Emil Boris Berezniuk

Emil Boris Berezniuk (1949-2005)

Emil may be spelt Emile, Emilian, Emilianos.

Early life of Emil Boris Berezniuk

On 9 September, 1949, Emil Boris Berezniuk was born to Roman and Lena (Anaka) Berezniuk on a farm near Stenen, Canada,Saskatchewan. Stenen is a small village situated about 33 km (20 mi) north of Canora ; about 15 km (9 mi) southeast of Sturgis, Saskatchewan ; and 327 km (203 mi) east of Saskatoon.

Apart from this detail, and the fact that he was raised on the farm, few other details are known about his family, or just how it was that he arrived in Saskatoon.

It may be deduced that his Orthodox Christian formation occurred within his family, and that he attended either Holy Dormition Orthodox Temple north of Stenen, or Saint Demetrius Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Stenen. It is likely that he attended the parish to the north of town primarily.

Holy Dormition Temple, north of Stenen, Saskatchewan

Saint Demetrius Ukrainian Orthodox Temple, Stenen village, Saskatchewan

Life in Saskatoon

What was known more concretely about Emil came from personal encounters with him by parishioners at Holy Resurrection Orthodox parish in Saskatoon. He was a member of this parish for 25 years. Therefore, his association with the parish and parishioners began near the beginning of the parish itself (1975). At that time (1980), he would have been about 30 years old.

Emil Bereziuk, 1980s

Emil was there when the parish had settled in its first Temple on Avenue C and 25th Street.

Holy Resurrection parish on Avenue C (Emil is on the right)

Emil was there when the parish was transferred to The Orthodox Church in America in 1986.

Emil was there when the parish moved to its second Temple on Lorne Avenue, and sold the first Temple to Saint Vincent of Lerins parish.

Holy Resurrection Sobor, Saskatoon (second site)

Emil was there when the Saint Vincent of Lerins parish was received into the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.

Emil was there when the parish hosted the 1990 Archdiocese of Canada Assembly.

Emil was there when the parish hosted many educational events.

Archpriest Orest, Dobrodijka Oksana Olekshy

Emil was there when Dobrodijka Oksana Olekshy fell asleep in the Lord in 1997.

Emil was there in 1998 when Bishop Paul (Lebedev) of Trahia (Abbot of the Kyiv Caves Monastery in Ukraine) visited Saskatoon during his 3-week visit to the parishes of the Archdiocese of Canada.

Bishop Paul, Father Orest Olekshy, Deacon Phillip Eriksson, Hierodeacon Alexis

Emil was there when the parish initiated the Saint Vladimir Institute series in 1999.

Emil was there when the parish hosted another Archdiocese of Canada Assembly in 2004.

It came to be understood that Emil had, as a child, suffered from a very high fever (very likely Scarlet Fever), after which he suffered from seizures. This affliction did not affect his intelligence (he was fluent in English and Ukrainian, precocious with numbers, and his handwriting was very beautiful, even amazingly so) ; but unpredictable and frequent seizures can limit employment possibilities, and have other social repercussions.

Emil always had a pleasant word for everyone, and he responded to the love shown him. He was fond of regular communication by telephone or in person, and he never forgot anyone’s name.

He often called all the parishioners during the week. It was usually, "Hi, this is Emil. Is there anything going on in church this week ?" His way of making conversation.

In his unique manner, Emil exhibited dignity, and he showed honour where and when honour was due. He always stopped to venerate the icons at the time of receiving Holy Communion.

Emil blessed very many people simply by being himself.

He would speak with people in a very dignified manner. If someone would start to speak in Ukrainian with him, then he spoke Ukrainian. If it began in English, he'd respond in English. He spoke with a very quiet voice.

A parishioner also now of blessed memory, Dennis Tkatchuk, who suffered from weak health, used to wash Emil’s clothes for him.

Holy Resurrection parish on Lorne Avenue (Emil is on the lower right)

Repose, 2005

On Saturday, 23 July, 2005, Emil B Berezniuk suddenly and unexpectedly fell asleep in the Lord in Saskatoon.

The funeral for Emil B Berezniuk was not held in Saskatoon, but a panikhida (memorial service) was served at Holy Resurrection Orthodox Sobor in Saskatoon. It was led by the rector, Archpriest Orest Olekshy, who was assisted by other clergy.

