Theodore Romzha
Encyclopedia
Blessed Theodore Romzha was bishop of the Ruthenian Catholic
Eparchy of Mukacheve
from 1944 to 1947. Assassinated by Stalin's NKVD
, he was beatified as a martyr by Pope John Paul II on June 27, 2001.
region, Austria-Hungary
(in the Rusyn
village Velykyy Bychkiv
, now Ukraine
) on April 14, 1911. His father, Pavel Romzha, worked as an official of the railroad. His mother, the former Maria Semack, was a full time homemaker. Like many ambitious families in the region, the Romzhas spoke the Hungarian language
in the home. In the presence of others, however, they switched to their native Rusyn language
to be polite.
After his graduation from the Gymnasium
in Khust
, Theodore left to study for the priesthood in Rome
. He began as a seminarian at the Collegium Germanicum, but later switched to the Russicum.
Theodore was ordained a priest there by Bishop Aleksander Evreinov on Christmas Day, 1936 in the Basilica of St Mary Major
. After completing his compulsory military service he served briefly as a pastor in several Transcarpathian parishes (part of Czechoslovakia
since 1918) before being assigned as professor of philosophy at the Eparchial Seminary in Uzhhorod
in 1939, now occupied by Hungary
.
as it experienced the invasions first by Hungary
, one of Axis powers
, then direct rule from Nazi Germany
and lastly the Soviet Red Army
.
On September 24, 1944, at the young age of 33, he was consecrated bishop and appointed apostolic administrator of the Eparchy
of Mukachevo in the cathedral of Uzhorod by Bishop Miklós Dudás. He had immediately to face the soviet Red Army, which occupied the churches, assigned them to the Orthodox and arrested priests. Bishop Romzha refused in front of General Petrov to break with the Pope.
His ministry to the faithful met with many roadblocks, but he managed to find a way around them. In particular he organized a celebration of the Feast of the Assumption with a participation of more that 80.000 pilgrims. This could not be tolerated by the Communist officials who now began looking for getting rid of the young bishop.
The 27 October 1947, on the way home from a parish visitation, Bishop Romzha's horse drawn carriage was purposely rammed by a Soviet military truck and pushed off the side of the road. The soldiers, who were dressed as civilians, jumped from the truck and beat the bishop and his companions. Soon after the brutal assault began a civilian truck came upon the scene and the assailants fled. Romzha and his companions were taken to Uzhhorod
where they were hospitalized. Romzha was making good progress when, late on the night of October 31, the nuns who were nursing him were suddenly dismissed and new nurse was assigned to him by the regime. A little after midnight Romzha was found dead. The nurse poisoned Romzha with injection of curare
provided by the head of NKVD
Laboratory 1, Dr Grigory Mairanovsky
. According to research in Soviet archives by Yevgenia Albats
, the Bishop's murder was ordered personally by Nikita Khrushchev
.
The Ruthenian Catholic Church
was relentlessly persecuted and in 1949 was officially suppressed. All its properties were allocated to the Russian Orthodox Church
.
Romzha was beatified as a Martyr for the Faith by Pope John Paul II in Lviv
on June 27, 2001 with November 1 assigned as his feastday.
Ruthenian Catholic Church
The Ruthenian Catholic Church is a sui iuris Eastern Catholic Church , which uses the Divine Liturgy of the Constantinopolitan Byzantine Eastern Rite. Its roots are among the Rusyns who lived in the region called Carpathian Ruthenia, in and around the Carpathian Mountains...
Eparchy of Mukacheve
Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Mukacheve
The Eparchy of Mukacheve is an eparchy of the Ruthenian Catholic Church, with territory located in the west of Ukraine.The eparchy, like the entire Ruthenian Catholic Church, is in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church...
from 1944 to 1947. Assassinated by Stalin's NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
, he was beatified as a martyr by Pope John Paul II on June 27, 2001.
Early life
Theodore Romzha was born in the SubcarpathiaCarpathian Ruthenia
Carpathian Ruthenia is a region in Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast , with smaller parts in easternmost Slovakia , Poland's Lemkovyna and Romanian Maramureş.It is...
region, Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
(in the Rusyn
Rusyns
Carpatho-Rusyns are a primarily diasporic ethnic group who speak an Eastern Slavic language, or Ukrainian dialect, known as Rusyn. Carpatho-Rusyns descend from a minority of Ruthenians who did not adopt the use of the ethnonym "Ukrainian" in the early twentieth century...
village Velykyy Bychkiv
Velykyy Bychkiv
Velykyi Bychkiv is a town in the Rakhiv Raion of Zakarpattia Oblast , in the west-most part of Ukraine. It has a population of 9,423 and lies 36 kilometres east of Tiachiv, where the river Sopurka meets the Tisza River....
, now Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
) on April 14, 1911. His father, Pavel Romzha, worked as an official of the railroad. His mother, the former Maria Semack, was a full time homemaker. Like many ambitious families in the region, the Romzhas spoke the Hungarian language
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
in the home. In the presence of others, however, they switched to their native Rusyn language
Rusyn language
Rusyn , also known in English as Ruthenian, is an East Slavic language variety spoken by the Rusyns of Central Europe. Some linguists treat it as a distinct language and it has its own ISO 639-3 code; others treat it as a dialect of Ukrainian...
to be polite.
