Bishop Platon (Artemiuk)

Bishop Platon (Artemiuk) (1891-1951)

Platon may be spelt Plato.

Artemiuk may be spelt Artemyuk.

Early life of Plato Artemiuk

On 18 June, 1891 (another source gives 18 December, 1891), Plato Artemiuk was born in the village of Nosov (Nosiv), in the county of Biała Podlaska in the Kholm region of eastern Poland.

This area was sometimes associated with Poland, sometimes with the Russian Empire and sometimes with Ukraine (as at present).

Plato was raised as an Orthodox Christian in his family (simple peasants), and he grew up within the bosom of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Plato received his primary and secondary education in his home village.

Higher education

In 1910, Plato completed the courses at the Teachers’ Seminary in Biała Podlaska in Eastern Poland (which at that time was within the Russian Empire).

He then worked as a teacher for 3 years, before entering the Teachers’ Institute in Vilnius, now the capital of Lithuania.

In 1916, during World War I, Plato was evacuated (along with the whole Teachers’ Institute) to Samara in Russia (beside the Volga River).

He completed his studies there in 1916.

In 1916, after his graduation, he was quickly conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army.

After the conclusion of the war in 1918, he returned to what was now Ukraine, and where the Ukrainian Revolution was taking place. He joined his efforts to this revolution.

Marriage

Platon Artemiuk was married to his wife Taissa Artemiuk at an unknown date. They received from the Lord 3 children.

Educational and political activities

After the 1919 defeat of Poland during the Polish-Ukrainian War and its elimination from Western Ukraine, he was involved in the administration of the newly-independent Ukraine.

Initially, he taught at the Derman Teachers' Seminary (during imperial times, a school for church-teachers), which with his participation switched from Russian to the Ukrainian language of instruction and preparation of its graduates to work in Ukrainian rural schools. Later, he taught at the Ostroh girls' gymnasium (formerly named after Count D Bludov), where also in the educational process were conducted Ukrainian studies disciplines (Ukrainian language and literature, history and geography of Ukraine).

Derman Teachers' Seminary

Military events drew Plato Artemiuk to the city of Brest (now Brest, Belarus), which under Polish rule became the main centre of socio-political and cultural life of Polissya.

He established and headed the only complete primary school in Brest and Polissya which had a seven-year course of study and Ukrainian as the language of instruction. This school was private, funded by both the public and parents' tuition fees, and was named after Ukrainian writer Oleksa Storozhenko. He was the organiser of education courses for adults, choral music and the theatre.

During the 1920s and 1930s, he was an active figure in Prosvita (a society founded in 1868 for preserving and developing Ukrainian culture and education amongst the population, and to be "a counterbalance to anti-Ukrainian colonial and Russophile trends in Ukrainian society of the period".

He was one of the speakers at the Ukrainian Church Assemblies in Lutsk (5-6 June, 1927).

In 1934, a wave of government terror began in Poland. The Oleksa Storozhenko School was closed, and its head, Plato Artemiuk, was sent to the infamous Bereza Kartuzka Camp for political prisoners.

Bereza Kartuzka Concentration Camp (main building)

Plato was released from this camp by early 1936.

Ordinations, 1936

Plato Artemiuk was ordained to the Holy Diaconate at a time and place and by a bishop all unknown at present.

On 15 March, 1936, the Deacon Plato Artemiuk was ordained to the Holy Priesthood by Metropolitan Oleksii (Hromads’kyi) of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church in Poland.

Pastoral service

Priest Plato Artemiuk was assigned to the parish in the village of Novostavtsi, in the Rivne (Rovno) area of Volyn (which was then a much larger area than it is now).

Bereavement, 1939

In 1939, the wife of Priest Plato, Taissa Artemiuk, reposed in Brest, which was at that time in Ukraine, near the border with Byelorus (Belarus), northeast of Rivne.

Father Plato cared for his orphaned daughters.

During the following years came World War II and the invasion by the Nazi German Army, together with battles with the Soviet Red Army.

During the years of German occupation, Father Platon moved into the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, which already had its own episcopate.

Monastic tonsure

Priest Plato Artemiuk was tonsured to be a monk at a time and place as yet unknown. It is known that he was given the name Platon. It is possible that this occurred in Kyiv.

Hieromonk Platon (Artemiuk) was, however, quickly elevated to the dignity of archimandrite.

