Scranton. The “New RNS” changed its name to
the Ukrainian Workingmen’s Association and later (1982) to the Ukrainian Fraternal
Association (UFA) (Kuropas 107-108).
With a few notable exceptions (such as Shamokin), the Rusyn/Ukrainian National
Association did not gain a strong influence among Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants in
Pennsylvania.
Russian Orthodox Catholic Mutual Aid Society (ROCMAS)
A convention of church brotherhoods that had converted to Orthodoxy took place in
September 1895 in Wilkes-Barre, center of the Rusyn movement to Orthodoxy led by Father
Alexis Toth. They formed a federation, and by the first national convention in 1896, eighteen
brotherhoods were members. The Society issued a newspaper, Svît, written in a mixture of
Galician Ukrainian and Russian (the so-called iazŷchie), using the etymological alphabet.
While somewhat concerned with cultural matters, the Society’s primary goal was the defense
and promotion of Orthodoxy among so-called “Little Russian” immigrants. It vehemently
opposed Ukrainianism and the Greek Catholic Church, and promoted a strict Russian identity
almost as a necessary feature of Orthodoxy, to the detriment of the local or regional linguistic
and cultural traits of its Rusyn membership (Dyrud 74-76). While its lodges were found in
every state where Rusyns settled, the ROCMAS was particularly strong in northeastern
Pennsylvania, especially in Wilkes-Barre, Old Forge, Mayfield, Olyphant, and Simpson.
The Russian Brotherhood Organization (Obshchestvo Russkikh Bratstv)
Some of the GCU and RNS lodges changed their affiliation yet again. In 1900 individuals
and lodges gathered in Mahanoy City, just south of Shenandoah, to form a new fraternal
organization that would resist clerical domination and stand for the principle of Russian
identity among its members. Of the six original national officers, four were from
Shenandoah. The presence of the RBO in the Shenandoah Rusyn community was to remain
strong for decades.
In 1903 the RBO purchased from Viktor Hladyk the Russophile, Rusyn-American newspaper
Pravda, which was founded in New York City in 1902, and adopted it as the official
publication of the society. The editorial offices were moved to Olyphant in 1906, and
editorship was assumed by Father Teofan Obushkevych. Editorial policy and content of
Pravda varied with the times and the editor, ranging from a strict Russophile position, which
published only in the Great Russian language and avoided local dialects, to an Old-Ruthenian
position, with language that varied from Russian to a so-called “Galician Russian literary
language” (essentially western Ukrainian) using the etymological alphabet and some Russian
words, to occasional material in the local Rusyn dialects of the Lemko Region and
Subcarpathian Rus’. One policy of the RBO was consistent, however – a strong opposition to
Ukrainianism and to any suggestion that the Rusyn (and for that matter Ukrainian) people’s
regional distinctions justified separation from Great Russians.
In the years following World War II, the RBO leadership began to recognize its majority
Lemko Rusyn membership as such. There was some degree of cooperation with the Lemko
Association of the USA and Canada, a much smaller fraternal organization founded in 1929
by post-World War I immigrants from Poland, which argued that Lemkos, along with other
Carpatho-Rusyns, are a distinct nationality. However, because of the prevailing pro-Soviet,
Communist, and anti-religious views of the Lemko Association leadership, the possibilities
for full parity of the two organizations’ activities were limited, and the RBO essentially
continued its hostility to Ukrainianism and its classical Russophile position, i.e., that socalled “Carpatho-Russians” and “Galician Russians” are part of the “greater Russian nation.”
Among the old Rusyn settlements of northeastern Pennsylvania, the RBO gained the greatest
foothold in the communities between Mount Carmel and Hazleton/Freeland, in the towns of
Coaldale, Lansford, and Nesquehoning, and in the Mid-Valley north of Scranton – Jessup,
Olyphant, Mayfield, and Simpson.
Shenandoah
Rusyns began to settle in the
vicinity of Shenandoah in the
late 1870s. In 1882, they formed
the Brotherhood of Saint
Nicholas and sent a petition to
Metropolitan Sylvester
Sembratovych, the head of the
Greek Catholic Church of
Galicia in the city of L’viv,
requesting that he send them a
priest. The reason they appealed
to Sembratovych was probably
The first building that served as St. Michael’s Church in Shenandoah.
Still standing, a sign identifies it as the “First Greek Catholic Church in
America.”
Advertisements in Ameryka (February 22,
1886) for the Shenandoah Rusyn
cooperative store, “Ruska torhovlia”/
“Greek Store”.
because most of the settlers were from Galicia (although
being Lemkos, they were from the Eparchy of
Peremyshl’ and not from the Archeparchy of L’viv). The
Metropolitan was also a Lemko Rusyn, and as the
highest-ranking Greek Catholic bishop in AustriaHungary, he was the supreme authority of their Church as
they understood it. In response to the petition,
Metropolitan Sembratovych sent Father Ivan Volians’kyi
to the United States. He arrived in Shenandoah on
December 10, 1884 and held the first services for the
Rusyns of the vicinity. A church dedicated to Saint
Michael the Archangel was constructed in 1886 and
Father Volians’kyi began to publish a newspaper,
Ameryka. It was written in a Galician iazŷchie, first using
ecclesiastical, and later civil etymological script. Its main
purpose was to inform American Rusyns of his
community-visitation schedule and to report news
especially from the American Rusyn communities and
the Rusyn/Ukrainian areas of Austria-Hungary. In this it
was not substantially different from Amerykanskii russky
vîstnyk, Svoboda, Svît, Pravda, or other Rusyn/Ukrainian
newspapers that would follow it. Ameryka ceased
publication in 1890.
Primary Villages of Origin of East Slavic Immigrants to Shenandoah, Pa., 1884-1938
With Ideological Influence from Reading Rooms (if any)
(In approximate descending order of number) 4
Reading Rooms in the Village
Village, County
During the Years of Emigration
Kachkovskii Society
1908
1936
Hańczowa, Gorlice
X
X
Ropki, Gorlice
X
X
Tylicz, Nowy Sącz
X
X
Wola Niżna, Sanok
Wysowa, Gorlice
Prosvita Society
1908
1936
X
X
Kwiatoń, Gorlice
X
X
Wola Wyżna, Sanok
Kyjov, Šariš
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Uście Ruskie/Gorlickie, Gorlice
X
X
Nastasiv, Ternopil’
?
?
?
?
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Szklary, Sanok
Jakubany, Spiš
Wola Sękowa, Sanok
X
Regetów Niżny, Gorlice
X
Lukov, Šariš
n/a
n/a
Berest, Grybów
X
n/a
n/a
X
X
Mochnaczka Wyżna, Nowy Sącz
Krynica, Nowy Sącz
Beloveža, Šariš
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Gerlachov, Šariš
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Bednarka, Gorlice
X
X
Dubne, Nowy Sącz
Data includes residents of Shenandoah borough, William Penn/Shaft, and Saint Nicholas,
who were members of the Shenandoah parishes.
The makeup of the community, in terms of villages of origin, was somewhat similar to
Simpson. Notable was the significant presence of Prešov Region Rusyns and the insignificant
place of Galicians from outside the Carpatho-Rusyn area. Also notable was the fact that the
most represented Lemko villages had Kachkovskii reading rooms—Prosvita had not made
significant inroads in these villages—so we might expect a Russophile or Old-Ruthenian
perspective to have a strong foundation in the Shenandoah community.
Influential Clergy & Fraternal Organizations – Shenandoah, Pennsylvania
Fraternal Organizations
Main fraternals:
Minor fraternals:
Russian Brotherhood Organization (3 lodges)
Greek Catholic Union (1 lodge);
Ukrainian National Association (1 lodge; membership mainly Ukrainian);
Ukrainian Fraternal Association (1 lodge)
Community Leaders
Name
Hryhorii Savuliak
Fraternal Affiliation(s)
GCU
Iurii Vretiak
Dymytrii Vandziliak
RBO
RBO
Clergy (through World War II)
Period
Priest
1884-1888
Ivan Volians’kyi
1888-1889
Konst. Andrukhovych
1889-1890
Teofan Obushkevych
1890-1892
Ivan Volians’kyi
1892
Avhustyn Lavryshyn
1892-1907
Kornylii Lavryshyn
1907-1916
Lev Levyts’kyi
1916
Antin Ulianyts’kyi
1916-1917
Dmytro Khomiak
1917-1918
Vladymyr Obushkevych
1918
Ivan Perepylytsia
1918
Ivan Dorohovych
1918
Ivan Zakharko
1918-1920
Ivan Voloshchuk
1920-1923
Petro Iezers’kyi
1923
Nykon Romaniuk
1923-1929
Petro Sereda
1929-1935
Ivan Ortyns’kyi
1935
Oleksandr Pavliak
1935-1945
Michael Kapec
Resident?
