Blessed Bishop-Martyr Theodore Romzha
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Blessed Theodore was born April 14, 1911, in Velykyj Byčkiv, in Transcarpathia, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the youngest of nine children. In his lifetime, his homeland of Subcarpathian Rus' went from being the northern frontier of the Apostolic Kingdom of Hungary for a thousand years, to the eastern frontier of the Republic of Czechoslovakia 1919-1938, back to Hungary 1938-1944, and then forcibly incorporated into the Union of Soviet Republics, the homeland of Communism. His father was a railway worker, and the family also had a small farm on which Theodore worked.
Theodore was called to the priesthood by God and despite having no priestly relatives, he entered the seminary through the support of local priests. He chose to study as a celibate, and when sent to Rome, switched to the Russian College to prepare to serve as a missionary in the USSR, which then was separated from his homeland by Poland.
Blessed Theodore Romzha high school (gymnasium) graduation photoThere he learned all about Communism while advancing in theological studies. At Christmas of 1936 Romzha was ordained as a priest in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. In 1937 he returned to his homeland to perform military service. In 1938, he was appointed spiritual director of the Seminary. On September 21, 1944, Romzha was named the youngest bishop in the Catholic world, only 33 years old, and he was consecrated in the cathedral crypt at Uzhhorod due to Soviet air raids; he also consecrated two secret bishops in December. For three years he traveled his mountainous eparchy, preaching everywhere: To die for Christ is to live forever! He withstood constant Soviet pressure, after the territory of the eparchy was annexed to the USSR in 1945, to break with Rome and join the Russian Orthodox Church under Soviet direction.
By 1946, he was the only Greek Catholic bishop in freedom in the USSR. The Soviets could not crush the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, and finally the decision was made by Stalin to kill the young bishop and force the priests to join Orthodoxy under Stalin's control. On October 27, 1947, an “accident” was staged in which a Red Army truck plowed into a carriage carrying the bishop and three companions. Soldiers then jumped out to finish the job, beating the victims with iron rods, until they were suddenly interrupted by the local farmers and a mail truck. Since the bishop survived both the attack and surgery, a secret police agent was sent into the hospital to murder him on the night of October 31.
In 1949 the eparchy of Mukachevo was shut down by the state, and hundreds of priests, monks, Sisters, and laypeople were arrested. The Church went underground, led by the bishops secretly consecrated by Romzha and their successors, to emerge again in 1989. Blessed Theodore was beatified by Saint John Paul II in 2001.
Why was the day of Bishop Romzha’s feast moved from November 1 to October 31?
The Eparchy of Mukachevo requested this change, because when Soviet rule was introduced in 1945, the territory of Transcarpathia, which historically followed Central European time, was forced to follow the Moscow time zone, a two-hour difference. Part of the Soviet expansion into Europe included forcing all the territories annexed in 1945 to follow Moscow time, even though it was incredibly inconvenient for the farmers and workers alike, to emphasize Moscow’s political control. The murder took place at 10:30 pm on Central European time, on October 31st. The Mukachevo eparchy asked the Holy See to transfer the feast to October 31 to accurately reflect the history of his martyrdom.
He is the patron of Bishop Artur's vocation.