Vorobkevych, Hryhorii

Vorobkevych, Hryhorii [Воробкевич, Григорій; Vorobkevyč, Hryhorij] (pseud: Naum Shram), b 10 January 1838 in Chernivtsi, d 24 November 1884 in Chernivtsi. Poet, priest, and community leader; brother of Sydir Vorobkevych. He graduated fom the Chernivtsi Orthodox Theological Seminary in 1860. He was ordained, and served as a pastor in Horoshivtsi (to 1867), Lviv (1867–70), and Toporivtsi (1881–4) and was also a spiritual adviser at the Chernivtsi seminary (from 1870), a catechist and teacher at the Chernivtsi Orthodox Realschule (from 1872), and an active member of the Ruska Rada society and of the Ruska Besida in Bukovyna. From 1868 on he published poems in Galician and Bukovynian periodicals (eg, the journal Pravda, Rodimyi listok). He wrote narrative poems about the Bohdan Khmelnytsky era, such as ‘Bohun,’ ‘Bohdan pido L'vovom’ (Bohdan [Khmelnytsky] at the Gates of Lviv), and ‘Berestechko’ (about the Battle of Berestechko), and patriotic and lyric poetry. He also translated from Russian into Ukrainian Mykola Kostomarov’s study of B. Khmelnytsky. An edition of his poetry appeared in Chernivtsi in 1904.

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