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
Ethnicity
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Rusyn
Ukrainian
Rusyn
Rusyn
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Rusyn
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Rusyn
Role(s)
lodge president; church president,
hotelier, banker
national officer, lodge officer
national officer
Orientation
Ukrainian
Ukrainian?
Old-Ruth./Russ.
Ukrainian
Hung./Rusyn
Rusyn
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian?
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian?
Lines in boldface indicate a pastorate considered influential based on residency and length of tenure (3
years or more).
What little has been written about Volians’kyi’s ethnonational feeling generally agrees that
he eventually accepted a Ukrainian identity (Kravcheniuk, “Stezhkamy ottsia Ivana
Volians’koho”), even though he only used the term Rusyn during his service in America.
Regardless, his efforts were primarily religious and social in nature, as he served far-flung
communities of Greek Catholic Rusyns throughout eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey,
establishing many churches. He was one of the only pro-labor Catholic priests, frequently
championing the rights of the immigrant miners. It was his assistant and fellow Galician
Ukrainian, Dr. Volodymyr Simenovych, who in 1887 established in Shenandoah the first
Rusyn reading room in the United States, affiliated with the Prosvita society in Galicia
(Bachyns’kyi 360).
A community leader and businessman, Hryhorii Savuliak (a native of Medzilaborce, Zemplín
County), was active in Rusyn secular affairs as national treasurer (1910-1914) of the Greek
Catholic Union, as parish president, and as an advocate for a Rusyn Greek Catholic bishop
for the United States. After the arrival in the United States of Bishop Soter Ortyns’kyi in
1907, who was widely rejected by
Subcarpathian (“Uhro-”) Rusyn clergy and
secular leaders for his Galician origin and
Ukrainophile orientation, Savuliak was
involved in a number of church congresses
calling for a Subcarpathian Rusyn bishop to
be appointed for the Subcarpathian Rusyn
parishes.
Savuliak served
as a delegate to
Cornerstone of the second St. Michael’s Church, built in
the Congresses
1908: “Russka hr. kat. Tserkov’”.
of American
Greek Catholic Uhro-Rusyn Parishes, ostensibly representing
only himself (Protokol [Zapisnica] 34.)
After several parochial changes, including a second pastorate of
Volians’kyi at St. Michael’s Greek Catholic Church during his
second sojourn in America, a new church building church was
constructed in 1908. In 1916, the last year of Father Levyts’kyi’s
pastorate, the parish suffered a minor schism, when a handful of
Lemko Rusyn families and some immigrants from the Russian
Empire left St. Michael’s to establish the Holy Ghost Russian
Orthodox Church. The reasons for this break are not clear, but
there is evidence that it was in reaction to Father Levyts’kyi’s
Ukrainian orientation (“Uzhasnoie bezpravie”). It may also have
been prompted by a much larger schism in nearby Maizeville and
Frackville the previous year. Unlike other Rusyn communities
where such schisms were typically larger, this event seemed to
have only a minor effect on the Rusyn community in
Shenandoah.
Invitation from the St.
Michael’s church committee to
the “first pilgrimage” in the
“first American Rusyn/Russian
parish in Shenandoah, Pa.”,
published in Amerikansky
Russky Viestnik in August
1919.
The parish was ethnically described in several conflicting ways.
According to a 1905 census of Greek Catholic parishes, only
twenty percent of parishioners were from Hungary, with eighty
percent from Galicia (Korotnoki). Another account described the
parish as having “a majority of parishioners from Transcarpathia,
who still [referred] to themselves as ‘Russians’” (Myshuha 735).
However, according to my analysis, the parish was majority
Galician with a sizeable minority from Hungary. Indeed, the
parish was incorporated into the Galician jurisdiction (later the Ukrainian Catholic
Archeparchy of Philadelphia) of the Greek Catholic Church in 1916 when separate
jurisdictions for Greek Catholics from Galicia and Hungary were established in the United
States. Whatever the proportions, the Ukrainian ethnic element in Shenandoah was always
small, limited to a number of families from the village of Nastasiv in Ternopil’ County.
There were other Galician Ukrainians living in Shenandoah, but in 1923 some of them joined
a new Ukrainian parish in nearby Mahanoy City, where parishioners were primarily
Galicians from Zalishchyky and Dobromyl’ counties. Officially the parish seemed to shy
away from specific ethnic identification; for most of its lifetime it was known simply as St.
Michael’s Greek Catholic Church, having a “Greek School,” “Greek Band,” and the “Greek
Catholic Citizen’s Club.” The town’s centennial anniversary booklet referred to St.
Michael’s simply as a Greek Catholic church and the historical sketch spoke of the
immigration of “Greek Catholic people” (The Path of Progress). The parish retained the
appellation “Greek Catholic” without the term “Ukrainian” until long after most other
parishes in the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Philadelphia had added “Ukrainian” to their names
(Diamond Jubilee Souvenir Book). This situation did not change significantly until 1980. On
Easter Sunday of that year, a devastating fire completely destroyed the church building. In
the aftermath, the parish began to refer to itself as St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church.
The parish built a new church in a modern Ukrainian Byzantine style, without the traditional
“Russian” three-bar crosses. The centennial of the parish’s founding was celebrated in 1984
as the first Ukrainian Catholic church established in the United States, with great acclaim
from the Ukrainian American community (St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church 18841984).
A casual survey of naturalization documents filed between 1932 and 1941 by individuals
born in Rusyn villages and living in Shenandoah and the immediate vicinity reveals that for
the most part, they filled in the blank marked “race” with “Russian” (primarily those from the
Lemko Region) or “Slovak” (primarily those from the Prešov Region). Only a handful
identified themselves as Russniak or Ukrainian.
An elderly community member, the son of Lemkos from Hańczowa and Wysowa, reminisced
about how Shenandoah’s Eastern European immigrants were able to communicate with each
other:
They didn't speak good English at all ... no, they got along. And I wanna tell you
something. Take for an example, you're a Polish fellow, right, say I’m Slavish, or
Greek, or Car-, Ukrainian [sic]. The languages are pretty close. You can talk to me
and I'd understand what you're sayin’, and I could talk and you'd understand what I'm
sayin’. See, because if you mention bread it’s called khliba and practically the same
thing in the other language. You see, potato’s the same way. So if I mention potatoes
and you was Polish and I was Greek, you’d understand what I’m talking about.
(Joseph Litwak, in Shenandoah: A Video History)
Such comments indicate a lingering confusion regarding ethnolinguistic identity. Another
example of general ethnic and linguistic misunderstanding is a short essay to commemorate
the longtime (1929-1985) parish cantor, Joseph Lesko (a native of Shenandoah, son of
Slovakized Rusyn immigrants from Slanské Nové Mesto, Abov County): “[Lesko] grew up
at a time when epistles were read in UKRAINIAN [caps in the original] here and the cantors
came directly from Ukraine … He was really interested when he was a young kid. He used to
read the epistles in Ukrainian” (63rd Annual Ukrainian Seminary Day 79). Ukrainian was not
used as a liturgical language in the United States until the 1970s, and epistle books in
Shenandoah, as throughout the parishes in the anthracite region, were only in Church
Slavonic or English.
In recent years parishioners of St. Michael’s have marched in the town’s Parade of Nations
under the banner “Ukraine.” On the other hand, members of the Carpatho-Rusyn Society’s
New Jersey Chapter have had success at the same event connecting with local parishioners of
St. Michael’s, even though those who visited the Carpatho-Rusyn display were as likely to
self-identify either as Slovak or Russian (Mihalasky, “Everyone Loves a Parade;” “A Parade
of Nations”). A parish website debuted in late 2005 with the name “First Ukrainian.” Its
history section does acknowledge that the community is at least partially Rusyn (“families
from Western Ukraine and Carpathian Rus/Ruthenia”), and the bibliography references
Magocsi’s The Carpatho-Rusyn Americans in the context of “more information about the
people of Ukraine, Ukrainian immigrants, our parish and Ukrainian churches in America.”
When this author first visited St. Michael’s in the early 1990s, a copy of the icon of the
Virgin Mary of Máriapócs, Hungary, beloved by Carpatho-Rusyns, hung on the back wall of
the church. However, the author’s most recent visit in April 2006 revealed that the icon has
since been removed.
While Rusyn immigrants to the Shenandoah community participated in Russophile and
Rusynophile fraternal organizations and community leadership, the first American-born
generation had a muddled sense of ethnic identity, i.e., “Greek” or “Greek Catholic.”
Although nationally-conscious Ukrainian clergy served the parish in the 1920s and 1930s,
their pastorates were short; the longest-serving pastor during those years was an Americanborn priest of Lemko Rusyn origin. Only among the third and fourth generations did there
develop a clearer sense of a Ukrainian ethnic identity, led primarily by post-World War II
clergy and the parish’s ecclesiastical affiliation. However, the existence of remnants of a
non-Ukrainian identity among some members of the community forces those who promote a
Ukrainian identity to at least acknowledge the community’s Rusyn origin. And that remnant
is giving birth to a renewed sense of Carpatho-Rusyn identity among others with roots in the
community. Nevertheless, Shenandoah and St. Michael’s are officially known as the first
Ukrainian community and Ukrainian Catholic church in the United States.
