Province of the Most Holy Savior (Ukraine)

The Galician Province of the Most Holy Savior was created in 1780 and remained the only Basilian Province after the suppression of others by the Russian Empire. By 1882, only 14 monasteries and 60 monks remained. That year, under Protohegumen Fr. Klymentii Sarnytskyi, Pope Leo XIII authorized the Jesuits to lead a reform, known as the Dobromyl Reform, which revitalized the Order.

The reformed Basilians became active in missions, retreats, publishing, and education. They also sent missionaries abroad: to Brazil (1897), Canada (1902), and the USA (1907).

The Soviet occupation of Galicia in 1939 brought fierce persecution. Monks were martyred, imprisoned, or exiled. Yet the Order survived underground, running secret novitiates and ministering to the faithful.

With Ukraine’s independence in 1991, monasteries were restored and new ones founded in Kyiv, Kherson, Pokotylivka, Zvanivka, and Briukhovychi. The Basilian Institute of Philosophy and Theology was established in Briukhovychi in 2002, and St. Josaphat Lyceum was opened in Buchach. Publishing work also resumed in Zhovkva.

In 1996, the Province was officially renamed the Province of the Most Holy Savior in Ukraine. In 2001, during his visit to Ukraine, St. John Paul II beatified Basilian martyrs Josaphat Kotsylovsky, Severian Baranyk, Yakym Senkivskyi, and Vitalii Bayrak.