Pope to glorify Ukrainian Priest who saved Jews during the Holocaust

Not all the Ukrainians who will be publicly honoured during the Pope's visit to Ukraine in June this year, were martyred by the Bolsheviks.  There is one notable exception, Father Emilian Kovtch, who died under the Nazis at Maydanek concentration camp in Poland.  His crime was saving Jewish children.  The circumstances of this remarkable man's life and times read like a thriller tale . . .

Born in 1884 in the family of  Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest in Galicia, Emilian Kovtch followed his priestly vocation by studying at the seminary in L'viv and then in Rome. 

He was ordained a married priest in 1911 and initially worked throughout Galicia before being sent to serve Ukrainian immigrants in Yugoslavia.  In 1919, he became a chaplain to the Ukrainian soldiers fighting the Bolsheviks.

In 1922, Father Kovtch became the parish priest in Peremychlyany, a village near L'viv.  This village was comprised of about 5,000 people, most of who were Jewish.

This priest's work among his flock was most dynamic.  He organized pilgrimages, PLAST boy scout clubs and student youth groups.

Although he already had six children of his own, he welcomed poor and orphaned children into his home. 

As soon as the Nazis invaded Ukraine, the persecution and extermination of the Jews began.

Father Kovtch then began to baptize Jews in large numbers to save their lives.  In doing so, he broke the Nazi prohibitions and so was arrested in December 1942.

His Metropolitan, Andrew Sheptytsky who supported him throughout, did everything possible to secure his release, but failed.

A portion of the actual record of interrogation of Father Kovtch by a Gestapo officer has 

been revealed:

Officer:  "Did you know that it is prohibited to baptize Jews?"

Fr. Kovtch:  "I didn't know anything."

Officer:  "Do you now know it?"

Fr. Kovtch: "Yes."

Officer:  "Will you continue to do it?"

Fr. Kovtch:  "Of course."

In August of 1943, Fr. Kovtch was deported to the Maydanek concentration camp where he continued to celebrate the Divine Liturgy and to hear confessions.

In a letter to his children, Father Kovtch had this to say:  "With the exception of Heaven, this is the only place I wish to be.  Here we are all the same:  Poles, Jews, Ukrainians, Russians.  I am the only priest.  When I celebrate the Liturgy, they pray for all, each one in his own language.  Doesn't God understand all languages?"

Father Emilian Kovtch died on March 25, 1944, burned in the camp's ovens.

The night before his heroic, martyric death, he wrote to this family:  "Yesterday, fifty prisoners were executed.  If I wasn't here, who would help them endure a moment like that?  What more could I ask the Lord?  Don't worry about me.  Rejoice with me!"

Father Kovtch has been declared a "Righteous of the Nations" by the Jewish Council of Ukraine.  It is an honour he shares with another martyr, Clement Sheptytsky, the brother of Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky, who will likewise be beatified by the Pope in June.  Both brothers worked together to save Jewish lives during the Holocaust.

Father Emilian Kovtch stands in the best tradition of the married Ukrainian priest, Catholic or Orthodox, whose families included their extended family of their parish and whose love even embraced those beyond their own Church.

There were many Ukrainian priests and laity, Catholic and Orthodox, who, like Father Kovtch, helped to save their Jewish friends and neighbours during the Holocaust.  Many of these are honoured at Yad Veshem in Israel.  

When the Pope raises Father Emilian Kovtch to the honours of the Altar in June in his native Ukraine, all those, Catholic and Orthodox, who heroically witnessed to the love of Christ during the Holocaust will also be honoured.

Father Kovtch would not have wanted it any other way . . .

Dr. Alexander Roman  alex@unicorne.org