Primary Clergy Orientation: Old-Ruthenian / Rusyn; later Ukrainian
Primary Fraternal Orientation: Rusyn / Russian
Primary Community Orientation: Russian, “Greek,” Rusyn, Slovak, Ukrainian
Shamokin
Rusyns began to settle the Shamokin area in 1879. They scattered throughout the surrounding
coal patches – Big Mountain, Enterprise, Hickory Swamp, and especially Excelsior, four
miles outside Shamokin. After Fr. Volians’kyi arrived in Shenandoah, he visited the
community in Excelsior, holding services in private homes. In 1888, the Brotherhood of SS.
Cyril and Methodius was founded, which provided the impetus for organizing a parish. In
1889 a church was built in Shamokin so as to be accessible to Rusyns from the city and the
patches. The church was chartered in1892 as the Russian Greek Catholic Church of the
Transfiguration.
Primary Villages of Origin of Eastern Slavic Immigrants to Shamokin, Pa., 1884-1938
(In approximate descending order of number)
Village, County
Kachkovskii Society
1908
1936
Florynka, Grybów
X
X
Łabowa, Nowy Sącz
X
X
Kamianna, Grybów
Prosvita Society
1908
1936
X
Polany, Krosno
X
X
Komlóska, Zemplín
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Zemplínska Teplica (Kerestúr),Zemp.
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Zawadka Rymanowska, Sanok
X
X
Kotów, Nowy Sącz
Polany, Grybów
X
Binczarowa, Grybów
X
Nowa Wies, Nowy Sącz
X
X
Uście Ruskie/Gorlickie, Gorlice
X
X
X
Uhryń, Nowy Sącz
Myscowa, Krosno
X
Berest, Grybów
X
X
Malý Lipník, Šariš
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Lukov, Šariš
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Czertyżne, Grybów
Data includes residents of Shamokin city, Excelsior, Ranshaw, Brady, Johnson City, and
Boydtown, who were members of the Shamokin parish.
In terms of villages of origin, the makeup of the community was most similar to Simpson.
Notable was the almost complete absence of Galicians from outside the Carpatho-Rusyn
area. Also notable was that the most-represented Lemko villages at some time had
Kachkovskii reading rooms—Prosvita had not made significant inroads in these villages—so
we might expect a Russophile or Old-Ruthenian perspective to have strong foundation in the
Shamokin community.
Influential Clergy & Fraternal Organizations – Shamokin, Pennsylvania
Main fraternals:
Ukrainian National Association (1 lodge);
Minor fraternals: Greek Catholic Union (2 Lodges)
Community Leaders
Name
Ivan Glova
Aleksii Sharshon
Teodozii Talpash
Kondrat Kotanchyk
Rev. Ivan Konstankevych
Aleksander Drozdiak
UNA
UNA
UNA
UNA
UNA
?
Period
Priest
1884-1888
Ivan Volians’kyi
1888-1889
Konst. Andrukhovych
1890
Teofan Obushkevych
1890-1892
Ivan Volians’kyi
1892
Avhustyn Lavryshyn
1892-1893
Kornylii Lavryshyn
1893-1918
Ivan Konstankevych
1918
Nykon Romaniuk
1918-1919
Kostiantyn Kurylo
1919-1922
Volodymyr Spolitakevych
1922-1924
Mykhailo Kuziv
1924-1942
Mykhailo Oleksiv
1942-1949
Mykhailo Kuz’mak
Resident?
no
no
yes
no
no
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
Role(s)
natl. pres., natl. treas., church cantor, businessman
natl. vice pres., natl. treas., church trustee
natl. pres., natl. vice pres., hotelier
national treasurer
Svoboda editor, national secretary
choir director / church school teacher (1919-1947)
Ethnicity
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Rusyn
Ukrainian
Rusyn
Rusyn
Rusyn
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Orientation
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Old-Ruth./Russ.
Ukrainian
Hung./Rusyn
Rusyn
Old-Ruth./ Ukr.
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
The 1905 census of Greek Catholic parishes counted that twenty percent of the Shamokin
church’s parishioners were from Hungary, with eighty percent from Galicia (Korotnoki).
This agrees with my analysis. Accordingly, the Subcarpathian element, who would
reestablish two lodges of the GCU after the initial lodge defected to the UNA, remained an
insignificant force in the Shamokin Rusyn community. A few Subcarpathian families even
As in other early Rusyn communities, a cooperative store was established by and for the Rusyn immigrants. In Shamokin it was
known in English as the Russian Mercantile Association, but in advertisements in the RNS/UNA almanacs the name evolved:
(from left:) “ruskii stor” (1903 almanac); “Shamokin’ska Ruska Torhovlia / Shamokin Russian Store” (1907), “rus’kyi shtor”
(1912), “ukraïns’kyi shtor” (1920).
joined the local Slovak Roman Catholic parish. The Ukrainian representation among the
Galician populace of the area was extremely small; Rusyns from the Russophile stronghold
of the western Lemko Region made up the vast majority of the community.
Without a resident pastor, the Brotherhood was responsible for keeping the community
together. Father Teofan Obushkevych became the first resident priest in 1890, but remained
only eight months. The second resident priest was newly-arrived Father Ivan Konstankevych,
a Rusyn from the Lemko Region, who began his pastorate in 1893. He provided strong
leadership in cultural affairs, founding a parish band and the Boyan Choir (later the Bandurist
Choir). Father Konstankevych became an enthusiastic member of the American Circle a few
years after establishing himself in the
United States. A new church was built
in 1907 and rechartered, this time as the
“Ruthenian Catholic Church of the
Transfiguration,” as it appears also on
the church cornerstone. Under
Konstankevych’s leadership, the
Shamokin community began a
transition from Russian or OldRuthenian identity to Ukrainian identity
much earlier than any other Rusyn
parish in the region. A reading room,
named for Taras Shevchenko, was set
up in 1894 (Bachyns’kyi 360). In 1896
the Taras Shevchenko Literary and
Benevolent Society was organized,
which in 1904 affiliated with the
Shevchenko Scientific Society in L’viv.
The Shamokin Shevchenko society
organized the first observance in
America to honor Shevchenko’s
memory. It was held in the Shamokin
church and hall on May 30, 1900
(“Visti z Ameryky”).
At the same time, the RNS was by far
the dominant fraternal organization in
the community, a position which would
never be challenged. Many of the
organization’s national officers came
from Shamokin and served multiple
terms (Kravcheniuk, “Pershi
The second Transfiguration Church and its cornerstone
uriadovtsi”). These officers remained in
(“Ruska Kat. Tserkov”/”Ruthenian Catholic Church”), built
various positions even after Galician
1905-1907.
Ukrainians began to take over the
organization in the 1910s and 1920s. The viewpoint of the RNS was boosted in the region
Commemoration of the birth of Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, at the Shamokin church, 1900.
Quite likely it was the common ethnic
background of Konstankevych and his
parishioners that enabled him so effectively to
lead the overwhelming transition from Russian
or Old-Ruthenian sympathies to a “Ruthenian,”
and later Ukrainian, identity. The effectiveness
of Konstankevych’s pastoral skills also
prevented a rupture in the parish when in 1907
the Greek Catholic parish in Mount Carmel split
into pro-Ortyns’kyi and anti-Ortyns’kyi
factions. The anti-Ortyns’kyi faction organized
a new Russian Orthodox parish that was almost
entirely Lemko in membership. Some East
Slavs from the Russian Empire living in the
Shamokin area joined this new Orthodox parish,
along with a handful of Lemko families from
the Shamokin parish. The staunch Ukrainian
identity of the Shamokin community was
maintained, even increased, in the decades after
Konstankevych’s death. The Ukrainian
Brotherhood of Shamokin was chartered in
1921 and owned a building near Transfiguration
Church, and the Ukrainian Home Association
was chartered in 1926. The parish Bandurist
Choir in 1923 invited the famous Ukrainian
Koshetz Choir to perform a concert in
Shamokin (75th Anniversary Souvenir Book). A
Ukrainian Citizen’s Club was set up, and in
1940 an all-day parochial school was formally
established, which included subjects of
Ukrainian language, history, and geography.
when its newspaper,
Svoboda, began
publishing in Mount
Carmel, just three
miles to the east,
under the editorship
(1895-1897) of
Father Nestor
Dmytriv and his
successor, Father
Stefan Makar
(1897-1900), both
members of the
“American Circle.”
The Shamokin “Ruska Banda” (with Father Konstankevych,
1894), which later became the “Ruthenian Band” (1910s) and
finally the “Ukrainian Band” (1920s or 1930s).
