The Rector of the Seminary: The Reverend Mitred Archpriest Dr. Myron Bendyk, Doctor of Theology.
Date and Place of Birth: 23.92 1954 Lviv Ukraine
Priestly Ordination - 07/02/1987 Lviv.   Ordainer Bishop Philemon Kurchaba.
Student of the underground seminary in Lviv until 1987. Commencing in 1994, he studied at Catholic University of Lublin, Poland where he defended his Doctoral Thesis in Dogmatic Theology.
 Marital Status: Married. 

Vice-Rector for Formation: Fr. Basil Chava.
Date and Place of Birth - 02.02.1969 Drohobych, Lviv region.
 Priestly Ordination - 12.07.2011 The Holy Trinity Cathedral, Drohobych. Ordainer   - Bishop Yulian (Voronovskyy). 
From 1992 - 1997 studied at the Lviv Seminary.
Marital Status: Married.

Vice-Rector for Studies: Fr.Roman Andriyovskyy, License in Eastern Canon Law, Doctor of Eastern Theology.
 Date and Place of Birth - 25.08.1980 Drohobych.
Priestly Ordination - 7.04.2012 Church of Dormition of Mother of God, Drohobych. Ordainer   - Bishop Yaroslav (Pryriz).
Graduated from the Drohobych Seminary in 2002. From 2002-2004, student for Licentiate in Theology at the Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome. From 2005-2008 student in the Doctoral cycle. In June 2008 received his Doctorate in Theology. In 2009 received the degree of licentiate in Canon Law at the Pontifical Oriental Institute. Marital Status: Single.

The Drohobych Seminary is named after the Blessed Priest-monk-martyrs Severyn, Yakym and Vitaliy. These three priests were zealous pastors of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, who were ardent pastoral workers and who died at the hands of Bolshevik forces in Drohobych. In June 2001, during his pilgrimage to Ukraine, the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II declared them blessed.

 
Fr. Yakym SENKIVSKYY
Born May 2, 1896 into a large family in the village Hayi Velyki, near Ternopil. From childhood members of the Senkivskyy family were used to hard physical labour in the fields. However, their parents spared no money on the education of their children, whom they raised in a Christian and patriotic spirit. Both the sons of the Senkivskyy family (Ivan (later - Yakym) and Volodymyr) became priests.
Ivan (Yakym) Senkivskyy graduated from his theological studies at Lviv and 4 December 1921 he was ordained a priest in the Cathedral of St. George. He continued theological studies in Innsbruck (Austria) where he gained his doctorate.
Fr. Senkivskyy entered the Order of St. Basil the Great on July 10, 1923 in Krekhiv, made his first monastic vows March 1, 1925, and August 31, 1930 - his perpetual vows. He had a cheerful character, and was an friendly, kind, exemplary monk. From 1925 to 1927 Fr. Yakym worked as assistant priest in the parish of Krasnopushcha in the Ternopil region, and from1927 - 1931 he was a professor of Humanities (Ukrainian Studies, Latin, History, Geography...) at the district Graduate Theological School at St. Onufrius Monastery in the village of Laviv, Sambir District. Besides this he was sent to teach Catechetism at a local school and in the village of Linyna.
In 1932, Fr. Senkivskyy was appointed to Lviv, where he led the Marian Society and the Basilian Third Order. Often, especially during Lent, he led retreats, and throughout the year he gave missions. The Chronicle of Lviv Monastery records: Fr. Yakym Senkivskyy has a gift from God for communication with people, especially young people, and during his sermons, churches were completely filled with the faithful.
In 1939, Fr. Yakym Senkivskyy was appointed Abbot of the Monastery of the Basilians in Drohobych. With the arrival of the Rev. Professor Yakym Senkivskyy in Drohobych there was a revival in pastoral activities and religious life was enlivened by great missions and enriched by new elements of parish work. From the earliest days of his stay in Drohobych he became a favorite of all the town. He won for himself the sympathies of the population through his brilliant talent for preaching, his ability to adapt himself either to the intellectual or to the worker, to the elderly and to the young, even to small children. He was always polite and cordial and with a smile on his face. With the advent of Soviet power in Galicia Fr. Senkivskyy became a symbol of the Church and the people in Drohobych.
Through his sermons Father Yakym knew how to keep people spirits high and give them hope for a better tomorrow. The Soviets repeatedly called Professor Fr. Senkivskyy in for "conversations" and eventually he was required to stop his pastoral work in the Monastery. On the morning of June 26, 1941 the Priest-monk Yakym Senkivskyy celebrated the last Holy Liturgy of his life, and before dinner the Bolsheviks arrested him, along with the Priest-monk Severyn Baranyk. A few days before the faithful had urged the Fathers to leave the Monastery as quickly as possible and wait out the danger elsewhere. Witnesses report that Fr. Yakym answered: "I will not hide, and without the Lord’s Will, not a hair will fall from my head."
On June 29, 1941, a Sunday morning, before the Germans reached the city, people rushed to the prison with the hope of freeing their relatives, but they found only hundreds of tortured bodies. In one of the basement cells of the prison, among other things, the Office Book of Fr. Baranyk and a holy card belonging to Fr. Senkivskyy were found. However, the body of the Priest-monk Yakym Senkivskyy OSBM was never found, witnesses said that it had been boiled in a cauldron and given to the prisoners to eat. There is a great probability of this being true as people who then were in prison, claimed that the soup, which they were fed was of a sweetish taste, and they had found human nails in it.

