Venerable Josyf Slipyj

Josyf Slipyi (Ukrainian: Йосиф Сліпий, born as Ukrainian: Йосиф Коберницький-Дичковський, romanized: Yosyf Kobernyts'kyy-Dychkovs'kyy; 17 February 1892 – 7 September 1984) was a Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. Josyf Slipyj's father, Joannes (Ivan) Slipyj, was born 17 February 1892 in Zazdrist (Polish: Zazdrość) into a family of local Ukrainian farmers. His mother was Anastasia Dychkovska (born 27 January 1850), the daughter of Roman Dychkovski and Barbara Janisiewicz, also from Zazdrist. Both clans were well rooted in the village and can be traced there as far back as existing records allow. Interestingly, but not uncommon, one of Cardinal Josyf's great grandfathers, Adalberti Slominski, was of the Roman Catholic (Latin) rite. Cardinal Slipyj's older sister, Francisca, was also baptized in the Latin rite by Rev. Martinus Serwacki on 17 February 1875. At the time the family was living at house #75, Zazdrist. Josyf Slipyj was born in the village of Zazdrist (Terebovlia povit), Galicia (in modern Ternopil Oblast), then a crownland of Austria-Hungary. Unlike most Ukrainian Catholic priests at the time, Josyf Slipy did not come from a sacerdotal family, which was considered an elite, educated caste among Ukrainians, but had common roots instead. As a teen Josyf studied at the gymnasium in Ternopil and then at the Lviv Greek-Catholic Seminary and Innsbruck University in Austria, before being ordained a priest on 30 June 1917. From 1920 to 1922, he studied in Rome at the Pontifical Oriental Institute, the Collegio Angelico (Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum), and the Pontifical Gregorian University. He returned to Lwów (Lviv), by then part of Second Polish Republic. After a short pastoral assignment, in 1922 Slipyi became a professor of dogmatic theology at the Lviv Holy Spirit Seminary. In 1926 he became the rector of the seminary and actively participated in its development.