Feastday: April 2
Birth: 1906
Death: 1941
Beatified: Pope John Paul II
Bl. Volodymr Pryima was a Ukrainian, Greek Catholic. He was born on July 17, 1906 in the village of Stradch, in the Yavoriv District of Western Ukraine, near the former Polish border. He attended a school for signers of liturgical music, becoming a cantor, and leading a choir in celebration. He worked in his local village church in Stradch.
According to all accounts, Pryima was martyred on June 26, 1941, after he accompanied his parish priest, Fr. Nicholas Conrad (Fr. Mykola Konrad), to visit a sick woman who requested the Sacrament of Reconciliation. While returning through the forest near their town, they were detained by agents of the NKVD. The NKVD was a department of the Soviet government responsible for overseeing police work and running prison and labor camps.
Agents of the NKVD tortured and murdered Pryima and Fr. Nicholas. His body was not discovered until one week after the murder. He had been stabbed through the chest several times with a bayonet.
Having given his life for the faith, Pryima has been recognized as a martyr. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on June 27, 2001. Fr. Conrad was likewise beatified simultaneously and both are recognized as "blessed."
Volodymyr Pryjma (Ukrainian: Володимир Прийма) was a Ukrainian Greek Catholic choir director and martyr.
Pryjma was born on 17 July 1906 in the village of Stradch, Yavoriv District. He graduated from a school for cantors, which was at that time under the care of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. He was made the cantor and choir director in the local village church in Stradch. Prijma was married with two young children.
On 26 June 1941, four days after the start of the German-Soviet War, agents of the Soviet Union's NKVD mercilessly tortured and murdered him, along with Mykola Konrad, in a forest near Stradch as they were returning from the house of a sick woman who had requested the sacrament of reconciliation. His body had not been found until a week after the murder. He had been stabbed multiple times in the chest with a bayonet.
He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 27 June 2001.
On Saturday, November 2nd 2019, Volodymyr Pryjma's relics were placed Holy Eucharist Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral, New Westminster, British Columbia Canada.
Influence
Yurii Sakavronskyi in an interview recounted the martyrdom:
"Fr Konrad went with the holy sacraments to fulfill his sacred obligation, hearing a woman's confession in the neighboring village. He felt he had to go, though he was stopped. I know that they stopped him and said; 'Father, don't go. Look what's happening;the war has started, anything could happen.' He said that this was his sacred duty and that he had to go. He got dressed and left together with Volodymyr Pryjma, the cantor. They didn't come back. After a week, they were found there, murdered. People thought something was wrong. So they went to look for them and found them there. It was awful. The cantor's wife had two children. One was three, the other was four. Momma told how when they were found everyone was overcome by what they saw. The cantor was especially cut up, his chest stabbed with a bayonet many times."
