Panteleymon Shpylka
Reverend Father Panteleymon Shpylka | |
---|---|
Head of the Council of the Komancza Republic | |
In office 4 November 1918 – 23 January 1919 | |
Preceded by | Office created |
Succeeded by | Office abolished |
Parish priest of the St. Onuphrius Church in Wisłok Wyzhniy | |
In office 1917–1919 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Panteleymon Shpylka Пантелеймон Шпилька 20 October 1883 Austro-Hungarian Empire |
Died | 5 March 1950 Winnipeg, Canada | (aged 66)
Political party | Non-partisan |
Education | Major Greek-Catholic Theological Seminary in Przemyśl |
Profession | Cleric, Greek Catholic priest, politician |
Panteleymon Shpylka (Ukrainian: Пантелеймон Шпилька; 20 October 1883 – 5 March 1950) was a Ukrainian Greek Catholic clergyman. He was a co-founder and Head of the Council (Ukrainian: Голова Повітової Української Національної Ради) of the Komancza Republic, a short-lived microstate, an association of thirty-three Lemko villages, seated in Komańcza in eastern Lemkivshchyna from 4 November 1918 until 23 January 1919.
Early life[]
Fr. Shpylka was born in Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire in a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic family. He joined the Major Greek-Catholic Theological Seminary in Przemyśl, and after graduation and marriage, was ordained a priest on 15 March 1910, for the Eparchy of Przemyśl, Sambir and Sanok by Bishop Kostyantyn Chekhovych. In 1917 he was appointed as a parish priest in St. Onuphrius church in Wisłok Wyzhniy.[1]
Political career[]
In the autumn of 1918 Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed and was replaced by multiple successor states. In the village where Fr. Shpylka was a parish priest, began a popular movement. With his support was convened a meeting of the inhabitants of a closer villages. On 4 November 1918, more than 70 delegates from the surrounding villages came to the People's Assembly to Wisłok Wyzhniy. The delegates decided to joined a new proclaimed West Ukrainian People's Republic in Lviv, but of a distance and a war time was organised an Eastern Lemko Republic. Among other acts, also Fr. Shpylka was elected as a Head of the Council of the Republic.[2] Later, he went to neighbouring countries, trying to attract the military and financial resources necessary for the Republic's existence, but did not succeed on this ground.[3] When the army of another newly proclaimed state, Second Polish Republic, entered the territory of Komancza Republic, he avoided arrest, because he was in Czechoslovakia.
Life in emigration[]
Later years he spent as priest in Zakarpattia (1919–1944) and after the World War II he lived in a displaced persons camp in Regensburg, Germany, where worked as a priest and catechist among the Greek-Catholics (1944–1948). The last year of his life he spent in Canada, where served as an assistant priest in the St. Michael church in Dauphin, Manitoba.[1]
He died in Winnipeg on 5 March 1950.[1]
References[]
- ^ a b c Blazejowsky, Dmytro (1988). Ukrainian Catholic clergy in diaspora (1751–1988). Rome. p. 143.
- ^ Отець Пантелеймон Шпилька. Визвольні змагання східної Лемківщини в 1918 році (in Ukrainian) // Лемківський Календар на 1967 рік. — Торонто; Пассейк, 1967.
- ^ Богдан Прах. Участь греко–католицьких священиків Лемківщини у політичних подіях 1918–1919 рр. (in Ukrainian) // Гілея: науковий вісник, 2013. т.№ 73. С.25–27
- 1883 births
- 1950 deaths
- People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
- Ukrainian Austro-Hungarians
- Members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
- 20th-century Ukrainian politicians
- Canadian Eastern Catholics
- Ukrainian expatriates in Slovakia
- Ukrainian expatriates in Germany
- Ukrainian expatriates in Canada
- Ukrainian emigrants to Canada