July 2001

Father Kowalyk, the first Redemptorist to earn the martyr’s palm, was born on August 18, 1903 in Ivanchiv Horishny near Ternopil in what is today Western Ukraine. As a child he already gave evidence of deep piety, and his life’s ambition was to become a priest.

This dream was to be realised as he was accepted into the Redemptorist Congregation, professed on August 28, 1926 and ordained on August 9, 1932. He was gifted with a beautiful and distinctive singing voice. His joyful disposition won him the affection of his confrères and of the faithful. People flocked to hear him as he preached the eternal truths of salvation at the missions of the Redemptorist fathers in Galicia.

Subsequent to the short-lived Nazi-Communist ‘Pact of Steel’, Galicia was occupied by the Red Army for the first time. The Soviets did not proceed immediately to the liquidation of the Greek Catholic Church, but rather set up a network of spies, infiltrators and informers in order to determine which bishops and priests were its leaders and to prepare for their liquidation by creating a climate of fear. Given Fr Kowalyk’s popularity as a preacher, and his courageous defiance of the new régime, it was inevitable that he attracted its singular hatred from the very beginning. Confrères and friends warned him of the danger and asked him to be more cautious with his expressions, but he answered simply: “If it is God’s will, I am ready to die, but I cannot be quiet in the face of such injustice.” He continued to strengthen his people in their Faith and their attachment to the Apostolic See until his desire to become a martyr was realised on December 20, 1940. On that day he was arrested in church by the secret police during the celebration of the novena to the Mother of Perpetual Succour. After this, information on Fr Kowalyk’s sufferings in prison is scarce. During the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the Communists abandoned the territory occupied in 1939. Before fleeing Lviv they massacred thousands of their prisoners in the city. Some of those fortunate enough to escape the slaughter recounted that Fr Zenon Kowalyk had been amongst the victims. Up until the very last, they said, he had steadfastly refused to renounce his Faith, and had continued his priestly ministry by preaching, hearing confessions and even conducting the traditional May devotions in honour of Our Lady. He had helped numerous fellow prisoners to remain faithful unto death and finally his own hour had come. In their diabolic hatred of Our Lord and His priest, the Communists crucified Fr Kowalyk on the wall of the prison with torments too horrible to relate, but which he bore with the fortitude of the martyrs whose reward he now shares.

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