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Panteleymon Shpylka

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Reverend Father
Panteleymon Shpylka
Head of the Council
of the Komancza Republic
In office
4 November 1918 – 23 January 1919
Preceded byOffice created
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Parish priest of the St. Onuphrius Church in Wisłok Wyzhniy
In office
1917–1919
Personal details
Born
Panteleymon Shpylka
Пантелеймон Шпилька

(1883-10-20)20 October 1883
Dmytrovychi, Austro-Hungarian Empire (present day Lviv Oblast, Ukraine)
Died5 March 1950(1950-03-05) (aged 66)
Winnipeg, Canada
Political partyNon-partisan
EducationMajor Greek-Catholic Theological Seminary in Przemyśl
ProfessionCleric, Greek Catholic priest, politician

Panteleymon Shpylka (Ukrainian: Пантелеймон Шпилька; 20 October 1883 – 5 March 1950) was a Ukrainian Greek Catholic clergyman. He was a co-founder and Head of the Council (Ukrainian: Голова Повітової Української Національної Ради) of the Komancza Republic, a short-lived microstate, an association of thirty-three Lemko villages, seated in Komańcza in eastern Lemkivshchyna from 4 November 1918 until 23 January 1919.

St. Onuphrius Church in Wisłok Wielki, where was a parish priest Rev. Panteleymon Shpylka (the church belongs to Roman Catholics in a present day)

Early life

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Fr. Shpylka was born in Dmytrovychi [uk], Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austro-Hungarian Empire in a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic family. After graduated the Ukrainian Gymnasium in Przemyśl in 1904,[1] he subsequently joined the Major Greek-Catholic Theological Seminary in Przemyśl, and after graduation and marriage, was ordained a priest on 15 March 1910, for the Eparchy of Przemyśl, Sambir and Sanok by Bishop Kostyantyn Chekhovych. In 1917 he was appointed as a parish priest in St. Onuphrius church in Wisłok Wyzhniy.[2]

Political career

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In the autumn of 1918 Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed and was replaced by multiple successor states. In the village where Fr. Shpylka was a parish priest, began a popular movement. With his support was convened a meeting of the inhabitants of a closer villages. On 4 November 1918, more than 70 delegates from the surrounding villages came to the People's Assembly to Wisłok Wyzhniy. The delegates decided to join a new proclaimed West Ukrainian People's Republic in Lviv, but of a distance and a war time was organised an Eastern Lemko Republic. Among other acts, also Fr. Shpylka was elected as a Head of the Council of the Republic.[3] Later, he went to neighbouring countries, trying to attract the military and financial resources necessary for the Republic's existence, but did not succeed on this ground.[4] When the army of another newly proclaimed state, Second Polish Republic, entered the territory of Komancza Republic, he avoided arrest, because he was in Czechoslovakia.

Life in emigration

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Later years he spent as priest in Zakarpattia (1919–1944) and after the World War II he lived in a displaced persons camp in Regensburg, Germany, where worked as a priest and catechist among the Greek-Catholics (1944–1948). The last year of his life he spent in Canada, where served as an assistant priest in the St. Michael church in Dauphin, Manitoba.[2]

He died in Winnipeg on 5 March 1950.[2]

References

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  1. ^ Ямняк, Петро (1976). Звідомлення Виділу "Кружка Родичів" при Державній Ґімназії з українською мовою навчання в Перемишлі за шкільний рік 1935-1936 (PDF). Кліфтон: Ініціятивний Комітет. p. 130. Retrieved 4 June 2022.
  2. ^ a b c Blazejowsky, Dmytro (1988). Ukrainian Catholic clergy in diaspora (1751–1988). Rome. p. 143.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ Отець Пантелеймон Шпилька. Визвольні змагання східної Лемківщини в 1918 році (in Ukrainian) // Лемківський Календар на 1967 рік. — Торонто; Пассейк, 1967.
  4. ^ Богдан Прах. Участь греко–католицьких священиків Лемківщини у політичних подіях 1918–1919 рр. (in Ukrainian) // Гілея: науковий вісник, 2013. т.№ 73. С.25–27
Political offices
Preceded by
Office created
Head of the Council of
the Komancza Republic

4 November 1918 – 23 January 1919
Succeeded by
Office abolished