Fr. Severyn BARANYK
Born July 18, 1889 in Uhniv (Lviv region). He joined the Order of St.Basil the Great on September 24, 1904 at Krekhiv. On May 16, 1907 he made his first monastic vows, and his perpetual vows on September 21, 1910 He received priestly ordination on February 14, 1915.
Living in Zhovkva monastery, Fr. Severyn led an active pastoral life. He worked as a catechist, edited a children's magazine "Nash Pryjatel (Our friend)", was the Director of the Association of Apostleship of Prayer and the Marian Association for the Youth, head of the orphanage, and gave instruction to monks, and led retreats for the faithful.
In 1932 he was appointed Abbot of the Basilian monastery and pastor of the Holy Trinity Church in Drohobych, one of the most important churches and religious centers of Galicia. Many difficulties and joys awaited Father Baranyk in his role as Abbot. Fr. Severyn worked constantly and vigorously giving retreats, was a great friend of young people, and interested in the sporting life of Drohobych, and was also an energetic philanthropist and a member of the City Council.
With the arrival of Soviet troops in Drohobych NKVD (Secret Service Police) agents banned the Drohobych Basilians from going outside of their monastery, citing as the reason the demands of wartime. The faithful advised them to flee as soon as possible and wait out this difficult time, but the Priest-monks did not want to take this advice. On June 26, 1941 the NKVD took them to the Drohobych prison and nobody saw them again after this.
Two or three days later the Germans came and let people look for their relatives in prison. What was revealed was a nightmare. Mr. Josyf Lastov'yak says:
"At the end of June 1941 the front approached Drohobych. The Bolshevik government tried to cover their tracks. I saw a big hole hidden behind the prison, which was covered with sand and smoothed down with a roller. When the Bolsheviks retreated, the Germans came, and people rushed to the prison to find their relatives. The Germans let several people into the territory of the prison - to recognize their murdered relatives, but most people stood at the gate. I was a boy, so being near the gates meant that I could not see anything, so I went off and climbed up a tree. There was a terrible stench. I saw how the Germans had sent people to open a pit that was covered with sand. The pit was fresh because people uncovered it with their own hands and pulled the bodies of the murdered people out. Near the pit was an awning, but underneath it I saw the dead body of Father Severyn Baranyk, OSBM, which was very damaged due to torture in prison: the body was unnaturally swollen, black, a frightening face, and my father later told me that on his chest they had carved a cross. I saw the body of Fr. Baranyk at a distance of 10-15 meters.”
A few years after the war, the local prosecutor, telling Mrs. Sofiya Morska about what happened then in the prison, and in particular to the priests (Severyn Baranyk and Yakym Senkivskyy), said: "One of them was cooked in a pot and given to the prisoners to eat, the others were buried in the ground up to their necks and they walked on their heads. "
The burial place of Fr. Severyn Baranyk is not definitively known, but numerous reports indicate that he was buried with others in a "common" grave in the cemetery on M. Hrushevskyy Street in Drohobych.

