Verhun, Petro

Verhun, Petro [Вергун, Петро], b 18 November 1890 in Horodok (Lviv region), Galicia, d 7 February 1957 in Angar, Krasnoiarsk krai, RSFSR. Ukrainian Catholic priest. He studied theology in Prague and completed a D TH at the Ukrainian Free University (1926) before being ordained in 1927 in Lviv. That year he moved to Berlin to serve as pastor for Ukrainian Catholics throughout Germany, and in 1940 he became apostolic visitator there. For many years the only Ukrainian Catholic priest in Germany, he was an active preacher, published religious pamphlets, and issued a newsletter. Verhun was arrested by the Soviets in June 1945 and exiled to Siberia, where he was imprisoned until 1955. A biography, by P. Romanyshyn, was published in 1988.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]