Blessed Pavol Peter Gojdič

Pavel Peter Gojdič (also known as Pavol Gojdič or Peter Gojdič; 17 July 1888 — 17 July 1960), was a Rusyn Basilian monk and the eparch of the Slovak Greek Catholic Eparchy of Prešov. Following the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état, he was arrested by the StB, the secret police of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, and imprisoned on charges of high treason. Despite promises of immediate release if he would agree to become patriarch of the Orthodox Church in Czechoslovakia, Gojdič died at Leopoldov Prison as a prisoner of conscience in 1960. Following the 1989 Velvet Revolution, Gojdič was posthumously honoured by post-communist Czechoslovak president Václav Havel and beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2001. For his role in saving 1500 Jewish lives during the Holocaust in Slovakia, Bishop Gojdič was posthumously honoured as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 2007. Gojdič was born on 17 July 1888 at Ruské Pekľany (today part of Ľubovec in Slovakia), the third child of the Byzantine Catholic priest Stefan Gojdič; his mother's name was Anna Gerberyova. He received the name of Peter in baptism. Gojdič attended primary school at Cigelka, Bardejov and Prešov, finishing his primary studies at Prešov in 1907. He began his study of theology at Prešov and continued them a year later at the major seminary in Budapest. He and his brother Cornelius were ordained on 27 August 1911, after which Gojdič worked for a brief period as assistant parish priest with his father. In the autumn of 1912, after a short period of pastoral work, he was appointed prefect of the Eparchial Boarding School for boys in Prešov, known as "The Alumneum." At the same time he became an instructor of religion in the city's higher secondary schools. He was also entrusted with the spiritual care of the faithful in Sabinov as assistant parish priest. Gojdič was appointed to the Bishop's Chancery Office, where eventually he achieved the rank of Chancellor.