After his graduation from the Gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
in Khust
Khust
Khust is a city located on the Khustets River in the Zakarpattia oblast in western Ukraine. It is near the confluence of the Tisza and Rika Rivers...
, Theodore left to study for the priesthood in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. He began as a seminarian at the Collegium Germanicum, but later switched to the Russicum.
Theodore was ordained a priest there by Bishop Aleksander Evreinov on Christmas Day, 1936 in the Basilica of St Mary Major
Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore
The Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major , known also by other names, is the largest Roman Catholic Marian church in Rome, Italy.There are other churches in Rome dedicated to Mary, such as Santa Maria in Trastevere, Santa Maria in Aracoeli, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, but the greater size of the...
. After completing his compulsory military service he served briefly as a pastor in several Transcarpathian parishes (part of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
since 1918) before being assigned as professor of philosophy at the Eparchial Seminary in Uzhhorod
Uzhhorod
Uzhhorod or Uzhgorod is a city located in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. It is the administrative center of the Zakarpattia Oblast , as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Uzhhorodskyi Raion within the oblast...
in 1939, now occupied by Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
.
Episcopate
These were difficult years for the Church in SubcarpathiaRuthenian Catholic Church
The Ruthenian Catholic Church is a sui iuris Eastern Catholic Church , which uses the Divine Liturgy of the Constantinopolitan Byzantine Eastern Rite. Its roots are among the Rusyns who lived in the region called Carpathian Ruthenia, in and around the Carpathian Mountains...
as it experienced the invasions first by Hungary
Hungary during World War II
Hungary during World War II was a member of the Axis powers. In the 1930s, the Kingdom of Hungary relied on increased trade with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany to pull itself out of the Great Depression. By 1938, Hungarian politics and foreign policy had become increasingly pro-Fascist Italian and...
, one of Axis powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
, then direct rule from Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and lastly the Soviet Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
.
On September 24, 1944, at the young age of 33, he was consecrated bishop and appointed apostolic administrator of the Eparchy
Eparchy
Eparchy is an anglicized Greek word , authentically Latinized as eparchia and loosely translating as 'rule over something,' like province, prefecture, or territory, to have the jurisdiction over, it has specific meanings both in politics, history and in the hierarchy of the Eastern Christian...
of Mukachevo in the cathedral of Uzhorod by Bishop Miklós Dudás. He had immediately to face the soviet Red Army, which occupied the churches, assigned them to the Orthodox and arrested priests. Bishop Romzha refused in front of General Petrov to break with the Pope.
His ministry to the faithful met with many roadblocks, but he managed to find a way around them. In particular he organized a celebration of the Feast of the Assumption with a participation of more that 80.000 pilgrims. This could not be tolerated by the Communist officials who now began looking for getting rid of the young bishop.
The 27 October 1947, on the way home from a parish visitation, Bishop Romzha's horse drawn carriage was purposely rammed by a Soviet military truck and pushed off the side of the road. The soldiers, who were dressed as civilians, jumped from the truck and beat the bishop and his companions. Soon after the brutal assault began a civilian truck came upon the scene and the assailants fled. Romzha and his companions were taken to Uzhhorod
Uzhhorod
Uzhhorod or Uzhgorod is a city located in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. It is the administrative center of the Zakarpattia Oblast , as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Uzhhorodskyi Raion within the oblast...
where they were hospitalized. Romzha was making good progress when, late on the night of October 31, the nuns who were nursing him were suddenly dismissed and new nurse was assigned to him by the regime. A little after midnight Romzha was found dead. The nurse poisoned Romzha with injection of curare
Curare
Curare is a common name for various arrow poisons originating from South America. The three main types of curare are:* tubocurare...
provided by the head of NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
Laboratory 1, Dr Grigory Mairanovsky
Grigory Mairanovsky
Grigory Mairanovsky was a Soviet biochemist and poison developer.He was head of secret laboratories in the Bach Institute of Biochemistry in Moscow . As the head of Laboratory No. 1 of the NKVD , he initiated the secret "scientific" poison program conducted by the Soviet secret police services...
. According to research in Soviet archives by Yevgenia Albats
Yevgenia Albats
Dr. Yevgenia Markovna Albats is a Russian investigative journalist, political scientist, writer and radio host. As of year 2011, she workes as a chief editor of The New Times magazine.-Early life and education:...
, the Bishop's murder was ordered personally by Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
.
The Ruthenian Catholic Church
Ruthenian Catholic Church
The Ruthenian Catholic Church is a sui iuris Eastern Catholic Church , which uses the Divine Liturgy of the Constantinopolitan Byzantine Eastern Rite. Its roots are among the Rusyns who lived in the region called Carpathian Ruthenia, in and around the Carpathian Mountains...
was relentlessly persecuted and in 1949 was officially suppressed. All its properties were allocated to the Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
.
Romzha was beatified as a Martyr for the Faith by Pope John Paul II in Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
on June 27, 2001 with November 1 assigned as his feastday.
Further reading
- Fr. Christoper Zugger, Finding a Hidden Church, Eastern Christian Publications, Fairfax, Virginia, 2009.