Sebastian Stepan Sabol, O.S.B.M. (Ukrainian: Севастіян Степан Сабол; December 7, 1909, Prešov, Czechoslovakia – February 20, 2003, Warren, Michigan, USA[1]) was a Ukrainian Basilian priest, poet and writer.
Sebastian Sabol | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Church | Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 26 August 1934 by Pavel Peter Gojdič |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 7 December 1909 |
| Died | 20 February 2003 (aged 93) Warren, Michigan USA |
| Denomination | Greek Catholic |
| Parents | Michael Sabol Mariya Sabol |
| Occupation | Basilian priest |
| Alma mater | Pontifical Gregorian University |
Biography
editSebastian Stepan Sabol joined the Basilian monastic order in 1924. He went on to study at Mukachevo Saint Nicholas's Monastery Chernecha Hora, Mukacheve, the Krekhiv Monastery, the Lavriv Saint Onuphrius's Monastery, and the monastery in Dobromyl. He was ordained to the priesthood in Prešov in 1934 and in 1935 completed work for the licentiate of theology at the Gregorian University in Rome.[2] He was prefect for students at the Uzhhorod Theological Seminary and taught at a gymnasium in Uzhhorod, also editing the Misionar (1937–1938) and Blahovisnyk (1939), monthlies for the eparchy. Arrested in 1939 by the Hungarians in Khust, he was deported to the Prešov Region of Slovakia. There, on the basis of his founding four new Basilian monasteries and a novitiate, the Basilian province of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius was created in 1948. In December 1948 he fled to Austria to escape the Czechoslovak Communist regime. He was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment by a Prague court, as an "American spy, the chief leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, and an enemy of the people". He proceeded to studies at the Gregorian University in Rome, earning a doctorate in theology in 1950.[3]
He then emigrated to the United States where he became pastor of St. John the Baptist parish in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. He later served in Bedford, Ohio, and Hamtramck, Michigan,[4] before settling in Warren, Michigan where he remained until his death in 2003, at the age of 93.[2] He had also served as superior of the Transcarpathian branch of the Basilians monastic order.[3][5] Sabol is also remembered as baptizing Jews to save them from the Holocaust.[6]
In 1928 Sabol began writing poetry, using the pseudonym Zoreslav.[3] In October 2009, an All-Ukrainian Literary Prize was named after Zoreslav by philanthropist Stanislav Arzhevitin and the Transcarpathian organization of the National Union of Writers of Ukraine. It is awarded to writers and scholars for works on Ukrainian history and culture, the literature of Transcarpathia, and the legacy of S. Sabol-Zoreslav.[7]
Works
editPoetry
edit- Zi sertsem u rukakh (With My Heart in My Hands), 1933
- Sontse i blakyt’ (The Sun and the Sky), 1936
- Z rannikh vesen (From Early Springtimes, 1963
Books
edit- Katolytstvo i Pravoslaviie (Catholicism and Orthodoxy), 1955
- Vid Uhors'koï Rusy do Karpats'koï Ukraïny (From Hungarian Ruthenia to Carpatho-Ukraine), 1956, using the pseudonym Yurii Borzhava
- Holhota Hreko-katolyts'koï Tserkvy v Chekho-Slovachchyni (Golgotha of the Greek Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia), 1978.[3]
References
edit- ^ Помер найстарший василіянин обох Америк. Місіонар (березень 2003): p. 95.
- ^ a b "::: Zoe.sk - E-zine Prešovskej eparchie - Osobnosti gréckokatolíckej cirkvi :::". www.zoe.sk. Retrieved 2019-06-22.
- ^ a b c d "Sabol, Sevastiian-Stepan". Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
- ^ Wichar, Stephen M. (June 26, 1983). "4,000 hold famine memorial march in downtown Detroit" (PDF). The Ukrainian Weekly. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
- ^ "The Uniontown Otpust - A Time of Spiritual Graces and Personal Remembrances". The Byzantine Forum. Retrieved 2019-06-22.
- ^ "Ukrainians Saving Jews during the Holocaust". The Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
- ^ "Севастіян Сабол – Зореслав: чернець, поет, дослідник". risu.org.ua. Retrieved 2019-06-22.
External links
edit
- Sabol, Sevastiian-Stepan at Encyclopedia of Ukraine
- Ukrainias assisting Jews during the Holocaust. Excerpt from the Interview with father Sebastian Sabol The Ukrainian Canadian research & documentation centre
- Володимир Мороз. Севастіян Сабол — Зореслав: чернець, поет, дослідник. Risu, 4 April 2016 (in Ukrainian)
- Works on Diasporiana.org.ua