Carpatho-Rusyn Saint Alexis Toth

Holy Father & Confessor Alexis of Wilkes-Barre - Father Alexis (Georgievich Toth) of Wilkes-Barre was a missionary priest, sent from his homeland in (Eperjes, now Presov in Zepes county) Slovakia as a Uniate, who, in order to serve and protect his flock in the United States in a hostile Latin environment, recognized the need to lead them in a return to their Orthodox Christian heritage. His feast day is celebrated on May 7th.

By this action Father Alexis Toth gained the distinction of being the first Uniate Greek Rite Catholic priest in America to lead his people in reunion with the Orthodox Church. Having been sent originally to America to be a missionary to the immigrants, Father Alexis, in his new role, was to fulfill his destiny as the missionary leading his people back to the Orthodox Church.

In December 1892 he evangelized the immigrants in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, preaching and enlightening them about their social and religious future in America. In 1902, he received the parish of St. John the Baptist in Mayfield, Pennsylvania, into the Orthodox fold. Elevated to the rank of protopresbyter, he was in the forefront, over the years until his death, of receiving parishes from the Unia into Orthodoxy. Through his efforts over 20,000 Carpatho-Russian and Galician uniates were re-united with the Orthodox Church.

Video about St. Maksym Sandovich of Carpatho-Rus

Carpatho-Rusyn Saint Holy Martyr Maxim of Gorlice

Holy Martyr Maxim of Gorlice – Our righteous father Maxim Sandovich (also Maximus) of Gorlice, Protomartyr of the Lemko people, was a Carpatho-Rusyn hieromartyr who, in practicing his Orthodox faith as a priest under the rule of the Unia, as enforced by the Roman Catholic Austrian imperial government, was arrested and then executed for his faith in August 1914.

Maxim Sandovich was born into the family of a prosperous farmer, Timothy Sandovich, and his wife, Christina, in the village of Zdyna, Galicia. His father served as the choir director in the local parish. After finishing four years of study at the local high school in Novy Sanch, Maxim crossed the border into Russia to become a novice at the Pochaev Lavra in Volynia. Subsequently, he attended the Orthodox seminary in Zhitomir. Completing his studies he married a young Orthodox woman, Pelagia, and was ordained as a deacon and then to the priesthood before returning to his home.

It was not very long before the Austrian militia discovered his Orthodox pastoral and missionary service as he was denounced by a Ukrainian teacher by the name of Leos, in 1912. Immediately the Austrian gendarmes put Fr. Maxim in chains and sent him to prison in Lvov. There he was held for two years without a trial or inquest while being abused horribly and living in equally bad conditions. Then as World War I was to begin he was released for lack of evidence.

Fr. Maxim's stay at his home in the village Hrab was to prove to be short as the first shots of the war heralded a wave of new repressions of the Orthodox Carpatho-Russians. The militia, on August 4, 1914, arrested the whole family of the young priest and dragged them off in shackles to the prison in Gorlice. Fr. Maxim, his father, mother, brother, and wife were forced to travel on foot to the prison while being prodded by the bayonets of the gendarmes. In prison they were placed in separate cells and denied the opportunity to see each other.

Then, on Sunday, August 6, while at prayer at the dawn of the new day, Fr. Maxim could hear the noise of a crowd beyond the walls of their prison. The noise was accompanied finally by a load thud as a moustachioed German captain, named Dietrich, from Linz entered the prison grounds, accompanied by two soldiers and four gendarmes. The captain was known to be a cruel and sadistic person. This group was followed by the prison wardens, some civil servants, officers, and a group of curious women led by Pan Mitshka, the leader of the Gorlice District. As silence fell, the order was given to the warden to bring Fr. Maxim from his cell.

With that order two soldiers led the twenty-eight-year-old Orthodox priest from the prison. Fr. Maxim suddenly realized where they were taking him and humbly and with dignity asked, "Be so good as not to hold me. I will go peacefully wherever you wish." Even the taunting of the crowd did not affect his courageous bearing as he walked calmly and with a measured gait to the fateful wall, as befitting a follower of Christ.

Captain Dietrich ripped Fr. Maxim's cross from his chest, tossing it on the ground where he trampled it with his feet. As the captain bound Fr. Maxim's hands behind his back and blind folded him, Fr. Maxim exclaimed that it was not necessary as he had no intention of running away. But, the "brave" captain laughed and then marked with white chalk a line on Fr. Maxim's black cassock as a target for the riflemen. In the silence of the moment as the executioners were arranged, Pan Mitshka read the death sentence. With a short command from the captain, the saber was raised and lowered. With that action, shots echoed through the prison.

