Saint of the Day Quote: Blessed Severian Baranyk

Severian Stefan Baranyk (Ukrainian: Северіян Бараник; 18 July 1889 – c. June 1941) was a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest and martyr.

Baranyk was born in Uhnów in Austrian Galicia (modern-day Uhniv, Ukraine). He entered the monastery of the Order of St Basil the Great in Krekhiv in 1904. On 16 May, he took his first monastic vows and, on 24 September 1910, he took his perpetual vows. He was ordained to the priesthood on 14 February 1915. Baranyk was known for his preaching, and his life was noted for his special kindness to youth and orphans. In 1932, he was made the prior (hegumen) of the Basilian monastery in Drohobych.^[1]

On 26 June 1941, the NKVD arrested him. He was taken to Drohobych prison and never seen alive again. After the Soviets withdrew from the city his mutilated body was found in the prison with signs of torture, including cross-shaped knife slashes across his chest.^[1]

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