Blessed Bishop-Martyr Basil Hopko
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By Fr. Christopher Zugger
Background
Basil was born into a peasant family in 1904 in the Rusyn village of Hrabské in northern Slovakia. His widowed mother emigrated to America and sent money to young Basil’s grandparents to care for him. Later he was taken in by his uncle, Father Demeter Petrenko, whose spiritual example and kindness profoundly affected Basil, who decided to apply to the eparchy of Prešov in 1924.
In 1925 the young man was summoned for military service. When he was stationed at the barracks in Prague, he would gather the Greek Catholic recruits every Sunday morning and take them to the Divine Liturgy at Holy Cross church. Being far from home, searching out fellow Greek Catholics, and finding consolation in a strong spiritual life helped him greatly when he was assigned as the pastor in Prague.
Priesthood
After his ordination in 1928, Hopko was assigned to Prague, the capital city of Czechoslovakia. By 1930 there were over 12,000 faithful registered with the parish, a mix of Ukrainians, Rusyns and Slovaks. He strove to deepen their faith and emphasized the need for the different ethnic groups to cooperate to have a flourishing parish and build up the Body of Christ. Hopko’s relations with the local Latin Church helped secure the gift of the church of Saint Clement in 1931 from the Archdiocese of Prague, and a second Greek Catholic parish was founded in Brno. Unfortunately, ethnic tensions resulted in most of the Ukrainians boycotting the services until a Ukrainian priest came. Hopko himself established as his motto for the parish "I did not come for Russians, nor for Ukrainians, nor for Ruthenians, but for Greek Catholics".
Hopko had written in the Prešov eparchy’s journal that chauvinism and nationalism were the main enemies of Christian love. Nationalist chauvinism would unfortunately cause him many difficulties.
His energetic work resulted in his being recalled to Prešov in 1936 to serve as the spiritual director of the seminary. He transmitted lessons of pastoral work to the seminarians, who noted that he spent more hours in prayer in the chapel than he did in his own room. Union with God, he told them, had to be the foundation of their future work and of their personal development.
Wartime Service and Trials
In 1938 the Munich Crisis resulted in the collapse of Czechoslovakia, becoming a quasi-independent republic and an ally of the Third Reich. Slovakia eventually betrayed most of its Jews by sending them to death camps, and the new regime persecuted non-Slovak minorities. The state ordered the removal of Hopko from his positions as Spiritual Director of the seminary because he was Rusyn.
Bishop Peter Gojdich named Hopko as the professor of moral and pastoral theology in 1943 for the seminary, but he was denied his salary by the state. He continued his work for the Church and as secretary to Gojdich. Throughout these terrible years, Hopko remained at the bishop’s side and collaborated in his work for the Jews and against the Nazis. In addition, he produced many books and pamphlets defending the Catholic Faith and explaining the Byzantine Rite, kept by the believers as religious guides during the long years of persecution.
Bishop
In 1945 Czechoslovakia was occupied by the Red Army, and the Communist Party was given great influence. That included steadily worsening conditions for the Catholic Churches, and growing support for the Russian Orthodox Church. Gojdich applied to the Holy See to have an auxiliary bishop appointed in 1947. Pope Pius XII chose Hopko. His episcopal motto “That all may be one” was aimed at healing the ethnic divisions in the eparchy along with the hope of the return of Orthodoxy and Catholicism, but his consecration as bishop was opposed by some of the Slovak clergy. He and Gojdich agreed to focus their efforts on the religious education of the young and apologetics against atheism, and they poured their energy into publications and pastoral visits around the country.
Communism and Persecution
They were arrested in 1950, and the state suppressed the Byzantine Catholic Church. Hopko was locked into a dark cell in solitary confinement, and forced to spend four days and nights standing, with no rest. His legs ballooned in size due to swelling. He was given one piece of bread and one glass of water per day and was forbidden to sit or lie down for 122 days. While walking he repeatedly prayed, "Dear Savior, I love you. Give me more and more love." Hopko spent over thirteen years in a series of prisons.
When he was not subjected to isolation or interrogation, he was put to work at harsh and menial tasks. The demands were absurdly high, so that the prisoners could never meet them and thus be accused of sabotage. Prison survivors emphasized that no matter what he was doing, he was constantly praying. He made a point of forgiving the guards, his interrogators, the torturers, and those who betrayed him. He never demanded revenge, nor even ordinary justice for all that he suffered. He had diabetes, asthma, clinical depression, and he was secretly poisoned with arsenic.
At Osek
On May 12, 1964, the communist authorities released Hopko early from prison; his physical health was in serious decline, and his emotional state was fragile. They did not want him to die in prison, fearing adverse publicity in the West. He was sent to Osek, a concentration camp monastery in Bohemia filled with 300 Czech, Hungarian, and Slovak Roman Catholic nuns and Sisters. They took Hopko in with great kindness and slowly nursed him back to health. They conducted a novena to Our Lady of Lourdes on his behalf, and on the last day he suddenly improved. Since he spoke all three languages, he was able to serve as their confessor and spiritual director.
Prague Spring 1968
An attempt to bring about “socialism with a human face” launched a rapid de-Stalinization of the country. There were high hopes for liberalization and freedom for political prisoners, including restoration of the Greek Catholic Church. Through the help of some of Hopko’s former students, the Communist Party asked for the formal recognition of the Greek Catholic Church.
It was in this atmosphere that 132 surviving Greek Catholic priests and sixty-six laypeople met in Kosice at Hopko's request. When he entered the assembly, the survivors recognized him as bishop.
An Action Committee was founded under Bishop Hopko’s leadership, but with Father Jan Murín as the chairman, a Slovak nationalist. The Vatican was informed that the laity regarded Hopko as their legitimate leader. However, some Slovak Greek Catholic clergy refused to have an ethnic Rusyn as the bishop.
Thwarted Restoration
On August 20, 1968, the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia. The Prague Spring was crushed, but the restoration of the Greek Catholic Church continued. When the Action Committee had its first meeting since the invasion, Bishop Hopko expressed his frustration with the Slovak nationalists’ continued opposition. At a time when the Church needed unity under the threat of suppression, nationalism was wreaking havoc.
Hopko received permission to go to Rome in December. When he met with the pope, Hopko was greeted warmly. But at the airport, Hopko was given a sealed letter in which the Vatican declared that Hopko was to serve as Auxiliary Bishop, and Father Jan Hirka, an ethnic Slovak who had also suffered for the Faith, was Apostolic Administrator. On May 13, 1969, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, Hopko issued a pastoral letter calling on everyone to accept Hirka as administrator.
As the ordaining bishop for the eparchy of Prešov, he ordained many priests. Despite his worsening health, the bishop continued to do parish visitations and consecrated newly-built Greek Catholic churches, and held no anger against any of those who had persecuted him. In his bed on his last day, he murmured to the Sisters that he was going home. "You are home" they told him. "Eh, you do not understand,” he replied. He died quietly shortly thereafter, on July 23, 1976.
When his body could be examined in the 1990s, it was discovered that he had 100,000 times the safe limit of arsenic accumulated in his bones because of the communists’ poisoning. On the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, September 14, 2003, he was beatified by Saint John Paul II in Bratislava as a martyr.