Fr. Maxim's voice could then be heard, first strongly but diminishing as he spoke, "Long live the Russian people." Then, leaning against the wall, "Long live the Holy Orthodox Faith." And, finally and barely audible, "Long live Slavdom." As his powerful frame slid down the wall, a gendarme ended Fr. Maxim's suffering by firing three shots from his pistol into Fr. Maxim's head.

Through all this Fr. Maxim's father and mother watched his heroic death in silence and as the final shots echoed through the prison his wife fell senselessly to the ground. Thus died Fr. Maxim Sandovich, a martyr for Orthodox Christianity.

His feast days are celebrated on August 6 (his repose) and September 6 (his glorification).

Carpatho-Rusyn Saint Alexis of Khust

Holy Father & Confessor Alexis of Khust (Hust) – Our venerable and God-bearing Father Alexis Kabaliuk, Apostle of Carpatho-Russia (August 30, 1877 – December 2, 1947), was a leader of the Carpathian Orthodox in the early 20th century. His feast days are celebrated on October 21 and December 2. There is an akathist written for him.

Alexander Ivanovich Kabaliuk was born into a Greek Catholic (Uniate) family but converted to Orthodoxy as a young man. He became an archimandrite and played a major role in reviving Orthodoxy in Transcarpathia in the early 20th century, and his missionary activities were persecuted by the Austrian-Hungarian authorities, who suspected Orthodox believers of pro-Russian sympathies. On the eve of World War I, Kabalyuk was sentenced to jail, and following his release he was one of the leaders of the Carpathian Orthodox until his death in 1947. He is considered an Orthodox hero and was glorified in 2001 by the Church of Ukraine (Moscow Patriarchate) as the first Subcarpathian Russian Orthodox saint.

His relics are at the St. Nicolas monastery in the village of Iza in the Ukraine.

The Synaxis of Carpatho-Rusyn Saints

On August 28, 2005, Metropolitan Nicholas of the American Carpatho- Russian Orthodox Diocese of the USA (Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople) proclaimed that starting in 2006 the Second Sunday after Pentecost will be commemorated as the Synaxis (Gathering) of the Carpatho-Rusyn Saints of the Holy Orthodox Faith.

On the Orthodox Church calendar, the first Sunday after Pentecost is dedicated to All Saints of the Orthodox Church. The Kondak for that Sunday tells us: "The universe offers Thee the God-bearing martyrs as the first-fruits of great creation, O Lord and Creator. Through the Theotokos and their prayers establish Thy Church in peace."

The Second Sunday after Pentecost is designated in some calendars as the Sunday of the Regional Saints. So it is appropriate that the Carpatho- Rusyn saints are commemorated on this day.

The twelve Saints who are remembered are:

1. St. Maxim of Gorlich. He was martyred in 1914 for his priestly witness against Austro-Hungarian oppression.

2. St. Ludmilla. Martyred in 926. She was the grandmother of King Wenceslaus.

3. St. Procopius of Sazava. He built several monasteries in the 11th century which subsequently became centers of Orthodox Christianity when the Church came under severe governmental opposition.

4. St. Rostislav. As prince of Moravia in the 9th century, SS Cyril and Methodius were encouraged to begin their missionary work with the Slavic people.

5. and 6. St. Cyril and his brother St. Methodius who established the Orthodox faith and were the first Orthodox witnesses to the Slav nations. They lived around the year 863.

7. St. Wenceslaus. The king of the Czech and Moravian lands known for his charity and promoting of Christianity among his subjects. He was killed in 929. He was the subject of the well-known (Christmas song "Good King Wenceslaus." Sometimes identified as Vagislav in martyrologies.

8. St. Alexis of Wilkes-Barre. He was instrumental in evangelizing many in the early 20th century.

9. St. Moses the Hungarian. He was a slave for many years. He entered a monastery in the eleventh century. He endured much for his Christian faith while a slave.

10. St. Gorazd. He was the bishop of Moravia and Sleizska. During World War II, he harbored members of the resistance in the Orthodox cathedral in Prague. He was executed by the Nazi.

11. St. Alexis of Khust. He led many Carpathian people to the Orthodox faith about the same time as did St. Alexis of Wilkes-Barre. He was persecuted by the Nazi during World War II.

12. St. Ephrem of New Torzhok

Over the next few weeks I will be exloring more about all of the Carpatho-Rusyn Saints, their lives and their service to the Carpatho-Rusyn People and the Orthodox Church.