Blessed Bishop-Martyr Theodore Romzha
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By Fr. Christopher Zugger
At his consecration on September 21, 1944, he was the youngest Catholic bishop in the entire world, only thirty-three. For his motto, he chose from the Divine Liturgy: “I love You, O Lord, my strength and my rock; You are my stronghold and my refuge!” (Psalm 18: 1-2).
At the time of his appointment, the Soviet Red Army was crossing through the Carpathian Mountains, and the territory of the eparchy of Mukachevo was becoming a bloody battleground. Within days of the Soviet arrival, pressure began on him and every priest to convert to the Russian Orthodox Church, under tight control of the Soviet state. “Visits” to interrogation sessions were constant, as was police surveillance. Churches were attacked, priests murdered or beaten, people harassed, and buildings assigned to the collaborating hierarchs of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Origins
Born into a working-class family in Velykyi Bychkiv in 1911, in the eastern Máramaros region, young Theodore George Romzha was an avid athlete who excelled at soccer, volleyball, skiing, and climbing the Carpathian Mountains. The area was home to Rusyns, Romanians, Jews, Germans and Hungarians, so he grew up in a multi-lingual world. He worked hard on his parents’ farm after school hours and during his vacations from boarding school. 
He was known for his beautiful singing voice, and he served with the cantors as a teenager. In addition to his native Ruthenian dialect and Hungarian, he quickly learned Czech, Latin and French at the boarding school in Khust. While his teachers thought he would go into engineering or the military, Theodore applied to the Mukachevo seminary. Recognizing his abilities, the bishop sent him to Rome where he entered the Gregorian in 1930. 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.
Desire For the Salvation of Souls
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 in 1934, Theodore chose to transfer to the Russian College, or Russicum. This had been founded to train future priests who would cross into the hostile Soviet Union to do clandestine missionary work among the persecuted Catholics. Students learned how to counter communist dialectics, celebrate in the Byzantine-Russian Rite, and face imprisonment or martyrdom. Theodore had a great desire to see Orthodoxy and Catholicism reunited, and to save souls from atheistic communism.
After serving in poor mountain villages around Nizhni Bistri, the young priest was called to Three Holy Hierarchs Seminary in Uzhhorod as a spiritual director and professor. He was a well-liked teacher and had a good reputation among the faculty and students. He did not get angry with the young men and urged them to learn the truths of the faith well so that they could explain them to the laity. Those who were ordained in 1939-47 as priests said that his personal teachings sustained them throughout their priesthood, including in prison camps and underground ministry. The young men saw him as an extraordinary figure who they quickly incorporated into their membership as a father and a mature friend who loved them. During the ongoing political crises of 1938-1944, there were episodes of ethnic animosity, but for Romzha, the most important factor was unity as Catholics.
Devotion to the Mother of God
At the seminary he celebrated the Moleben to the Mother of God every evening in May, and he was devoted to the Rosary. This is notable, since he was a stickler for following the traditional rubrics of the Byzantine-Ruthenian Rite, and not popular latinized customs. But he wanted the seminarians to have a strong devotion to Mary, and he respected these devotions as being dear to the hearts of ordinary people and as instruments of evangelization. Pope Pius XII nominated Romzha as bishop on the Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos, 1944.
The messages of Fatima (1917) were well-known in pre-war Czechoslovakia, as was the fact that the Soviet Union absolutely forbade any mention of the Fatima apparitions. Romzha consecrated the eparchy to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on May 13, 1946, the twenty-ninth anniversary of the first Fatima apparition. "To your Immaculate Heart, we present and dedicate ourselves, O Mother of Mercy. Ask the Lord for mercy that will move the human heart”, and he specifically prayed for the return of those who had abandoned the Faith. “Return to the one Church of Christ those who have been torn away from it by errors or strife … Awaken in the faithful a love for purity and a life worthy of Christians …”
As the bishop, Romzha was “invited” to the Soviet secret police offices repeatedly after the annexation of the territory to the Soviet Union in 1945. These “visits” were really interrogations. After one such “visit” the young bishop came out, pale and soaked in sweat, his hair plastered to his head. When two older priests inquired as to what had happened, he would only say that it was purely through the protection of the Blessed Virgin that he was able to resist.
Loyalty to the Holy See
Romzha knew that Soviet persecution would be aimed directly at the Greek Catholics, and that the members of the Church must be strengthened in their faith. He traveled to every one of the 495 parishes to encourage the clergy and people to remain in the Catholic Church and resist all enticements to join Moscow. When clergy or laity would waver in the face of persecutions, he would repeat to them, “Faith is our greatest treasure on this earth. To preserve our faith, we must even be ready to lay down our life. If we must die, then let us die as true martyrs, defending our faith. One thing is sure that we never will abandon our faith nor betray our Church.” He prophesied that he would die rather than apostatize from the Catholic faith. At every sermon he led the people in a renewal of their baptismal promises and concluded with his mission motto, "To die for Christ is to live forever!”
Martyrdom
After three years of increasing persecution, confiscation of churches and institutions, arrests and murders of priests, threats against Romzha’s life and even foreign radio broadcasts announcing his death, the Soviets decided to eliminate the last known Greek Catholic bishop in 1947. In October, Romzha was promised that he would become the Orthodox archbishop of Mukachevo, with an Orthodox metropolitan province created for him to lead, if only he would sign the papers and officially convert. Romzha refused, but this time he was told, "In two weeks' time, you will be killed."
On October 27, 1947, an “accident” was staged in which a Red Army truck plowed into a carriage carrying the bishop and three companions. When the truck was following them, he pulled out his rosary and began to lead his companions in prayer. It was at the seventh Hail Mary of the last decade that the truck sped up and rammed through the carriage. Said a witness, “I will never forget that day. The bishop’s head was next to the front wheels of the truck – it stopped right there. It was a miracle … they were stabbing and beating all of us – they didn’t want anyone to live."
Soldiers beat Romzha and the victims with iron rods, until they were suddenly interrupted by local farmers and a mail truck. With that, all of the soldiers fled in a waiting jeep. The victims were rushed to Mukachevo in the mail truck and taken to the city hospital. After surgery on his broken jaws and ribs, the public announcement was made that the bishop would live. Sister Teofilia was assigned to care for him. Father Daniel Bachinsky was in a coma in the same room. In a true Christian spirit, Romzha said of his attackers "Whoever they might be, I forgive them." After his surgery, he asked for his rosary, which Sister Teofilia returned to him, after she washed off the blood that had soaked it. He immediately took it, kissed the crucifix, and began praying.
That Romzha would live was unacceptable to Moscow. An agent was brought into the hospital. With the connivance of a communist doctor this agent injected him with poison late on October 31. When Sister Teofilia forced her way back into the room, the bishop was dying, murmuring the name of Jesus. Bachinsky had awakened and reported what happened. Huge crowds attended the martyr’s funeral.
Within two years, the Byzantine-Ruthenian Catholic Church of the USSR was a catacomb Church, leading a hidden life. But in 1990 as restrictions began to lift towards the end of Soviet rule, the Church reemerged into public life, to the surprise of many and as a result of the example of Romzha.
Blessed Theodore was beatified by Saint John Paul II in 2001.
Why Was Bishop Romzha’s Feast Moved 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.