Fr. Vitaliy BAYRAK
Born February 24, 1907 in the village of Shvaykivtsi (Chortkiv district, Ternopil region). In 1922 he enrolled in the Gymnasium at Chortkiv where he proved to be an exemplary student and an active organizer of public activities. He entered the Basilian Monastery on September 4, 1924. After the novitiate in Krekhiv and training in monasteries in Lavriv, Dobromyl and Krystynopil (the present Chervonohrad), he studied philosophy and theology. On February 26, 1933 he advanced to perpetual vows. He was ordained a priest in the Monastery of Zhovkva on August 13, 1933.
In Zhovkva Fr. Vitaliy Bayrak led the parish life in the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He also was the Deputy Abbot and took care of the parish office. He became Chaplain to the Marian Women’s Group and ran the Association of the Apostleship of Prayer for a Happy Death.
Despite all his occupations, Fr. Vitaliy led retreats and preached in various places in Western Ukraine. In July 1941 he was appointed Abbot of the Monastery in Drohobych, to replace Fr. Yakym Senkivskyy who had been martyred by the Bolsheviks. Here Fr. Vitaliy led an active pastoral life and guided the same associations as he had in Zhovkva.
On September 17, 1945 he was arrested by the NKVD of the Drohobych region. By the decision of the Military Tribunal of the NKVD Drohobych region November 13, 1945 he was sentenced to eight years in prison with confiscation of property. A witness Mr. Vasylenko, who in 1946 tried to give Fr. Vitaliy some blessed Easter foods, said that he had been severely beaten and carried back to his room in a sheet. Fr. Vitaliy Bayrak died at the hands of the NKVD executioners in Drohobych jail on May 16, 1946. He was rehabilitated posthumously by the Regional Office of Prosecutions on August 14, 1995.

When in 1996, with the blessing of His Excellency Yulian Voronovskyy, Bishop of Sambir-Drohobych, the Drohobych Seminary began its work (still under the name of Theological Faculty of the Eparchial Catechetical Institute), the Byzantine tradition, as the basis for the life and development of the Church of Kyiv, was the foundation for its spiritual life, teaching and educational activates.
We had emerged, it would seem, from basic logic: our Church is one of the Churches of the Christian East and should belong to that same East not only historically and in a ritual-liturgical sense, but also in the nature of its education. Therefore, a theological seminary of the Eastern tradition was required.
What may have seemed self-evident in theory was quite different in practice. After analyzing the approaches, curriculum and educational processes of the already existing seminaries of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, we saw that, generally speaking, they were carbon copies of Latin seminaries (philosophical and theological courses were actually translated into Ukrainian from Latin courses and could have been taught in Roman Catholic seminaries in Ukraine without any changes being made. The exceptions to this were Liturgical Studies, and later with the appearance of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches in 1991 - "Eastern" Canon Law also).
Seeing the situation in the Ukrainian Church seminaries, a group of the first teachers of our Seminary looked for possible examples in the seminaries of the Byzantine tradition in other Eastern Catholic Churches (Romanian, Slovak, Hungarian), and made contact with the Professors of the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. Unfortunately it turned out that nowhere could such a Byzantine seminary be found. The realization of this idea was of great interest to the Professors of the Oriental Institute. Consequently we re-worked and perfected our seminary program in close collaboration with Frs. Špidlík, Rupnik, Čemus, Taft, Gargano, Guggerotti, Marani. Our collaboration with them helped us to continue along the path that we had chosen. Now that this rather dramatic period of investigation and searching has passed, we can essentially say that it is possible to build a training program based on the Byzantine tradition.
The roots of the structure of education in our Seminary, consisting of philosophical and theological courses, date back to the Antiochian and Alexandrian schools, and especially to Constantinople with its Pandidakterion (University), founded in V century.
In comparison with the Philosophy and Theology cycles in our modern Latin counterparts, it could be said that we have dramatically increased the liturgical-patristic element. We have oriented our Philosophy component to be a preparation for the theology of Fathers of the Church. In this sector we analyze ancient philosophical terms, in the light of their later use by the Fathers. On the other hand, we show how the preaching of the Gospel was inculturated by the Fathers into Greco-Roman philosophical and cultural concepts.
In the theological sector we use the Patristic method of theology to emphasize the importance of inner experience. We do not limit ourselves only to Dogmatic and Moral Theology. In fact Liturgical Theology prevails in our approach to Dogmatic Theology, where liturgical rather than systematic thinking is more influential (especially the Eucharistic Anaphora). Moral Theology is built on the dynamics of the Christian movement from law to grace, from the image of God to Divine likeness, which is not legal and casuistic, but rather personal-divinizing . The idea of the deification of man is opened out in the course on Mystical Theology, which is aimed at promoting the transition from faith to the mystical vision of God.
Closely related to this is the teaching of Patristic Theology, in which the consensus of the Conciliar Fathers (consensus partum) is demonstrated and the action of the "Spirit of truth" in the Church is identified. In presenting Patristics, it is important to show that the Fathers of the Church belong not solely to a specific historical period, which ended with the VIII century. Being a Father of the Church, which includes being a Spiritual Father, is the vocation of every Christian, who is initiated into the Divine Mystery through the Mystagogy of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist.

