Nykyta Budka

Blessed Nykyta Budka
Nykyta Budka, circa 1944.
Bishop and Martyr
Born	(1877-06-07)7 June 1877 Dobromirka, Austria-Hungary
Died	28 September 1949(1949-09-28) (aged 72) Karaganda, Soviet Union
Venerated in	Catholic Church
Beatified	27 June 2001, Ukraine by Pope John Paul II
Feast	28 September

Nykyta Budka (Ukrainian: Никита Будка aka Nikita, Mykyta, or Nicetas Budka; June 7, 1877 in Dobromirka, Austria-Hungary – October 1, 1949 in Karaganda, USSR) was a Austro-Hungarian priest of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church who lived and worked in Austria-Hungary, Canada, Poland, and the Soviet Union. In Canada, he is noted as the first bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada, and was the first Eastern Catholic bishop with full jurisdiction ever appointed in the New World.^[1]

Budka returned to Europe in 1927 and eventually came under the authority of the Soviet Union. He resisted their encroachments against the Ukrainian Church, however, and was worked to death at a gulag in 1949. His cause for canonization was opened after his death and he was beatified as a martyr in 2001 by Pope John Paul II.