The Funeral Service for the Burial of a Lay-person was served in Canora.

After the funeral services were completed, the body of Emil Berezniuk was interred in the Canora Cemetery (at the north end of the town).

His younger brother Orest Dennis Berezniuk was interred in the same cemetery during the following year.

Grave-marker Emil Boris Berezniuk, Canora

Grave-marker Orest Dennis Berezniuk, Canora

Reflections

Following is an article which was published in the “Canadian Orthodox Messenger”, in the autumn issue of 2005. It was published under the heading “Teaching us to love outside the box”.

 Remembering Emil
 
 by Katya Szalasznyj, Holy Resurrection Sobor Saskatoon
 
 ‘Who is that rumpled-up little man ?’  My mother asked me, when her eyes lit on Emil in our backyard.  A roundish 
 little guy, grey, wispy hair standing on end, clothes creased and stained, fingers yellow with tobacco, nose crooked 
 as if severely punched, was smiling more to himself than at anyone as he sat down at the table.  He had come to a 
 gathering to welcome Sue and Dana Talley, fine Orthodox musicians from NYC.  Emil.  A member of our parish.  My mother 
 sat with him, and made sure he got beans, his favorite.  Emil seemed to have a good time that evening.  We were all 
 having fun. There were lots of beans.  We realized after that he must have been rolling cigarettes in the bathroom 
 and smoking there, but no fire broke out, so all was well.
 
 Emil.  The first time he came to our parish, Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church, Saskatoon, was in the mid-1970s, 
 twenty-five years ago or so.  He stood out in a crowd.  He couldn’t help it.  You could not describe him as nice.  
 He talked to himself aloud and grimaced terribly.  He was running in and out for smokes so much, he seemed to be 
 on wheels.  He wasn’t often clean, and only occasionally did he smell good.  But he seemed all right being in the 
 Church, and so sporadically, we began to see Emil who wandered the streets of Saskatoon by day, and had a bed 
 arranged by Social Services somewhere for the night. 
 
 No one really knew who he was.  His place in the parish grew gradually.  People would nod at him, or say ‘Good Morning’.  
 He’d appear at a Paschal banquet having tried to shave, his face cut badly in the effort.  Over a period of years, Emil’s 
 distinctive wave became as much a part of our parish life as the sign outside.  We discovered he had an extraordinary 
 ability to remember people’s names, bus routes, almost anything to do with numbers, including phone numbers, and he began 
 to call many of us for a one-minute chat, asking the same question always, ‘anything going on in Church this week ?’  
 We also found he had decent Ukrainian and enjoyed speaking it, although in any language his speech was quite garbled.
 
 He became more regular in his attendance, receiving Holy Communion, and on Holy Wednesday he would stand in the line 
 to receive prayers with the Gospel over his head, and be anointed with holy oil.   He’d walk in to all kinds of lectures 
 and gatherings, or into hospital rooms if someone was in.  He’d unfailingly call your name if he saw you in the downtown 
 mall, whether you were a teenager or a baba, or wherever, especially if you were in a business meeting with colleagues and 
 that always felt a bit like your skin was being taken off.  But Emil was always the same – friendly, knew your name, interested 
 in who you were with.  I guess you could call him a ‘street people-person’.  I should mention about money. Yes.  Over the years, 
 he came to ask for toonies, but never as a beggar, it was a dignified ‘lend me’ or ‘spot me a few’.  He received them quietly, 
 with a smile and thanks.  The response was varied: some would open their purses and give more than a toonie, others never gave 
 on point of principle, and quite a few others gave exactly what he asked for.  We suspected he was spending his toonies on smokes 
 and chocolate bars, neither good for his health, and likely a bit of drinks, as well as other things he needed.  After all, it 
 costs money to smoke, and speaking from experience (as I can) it’s anguishingly hard to be without. However, he didn’t tell us 
 what he used the money for, and we didn’t ask, a decent arrangement.  So each of us developed our own ‘Emil policy’, give-don’t give,
 just as we felt.  And almost all of us had a rich, growing collection of Emil anecdotes, a lot of them hilarious as he foiled human
 plans for perfection and dashed our middle-class niceties. 
 
