Catholic Studies and Ukrainian Heritage Collections: Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church’s Name
The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (the UGCC) is the largest Eastern Catholic Church. Different groups of people have used different names throughout the history of the church to identify us. The term most frequently used in our parish to identify ourselves is Ukrainian Catholic.
 
Names which are used to describe the UGCC:

• Union Church refers to our status as Eastern Christians who returned to full unity with Rome. In the United States, Eastern Catholic and Eastern Rite are often used to convey the same meaning. While uniate was originally a pejorative that was embraced by many Eastern Catholics when it was hurled at them, the word’s negative connotations and historical weight have caused it to fall out off disfavor.
• The canonical term Ecclesia sui juris, or Church sui iuris, describes how we have our own hierarchy and canons, traditions, rubrics, and laws while being in complete mutual communion with the Pope of Rome.
• The name “Greek-Catholic Church” was introduced by Empress Maria Theresa in 1774 in order to distinguish it from the Roman Catholic and Armenian Catholic Churches.
• In official Church documents, the term Ecclesia Ruthena unita was used to designate the UGCC.
• Starting in the 1960s, the name “Ukrainian Catholic Church” appeared in official documents in relation to the Ukrainian Catholics of the diaspora while the “Church in Soviet Ukraine” referred to the underground and persecuted church of that time.
• In the pontifical statistical annual Annuario Pontificio the name “Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Byzantine rite” is used.
• At the September 1999 Synod of Bishops of the UGCC, the suggestion was made to use the name “Kyivan Catholic Church,” which would underline our historical origins.

This page taken from St Sophia Church archived webpage from 2011

The Sisters of Saint Basil the Great, who established Manor College in 1947, were founded in the 4th century by Saint Basil the Great and his sister Saint Macrina. Basil and Macrina were from a well-established family of saintly and intellectual leaders in the community. The primary influence in their lives was the Gospel imperative to love all human beings, and serve each person in the name of God.

Saint Basil and Saint Macrina, also the founders of Eastern monasticism, urged their followers to be “co-workers with God” in the task of developing the potential of each human being through the means of education as a partnership with God in the creative act of the development of the whole person. The Basilian tradition spread throughout Asia Minor and Europe. By the 11th century, this tradition was rooted in Ukraine. In 1911, the Sisters were invited by the Most Reverend Solter Ortynsky, the first Ukrainian Bishop in the United States, to come to Philadelphia and open an orphanage and school at North 7th and Parrish Streets. Mother M. Josaphat Theodorowych, OSBM, Major Superior of the Philadelphia Province of the Sisters of Saint Basil the Great was determined to found a school of higher education in the tradition of the great educator and founder of the Basilian order, Saint Basil the Great. Originally designed as a four-year liberal arts college, Manor College was to serve as a learning center for the religious of the Order of Saint Basil, and would also provide an opportunity for young women of Ukrainian ancestry to pursue higher learning in a setting where the culture and heritage of their ancestors would be preserved.

In the fall of 1947, the plans for a college were realized and a unique institution of higher learning was born. Manor College witnessed its beginnings in an old farmhouse on the grounds of the Basilian Motherhouse in Fox Chase. The College, initially named Saint Macrina College, opened its doors to eleven eager students who sought entrance in the first year of the school’s existence. In 1931, the Sisters of Saint Basil the Great founded Saint Basil Academy, a private, Catholic high school for girls. To learn more about the Academy, please visit www.stbasilacademy.org

Presently the Order of the Sisters of Saint Basil the Great has its central government in Rome, Italy. There are foundations in Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, the United States, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bosnia, Croatia and Italy. To learn more about the Sisters of St Basil, please visit stbasils.com or write to: Vocation Directress, 710 Fox Chase Road, Fox Chase Manor, PA 19046-4198. You can also visit the Generalate web page at www.basiliansisters.org and the web sites of the Sisters of Saint Basil in Romania and Slovakia.

This page taken from Manor College's webpage, 2017, with some edits.