Confessor-Bishop Alexander Chira
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By Fr. Christopher Zugger
Origins
Born into a priestly family in the Tyachiv region of Subcarpathian Rus’ in 1897, Alexander was sent to the Three Holy Hierarchs Seminary in Uzhhorod. His intelligence and piety marked him for advancement, and he was quickly sent to Budapest for further studies. In 1920 he was ordained as a celibate priest just as the eparchy was experiencing the tumult of the Orthodox Movement and anti-Church moves by the new and hostile Czechoslovak government. His motto was “Lord, I will follow You, wherever You will go” (Luke 9:57).
He successfully helped his own priest-father negotiate a peaceful settlement in their home parish after the newly converted Orthodox had taken over the church. His successful work in reconciling Orthodox with the Greek Catholic Church and countering pro-Orthodox state propaganda became very important after 1944.
In 1924 he was assigned by the new bishop to work in the eparchy’s offices and serve as a spiritual director in the seminary. He was able to expand the seminary curriculum and had to adapt to the presence of seminarians who came from America in 1924-1940. At the same time, he devoted himself to keeping the Greek Catholic Church connected with the many young adults who were now getting higher education that helped them to form a Ruthenian intelligentsia. He also spent the latter part of Great Lent and part of the paschal season on special trips to Belgium and France where he served the sacraments to Ruthenian miners and other nationalities. As a missionary to migrant workers in western Europe he had to learn German, Polish, and other languages. That became critical during his service as a political prisoner in the mines of Kazakhstan and as an underground missionary in Central Asia and Siberia.
Chira was the first Greek Catholic priest who was willing to serve as a chaplain in the state prison. Here he was able to convince the state to support the building of a Greek Catholic chapel with reservation of the Holy Eucharist. He went routinely to the prison to preach retreats and provide the Holy Mysteries to the men in jail. He founded successful apostolates among young men and women to deepen their spiritual lives.
As one of the formators in the seminary, he encouraged the young men to go to Confession weekly and taught them how to make spiritual meditations. He himself offered the Liturgy daily and led evening spiritual conferences. In 1934 he was named rector of the seminary and a member of the Chapter of Canons.
Hungarian Rule
When Hungary re-annexed Subcarpathian Rus’ in 1939, Chira had been the rector of the seminary for five years. The new government deposed him and put him under house arrest. To demonstrate his confidence in Chira despite Hungarian harassment of the priest, the bishop asked Pope Pius XII to name him as a Monsignor in 1943. On March 19, 1944, the German army suddenly attacked their Hungarian ally and occupied the country.
Soviet Rule
By autumn 1944, the frontline reached the mountains. The Soviet Red Army launched the East Carpathian Strategic Offensive to smash through the German and Hungarian defensive lines. Savage, bloody battles took place in the mountain passes. By late October 1944, Soviet forces successfully cleared the Axis troops and fully occupied the Carpathian territory.
As a senior churchman, Chira became the closest advisor of the young bishop Theodore Romzha. Romzha consecrated him as a secret bishop in 1944, and he joined Bishop Petro Oros in secret ministry. Chira routinely accompanied Romzha to the many mandatory police interrogations. Sometimes he was able to go inside the room, other times he was forced to wait outside in the hallway, where he spent the time praying for his young bishop. After the bishop’s martyrdom, Chira celebrated the funeral and preached an emotional homily to the huge crowd.
Chira himself was subjected to police interrogations. Though Father Nicholas Muranyi was the official administrator of the eparchy, Chira was a popular figure. The authorities rightly discerned that if he broke with the Holy See, many would follow him. His resolute answer at each such invitation to become Orthodox is at the heading of this section: I was born a Greek Catholic, I have preached the Greek Catholic faith all my life, and I will die a Greek Catholic.”
When Moscow decided to finally eliminate the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, Chira was arrested on February 10, 1949, and on August 6 he was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. Officially his crimes were sabotage, anti-Soviet propaganda and receiving messages from a foreign power (the Vatican). It was for his continued refusal to break with the Holy See that he was especially condemned: “he had for many years propagated Catholicism.”
In Prison and the Gulag
Chira was sent to Kiev for interrogations and was subjected to physical and psychological torture. He later confided to the priests that he was subjected to as many as ten episodes where he was brought out for execution, only to be reprieved at the last moment in front of firing squads. Within four years of forced labor, Chira was bent over, and his hair had gone completely gray. The bishop suffered but persisted in offering Mass and the Divine Liturgy for the prisoners as often as possible. He was not released until 1956.
When he returned home, he assumed leadership of the underground Church and began assigning priests to different areas as they returned from the gulag. In 1956 he ordained four former seminarians to the priesthood, giving them instructions on how to serve secretly so that they would not be detected. His time at home quickly ended. He was betrayed, and deported to Kazakhstan and another stint in the coal mines.
In the 1970s he wrote that “It hurts, as a human being, that I have to be without those who love me… The knowledge that with Jesus I am stronger than those who want to humiliate and oppress me makes me happy.” He found refuge with an exiled Russia-German family in the mostly German suburb of Maikudok; this was his base for twenty years. Disguised as “Father Sasha” he joined other exiled priests who made Karaganda their center for apostolic work in all the Central Asian republics and southern Siberia.
Chira was often attacked during his nighttime rounds of visiting homes for sacraments by gangs of young men. In a country under tight surveillance, the KGB professed itself unable to discover the identity of these “bandits.” Catholic homes were raided by the police, people were given heavy fines for hosting prayer services, and there was always the threat of arrest and deportation.
During his exile in Kazakhstan, Chira had continued to lead the underground eparchy of Mukachevo from afar. During annual visits, he would ordain secretly trained men to the priesthood. He also dealt with various challenges of ministry in the catacombs and led the efforts to reconcile most of those priests who had joined the state Orthodox Church in 1945-50. Those priests later led their parishes back into the newly restored Greek Catholic eparchy in the 1990s.
Death in Exile
In 1983 his health dramatically worsened. He was able to consecrate Bishop Holovach who knelt by his bed but soon after was hospitalized. When the Hermann family realized that he was dying, they brought him back to their house so that he could be anointed by the priests and have a religious funeral. He died on May 6 and was buried with a Mass concelebrated by fifteen priests and thousands of mourners. Buried next to Saint Joseph church, his tombstone was inscribed in Slavonic, Latin and German, in recognition of his long ministry to Latin and Greek Catholics alike.