A Russian Brotherhood Organization lodge was founded in Excelsior sometime around 1915
(another lodge transferred its domicile from Warren, Pennsylvania, to Shamokin) and it
gained a significant number of members, but it was still insignificant compared to the
dominant position exerted over the community by the Ukrainian National Association. Even
the members of the RBO in Shamokin described their religion in lodge documents as
“Ruthenian Catholic,” rather than “Russian Greek Catholic” or “Greek Catholic,” as was the
case in most other RBO lodges. This shows the widespread acceptance in Shamokin of a
“Ruthenian” rather than “Russian” identity, which made the wholesale transition of the
community from “Ruthenian” to “Ukrainian” all the easier.
However, the Ukrainian identity did not universally take root
among the parishioners. At least through the 1930s a “Russian
Independent Club” bar and social hall operated in nearby
Ranshaw (Golden Jubilee 41). There were immigrant
parishioners and their children who were firm in their conviction
that they were Rusyns and not Ukrainians. Even the longtime
choir director, Aleksander Drozdiak (a native of Królowa
Ruska/Górna, Grybów County and educated in Przemyśl), was
not a promoter of a Ukrainian identity. And his successor, Ivan
Chomyn, a nationally-conscious Galician Ukrainian, conceded
that there were no true Ukrainians in Shamokin (Interview with
John Kelnock).
Advertisement placed in a parish
anniversary book (Transfiguration of Our
Lord Ukrainian Catholic School, 1941-1991)
illustrating awareness of a change in
identity from the time of the first
immigration to the present.
Advertisement from the RBO
1931 almanac for Damian
Iadlovskii, “Russkii grosernik”
(Russian grocer).
In 1976, on the occasion of the
nation’s bicentennial and as a
celebration of the centenary of Ukrainian settlement in
America, the UNA staged a two-day Ukrainian festival in
Shamokin, the birthplace of the UNA, to salute the
society’s founders. The festival performances had no
Carpathian/Lemko elements (Ukrainian Bicentennial
Festival). In 1984, the parish’s centennial journal finally
acknowledged the parish’s Lemko origins, but attempted to
place the Lemko Region geographically within Ukraine:
[The immigrants] came from the Western tip of Ukraine,
where the Carpatian [sic] mountains extend into
Austro/Hungary, to join the Tatra mountains. The early
arrivals…came…from a region called Lemkovia [sic], who
became better known as Lemkos. Then came the Boykos
and Karpatho-Rus. These were dialectic names because
their speech was dialectic… They came from all points of
the compass in the Ukraine. (Transfiguration Ukrainian
Greek Catholic Church 1884-1984 15)
Noted persons from Shamokin who have publicly
proclaimed their Ukrainian heritage, although they are of Lemko Rusyn descent, include:
Michael Luchkovich (1893-1973), Canada’s first Ukrainian parliament member and author
of the book A Ukrainian in Parliament; opera singer Mary Lesawyer, who performed in
Ukrainian operas and was active in the UNA and the Ukrainian National Women’s League of
America; and Melanne Starinshak Verveer, former Assistant to First Lady of the United
States, Hilary Clinton.
Primary Clergy Orientation: Ukrainian
Primary Fraternal Orientation: Ukrainian
Primary Community Orientation: Ukrainian
Olyphant
Rusyns began to settle in Olyphant, Dickson City, Throop, Blakely, and Peckville as early as
1880. Their first organization was the Brotherhood of St. John the Baptist, founded in 1886,
and they began a cooperative store in 1887. Served by clergy first from Shenandoah and later
from Kingston, the community built a wooden chapel in 1888. The parish’s “Russian
School,” as it was known in English, began in 1894, as did the dramatic club and church
choir (SS. Cyril & Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church Centennial Jubilee 107).
Primary Villages of Origin of Eastern Slavic Immigrants to Olyphant, Pa., 1884-1938
Village, County
Kachkovskii Society
Prosvita Society
1908
1936
1908
1936
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Miklušovce, Šariš
Bednarka, Gorlice
X
Łosie, Gorlice
X
Wapienne, Gorlice
X
Rozdziele, Gorlice
X
X
Wisłok Wielki, Sanok
X
Zawadka Rymanowska, Sanok
Męcina Wielka, Gorlice
X
X
X
X
X
Stawysza, Grybów
Czarna, Grybów
Tylicz, Nowy Sącz
Słotwiny, Nowy Sącz
X
X
X
Village, County
Dobra Szlachecka, Sanok
?
?
Ulucz, Brzozów
?
?
Łodzina, Sanok
?
?
Liubelia, Zhovkva
?
?
?
?
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
?
?
?
?
Vyshnia Roztoka, Bereg
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Klenov, Šariš
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Sedlice, Šariš
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Bartne, Gorlice
X
X
Vyšná Oľšava, Zemplín
Verkhnia Iablun’ka, Turka
X
Pstrążne, Gorlice
Data includes residents of Olyphant borough, Pricedale/Dickson City, Blakely, Grassy
Island, Throop, Peckville, and Jessup, who were members of the parishes in Olyphant.
The makeup of the community, in terms of villages of origin, was most similar to Mayfield
and Simpson. Notable, however, was the significant presence of Galicians from outside the
Carpatho-Rusyn area. Also notable was that some of the most-represented Lemko villages
had developed Prosvita reading rooms, so we might expect Ukrainian identity to have
stronger potential in the Olyphant community.
Influential Clergy & Fraternal Organizations – Olyphant, Pennsylvania
Main fraternals:
Concord of Olyphant Societies “Zhoda Bratstv” (9 lodges);
Greek Catholic Union (5 lodges);
Russian Brotherhood Organization (4 lodges - most membership non-SS.C/M)
Minor fraternals: Ukrainian National Association (1 lodge);
ROCMAS (2 lodges)
Lubov (2 lodges)
First Catholic Slovak Union (1 lodge)
Community Leaders
Name
Iurii Khŷliak
UNA / UFA / ZB
Rev. Ivan Ardan
UNA / UFA
Seman Mytrenko
Kost’ Koban
Iliia Hoiniak
UNA / UFA
UNA
RBO
Role(s)
ZB natl. pres., UNA natl. treas., banker,
hotelier, travel agent, town mayor
Svoboda editor, natl. president,
reading room coordinator, book dealer
national trustee, hotelier
national trustee, church trustee
Pravda editor
Clergy (through World War II) – Greek Catholic (Ss. Cyril & Methodius Church) only
Period
Priest
Resident?
Ethnicity
Orientation
1884-1887
Ivan Volians’kyi
no
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
1887
Zenon Liakhovych
no
Rusyn
Hung./Rusyn
1888
Nykolai Zubrytskŷi
no
Rusyn
Hung./Rusyn
1889-1890
Konstantyn Andrukhovych no
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
1891
Havriyl Vislotskŷi
yes
Rusyn
Hung./Rusyn
1891-1897
Teofan Obushkevych
yes
Rusyn
Old-Ruth./ Russ.
1897-1902
Ivan Ardan
yes
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
1902-1905
Mykola Strutyns’kyi
yes
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
1905-1906
Ivan Velyhors’kyi
yes
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
1906
Volodymyr Stekh
yes
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
1906-1907
Mykola Strutyns’kyi
yes
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
1907-1908
Teodozii Vasovchyk
yes
Rusyn
Rusyn
1908
Oleksandr Ulyts’kyi
yes
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
1908-1909
Volodymyr Hryvnak
yes
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
1909-1911
Ivan Sendets’kyi
yes
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
1911-1915
Iliia Kuziv
yes
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
1915-1919
Mykhailo Oleksiv
yes
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
1919-1920
Mykhailo Lisiak
yes
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
1920-1935
Mykhailo Gurians’kyi
yes
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
1934-1948
Ivan Ortyns’kyi
yes
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
In 1891, Father Obushkevych published an article on the community in the almanac of the
Kachkovskii Society. It described, in glowing terms, Father Volians’kyi’s pioneering work in
Olyphant, the state of the parish and the finely appointed church building, the people’s
dedication to the church, and the prevailing harmony among the parishioners, whom he
identified as “our Lemkos and Rusyns from Hungary” (Obushkevich). With the arrival of
Father Ivan Ardan in 1897 came a program of pro-Ukrainian cultural activity. Among other
Ukrainian-oriented cultural programs, a reading room dedicated to Galician Ukrainian poet
Markiian Shashkevych was established (Bachyns’kyi 360). At about the same time, Olyphant
became a center of Russophile activity. Pravda (1902-present), the official organ of the
RBO, began publishing in Olyphant under the editorship of Father Obushkevych, and
continued under the editorship of local Rusyns Vasyl’ Fekula (1909-1912) and Iliia Hoiniak
(1912-1920) until 1923, when it was moved to the organization’s headquarters in
Philadelphia (Horbal). A major schism occurred in 1902, when a segment of the parish,
under the leadership of Father Obushkevych (who had just left his pastorate in Mayfield)
established a parallel Greek Catholic parish in the town, All Saints Church, in protest of
Ardan’s role in trying to wrest ownership of the original parish from the Roman Catholic
bishop of Scranton and his subsequent excommunication (Bachyns’kyi 301). In 1904 another
smaller segment reacted against Ardan and his successor and established the Russian
Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas, which included mostly Lemko Rusyns, but also some
immigrants from the Russian Empire. Both these new parishes were Russophile in outlook,
but curiously, the smaller parish, St. Nicholas (most of its families coming from the western
Lemko Region or Pielgrzymka in the central Lemko Region), remained more conscious of its
Galician regional origin than did the All Saints Church. The fiftieth anniversary book of St.
