Ukrainian Bishop, American Church





A new book by Martha Bohachevsky-Chomiak

"a broad panorama of religious, political, and cultural history of Ukrainians in Europe and North America in the twentieth century."

—Yury P. Avvakumov, University of Notre Dame

"Bohachevsky has tamed her polyglot sources into a beautifully written narrative: clear prose graced with understatement and spiced with occasional irony."

—Jeffrey Wills, Ukrainian Catholic University

Photo credit: Maryan Khomych

Martha Bochachevsky-Chomiak is emeritus professor of history at Manhattanville College, has taught at the Johns Hopkins University, Seton Hall University, and Harvard University, and was the head of the Fulbright program for Ukraine. Additionally she is the author of a wide range of scholarly and academic publications, including Feminists Despite Themselves: Women in Ukrainian Community Life, 1884-1939 and Sergei N. Trubetskoi: An intellectual among the intelligentsia in prerevolutionary Russia. She holds a B.A. University of Pennsylvania and M.A. Ph.D. Columbia University

[Bohachevsky's] 'tale is told here by a professional historian at the height of her powers, who also just happens to be the niece of the great churchman. Martha Bohachevsky-Chomiak has written a model work of transnational, Ukrainian and American, history that illuminates issues too often neglected in both Ukrainian studies and the scholarship on American Catholicism. Extensive research, genuine readability, important messages — it's all in this book."


—John-Paul Himka, University of Alberta

"This excellent study presents a broad panorama of religious, political, and cultural history of Ukrainians in Europe and North America in the twentieth century. Following the steps of her protagonist, the author brings her reader to Lviv and Innsbruck, Peremyshl and Rome, Philadelphia and Chicago, skillfully exploring diverse religious contexts in a lucid and engaging narrative. A fruit of many years of first-hand archival research, this book makes an important contribution not only to Ukrainian and American ecclesiastical history but also to the study of vital and often vexing issues of ecumenical relations and intercultural communication between Christians of East and West."

—Yury P. Avvakumov, University of Notre Dame

" Using archival materials and personal papers, the historian Martha Bohachevsky-Chomiak, Constantine's niece, has produced a fascinating biography."

—Roman Szporluk, Harvard University

"The biography of Bishop Constantine Bohachevsky, told with great empathy, is skillfully woven into the larger history of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, across three political regimes and two continents, with the Vatican in between. The story is larger than life because it recounts the institutionalization of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the United States as part of the process of formation of a global Ukrainian Catholic Church within global Catholicism."—Jose Casanova, Georgetown University

The light, transparent style not only successfully veils many years of complex labor, but makes the book more attractive to a broad reading public."

—Liliana Hentosh, Lviv National University, Ukraine

"Like much of the history of the largest Eastern Catholic rite, this is an unknown yet riveting chapter, in which both the Vatican and the Ukrainian Church discover how a national church becomes international. Bohachevsky has tamed her polyglot sources into a beautifully written narrative: clear prose graced with understatement and spiced with occasional irony."—Jeffrey Wills, Ukrainian Catholic University

“This biography stands out for its compre hensive sources base, including never before used archives, rare printings, and even oral testimony . . . will go far in providing new perspectives on the basis of the new archival research. Will be of interest to those interested in Catholic history in the US, Vatican relations with Eastern Europe, immigration history, Ukrainian religious history, Eastern Christianity, and Orthodoxy.”

—Frank Sysyn, Director, Peter Jacyk Centre for Ukrainian Research, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta

Book Review