Pelesh, Yuliian

Pelesh, Yuliian [Пелеш, Юліян; Peleš, Julijan], b 15 January 1843 in Smerekovets, Jasło circle, Galicia, d 22 April 1896 in Lypovets, Sianik county, Galicia. Uniate bishop and church historian. After graduating from the Vienna Theological Seminary and being ordained (1867) he completed a TH D in Vienna and was appointed prefect of the Greek Catholic Theological Seminary in Lviv (1870). He was a professor at the Peremyshl Greek Catholic Theological Seminary (1872) and then curate of Saint Barbara's Church in Vienna and rector of the Ruthenian boarding school there (1874–83). In 1885 he was consecrated as the first bishop of Stanyslaviv eparchy, and in 1891 he became bishop of Peremyshl (see Peremyshl eparchy). Pelesh was one of the initiators of the Lviv Synod of 1891. In addition to textbooks on pastoral theology and catechism, he published Geschichte der Union der ruthenischen Kirche mit Rom von den üaltesten Zeiten bis auf die Gegenwart (2 vols, 1878–80).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]