Through their ever deepening emersion into the Byzantine Tradition, over the past years our teachers have achieved the goals that were set out at the time of the foundation of the Seminary. Now we have set ourselves the following goal - to contribute to the Byzantine foundations that have already been laid by our own Kyivan Tradition, that is the one thousand year long “construction” that still makes its appeal to us today. We have already been engaged in intensive research into the Kyivan Tradition for several years.
. We believe that while clarifying our future prospects under no circumstances are we to lose the legacy of the previous years.
Therefore each teacher now has the task of creating a textbook for their subject area.
The first step in creating such a textbook is the so-called "script" (course notes). We plan to start publishing course notes for use in the seminary. This should help teachers make more creative use of lecture time. These course notes will also be the result of a “conversation” that has been going on between teachers for a number of years now, in such a way that each subject area taught in the Seminary has influenced the other subject areas.
Therefore, all the course notes, while different from each other will have the common approach that has been adopted by the Drohobych Seminary. Over the past years, we aimed to write, in cooperation of teachers of other seminaries, common textbooks for all the seminaries of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. With this aim in mind, we have conducted meetings with teachers from other seminaries. Unfortunately, this project, for various reasons, has not been successful. So now we consider the publication of the course notes as a step towards publishing our own textbooks.
For those teachers who are ready to commence writing textbooks, we plan to create optimal working conditions (for example, by introducing the practice of the so-called "Sabbatical year"). In regards to training teachers, we have planned that in a few years’ time there will be two specialists in every major area of study which will ensure the continuity of the tradition that has been elaborated over the past ten years. The Seminary magazine "Word" is intended to develop into a serious theological periodical, which will be brought out by the publishing house of the Seminary.
We are aware that these and many other plans can only be realized by relying primarily on God's mercy, and the prayers and donations of the faithful. Summing up the previous years, we feel gratitude to the whole Church, our faithful, and many benefactors from Ukraine and abroad. Thanks to their generosity we have never gone without bread and something to eat with it, and so we are ever gratefull for their support and care.

There are currently over 80 students in the Drohobytch Theological Seminary undertaking the required six years of study. This is the maximum number of students that the Seminary can accommodate. Courses in Theology, Philosophy, Scripture, Liturgy and the Humanities are taught by 30 teachers, 8 of whom have a Doctoral degree. The students’ academic needs are therefore met by a highly professional, permanent staff.

Seminary graduates work as priests in the Sambir-Drohobych Eparchy or outside of it, especially in the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, the Kyiv Archeparchy, Donetsk and Kharkiv and Crimea Exarchate. Some work in the U.S. while others belong to monastic orders. Some graduates are continuing their education in Ukraine and abroad.

When the seminary began its work, it was originally housed in a former pharmaceutical warehouse, which was almost completely demolished, and then thoroughly renovated by the Church. In 1998, with the growth of student numbers, a part of the buildings that make up the Holy Trinity Church complex, was given over to meet the Seminary’s needs. For almost 10 years the seminarians prayed in this Church and took part in the liturgical life of the parish.

