Eastern Rite - Our Venerable Father David of Thessalonica, and of the Passing into Eternal Life (1941) of Blessed Mykola Konrad, Blessed Volodymyr Pryjma and Blessed Andriy Ishchak, New Martyrs.

Today is the Feasts of Our Venerable Father David of Thessalonica, and of the Passing into Eternal Life (1941) of Blessed Mykola (Nicholas) Konrad, Pastor of Stradch, Founder of “Obnova,” Professor of the Lviv Theological Academy, of Blessed Volodymyr Pryjma, Cantor of Stradch and of Blessed Andrii Ishchak, Pastor of Sykhiv, Professor of the Lviv Theological Academy, New Martyrs.

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Saint David of Thessalonica pursued asceticism at the monastery of the holy Martyrs Theodore and Mercurius. Inspired by the example of the holy stylites, he lived in an almond tree in constant prayer, keeping strict fast, and enduring heat and cold. He remained there for three years until an angel told him to come down.

St David received from God the gift of wonderworking, and he healed many from sickness. The holy ascetic gave spiritual counsel to all who came to him. Having attained to passionlessness, he was like an angel in the flesh, and he was able to take hot coals into his hands without harm. He died the year 540.

Troparion — Tone 8

The image of God was truly preserved in you, O Father, / for you took up the Cross and followed Christ. / By so doing you taught us to disregard the flesh for it passes away / but to care instead for the soul, since it is immortal. / Therefore your spirit, venerable David, rejoices with the angels.

Kontakion — Tone 2

We bless you, servant of God David; / you are like the angels and estranged from earthly things. / Now you rejoice in divine gifts. / Grant us to share in them also, O holy and righteous Father!

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Hieromartyr Bld Mykola Konrad was born on 16 May 1876 in the village of Strusiv in Ternopil Region. He studied philosophy and theology in Rome, where he defended his dissertation and received his doctorate. He was ordained a priest in 1899. He taught for a time in high schools in Berezhany and Terebovlya. In 1929 he founded Obnova ("Renewal") the first communion of Ukrainian Catholic students, and in 1930 he was asked by Metropolitan Andriy Sheptytsky to teach at the Lviv Theological Academy. He was then appointed parish priest in the village of Stradch.

On 26 June 1941 he was murdered along with Volodymyr Pryjma, in a forest near Stradch as they were returning from the house of a sick woman who had requested the sacrament of reconciliation.

He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 27 June 2001

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Bld Martyr Volodymyr Pryjma was a Ukrainian Greek Catholic Cantor and martyr.

Bld Volodomyr was born on 17 July 1906 in the village of Stradch, Yavoriv District. He graduated from a school for cantors, which was at that time under the care of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. He was made the cantor and choir director in the local village church in Stradch. Pryjma was married with two young children.

On 26 June 1941, four days after the start of the German-Soviet War, agents of the Soviet Union's NKVD mercilessly tortured and murdered him, along with Mykola Konrad, in a forest near Stradch as they were returning from the house of a sick woman who had requested the sacrament of reconciliation. His body had not been found until a week after the murder. He had been stabbed multiple times in the chest with a bayonet.

He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 27 June 2001.

On Saturday, November 2nd 2019, Bld Volodymyr Pryjma's relics were placed Holy Eucharist Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral, New Westminster, British Columbia Canada.
Influence

Yurii Sakavronskyi in an interview recounted the martyrdom:

"Fr Konrad went with the holy sacraments to fulfill his sacred obligation, hearing a woman's confession in the neighboring village. He felt he had to go, though he was stopped. I know that they stopped him and said; 'Father, don't go. Look what's happening;the war has started, anything could happen.' He said that this was his sacred duty and that he had to go. He got dressed and left together with Volodymyr Pryjma, the cantor. They didn't come back. After a week, they were found there, murdered. People thought something was wrong. So they went to look for them and found them there. It was awful. The cantor's wife had two children. One was three, the other was four. Momma told how when they were found everyone was overcome by what they saw. The cantor was especially cut up, his chest stabbed with a bayonet many times."

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Hieromartyr Bld Andriy Ishchak was a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest and martyr.

Bld Andriy was born in the city of Mykolayiv in the Lviv Oblast. He studied theology at universities in Lviv (Ukraine) and Innsbruck (Austria). He received his doctorate of theology from the University of Innsbruck in 1914 and was ordained to the priesthood. He taught Dogmatic Theology and Canon Law at the Lviv Theological Academy from 1928, while serving as priest in the village of Sykhiv.

On 26 June 1941 he was killed in Sykhiv by soldiers of the retreating Soviet Army. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 27 June 2001.

Ivan Kuchytskyi recounts the events of Ishchak's death in his own testimony.

"As the war began, the priest was taken from Persenkivka, the neighbouring station. Sometime in the afternoon, they took him, detained him until the evening, then they let him go. My dad, because they knew each other well, told him: ' Father when they let you go, I would advise you to hide for a few days.' It was already clear that the Germans were coming and that the Bolsheviks would be fleeing. 'Hide yourself and we'll survive.' But the priest said: 'Ivan, the shepherd doesn't abandon his flock. And I can't leave my parishioners and conceal myself.' In two days, the military came and took him from his home. It was overgrown there with bushes, some distance from the parish, maybe half a kilometre. they brought him there and killed him. They shot him in the stomach and, and it looked like they also stabbed him with a knife."