Rt. Rev. Dr. Myron Stasiw Seminary Fund

Amount: $100,000

Designation: Following the merger with St. Mary’s Credit Union, the fund was created by Buduchnist Credit Union, in honour of Rt. Rev. Myron Stasiw, D.Th., a prominent member of the Ukrainian Catholic clergy and active member of the Ukrainian-Canadian community. The fund supports youth who have made a commitment to their spiritual calling, by providing scholarships and bursaries to seminarians and students of theology.

Background: Rt. Rev. Dr. Myron Stasiw was born in 1925 near the Western Ukrainian town of Striy. As a young man, he participated in Ukraine’s struggle for independence and in the aftermath of World War II, he eventually landed in a POW camp near Rimini, Italy. Meanwhile, his parents and siblings were deported to Siberia where they suffered as forced labourers for more than 18 years.

In 1946, he joined the Papal Seminary of St. Joseph in Rome and was ordained a Ukrainian Catholic priest in 1952. He continued his studies at Rome’s Gregorian University, where he received a Master’s Degree in Canon Law, followed by an M.A. and a Doctorate in Theology. In 1959, he departed for Canada, initially serving as a pastor to several communities in Saskatchewan. In 1964, Rev. Stasiw moved to Toronto where he taught theology at the University of Toronto’s St. Michael’s College and St. Paul University in Ottawa. He was pastor at one of Toronto’s largest Ukrainian Catholic parishes, the Sobor of the Holy Protection of the Mother of God, for over thirty years.