It was 125 years ago today that Patriarch Josef Slipyi was born in Zazdrist. Many understandably see him as a St John the Baptist figure: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness.” There is also the centenary of his priestly ordination at the hands of his mentor, Metropolitan Andrey Count Sheptytsky.

It is the hope that one day soon Slipyi is named a Confessor of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. He spent 18 years in Soviet imprisonment (re-edcation) and was consecrated to the episcopacy by Venerable Servant of God Andrey Sheptytsky.