Episcopal ordination, 1942

On 2 August, 1942, in the Saint Andriy Sobor in Kyiv, Archimandrite Platon (Artemiuk) was ordained to the Holy Episcopate of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) by Metropolitan Nikanor (Nikandrovich) and Bishop Mstislav (Srypnyk).

Episcopal service

Bishop Platon (Artemiuk) was assigned to be the Bishop of Zaslavsky, and Vicar-Bishop of the Diocese of Rivne, under Metropolitan Polikarp (Sikorski). The territory included Dubno, Kremenets, Zdolbuniv and Iziaslav (Zaslav).

Because of the limitations placed upon Metropolitan Polikarp by the German authorities, Bishop Platon was in effect carrying out all the episcopal responsibilities in the diocese.

While he served in this capacity, it is alleged that (probably with the blessing from Bishop Polikarp) he organised illegal military priests' courses for the sake of staying in the units of the Ukrainian partisans (in agreement with the Commander-in-Chief of the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army), Dmitry Klyachkovsky, the institute of field clergy was officially instituted). German archival sources report the funeral of "two shooters with the participation of military and the military priests".

Bishop Platon occupied an active position in the protection of his flock. In Volyn, the character of the UAOC was different. In writing and verbally, he condemned the destruction by the Germans and Polish Shutsans of the entire population of the village of Remel and the burning alive of inhabitants of the village of Malin. In total, 43 priests of the UAOC were shot, others burnt alive with the villagers amongst whom they were active pastoral labourers.

Bishops of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in the 1940s, Bishop Platon seated at the far left

Understanding the danger, Bishop Platon emphasised that neither the bishop nor the clergy had such an effect on the insurrectional movement as its own German administration, which opposed itself to the Ukrainians. During a conversation with the head of the political department, Mr. Krauze, he was being blamed for accusing the Autocephalous Church of co-operation with the rebels, after it was noticed that the Autonomous Church was loyal to Nazi rule. As a matter of fact, when Bishop Platon asked if the official relations between the commissioner general and the Metropolitan-Administrator of the UAOC would be going on for a long time, he heard the answer : only when the autocephalous clergy would reconsider their views on co-operation with the German authorities – that is, to stop all manner of relations with the rebels.

Bishop Platon did explain to the occupying Germans that the reason for the insurgency was not the actions of any underground activists who incited the people, but rather the policy of the occupiers against the Ukrainian peasants with its brutal actions of collective responsibility. Some researchers allege that Bishop Platon was at the origins of the formation of an informal institute of military priests of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. The Nazi authorities did ban his messages from being published in the Rivne newspaper "Volyn" and in other sub-occupation periodicals.

In the beginning of August, 1943, at the Cathedral of Saint Volodymyr, an assembly was convened in the Temple with the participation of the governor and Bishop Platon (Artemiuk) of the Rivne-Kremenets diocese. The gathering assembled more than 5,000 believers. On 8 August, 1943, the Autocephalous Church tried to capture the Moscophile priests who were led by the Zaslav autonomous deanery of Mikhail Semenyuk ; however, the parishioners began to hinder the realisation of their plan.

Displacement, exile, 1944

As the front began to move westwards, the bishops left for Rivne.

On 14 January, 1944, when the Soviet troops approached, Bishop Platon (Artemiuk) and the other bishops left Rivne for Warsaw as refugees. Many were moved westwards as the battle-fronts moved.

In Warsaw, Bishop Platon was appointed to be Secretary of the Synod of Bishops of the UAOC by the Warsaw Sobor. He remained Secretary of the Synod also in Germany throughout the era of Displaced Persons. They settled in southwest Germany, where he became the Administrator of the parishes and Temples in the province of Württemberg-Baden (1945-1947), and at the same time in Germany.

Emigration to Canada, 1951

At the invitation of the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada (UGOCC), Bishop Platon travelled to Canada, along with Archbishop Michael (Khoroshy).

His arrival coincided with the desire of the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada (UGOCC) to clarify its organisation through the establishment of 3 dioceses in Canada. The candidates who were invited to Canada had been ordained by the Autocephalous Church of Poland. These bishops were : Metropolitan Ilarion (Ohienko) (who had arrived in Canada in 1947). Archbishop Michael (Khoroshy), and Bishop Platon (Artemiuk) who both arrived in 1951 at the invitation of the UGOCC.