 The parish and Emil accepted each other.  There were those who took the lead relating to him, those who found out where he lived, 
 washed his clothes for him, those who began to take him out for breakfast or coffee on regular basis, or bought him a scarf or 
 boots for winter.  Sometimes if you popped into the Orthodox church across town, you’d find the priest cooking Emil a meal 
 downstairs in the kitchen.  I remember he walked into our scholarly lecture, 'Windows to the East', at the University.  There 
 was a Syrian monk, Fr. Maurice, studying in Saskatoon at that time ; he was there.  We introduced him to Emil, and he hugged him
 strongly, kissed him on both cheeks and in his broken English repeated, ‘Good man, Emil.  Emil, good man’.  The night Dana and Sue
 Talley performed, Dana dedicated a song ‘to Emil, standing at the back of the church’ – ‘Country Road, Take Me Home’, an Orthodox 
 version, and he beamed.  We discovered he was from a farm near Stenen, not far from where OCA has a parish, and that he was 
 keenly interested in politics, dropping into MLA offices for coffee quite regularly.
 
 Time lapse photography on 25 years of memories.  Emil stopped grimacing quite so much over the years and talked to himself a lot 
 less.  Children were no longer leery of him as in the beginning.  He’d walk into the service, waving at everyone with the air of 
 a street ambassador.  He knew he fit, though he was on Emil-time, which ran different than our clocks, and if he didn’t show up, 
 we’d wonder where he was. 
 
 Last year his health began to be noticeably poor.  He was diabetic and hard of breathing, but still making his rounds.  
 On July 23rd of this year, he passed away suddenly.  We all paused to think about his life.  His funeral was not in Saskatoon, 
 but we had a ‘panykhyda’, a ‘kolach’ was baked for him by the President of the parish, and we had a potluck memorial feast for him.  
 We were glad he was healed of his afflictions. 
 
 In the course of his passing, we found out that he had been born quite normal, and due to a very high fever as a child had begun 
 to suffer seizures.  He also had experienced a lot of rejection because he was different, often being beaten up, and that accounted 
 for his nose, and also why he was moved to Saskatoon as he was experiencing so much hostility back home.  Experiencing bullying was 
 probably a regular thing for him.  I wondered whether his voice was the way it was because someone had put pressure on his throat.
 
 We were touched by him in a way that we could not explain.  A consensus is that Emil was with us more for our salvation than we were 
 for his, although I think some related to him more than others. He was gentle, non-judgmental and looked at everyone with eyes of 
 love. He was an unusual man who was exactly himself.  He did a lot for us, especially to help us separate love from ‘nice’.  He 
 cut through a lot.   As someone said at his memorial, ‘Emil’s afflictions showed.  I have many more than Emil, but mine are on 
 the inside and you just cannot see them.  His we could see, and we had to face them’.     
 
 Emil Berezniuk (1949-2005).
 
 Memory Eternal to a dear, real person  we will not forget. 
 
 Katya Szalasznyj
 
 Holy Resurrection Sobor member

In the same issue, there was published an article about those who are fools-for-the-sake-of-Christ (1 Corinthians 4:10). That article (published then in French, but here in English) expresses the weight of responsibility which accompanies the call from the Lord to appear foolish to others in order to remind the others of the needed priority of the Lord Jesus Christ in their hearts and minds. Whether or not Emil had consciously embraced this difficult path in life, he certainly did convey this reminder to all through the love which emanated from him.

 One of the least comprehensible asceticisms
 
 ‘The fulness of time’ arose over a world of corruption, a humanity that indulged in sensuality.  Yet even then there were a number 
 of beings who struggled in virtue in a sincere search for the truth.  They felt the weight of evil and eagerly sought righteousness.
 Such beings were ready to hear the call of Christ, to repent, to attain faith in Him and to enter into His Holy Church.  For the love 
 of those who yearned for true virtue and for justice, for the love of those who strove to hold fast to holy Tradition, our Saviour 
 came into the world and gave birth to His Church after captivity and sterility.  Uniting God and man in Him, He also unites heaven 
 and earth in the Holy Church. In this Church it is possible to find a new life of struggle against corruption and the sensuality 
 of the world, a life in which, through spiritual struggle and obedience, it is possible to acquire the Holy Spirit who vivifies 
 the man for eternal life.
 