On June 24, 2006 a new building, completely designed and built as a seminary, was inaugurated. This had a symbolic meaning: for the seminary it opened a new phase of life with new tasks and objectives.

Pre-History
The Drohobych Seminary is the third institution in a line of religious institutions that have been formed in our region since the emergence of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church from the underground. The first was, in fact, a seminary called "the accelerated group" or the group for "accelerated learning", launched in 1989. The main reason for its creation was the ever increasing need for priests, which showed itself in relation to the movement for the legalization of the Church and the organization of the so-called "Commemorative Liturgies" on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Ukraine. In fact, these celebrations had already taken place during 1988. But the idea was so effective that the celebration of the1,000 years of Christianity was continued for another year. In 1989 it began like a wave, in distant Carpathian villages and rolled on with ever greater force to the cities, including the majestic Liturgical celebrations in Lviv. The last of these occurred in 1989, when approximately 250 thousand people participated.
It is clear that this movement appeared to be very spontaneous, but the need to provide celebrants for these "Commemorative Liturgies " had demonstrated the lack of priests who at that time were still in hiding. In other words, the scale of the revival of the Church exceeded the real capabilities that it then had. Finally, the composition of the priests and their number, that were more or less adequate for the conditions of an underground Church, clearly proved to be inadequate for circumstances after the legalization of the Church. Therefore, anticipating the growing need for priests, and, on the other hand, seeing that the flow of those interested in the priesthood grow, as the number of participants in these Liturgies also grew, it seemed that it was necessary to create institution, that would meet these new challenges, which, in fact, could not be ignored. That is why the idea of a seminary first came about, but a seminary that in no way resembled anything that exists today, as today’s conditions were then only a dream.
So, the "first seminary" was established at a private residence in Sambir, which simultaneously served both as a Chapel, and Lecture Hall. Notable in respect to this project are such priests as Frs. Mykola Kuts and Mykhaylo Voloshyn. They were the instigators of the foundation course. Later, they invited Fr. Myron Bendyk. Together, in a joint effort they identified the main areas of study. So, in Sambir at the end 80’s, starting in fall, systematic studies began. Gradually the number of student groups increased, ranging from 8-10, and at times there were already 20. Naturally, problems arose with the premises. Students gathered from around the Lviv area. There were some who hearing about the revival of our Church, left the Orthodox seminaries and begged to study in the UGCC seminary. On the one hand there were exuberant hopes, and on the other there were the modest possibilities for what could then come out of Sambir.
Undoubtedly, it is difficult not to see God's guidance in all that happened, as on December 1 of the same year, when the Church of the Holy Trinity in Drohobych was returned, and with it some rooms, the idea grew of transferring the Seminary into a larger premises there. And in December 1989 the Seminary at Sambir was to relocate to Drohobych, where there was a church to pray in, and several rooms in which to work. The priests already mentioned above brought this about. So the Seminary began to function in this location. From January-February 1990 the number of students who came for training, increased to 150. Of course, these classes were held at night, because in this transitional stage, students worked in state jobs or were studying at various schools, and in the evening traveled to Drohobych to study. Soon after this there arose the problem of placing a spontaneously organized institution under a bishop of our Church, so that it would have every sign of belonging to the Church and existed with its blessing.
This bishop was His Excellency Julian Voronovskyy, who already at that time (1989-90) was out of the underground. The priests of the Seminary asked him to take under his pastoral care this first attempt at a seminary in our Church. Other priests were also enlisted to conduct courses at Drohobych. The history of the Church was taught by Vasyl’ Hovera (Pastor of the village of Veryn near Mykolaiv), Father Vasyl’ Tsyhulyak - Pastor of Churches at Silets and Kolpets also worked with students. Of course, it was difficult to say what could be achieved, because the conditions were extreme: lack of space, the teachers did not have any already existing programs, as they had still to be created. The essence of the phenomenon of this Seminary lies in the fact that it was the first such establishment in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, because only some time after, in late January /early February 1990, the Theological Seminary in Lviv started operations at the Church of the Transfiguration, where there were lectures, and where students could attended classes.
Accordingly, the Drohobych priests reorganized their seminary, namely: they identified the so-called "fast-track group" of students who were found to have an adequate level of knowledge, that is higher state education, and who had gifts. There were also students with various abilities and skills for learning. So, about 120 students who needed longer training, were sent to Lviv leaving a group who, by making some effort, could in a short time to be ready for priestly ordination, as in 1990 "an avalanche of transitions" began of many parishes to the UGCC, which automatically meant a sharp increase in demand for priests, where each priest might have to serve 2, 3, 4 and even 5 parishes. They might also have to combine this ministry with work in the Seminary. Therefore, 35 students were selected who, because they were members of the "accelerated group", resigned from their jobs and were transferred to a full time form of training.
They lived in the hotel " Chervone Prykarpattya (Red Pre-Carpathia)” and ate at one of the Drohobych eating houses. The situation appeared as follows: students worked in the city that is they no longer traveled to Drohobych. In the morning there was Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Holy Trinity then after breakfast classes began, which lasted all day. The late Rev. Vasyl’ Mykhaylyuk was the visiting professor of Moral Theology, and he taught day and night at the Seminary as his course was extremely necessary. In addition, there were faculty members for: Church History, Liturgy, Dogmatic Theology - in short, all the minimum set of items that are directly required for future priests were taught.
The first group of priests (8-10) and three groups of 35 was ordained on the 30th December 1990. These ordinations were done by Bishop Yulian Voronovskyy. The newly-ordained priests at once had to move to their parishes for the Christmas period. Liturgical practice lasted only several days, and then they were sent to parishes.
The next group of priests (12-15) was ordained on March 17 of that year just before Easter. So, in these days of numerous confessions to be heard, they could give their assistance. The last ordinations took place in late May, with a over 20 new priests. And so ended the cycle of ordinations for the 'accelerated group ", and at the same time the first Drohobych Seminary also ended its existence.

