Blessed Bishop-Martyr Petro Oros
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By Fr. Christopher Zugger
Born into a priestly family in 1917, Petro Pavel Oros had a challenging life. His father died in 1918; his mother remarried but died in 1926. After their stepfather remarried, the new wife did not want the Oros boys, and they had to move in with relatives in another region, only to have their uncle die. Finally, the boys settled with the Sabov family, with whom they would remain. They were treated as equals to the rest of the large family.
Like Theodore Romzha, Oros was an enthusiastic athlete and excelled at soccer. As a priest, he encouraged the villagers to keep up their physical health and he himself served often as a referee at games, wearing a white shirt with his black priest slacks.
Spirituality
Petro chose to be ordained as a celibate priest in 1942, despite his own family’s long history of married priests. Petro chose celibacy as part of his dedication of his entire self to God. The people preserved their memories of the young martyr-bishop. They describe how his baritone voice filled their church, how devoutly he recited Psalm 50 while doing the incensing, and how people would crowd into services because of his preaching. Fifty years later, they could describe how devoutly he offered the services. In violation of Soviet laws, he gave religious instruction to the children. He lived in poverty and gave of himself as much as he could.
There were signs of divine protection over him. He crossed high-running streams but arrived on the other side completely dry and had no memory of going through the water. When Oros was celebrating the Liturgy in a church once, the two people present saw the sanctuary filled with angels who descended in response to the bishop’s prayers. Oros carried a large icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa with him that he would set up on the table being used for the Liturgy in different homes. There were occasions when that icon, venerated in a dark house, shone brightly.
Once he had to cross the Borzhava river at night. He could not find the safe ford and tried to cross over. Suddenly he was caught in a powerful current. Despite his own strength, he was soon drowning, water was pouring down his throat. He cried out, “Holy Mother of God, save me!” At that moment, the water receded, and he found himself on the shore. He reached inside his shirt, and the little image of Mary was not only safe but dry, as were the items for the Liturgy he kept there.
Mother of God
His Marian devotion was quite strong. He always kept a little icon of Our Lady on his person, next to a small epitrakhil that he used for confessions.
After 1945, people lamented that the visible structures of the Church were being destroyed, but he always told them that the actual Church would survive. There would be fewer believers he predicted, but they had to put their confidence in the intercession of the Mother of God.
While walking from village to the village at night, he had to be very careful that he was not seen. On all these walks he would recite the Holy Rosary, putting his trust in Mary’s motherly protection. For one who had lost his mother at a young age, he had a heavenly Mother in whom he had full confidence.
Charity
The phrase “he’d give you the shirt off his back” quite literally applied to Father Petro. He was famous among the villagers for literally taking off his clothes to give to the poor. As Soviet rule hardened, more and more people were pushed into poverty, and so there were always more recipients of his charity. He gave away his food to workers and the poor, and mothers in the villages warned their children not to accept treats from their priest because he was starving himself.
Like Bishop Romzha, Oros served all people. He spoke Magyar and Rusyn perfectly and was one of the few underground priests who could minister effectively among the Hungarians, Rusyns, and Ukrainians. He wanted to serve all those who were loyal to the Catholic Church.
Ascetical Life
During his underground years, the young bishop fortified himself with ascetical practices. He ate only once per day, in the morning, to strengthen his soul. He kept the Holy Eucharist reserved in his room in the mountains after he began his underground life and spent hours in silent adoration and prayer. After his execution, witnesses saw the hard callouses that had formed on his knees from all his kneeling. Christ’s cross and the protection of Our Lady were the spiritual bases for his career as a clandestine missionary.
During his last imprisonment in 1953, he was kept at Uzhhorod city jail for nine days. He made a novena for his release and subsisted on water and tea for the entire time as an act of penance.
Was He a Bishop?
There have been debates about his episcopal consecration, because there were no written records. Bishop Alexander Chira mentioned to another prisoner that he was consecrated alongside another priest in December of 1944. A letter to the Russicum in Rome in late 1947 confirms that two consecrations were done by Romzha.
Underground priests and their families testified to his episcopal authority. His own sister, Elizabeth Dudynska-Sokach, affirmed that he was consecrated by Romzha in December 1944, and it was common knowledge among the local people. In 1946, Father Petro consecrated a church; this ceremony could only be done by a bishop. Bishop Petro sent out written “epistles” that were read at gatherings of underground clergy. These assigned priests to different areas and gave instructions as to how to celebrate the Sacred Mysteries in their catacomb existence. In his own handwritten book of prayers, the last entry, from 1953, was signed by Oros with a cross in front of his name, which only a bishop can do. The L’viv Institute for Church History lists Oros along with four other titular bishops who were secretly consecrated.
The most telling evidence comes, ironically, from the Soviets’ own secret police. They denounced him publicly as not only a bishop, but also as leader of the Catacomb Church. There was a cash reward of 500 rubles for his capture, dead or alive. While several underground priests were murdered in hospitals or staged traffic accidents, Oros was shot publicly in the street by a policeman. It was a shocking and unique execution: the young bishop was feared by Moscow.
Martyrdom
When the Soviets began pressuring priests to sign to join the Orthodox, Petro Oros firmly refused. He told the parishioners in Bilky that while he would give his body to the state as a martyr, they could never have his soul. He also predicted to the clergy, his relatives, and his helpers that he would be shot by the Chekists.
He was captured several times and taken in for interrogation, with demands that become Russian Orthodox. He suffered psychological and physical torture, so much so that people who were children then still remembered as adults his sunken eyes and bloodied feet and hands.
When the bishop was captured in May 1953, he was told that times had changed. Interrogators came and asked questions about the differences between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, what was Confession, what is the Eucharist. Oros himself told the Sabov family “I held a retreat for them … they didn’t beat me” and he began a novena for his deliverance. The local KGB told him to apply for a Soviet passport, get his photo taken for it, and that he would be able to give up his hidden life. They even gave him a letter stating that he could travel openly and no longer had to hide.
Unfortunately, he did not know that orders had been given at a higher level to have him assassinated. On August 28 Bishop Petro was denounced at a train station and a policeman, Povshyk, arrested him. When they reached a wayside crucifix, the bishop knelt at the cross and asked that the officer allow him to finish his journey to anoint a dying man. Sensing danger, Oros took out the pyx and consumed the Holy Eucharist. The killer pulled out his gun and shot Oros in the neck, piercing the artery. He then walked behind Oros and shot him in the back of the neck.
In Irshava the police shoved the body into a shed. For three nights people heard the voice of Oros chanting the Liturgy. Only after 1991 did secret police officers confess that they buried his body under layers of concrete because they could not stand the sound of that voice. Our second bishop-martyr was only thirty-six years old, the same age as Bishop Romzha when he was killed. On September 27, 2025, Petro Oros was beatified in Bilky where he served, mere miles from the spot where he was martyred.