Khomyshyn, Hryhorii

Khomyshyn, Hryhorii [Хомишин, Григорій; Xomyšyn, Hryhorij], b 25 March 1867 in Hadynkivtsi, Kopychyntsi county, Galicia, d 17 January 1948 in Kyiv. Ukrainian Catholic bishop and church leader. He studied theology in Lviv and at Vienna University (D Th 1899) before serving as rector of the Greek Catholic Theological Seminary in Lviv (1902–4). In 1904 he was consecrated bishop of Stanyslaviv eparchy. As bishop he instituted significant reforms in religious and community life in his eparchy. He founded a theological seminary in 1906 and established the quarterly Dobryi Pastyr for priests in 1931. Khomyshyn also created a network of reading rooms called Skala, and encouraged charitable and relief work and the activity of various monastic orders and religious organizations. Politically, he supported the Ukrainian Catholic People's party and its weekly Nova zoria. For some time he also supported the pro-Polish policy of normalization. As a hierarch of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic church, Khomyshyn was a ‘Westerner’ who favored the Latinization of the church rite. In 1916 he attempted to introduce the Gregorian calendar, which provoked great opposition from the faithful, and in 1921 he decreed obligatory celibacy for priests in his eparchy. Arrested in 1945 by the Soviet authorities, he was sentenced in March 1946 to 10 years’ forced labor for ‘anti-people’s activity.’ He died in a prison in Kyiv.

Vasyl Markus

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]