Creation
"The second seminary" under the name of the “Theological Faculty of the Eparchial Catechetical Institute” was established by decree of Bishop Yulian in 1996. It functioned within the structure of the previously established Catechetical Institute as the Theological Faculty of the Institute. Teaching began in September. Twelve students were enrolled. This was the first and the only course at the Drohobych Theological Seminary. At that time there was already a staff of teachers. Year by year a new course was added. Soon a 5-year course of study had been formed and 2001 saw the first graduating class of the "second seminary" which was called the Theological Faculty. Classes were conducted on six days of the week.
The establishment of the "third seminary" was a type of reorganization of the Catechetical Institute. It took place in September 2003. The Theological Faculty was separated from the Catechetical Institute and was named the “Drohobych Seminary of the Blessed Priests Severyn, Yakym and Vitaliy priest-monks of Drohobych (who a little before had been beatified by the Pope in Lviv), and so the Seminary was given its roots in Drohobych even with its name. This reorganization effected the structure of teaching in the Seminary, namely: courses are now conducted over a six year period.
In 2003, when the Theological Faculty of the Eparchial Catechetical Institute was separated to form an independent institution called the Drohobych Seminary of the Blessed Priests Severyn, Yakym and Vitaliy, a Seminary statue and a Seminary Constitution were adopted. They provide a variety of management structures - a board headed by the Rector, faculty council, student government, headed by the Dean of the Seminary, elected by the seminarians. Training is conducted in the seminary over six years for five-days a week. Prayer in the Chapel, study in the classrooms, the library, the computer lab with Internet access, meals in the refectory and accommodation in comfortable conditions, the possibility of sports - all under one roof.

The foundation of the Sacrament of the Priesthood is God's call to priestly service directed to the Christian, as expressed in the words of the Lord Jesus: "You did not choose Me, it is I who chose you" (Jn. 15.16).

The Christian responds personally to Christ's call by following the example of the Apostles who, "left all and followed Him" (Lk. 5.11; cf. Mk.1.18; Mt. 4.20,22).

This Christian readiness to "follow Christ" is witnessed to by the Parish community and is confirmed by the Parish Priest (the Spiritual Leader), when he presents the candidate for the Priesthood to the Bishop.

The Bishop, following the advice given by St. Paul the Apostle –"Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands" (1 Tim 5.22)- tests the candidate as to his suitability for service and takes upon himself the obligation to provide the necessary formation, therefore the Seminary serves for the preparation of the candidate for the Sacrament of the Priesthood, by using academic standards to grade its students.