Our Bishop
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Most Reverend Artur Bubnevych (2025-present)
Bishop Artur was born on June 22, 1975, in the village of Perechyn, in the Transcarpathian Oblast of Soviet Ukraine, in what was then the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This region is the site of the Eparchy of Mukachevo, the oldest Byzantine-Ruthenian Catholic eparchy.
Due to the oppression of our Church under Communist rule, he was secretly baptized at home by the Byzantine Catholic priest Andrey Gleba on July 7, 1975. He speaks his native Ruthenian language as well as English, German, Latvian, Russian, and Ukrainian. In June 1994, he graduated from the Vinogradov Polytechnical College, and then entered the Seminary of Blessed Theodore Romzha in August of that year. The Eparchy sent him to Austria where he learned English at the Language Catechetical Institute in 1995, and in 1996 he entered the International Theological Institute for studies on Marriage and Family for the Master of Theology.
He graduated from the Seminary in 1998 and in December he was ordained to the order of Subdiaconate by Bishop Ioann Semediy. He had entered the Licentiate program at the same institute and graduated from there with his License in Theology in 2001. He then worked for the Diocese of Liepaja in Latvia until 2005.
Bishop Artur worked for the Eparchy of Mukachevo, serving as the Project Secretary with Bishop Milan Šašik, CM, 2006-2013. In addition, to his work at the chancery of the Eparchy of Mukachevo, he served as a teacher of English at the Seminary, and in 2006-2011 he served as the main cantor at his home parish of Saint Nicholas in Perechyn.
In 2013, he made the decision to apply to come to America as a missionary for the Byzantine Catholic Church, and worked in the Eparchy of Phoenix from September 2013 to March 2014 as a Subdeacon and parish office assistant at St Stephen Cathedral in Phoenix.
In 2014 Bishop Gerald Dino ordained Bishop Artur on March 9 to the Order of Diaconate and on September 14 to the Order of Priesthood; both ordinations were celebrated at St Stephen's Cathedral.
Bishop Gerald assigned him as the Pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Albuquerque, starting on January 9, 2015.
On January 28, 2025 he was enthroned as the sixth bishop of the Eparchy of Phoenix.Bishop Artur has served on the following commissions: The Intereparchial Commission of Youth and Young Adults, the Vocation's Board, the Eparchial Pension Committee, and the Intereparchial Commission on Sacred Liturgy. Besides his priestly ministry, Bishop Artur enjoys downhill skiing, mountain biking, and camping.
EPISCOPAL COAT OF ARMS
Episcopal Coat of Arms of Bishop ArturA Bishop in the Catholic Church has an individual coat of arms that carries symbols related to the bishop's ministry. For Byzantine Catholics, the heraldic shield is placed on a mantle with a red and blue lining and crowned with a miter. A golden crosier and a processional cross protrude from outside the mantle to indicate that these are the symbols of a bishop.
In the very center of Bishop Artur's coat of arms in gold color on a blue background is a cross with the Greek inscription IC XC NI KA ("Jesus Christ conquers.") The phrase underneath, written in Old Slavonic, is "I will love You, O Lord, my strength." This is Bishop Artur's motto, and it was the motto of Blessed Bishop Martyr Theodore Romzha from Psalm 17:2-3. The bottom of the shield is decorated with embroidery in the Lemko style used in the Carpathian Mountains of Bishop Artur's homeland.
The upper quadrants depict two important figures in the spiritual life of Bishop Artur: the Mother of God and Blessed Theodore Romzha. This prayer to Our Mother of Perpetual Help was given to Bishop Artur as a young man which he recited ever since: "Immaculately conceived, Mother of Perpetual Help, take care of me, a sinner, preserve me at the time of death and strengthen my faith, hope and love." Blessed Theodore's witness as a brave martyr-bishop inspired the clergy and laity of the Eparchy of Mukachevo to remain faithful in the face of Soviet persecution in the underground in 1945-1950. He is the patron of Bishop Artur's vocation, as the invitation to enter the newly-reopened seminary came through a man who had been a seminarian under Romzha. Blessed Theodore's example has inspired his vocation and priestly minsitry and will impact his episcopal service to the Church.
In the lower left corner of the shield is a typical wooden church in the Lemko style, which represents the Ruthenian tradition of our Eparchy of Mukachevo, the birthplace of Bishop Artur. The lower right quadrant of the shield depicts our traditional three-bar Cross and the Carpathian Mountains in the background - he often ascended one of the peaks which is crowned by an enormous three-bar cross. The crosses show Bishop Artur's willingness to assume the ministry to lead the People of God in the footsteps of Christ the Good Shepherd.