Nicholas Church described its origins as follows: “People of Russian descent began
immigrating in large numbers to this country in the 19th century. A majority of these people,
who came from Galicia, Austria and Hungary, were of the laboring class and took
employment in the mines of our region…” (Golden Jubilee). The parish’s centennial-year
history continued reference to its founders as “a group of Russian immigrants, most of whom
came from Galicia, Austria-Hungary Empire…” (“Parish Background”).
All Saints Church joined the Russian Orthodox Church in 1916. Despite being pastored for
its first fourteen years by Obushkevych, the parish seemed to have abandoned any particular
Old-Ruthenian or “Galician” awareness of its early years for a purely Russian orientation. Its
only published history referred to “Russian people,” “the great Russian race,” etc., without
any reference to the parishioners’ geographic place of origin. The only remnant of the
parish’s original Galician/Old-Ruthenian origin was a page sponsored by the “Russian
Society of John Naumowicza, Lodge No. 129” (of the RBO) (Golden Jubilee 1902-1952). A
Galician Ukrainian-language popular humor-satirical magazine, Osa (The Wasp), appeared in
Olyphant in 1902 and lasted just a year. Its favorite target was Russophiles and proHungarian Subcarpathian Rusyns. Father
Obushkevych, by that time pastor of the new
All Saints parish, was a prominent character
in the unsigned anti-Russophile limericks
and lyrics. The original parish built a new
church in 1908, still known as the SS. Cyril
and Methodius Greek Catholic Church,
although the cornerstone includes the word
“Ruska” (Rusyn) according to old
Cornerstone of the second SS. Cyril and Methodius
Galician/Lemko dialectal spelling, which
Church: “Ruska Greko-Kafol. Tserkov”.
was left untranslated into English.
The 1905 census of Greek Catholic parishes counted that only ten percent of the Olyphant
church’s parishioners were from Hungary, with ninety percent from Galicia (Korotnoki).
Even with the 1902 departure of some Subcarpathian Rusyns to All Saints parish, this was a
gross under-representation of the Subcarpathian Rusyn element in the parish, which I would
estimate at closer to thirty percent. By the 1920s a significant minority of SS. Cyril and
Methodius parish were Ukrainians from eastern Galicia, as was a portion of All Saints
Church, even though no single east-Galician village was the birthplace of a significant
number of members of either parish.
An Olyphant Greek Catholic parish was among the “Greek Catholic Russian (Galician)”
parishes whose parishioners indicated that they were not in a position to send a delegate to
the Church Congress of American Greek Catholic Uhro-Rusyn Parishes in Johnstown in
1910 (the purpose of which was to unite the opposition to Bishop Ortyns’kyi), but they stated
that they would agree to all the decisions of the church congress (Protokol [Zapisnica]). This
could have been either Saints Cyril and Methodius or All Saints parish, but All Saints as a
community would have been more likely to show support for such a congress. Indeed, All
Saints’ pastor, Teofan Obushkevych, was a clergy signatory to the congress’s resolutions, but
the “Uhro-Rusyn” representation in Saints Cyril and Methodius parish was far more
significant.
The GCU was exceptionally strong in Olyphant, with five lodges numbering 200 members.
Membership was mostly confined to parishioners of SS. Cyril and Methodius Church. It
included not only Rusyns from Hungary but also many from Galicia, although generally no
Ukrainians. Officers of these lodges were natives of Hungary as well as Galicia. The sizable
group of settlers from Šariš County villages were generally members of the Greek Catholic
Union, but a number of them also maintained membership in the local lodge of the First
Catholic Slovak Union (Pamätník XXV. ročného jubileuma).
After the original fraternal brotherhood lodge and others defected from the RNS/UNA in
1910 to the “New Rus’kyi Narodnyi Soiuz” (later the Ukrainian Fraternal Association), it
was not until 1915 that a new UNA lodge took its place. The defecting lodges (initially six,
from Olyphant and Priceburg/Dickson City, eventually nine) left the “New RNS” in 1913 to
form the Concord of Olyphant Societies, Zhoda Bratstv (ZB). ZB took in other dissatisfied
lodges in the Scranton area to become a regional fraternal (Shustakevych 187). It acquired a
headquarters building in Olyphant and published a newspaper Nove Zhyttia/New Life (19131938) and almanacs (1916-1929). The organization was pro-Ukrainian, but used the terms
Rusyn, Rusyn-Ukraïnets’, and Ukraïnets’ interchangeably. Its president was longtime
Ukrainophile community leader Iurii Khŷliak (a native of Binczarowa, Grybów County), and
most of its other leaders were local Lemko Rusyns. It became, by far, the dominant proUkrainian secular organization in Olyphant.
The RBO was fairly strong in Olyphant with four lodges, but the majority of the members
were parishioners of All Saints Church or the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church rather
than SS. Cyril and Methodius. Curiously, of all the communities under discussion, despite
the large Lemko Rusyn settlement in each, Olyphant was the only one where a lodge of the
Lemko Association was established, although Olyphant never became a significant center of
activity in that organization.
Culturally, the original
parish, SS. Cyril and
Methodius, leaned
heavily towards
Ukrainian rather than
Rusyn culture. The
dramatic society
performed the Ukrainian
operetta “Natalka
Poltavka” in 1903. A
commemorative
celebration of the birth of
Shashkevych was held in
1911 with a concert of
Ukrainian songs and a
scene from his “Rusalka
Dnistrova”
SS. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Chorus, attired in typical Ukrainian folk dress, 1938.
(Odnodnivka). In the
1930s the choir
performed other Ukrainian plays. Ukrainian-named parish organizations were established,
including the Young Men’s Ukrainian Association (1918) and the Ukavets parish baseball
team (1930). A parish newsletter, Uke-Views, began publication in 1941 (Centennial Jubilee
57). The 1980 dedication of a shrine/monument with the image of an icon of the Zhyrovytsi
Mother of God (from Zhirovitsy/Zhirovichi in southwestern Belarus), whose veneration was
known to some Ukrainians but was unknown in the Carpathian region of the parishioners’
origins, established Olyphant as a place of pilgrimage for Ukrainians. The parish’s 1988
centennial celebration, coinciding as it did with the Millennium of Christianity in
Rus’/Ukraine, was effectively a dual celebration with a pronounced Ukrainian theme. A
“millennium-centennial” monument commemorating this event was erected near the church
(Centennial Jubilee 35, 173).
SS. Cyril and Methodius parish indirectly acknowledged its Lemko and Subcarpathian Rusyn
origins in its centennial year, 1988, with this rather convoluted introduction to its parish
history:
Around 1880, early Ukrainian settlers began to arrive in Olyphant, Pennsylvania.
They came from poverty stricken but simple peasant stock, emigrating from
Ukrainian localities in the province of Galicia, a part of the huge Hapsburg Empire of
Austria-Hungary. Those territories today are divided among Ukraine, Russia, Poland,
Belarus, Hungary, Slovakia, Rumania and Moldavia. They came from counties or
districts – Gorlice, Sanok, Yablinka, Zemplun, etc. – on the north and south sides of
the massive Carpathian Mountain chain that cuts a semicircular swath through Middle
Europe. Most of these early immigrants were known as “Lemko’s,” so named
because of a linguistic peculiarity in the dialect of the Ukrainian language which they
spoke. The area they came from was fondly known as “Lemkiwshchyna” (Lemko
Land). (Centennial Jubilee 35)
The parish website, created and maintained by a descendant of Rusyns from Šariš County,
adds the following information, capped with a dubious claim about the western extent of
Kievan Rus’:
Some came from villages in the Priashiv (Presov) region, which is considered to be
the westernmost part of ethnic Ukrainian territory and called themselves Rusyns (not
to be confused with Russian). The Priashiv region (presently located in Slovakia), lies
in the Eastern Beskids of the Carpathian Mountains and is commonly known as
‘Priashivshchyna.’... All these territories were once part of the great empire of
Kievan-Rus (Ukraine). (“Church History”)
Not all the descendants of the Prešov-region group were convinced of a Ukrainian identity,
however. Members of the parish’s remaining Greek Catholic Union lodge in 1992, the
lodge’s centennial year, prepared a history of their lodge that omitted any use of the term
Ukrainian, referring only to its members as natives of “the Carpathian Regions” (Staskewitz,
“1892-1992: St. Michael’s Lodge” 22). The celebration dinner included a heritage display of
such items as “a Saris costume,” “hand-embroidered items from Klembarek (now Klenov)
Sariska Zupa,” and a “map of the Carpathian Region” (Staskewitz, “Lodge 52” 21).
