Oleksa Zarytsky was born in Lviv (Western Ukraine) in 1912, the son of a Catholic family. He has only one desire in his heart: to become a priest. In the cathedral of his city, in 1936, at the age of 24, he was ordained a priest. Fr. Oleksa was truly in love with Jesus and out of love for Him he nourished an intense spirit of apostolic activity, an untiring zeal for souls, and an unlimited dedication to his ministry. He was always available, without ever thinking of himself, with a mild disposition that brought everyone together: the true style of the good shepherd.
His first concern, even knowing he risked prison and his life, was that everyone can go to confession and often receive the Eucharist. He existed like this for eleven years. The police of the communist regime kept an eye on him. In 1948, as a parish priest in Ukraine, he was arrested because of his fidelity to the Catholic Church. The Communist authorities proposed that he become an Orthodox bishop, separating himself from the Pope of Rome and thus he would have had an easier life, but he refused harshly: "To separate myself from the Pope — he declared — is to betray the Gospel of Christ!".
With Stalin's death, in March 1953, and then in 1956, following the 20th Congress of the CPSU, the iron grip of the Communist dictatorship seemed to loosen which intended to annihilate the Catholic church. Fr. Oleksa was released from prison and immediately resumed his apostolate at an enormous risk as the police always kept an eye on him.
Before the end of 1956, while Khrushchev invaded Hungary, Fr. OLeksa was forced into exile in Karaganda in Kazakhstan. He was welcomed by all as Jesus in person and the faithful soon called him "God's vagabond". In fact, he undertook pastoral journeys of thousands of kilometers through Kazakhstan, nine times the size of Italy. To visit the Catholics, he went as far as Siberia.
In April 1962, Fr. Oleksa was arrested by the secret police and placed in the Dolinka concentration camp near Karaganda, where he was nearing his end amidst terrible suffering. After much ill-treatment and humiliation, he obtained the palm of martyrdom "ex aerumnis carceris" (= for the tortures in prison), on October 13, 1963.
On May 27, 2001, Pope John Paul II beatified Fr. Oleksa Zarytsky in Lviv. In 2007, Archbishop Schneider consecrated the first church in Karanganda in honor of Blessed Oleksa, also wearing the surplice that belonged to him and was given to him by his brother Ivan Zarytsky, who is still alive. His feast day is October 20.
—Excerpted from Santi Beati
From: catholicculture.org
