Author: Michael R. Heinlein

Blessed Vasyl Velychkovsky’s story can offer us a great deal of inspiration as we face a multitude of struggles these days that may keep us from boldly living the Faith. A member of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Velychkovsky was ordained a priest in the Redemptorist congregation. As he began attracting more people, particularly with large processions of the faithful, Velychkovsky came under suspicion of the Soviet regime, the invading power in his native Ukraine. Eventually, the Soviets attempted to break down Velychkovsky by demanding his conversion to the Russian Orthodox Church. Refusing to abandon his communion with the Catholic Church, however, he confirmed his Catholic faith responding, “No. Never.”

The result was his unwarranted arrest in July 1945, and his subsequent sentencing to death by firing squad. Displaying a peaceful acceptance of his impending martyrdom, Velychkovsky was resentenced to 10 years of hard labor in a Siberian work camp. His difficulties did not deter the steadfast faith of the saintly priest, however, and accepted his assignment in serenity and peace, trusting in God’s will. While working mostly in coal mines, Velychkovsky secretly ministered to the people with whom he lived and toiled, providing for their spiritual and sacramental needs.

When Velychkovsky was released in 1955, he discovered that the Soviets had killed or exiled the majority of the clergy and hierarchy. Aware of the need for bishops who could teach, sanctify and govern the people of that region, the Holy See set its sights on Velychkovsky. He was requested to meet Cardinal Josyf Slipyj, the metropolitan archbishop for Ukraininan Catholics, in Moscow, not knowing the reason. Cardinal Slipyj had been imprisoned for nearly two decades but was released for travel to Rome to attend the Second Vatican Council. Upon entering the room, Velychkovsky was asked to kneel, and Cardinal Slipyj ordained him a bishop on the spot. (Velychkovsky had been named a bishop by the pope years earlier, but there was no bishop available to ordain him in Ukraine.)

Velychkovsky’s task was to help oversee the underground Church in Soviet-dominated Ukraine, and some even called him the “Father of the Underground Church.” With total trust in God’s providence, he discharged his tasks and responsibilities, presiding at secret ordinations, celebrating Masses and other sacraments in homes and convents, helping religious houses and monasteries find ways to live in secret, and offering spiritual advice to the countless visitors who flocked to his apartment, which served as something like a de facto cathedral.

In 1969, Velychkovsky was arrested again after publishing a book on the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, for tuning in to Vatican radio and for performing baptisms. His punishment for three years was harsh physical, psychological and chemical torture. Despite this, he did not give in to Soviet demands to renounce the Faith or divulge sensitive information about the underground Church. In 1972, he was released and exiled to Canada.

Velychkovsky died a martyr’s death, as a result of his sufferings, in Winnipeg a year later on June 30, 1973. Velychkovsky was beatified along with several other Ukrainian martyrs in 2001. His life offers a heroic testimony of faithfulness to Christ and his Church, even amid overwhelming challenges and great sufferings.

Michael R. Heinlein is editor of Simply Catholic. Follow him on Twitter @HeinleinMichael.

Born into an aristocratic family in 1568, St. Aloysius Gonzaga was destined to succeed his father’s noble position. As such, he was enrolled in a boot camp at age 5 (where he gained a certain vocabulary much to his mother and tutor’s dismay). In addition to witnessing the political turmoil, depravity and violence of Renaissance society, Gonzaga also lived through the murder of his two brothers.

But Gonzaga’s life began to change when he started to develop a relationship with the Lord after he started to suffer from kidney problems around age 8. Suddenly, he had plenty of time available for spiritual reading and prayer. The following year, Gonzaga took a vow of chastity. He also became greatly inspired by reading about Jesuit missionaries to India and found himself drawn to that vocation.

After Gonzaga made known his calling to serve as a missionary priest, those closest to him tried to dissuade him. Seeing the futility of their attempts to steer him away from priesthood, Gonzaga’s family thought they could convince him to stay away from a religious order with the promise to secure his advancement as a bishop. None of that seemed attractive or tempting to him. Instead, he renounced his inheritance and set out to serve Christ and the Church in the Society of Jesus. Of course, Gonzaga knew there was a greater inheritance awaiting him: “It is better to be a child of God than king of the whole world,” he said.

Interestingly, Gonzaga was encouraged and supported by two great saints: St. Charles Borromeo (1538-1584) — from whom Gonzaga received his first holy Communion — and St. Robert Bellarmine. The latter was Gonzaga’s own Jesuit confrere, but more importantly, an influential spiritual father and confessor.

Gonzaga gradually came to know the connection between love and suffering, which is bound up in Christ’s cross. “He who wishes to love God does not truly love him if he has not an ardent and constant desire to suffer for his sake,” he said. Gonzaga’s ill health worsened not long after he joined the Jesuits in 1585. He was burdened by other ailments, in addition to kidney disease, including recurring headaches and difficulty sleeping. In 1590, he received a vision from St. Gabriel the Archangel, in which he learned he would die within the year ahead.

The next year a plague struck Rome. Despite his own infirmities, Gonzaga was quick to offer help to the epidemic’s victims. Carrying them off the streets and to the hospital established by the Jesuits, Gonzaga brought consolation and comfort to the sick and dying. Not only did he bathe and care for the sick, but he did his best to tend to their spiritual needs as well. He was forbidden by superiors from continuing the work after many of his Jesuit confreres were afflicted by the disease.

Later, Gonzaga was allowed to minister at a hospital for those without infectious diseases, or so it was thought. After serving a man who turned out to be suffering from the plague, Gonzaga took ill himself. Although it appeared he might recover, his fever and cough worsened, and his health steadily deteriorated over the course of several weeks. The Jesuit scholastic Gonzaga lived what St. Robert Bellarmine taught: “The school of Christ is the school of love.”

St. Robert Bellarmine assisted Gonzaga spiritually in his last trial, regularly bringing him the sacraments. He recalled that Gonzaga did not fear death, but that “he longed to be freed from his flesh and to come to Christ.” Gonzaga died on June 21, 1591 with the name of Jesus on his lips.

Bellarmine worked to promote his disciple’s beatification, which came just 14 years after Gonzaga’s death, extolling his virtues, especially his patience and humility. Their bodies rest near each other in the Roman church of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

St. Aloysius Gonzaga is commemorated on June 21.

Michael R. Heinlein is editor of Simply Catholic. Follow him on Twitter @HeinleinMichael.