Nykyta Budka. Toronto. 1913. Photo ─ Walt Dixon. Oseredok
Bishop Nykyta Budka institutionalized and legalized the independence of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Canada.
Maryna Hrymych, Ukrainian historian and writer
Nykyta Budka was a bishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the first Ukrainian Catholic bishop of Canada, a theologian, and an educator.
He was born into a peasant family on June 07, 1877, in the village of Dobromirka in Ternopil region. In 1897, he graduated from the Ternopil Gymnasium. He continued his studies at Lviv University, the School of Theology (Innsbruck, Austria), and the University of Vienna. He worked as a professor at the Lviv Seminary of the UGCC. In 1907, in Lviv, he organized a branch of the Austrian Society of St. Raphael to protect Ukrainian emigrants from Galicia and Bukovyna. He cared for Ukrainian emigrants in Austria, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In 1912, he was ordained a Lviv bishop to care for Greek Catholics in Canada. From late 1912 to 1927, he worked in Canada and obtained citizenship. He was active among migrants from Ukraine and supported turning Canada into a “Ukrainian Piedmont.” He laid the foundation for constructing and developing the UGCC in Canada. In 1914, in Yorkton, N. Budka convened a Council of Ukrainian clergy, which adopted the “Rules of the Church” that determined the organization of the Canadian Council of Ukrainian Churches. In 1919, he founded the Ukrainian People’s Council in Winnipeg.
He organized church schools to teach Ukrainian children in their native language. He published church literature. In 1925, he co-founded the St. Raphael Society for the Care of Ukrainian Immigrants in Canada in Winnipeg.
In 1928, he returned to Lviv. In 1946, he was convicted on a political charge. He served his sentence in a camp in Karaganda (Kazakhstan), where he died on October 06, 1949. His burial place is unknown. Rehabilitated (1991), beatified by the Pope (2001).