To the present day a Ukrainian dance group and a Ukrainian-oriented choir exist in the
parish. However, the Church Slavonic language has been retained in services, and literary
Ukrainian has never been used. Occasional obituaries of parishioners make reference to their
membership and funeral service in Sts. Cyril and Methodius “Greek Catholic,” rather than
Rusyn businessmen in Olyphant advertised in publications of both Ukrainian and Russian orientation, even varying their
ethnic self-identification to suit their audience. Local undertaker Petro Vil’kha was an “odinokii Russkii pohrebnik” in the
1922 RBO almanac (top left), while in a 1922 issue of Olyphant’s pro-Ukrainian Nove Zhyttia, he was an “odynokyi Rus’koUkraïns’kyi pohrebnyk” (top right). His competitor, Ivan/John Turko, advertised his business in the 1924 ZB almanac
(bottom right) as an “Ukraïns’ke Pohrebnyche Zavedennia”, but in the 1936 RBO almanac, he was a “Russkii pohrebnik”
(bottom left).
“Ukrainian Greek Catholic,” Church. Nevertheless, the parish is generally known as
Ukrainian, and its public face holds very strictly to that orientation. Although the immigrant
settlers may have only been mildly pre-disposed to pro-Ukrainian ideas, the UNA and its
daughter organizations had a strong presence in the parish from the early years. The early
arrival of pro-Ukrainian clergy, starting with Ivan Ardan and continuing uninterrupted from
1908, provided the Ukrainian movement with strong leadership, which was combined with
the influence of the pro-Ukrainian fraternals led by Iurii Khŷliak. The Russophile elements,
including the leading non-Ukrainian Galician cleric, Obushkevych, while always present and
influential in Olyphant as a whole, departed from the original parish, and the pro-Rusyn or
pro-Slovak remainder were outnumbered by the large Galician segment. As a result, the
Ukrainian orientation won out and remains strong to the present time.
Primary Clergy Orientation: Ukrainian
Primary Fraternal Orientation: Ukrainian, Rusyn/Russian
Primary Community Orientation: Ukrainian
Mayfield
Mayfield received its first Rusyn settlers in 1878. Ten years later these Rusyns formed a
brotherhood and purchased a church building. In 1891 a new church was built and was
chartered as the Russian Greek Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist.
Primary Villages of Origin of Eastern Slavic Immigrants to Mayfield, Pa., 1884-1938
Village, County
Kachkovskii Society
1908
1936
Pielgrzymka, Jasło
X
X
Łosie, Gorlice
X
Desznica, Jasło
X
Kunkowa, Gorlice
X
Prosvita Society
1908
1936
X
X
?
?
Stawysza, Grybów
Hałbów, Jasło
Brzezowa, Jasło
Uhryń, Nowy Sącz
Śnietnica, Grybów
X
Kłopotnica, Jasło
Wisłok Wielki, Sanok
Stoky, Bibrka
?
?
Jaworze, Jasło
Binczarowa, Grybów
X
Świątkowa Wielka, Jasło
X
Brunary, Grybów
Wierchomla Wielka, Nowy Sącz
X
Czarna, Grybów
Data includes residents of Mayfield borough, Erie, and Mayfield Yard who were members of
the parish in Mayfield.
In terms of villages of origin, the makeup of the community was most similar to Olyphant
and Simpson. Notable, however, was the almost complete absence of Rusyns from
Subcarpathia. Also notable was the fact that some of the most-represented Lemko villages
had Kachkovskii society reading rooms, Prosvita not being a factor in the European villages
represented, so we might expect the Russophile orientation to have stronger potential in the
Mayfield community.
The Fourth Convention of the RNS, held at St. John’s Church hall, Mayfield, June 1897. Among the delegates pictured
are Petro Sabat and Aleksii Shlianta (Mayfield), Fr. Teofan Obushkevych (Olyphant/Mayfield), Iurii Khŷliak (Olyphant),
and Ivan Glova, Fr. Ivan Konstankevych, and Kondrat Kotanchyk (Shamokin). Within a few years thereafter, the
Mayfield lodges and most of the Mayfield members seceded from the RNS to join the RBO and ROCMAS.
Influential Clergy & Fraternal Organizations – Mayfield, Pennsylvania
Main fraternals:
ROCMAS (6 lodges)
Lubov (6 lodges)
Minor fraternals: Ukrainian National Association (1 lodge – membership entirely Ukrainian)
Community Leaders
Name
Aleksii Shlianta
Petro Sabat
Petro Korba
Petro Kykhart
Stefan Telep
RBO, Lubov
ROCMAS
ROCMAS
ROCMAS
Lubov
Period
Priest
1884-1888
Ivan Volians’kyi
1887
Zenon Liakhovych
1888
Nykolai Zubrytskŷi
1889-1890
Konst. Andrukhovych
1891
Havriyl Vislotskŷi
1891-1897
Teofan Obushkevych
1897-1902
Teofan Obushkevych
1902-1904
Jan Olszewski
1904-1908
Arsenii Chahovtsev
1908-1911
Mikhail Skibinskii
1911-1912
Vasilii Vasiliev
1912-1914
Vasilii Oranovskii
1914-1917
Iona Milasevich
1917-1920
Iosyf Fedoronko
1920-1936
Vasyl' Repela
1936-1952
Filip Pechinskii
Resident?
no
no
no
no
no
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
Role(s)
national treas., parish school teacher, businessman
national trustee, lodge president
national trustee, lodge president
national trustee
Liubov editor, natl. secretary, businessman (print
shop)
Ethnicity
Ukrainian
Rusyn
Rusyn
Ukrainian
Rusyn
Rusyn
Rusyn
Polish
Russ.?Ukr.?
Russ.?Ukr.?
Russ.?Ukr.?
Russ.?Ukr.?
Russ.?Ukr.?
Rusyn
Rusyn
Russ?Ukr?
Orientation
Ukrainian
Hung./Rusyn
Hung./Rusyn
Ukrainian
Hung./Rusyn
Old-Ruth./ Russ.
Old-Ruth./ Russ.
Old-Ruthenian
Russian
Russian
Russian
Russian
Russian
Old-Ruth./ Russ.
Old-Ruth./ Russ.
Russian
Mayfield was unique among the five settlements discussed in this paper because almost all its
Rusyns were from villages in the Lemko Region of Galicia. However, for a time in the early
existence of the Mayfield parish, there was a significant Subcarpathian element living in
nearby Jermyn. These Rusyns from the county of Zemplín, along with Lemko Rusyns from
Wierchomla Mała, Wierchomla Wielka, and Wisłok Wielki formed their own (Orthodox)
church in Jermyn in 1907.
The Mayfield church, established by Volians’kyi but soon closely associated with the
original Olyphant church and its pro-Rusyn and Old-Ruthenian or Russophile clergy,
retained its Greek Catholic association until 1902. The arrival of Father Obushkevych as
visiting priest (1891) and then resident pastor (1897) began a flowering of cultural activity: a
reading room (1894) named for noted Galician Russophile priest Ivan Naumovych and
affiliated with the Kachkovskii Society, the choir, the parish band, and a school, where local
businessman and community leader Aleksii Shlianta was the schoolteacher. In 1902 under
the missionary influence of Father Alexis Toth, the community elected to enter the Orthodox
Church. Their pastor, Father Obushkevych, responded to the will of the people and found
them a priest (the ethnically Polish, Basilian monk Jan Olszewski) who joined the Orthodox
Church with them, even though at that time Obushkevych himself did not. He then returned
to Olyphant to organize the All Saints parish (“Istoriia”).
Of the three communities under discussion that had significant membership in the Russian
Orthodox Catholic Mutual Aid Society, one of the lodges in Mayfield was among the ten
largest, having 108 members in 1936. There did exist a UNA lodge in Mayfield, but its
membership was fewer than forty members and did not seem to include Lemkos (Myshuha
701). In 1912, local members of the RBO and ROCMAS joined together in a new fraternal
organization, the Russian Orthodox Fraternity Lubov. It was based in Mayfield but grew to
include lodges in Simpson, Olyphant, Wilkes-Barre, Jermyn, and Old Forge, as well as in
Lemko communities in southwestern Pennsylvania. Lubov published a newspaper,
Liubov/Lubov (1913-1957) in a Galician iazŷchie using the etymological alphabet. In contrast
to the mainstream Russian emphasis of ROCMAS and the sometime anti-clerical perspective
of RBO, Lubov took a pro-Orthodox, particularly Galician stance (Magocsi, Our People 53).