 Life in the Holy Orthodox Church is life in Christ.  The supreme fulfilment of God's love for man – his Incarnation and his death 
 out of love for us and his Resurrection from the dead – made this new life possible.  When, through the Resurrection of Christ, 
 man is freed from the slavery of fear of death, the spirit of the faithful is inflamed with zeal for the piety of true religious life. 
 
 Being called to fight for the faith and the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, to crucify the flesh with its passions and lustful 
 desires, to rise above sensuality and the desires of nature, the faithful enter into a life of evangelical combat, isolation 
 from the world, deprivation, fasting, prayers and vigils. Orthodoxy is the Holy Church, the new Israel.  Thus, each Orthodox 
 Christian is called to this life of combat, to this effort of purity of heart and to this spiritual growth so that, according 
 to his strength, he progressively grows in Spirit until he lives as a complement ‘in God and for God’.
 
 Orthodoxy, the Holy Church, is the Body of Christ and the person who is truly joined to Him becomes one with the other members. 
 Yet each person, each member, is somehow different, not totally individual, but different. Not all have the same strength and 
 some vessels are stronger than others.  Moreover, Scripture clearly says that not all are called to the same tasks in the Church. 
 In the earliest days of the history of the New Testament Church, the Holy Spirit revealed many ways to fight.  According to his 
 strength and his vocation, with the blessing of his staretz, each one could work for his own salvation with fear and trembling.  
 
 One of the least comprehensible asceticisms – for us people of carnal mind – is that of madness for love of Christ.  
 
 It would be presumptuous for us to try to explain what it is. No doubt that each life of fool-in-Christ will touch each soul, 
 according to its spiritual disposition, and the magnitude of this moral combat will be able to move in each spirit a feeling 
 of reverence which will also depend on the existential condition of the individual.  We can only note in passing the strong 
 similarity between the phenomena recounted in the lives of Old Testament prophets (and more particularly that of the holy 
 prophet Ezekiel) and those of fools-in-Christ. 
 
 The lives of these fools in Christ, like the lives of all the saints, are precious gifts in the spiritual treasure of the Holy 
 Church. These gifts are bestowed in order to lead the faithful to Heaven and to quench their thirst for examples of true 
 righteousness in spiritual warfare.  This is why ‘All of you who are thirsty, come to the waters ! [. . .] ‘come, buy without 
 money, and without giving anything in exchange’ [...] (Isaiah 55:1-2).   
 
 [From the Foreword to ‘The Life of the Fools-in-Christ : Folly of the World and the Wisdom of God’ by Archbishop Lazar and 
 Bishop Varlaam (the written work, 1976, while they were Deacon Lev Puhalo and Vasili Novakshonoff), Éditions du Désert, 2002, 
 translated from English to French by Claude Lopez-Cinisty.]

References

‘Remembering Emil’ in “Canadian Orthodox Messenger” (Autumn, 2005), pp. 16-17.

Findagrave reference for Emil Berezniuk

Additional information

Some colour photos are from Subdeacon James Nicholas Davis of Holy Resurrection Sobor in Saskatoon.

Novakshonoff, Varlaam, “God’s Fools : The Lives of the Holy ‘Fools for Christ’” (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017). ISBN 10 : 1545256209 ; ISBN 13 : 978-1545256206.

Findagrave reference for Dennis Berezniuk

Findagrave Canora Cemetery reference

Archpriest Orest and Matushka Oksana Olekshy

Holy Resurrection Orthodox Sobor in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Dormition Orthodox Temple in Stenen, Saskatchewan

Orthodoxwiki article about the Archdiocese of Canada

“Windows to the East” Lecture Series St Thomas Moore College (1990s) in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan] (newsletter of Fall, 1995, p. 26).

'Abbot of the Monastery of the Caves in Kyiv visits Archdiocese of Canada in June-July' in "Canadian Orthodox Messenger" (Autumn, 1998), p. 7.

‘St Vlad’s Institute, Saskatoon, enjoys strong Attendance’ in “Canadian Orthodox Messenger” (Autumn, 1999), p. 13.

‘2004 Archdiocesan Assembly in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan’ in “Canadian Orthodox Messenger” (Autumn, 2004), pp. 1-7.

‘Les Fols-en-Christ’ in “Canadian Orthodox Messenger” (Autumn, 2005), pp. 17-18.

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