Saint Ivan Ziatyk

Ivan Ziatyk CSsR (Ukrainian: Іван Зятик, pronounced [iˈwɑn ˈzʲɑtɪk]; December 26, 1899 – May 17, 1952) was a Ukrainian Catholic priest, Redemptorist, and lecturer, considered to be a martyr by the Catholic Church. Ziatyk was born on December 26, 1899, the day after Gregorian Christmas, in the hamlet of Odrekhova near Sanok in southeastern Poland. He and his older brother Mykhailo were born to Maria and Stefan Ziatyk, who were rural peasants who lived in poverty. The family were Ukrainian Greek Catholics. His father Stefan died when Ivan was 14 years old. In his late teenage years, Ziatyk decided to prepare for the Catholic priesthood. In 1919, he entered the Ukrainian Catholic seminary in Przemyśl where he studied Christian spirituality, philosophy, theology together with the history and liturgy of the Byzantine rite of Catholic Church. He was ordained to the diaconate and then priesthood in 1923. From 1925 until 1935, Ziatyk worked the seminary as a prefect and lecturer. In addition to his role as the spiritual director for seminarians, he lectured in dogmatic theology and catechetics. He also performed a similar role at the local girls' gymnasium. Despite resistance from this superiors in the Church, on June 15, 1935, Ziatyk began his novitiate with the Redemptorists. Although he was already an ordained priest, he was required to spend a year in the novitiate, located in Hołosko, a town just outside Lwów (now Holosko, a suburb of Lviv, Ukraine), making his first profession in August 1936. During his first year as a Redemptorist, Ziatyk lived in the monastery dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Stanisławów (now Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine). However, in autumn of the following year, he moved back to Lwów, to support a monastery there whose director had been absent, serving as both assistant superior and treasurer. In 1938, he was appointed to teach dogmatic theology at the newly opened seminary back in Hołosko.