Repose, 1951

In 1951, Bishop Platon (Artemiuk) settled in Toronto, Ontario. He was assigned to be the Bishop of Toronto ; but he reposed shortly after his arrival, in that same year.

On Sunday, 13 August, 1951, Bishop Platon (Artemiuk) unexpectedly reposed in the Lord in Toronto, Ontario.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, 15-16 August, 1951, the Funeral Services for the Burial of a Bishop were offered at Saint Volodymyr Cathedral in Toronto, Ontario. The services were led by Archbishops Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) and Michael (Khoroshy), and Bishops Hennadiy (Shiprykevych) and Volodymyr (Malets).

After the completion of the funeral services, the body of Bishop Platon (Artemiuk) was interred in a Toronto cemetery.

Archbishops Mstyslav, Mykhail, Bishops Hennadiy, Volodymyr leading the funeral procession for Bishop Platon (Artemiuk), 16 August, 1951.

— Bishop of Iziaslav (Zaslav), Ukraine (UAOC) 1942-1944. Preceded by : ___. Succeeded by : ___.

— Vicar-Bishop of Rivne (Rovno).

— Bishop of Toronto (UGOCC) 1951. See was created. Succeeded by : Archbishop Michael (Khoroshy).

Reflections

On the eve of his formal appointment as Bishop of Eastern Canada for the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada, Bishop Platon (Artemiuk) unexpectedly fell asleep in the Lord. He had been in Canada since February, 1951. He had planned to go to Winnipeg, Manitoba, during that week (in which he reposed) in order to assume the newly-created office at a special conference of the church. He became Bishop of the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church in Europe in 1942 and fled the war-torn Ukraine in 1944. Until this year (1951), he had been one of a group of displaced bishops who conducted a wandering pastoral service throughout Germany.

References

Ukrainian Wikipedia biography

Russian Wikipedia biography

Russian Religious Leaders Abroad biography

Additional information :

Hewlett, Edward, “The Formation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada”

Krawshenko, Oleh, “History of the UOCC: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”

Sametz, William, “My father the priest : the life and times of the Very Reverend Dr. Peter Sametz : founding missionary priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada” (Toronto : Hypertex Plus, 2008). ISBN : 9780969670056.

Tarasar, Constance J, ed., "Orthodox America 1794-1976 : Development of The Orthodox Church in America" (Syosset, NY : The Orthodox Church in America Department of History and Archives, 1975). ASIN : B000ZLZAUE.

Trosky, O, “The Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church in Canada” (Winnipeg : Bulman Bros, 1968). ASIN : B0006DWYPA

Vlasovsky, I, "Essay of the History of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church", 4 vols (Bound Brook, NJ : Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA, 1966).

Yereniuk, Roman. ‘Church Jurisdictions and Jurisdictional Changes Among Ukrainians in Canada, 1891-1925’ in “The Ukrainian Religious Experience : Tradition and the Canadian Cultural Context”, ed. David J Goa (Edmonton : Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies,1989).

Yuzyk, Paul, “The Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada, 1918–1951” (Ottawa : University of Ottawa Press, 1981). ISBN 10 : 2760309274 ; ISBN 13 : 978-2760309272.

Archive : Bishop Platon Papers, at Ukrainian History and Education Centre

Article : "The Educational Work of Bishop Platon began in Derman and Ostroh" (30 July, 2016)

Article : "The Educational Work of Bishop Platon began in Derman and Ostroh" (30 July, 2016) (in Ukrainian)

The obituary of Bishop Platon (Artemiuk) was published in the “Montreal Gazette”, 7 August, 1951 on p. 9. The identical obituary was published in newspapers in Vancouver, Saskatchewan, Toronto, Windsor, New York, USA, and elsewhere.

Encyclopaedia of Ukraine article on the Volhynia eparchy

Wikipedia article on the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church

Encyclopaedia of Ukraine article about the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church

Wikipedia article about Ukrainian Collaboration with Nazi Germany

Post-war Displaced Persons Camps

Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada web-site

Wikipedia article about the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada

A Brief History of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada

Orthodoxwiki article about the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada

Wikipedia UOCC History

Encyclopaedia of Ukraine article on the Volhynia eparchy

Encyclopaedia of Ukraine History of Ukraine