Its editor, Stefan Telep, was also a prolific publisher of “Russian” books, especially primers
and Galician dramatic plays, from his Mayfield print shop.
The community’s organizations consistently used the term “Russian” to describe themselves.
The parish musical corps, founded in 1895, was known as the Mayfield Russian Band. In
1898 the Russian Hose Company (renamed the Mayfield Hose Company in 1939) was
founded by a group of nineteen local men, most of them Rusyns. Culturally and
linguistically, the community inclined toward things Russian, yet there remained hallmarks
of their Rusyn origin.
The Mayfield church choir in 1941, dressed in “boyar costumes of the Russian Court life of the 18th century”
(100th Anniversary 1891-1991).
Their 1891 church, and a new one built in 1933, followed the typical Lemko style of church
architecture, i.e., with three main domes descending in height from the highest in the front to
the lowest in the back of the structure. However, in other ways, the community went
completely Russian, such as in choir costumes.
Despite their Russophile orientation, the
Mayfield community kept their particular
homeland in mind through the decades. A fund
drive to support the village of Kunkowa was
organized in 1923, and a fund drive for support
of the Ruska Bursa in Nowy Sącz was
organized in 1927. Members of the Mayfield
community and their descendants (Stefan
Dutko, Eva Danilo Yurkovsky, Peter J.
Yurkovsky) were instrumental in organizing at
least four collections to support the Orthodox
community in Pielgrzymka (Peregrymka),
Poland, between the 1920s and 1960s. One
writer in particular, Peter J. Yurkovsky, wrote
about Mayfield’s “Carpatho-Russian”/“Lemko”
community in the RBO’s Pravda/The Truth
The second St. John’s Church, built 1933, on the “3
and the ROCMAS Svit/The Light in the late
descending-height towers” model of Lemko-type
churches in the European homeland.
1960s. Eva Yurkovsky was also eulogized in
the 1970 almanac of the Lemko Association
(“Eva Danilo Yurkovsky”). The parish’s 1991 centennial commemorative book opened with
a narrative clearly identifying the parish as Rusyn (“Carpatho-Russian”): “Its earliest
beginnings actually date to 1878, with the arrival of Carpatho-Russian immigrants from the
western part of Galicia known as Lemkovstchina” (100th Anniversary 1891-1991, 1)
Alongside were reproduced maps by Paul R. Magocsi, “Carpatho-Rusyn Homeland Before
World War I” and “Carpatho-Rusyn Homeland.” Mayfield native John Uram, grandson of
Rusyn immigrant settlers to the town, became the editor of the RBO’s newsletter The Truth
in 1992, and since that time he has consistently promoted in its pages the term
Rusyn/Carpatho-Rusyn, as well as Carpatho-Rusyn history, Rusyn-American cultural
activities, and images of Rusyn wooden churches, alongside occasional Russian motifs.
This community, which had an initial potential for Russophilism, as an entirely Galician
community initially participated in what developed into the pro-Ukrainian stream of the
UNA. However, with the presence of clergy such as Obushkevych and his successors and the
parish’s transition to Orthodoxy, the community never experienced any further factors that
would divert it from the Russophile path.
Primary Clergy Orientation: Old-Ruthenian, Russian
Primary Fraternal Orientation: Russian
Primary Community Orientation: Russian
Simpson
Rusyns settled in Simpson as early as 1888, the year that Simpson residents began to appear
in the sacramental registers of the Shenandoah church. After the departure of Father
Volians’kyi to Galicia, the priest in Kingston took over the service of the community.
Eventually Mayfield became, and was to remain for over a decade, the spiritual center for the
Simpson Rusyn community.
Primary Villages of Origin of Eastern Slavic Immigrants to Simpson, Pa., 1888-1938
Village, County
Kachkovskii Society
Habura, Zemplín
Prosvita Society
1908
1936
1908
1936
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
X
X
X
X
n/a
n/a
Żegiestów, Nowy Sącz
X
Zubrzyk, Nowy Sącz
Krynica, Nowy Sącz
X
X
Słotwiny, Nowy Sącz
Bielanka, Gorlice
Brunary, Grybów
Łosie, Gorlice
X
Kamianna, Grybów
X
Zlockie, Nowy Sącz
X
Florynka, Grybów
X
Ożenna, Jasło
Wierchomla Wielka, Nowy Sącz
X
Hańczowa, Gorlice
X
X
Piorunka, Grybów
Andrzejówka, Nowy Sącz
X
Roztoka Wielka, Nowy Sącz
Grab, Jasło
X
Pielgrzymka, Jasło
X
X
Veľký Sulín, Spiš
n/a
n/a
Data includes residents of Fell Township (Simpson) who were members of the parishes in
Simpson.
The makeup of the Simpson community, in terms of villages of origin, had significant
commonality with all the other communities in this study. The starkest difference was that
the village having the largest number of natives was in the Prešov Region. Otherwise, there
was a general predominance of Kachkovskii reading rooms in the villages the settlers had
left. We might expect the Old-Ruthenian or Russophile orientation to have a strong
foundation in the Simpson community.
Influential Clergy & Fraternal Organizations – Simpson, Pennsylvania
Main fraternals:
Greek Catholic Union (2 lodges)
ROCMAS (2 lodges)
Lubov (4 lodges)
Minor fraternals: Ukrainian National Association (1 lodge - membership entirely Ukrainian)
Ukrainian Fraternal Association (2 lodges)
Community Leaders
Name
Iakov Markovych
Konstantyn Merena
Petro Smetana
Petro Baisa
RBO
ROCMAS
ROCMAS, Lubov
RBO
Clergy (through World War II) – Greek Catholic only
Period
Priest
Resident?
1888
Ivan Volians’kyi
no
1888
Nykolai Zubrytskŷi
no
1889-1890
Konstantyn Andrukhovych no
1891
Havriyl Vislotskŷi
no
1891-1897
Teofan Obushkevych
no
(from Olyphant)
1897-1902
Teofan Obushkevych
no
(from Mayfield)
1902-1904
Jan Olszewski
yes
1904-1906
Teofan Obushkevych
?
1906
Mykhal Mitro
yes
1906-1911
Vladymyr Obushkevych
yes
1911-1913
Dmytro Khomiak
yes
1913-1914
Fylymon Kysil’ovs’kyi
yes
1914
Lev Chapel’s’kyi
yes
1914-1915
Iosyf Bernats’kyi
yes
1915-1918
Vasyl’ Zholdak
yes
1918-1919
Dmytro Khomiak
yes
1919
B. Budnyk
yes
1919-1921
Mefodii Nasveshchuk
yes
1921-1922
Vasyl’ Hryvniak
yes
1922-1923
Oleksandr Pelens’kyi
yes
1923-1925
Dmytro Kryshka
yes
1925-1931
Casimir Dudkowski
yes
1931-1936
Lavrentii Zakrevs’kyi
yes
1936-1937
Vasyl’ Zholdak
yes
1937-1950
Mefodii Nasveshchuk
yes
Office
lodge secretary
lodge president
lodge president, controller
supreme council, lodge secretary,
businessman
Ethnicity
Ukrainian
Rusyn
Ukrainian
Rusyn
Rusyn
Orientation
Ukrainian
Hung./Rusyn
Ukrainian
Hung./Rusyn
Old-Ruth./Russ.
Rusyn
Old-Ruth./ Russ.
Polish
Rusyn
Rusyn
Rusyn
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
?
Ukr/Russ.?
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Polish?
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukr/Russ.?
Old-Ruthenian
Old-Ruth./ Russ.
Hung./Rusyn
?
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
?
?
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
?
?
Ukrainian
Ukrainian
?
The Brotherhood of Saint Basil was established in 1892, and in the course of ten years it
made a transition in its fraternal affiliation from the GCU to the RBO. Since the Simpson
community did not have a church of its own, the Brotherhood was the overwhelmingly
dominant unifier of the community. Although Simpson was among the oldest Rusyn
settlements in Pennsylvania, the community did not establish its own church in the town until
1904. Affiliated most closely with the Mayfield church until then, it is perhaps natural that
the Simpson community would establish an Orthodox parish, since the Mayfield parish
entered the Orthodox Church in 1902. But the community became divided when they
resolved to establish their own church in Simpson. A “religious struggle,” as it was described
in the history of the original St. Basil’s lodge of the RBO (“Bratstvo sv. Vasiliia Velikoho” in
Dzvonchik 54-55), temporarily broke the unity of the community. One faction established a
Russian Orthodox parish, also named for Saint Basil the Great, and formed a new RBO
lodge, and the other faction, which remained with the original lodge, chartered a Greek
Catholic parish named for Saints
Peter and Paul. It is notable that the
Orthodox Church’s cornerstone was
laid on September 18, 1904 and the
Greek Catholic church’s charter was
issued on September 19.
