Blessed Hryhoriy Khomyshyn was the Eparchial Bishop of Stanislaviv (modern day eparchy of Ivano-Frankivsk), Ukraine. Arrested for his faith twice by the Soviet secret police; deported to NKVD prison in Kiev, Ukraine. The Bishop died in prison and considered a martyr.

During the 1930s, Khomyshyn was responsible for organizing the Ukrainian Catholic People’s Party, which briefly held seats in the Sejm and Senate. He is noted as being one of only a handful of members of the Catholic hierarchy in interwar Poland to publicly oppose anti-Semitism; his tolerance towards Galician Jews.

Khomyshyn was first arrested in 1939 by the NKVD. A critic of the Soviet system, having called the occupying forces “fierce beasts animated by the devil,” he was arrested again in April 1945, and was then deported to Kiev. In prison, he was tortured and advised to renounce the Union of Brest, which he refused to do.

He died in the Lukyanivska Prison hospital (Kiev) on 17 January 1947. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 27 June 2001, as one of Mykolai Charnets’kyi and the 24 companion martyrs.

Blessed Hryhoriy Khomyshyn pray for us, our parish, and Greek Catholic Church.