The Saints Peter and Paul Greek
Catholic parish showed an early
inclination towards the OldRuthenian or Russophile position
The 1905 cornerstone of SS. Peter and Paul Greek Catholic Church,
when in 1910 it was among the
“Russkaia Gr. Kaf. Tserkov’”/ “Russian Gr. Cath. Church”.
“Greek Catholic Russian (Galician)”
parishes that, while not sending a delegate to the congress of Uhro-Rusyn Greek Catholic
Parishes in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, would agree to the decisions of the church congress
(Protokol [Zapisnica], 5).
Within the Greek Catholic parish, there were three primary groupings. The largest group was
composed of those who considered themselves “Galicians,” who were from the Lemko
Region. The second largest group were the “Uhorshchane,” those who had come from
Hungary, namely the village of Habura in Zemplín County and a few from Sulin in Spiš
County. The term “Haburchane” was also used to refer generally to the Subcarpathian
segment of parishioners (Interview with John Onufrak). Both these groups were well
represented in the RBO and GCU lodges. The third group, smallest in number, were those
who considered themselves Ukrainians. These people were members of the UNA lodge in
Simpson, and it is interesting to note that the 1944 history of this lodge counts forty
Ukrainian families in Simpson from the counties of Zbarazh, Kolomyia, Ternopil’, and
Przemyśl. Unlike the histories of virtually every other UNA lodge in Pennsylvania
communities, no mention was made of the huge number of Lemko Rusyns or the Rusyns
from Hungary, nor were they included in the count (Myshuha 733). What were the factors by
which the Rusyns did not accept a Ukrainian identity, but even Ukrainians themselves in the
town did not consider those people to be Ukrainians? Religion, the presence of a Greek
Catholic parish under Ukrainian jurisdiction, did not seem at all to be an influence in
Simpson. Most likely it was the fifteen years the community was not denominationally
divided, plus the influence of the Old-Ruthenian and Russophile clergy in Mayfield.
The local Rusyn community, while
divided on religious grounds, was
united in spirit in an ethnonational sense
(“Bratstvo sv. Vasiliia Velikoho”).
Parishioners of both churches were
members of the Russian American
Patriotic Club in town. Colloquially, the
people of Simpson would refer to both
parishes as “the Russian church,” even
though Sts. Peter and Paul Greek
Catholic Church was officially
Ukrainian Catholic (Interview with
Traditional Rusyn culture was maintained in the Greek Catholic
Mary Onufrak). Even today, the Russian
parish despite its affiliation with the Ukrainian Catholic Church.
Brotherhood Organization’s St. Basil’s
Male parishioners continued the particularly Subcarpathian Rusyn
lodge is still active in the parish, and
“iaslychkary” dress and custom of house-to-house Christmas
caroling as late as the 1970s.
parishioners, upon hearing of my study
of their parish’s history, encouraged me
to “do our Russian people proud!” Although both Orthodox and Greek Catholic segments of
this Rusyn community have consistently referred to themselves as Russians, even the St.
Basil Russian Orthodox Church resisted cultural Russification to a greater degree than did
some other Russian Orthodox Rusyn communities. Parish plays were presented with
parishioners in authentic Lemko Rusyn folk dress rather than Ukrainian or Russian costumes,
and many of the native liturgical chant melodies from Galicia were retained, unlike many
other Orthodox parishes where the music was replaced entirely with Russian choral music.
Though both parishes were primarily Russophile in orientation, even the St. Basil’s Russian Orthodox Church
resisted complete cultural russification. Parishioners wore their native traditional Lemko dress for the 1941
performance of an “Old Country Wedding.”
The Greek Catholic parish persists in its
Russophile, or at least generally nonUkrainian perspective. On the occasion
of its 100th anniversary in 2005, the
parish still retained the name “Greek
Catholic Church” rather than “Ukrainian
Catholic Church” and in fact is the only
parish in the Ukrainian Catholic Church
in the United States to still do so. Its
centennial history booklet referred not to
any national identity but only geographic
origin: “…newcomers began settling in
the town of Simpson… Many came from
Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia,
while others left their homes in the
Ukraine and the southwestern part of the
Carpathian Mountain Region” (100th
Jubilee Celebration 23).
Primary Clergy Orientation: Old-Ruthenian, Russian;
later Ukrainian
Primary Fraternal Orientation: Russian, Rusyn
Primary Community Orientation: Russian
Cover of the 2005 centennial booklet of SS. Peter and Paul
parish.
Conclusion
In terms of religious denomination, the five communities have had different histories. Only
one, Shamokin, never suffered a schism and to this day remains a Greek Catholic parish as it
was founded. The oldest parish, Shenandoah, had a minor schism. Olyphant, the largest
community, divided twice, resulting in a small Russian Orthodox parish and a more
significant parallel Greek Catholic parish (of Russian orientation), which eventually also
became Orthodox, leaving the original Greek Catholic community still the largest of the five
analyzed here. The Mayfield community converted en masse to Orthodoxy, leaving no Greek
Catholic presence in the town whatsoever. The Simpson community, existing for fifteen
years without its own church, formed two separate churches within days of each other, one
Greek Catholic and one Russian Orthodox, but this did not divide the community on regional
grounds, ethnically or ideologically. The largest Greek Catholic parishes, Shamokin and
Olyphant, also had the strongest Ukrainian orientation, although overall, the orientation of
the Olyphant parish, with its larger Subcarpathian Rusyn membership and strong nonUkrainian fraternals, is decidedly mixed. The presence of two Russian-oriented Rusyn
churches in the same community could also account for the polarization of identities within
the original parish between the Russophile or Rusyn camps and the Ukrainian.
We have seen that in America emigrants from a single Rusyn village living in different
communities did not necessarily follow the same course of ethnonational identity
development. The need for further study of the complex events of this history is clear. What
was the implication of membership in a particular fraternal society for a person’s own
ethnonational identity? Could one presume that membership in the UNA was an indicator
that such a person considered himself to be Ukrainian? Could membership in the RBO be
reason enough to suppose that a person was a Russophile? There are many cases of
individuals who were members of both organizations, and perhaps other fraternals as well.
What did a person’s educational background and social standing contribute to the direction in
which his ethnonational identity developed? Another useful course of research could be to
trace the parallel development of ethnonational identity in the European villages from which
these immigrants came. However, there is clear evidence showing the influence of clergy and
the activity of fraternal organizations on the course of ethnonational development in these
Rusyn communities in northeastern Pennsylvania. Taken together, these factors were more
significant than religious affiliation alone.
1
A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the Third Annual Conference of the
Association for the Study of Nationalities, Harriman Institute, Columbia University, New
York, NY, 18 Apr. 1998.
2
With the outbreak of World War I, hundreds of persons in the Lemko Region were arrested
by the Hapsburg authorities on suspicion of possible collaboration with the advancing tsarist
Russian Army.
3
Here it will be identified as RNS when discussing the early years of the organization (18941914) and as UNA elsewhere.
4
Information on reading rooms is from Shematyzm Vseho Klyra hreko-katolycheskoho
eparkhii soiedynenŷkh Peremyskoy, Sambôrskoy y Sianôtskoy na rôk vôd rozhd. Khr. 1909
and Shematyzm hreko-katolytskoho dukhoven’stva Apostol’skoï Administratsiï
Lemkovshchyny 1936.
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RECORDS
St. Michael Greek Catholic Church, Shenandoah, Pennsylvania
Register of baptisms, 1884-1923
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Register of deaths, 1886-1933
St. Nicholas Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania
SS. Cyril and Methodius Greek Catholic Church, Olyphant, Pennsylvania
Register of marriages, 1891-1895, 1901-1931
All Saints Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, Olyphant, Pennsylvania
St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, Olyphant, Pennsylvania
St. John the Baptist Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, Mayfield, Pennsylvania
Register of baptisms, 1902-1914, 1925-1929
St. Basil Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, Simpson, Pennsylvania
Greek Catholic Union of the U.S.A.
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Russian Brotherhood Organization
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Schuylkill County, Pottsville, Pennsylvania: Naturalization Records
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St. Basil’s Russian Orthodox Church, Simpson
75th Anniversary Diamond Jubilee 1904-1979
St. John the Baptist Russian Orthodox Church, Mayfield
100th Anniversary 1891-1991
St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church, Shenandoah
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St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, Olyphant
Sts. Peter and Paul Greek Catholic Church, Simpson
100th Jubilee Celebration 1905-2005
Transfiguration Ukrainian Catholic Church, Shamokin
75th Anniversary Souvenir Book 1884-1959
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Mary (Baysa) Onufrak, March 5, 2006.
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The Influence of Clergy and Fraternal Organizations

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