Open invitation Martyr’s shrine among destinations on Doors Open weekend By: AV Kitching Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Friday, May. 27, 2022

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This article was published 26/05/2022 (943 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Jefferson Avenue, attached to St. Joseph’s Ukrainian Church, sits an unassuming beige brick building housing the mortal remains of Blessed Vasyl Velychkovsky, a Ukrainian Catholic martyr beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2001.

The Bishop Velychkovsky National Martyr’s Shrine, Canada’s second martyr’s shrine, is one of the 55 buildings to be featured in this year’s Doors Open Winnipeg, the yearly event organized by Heritage Winnipeg.

Relentlessly persecuted for his religious beliefs, twice-arrested, and on death row for three months before his sentence was commuted to ten years in Soviet labour camps, Bishop Velychkovsky arrived in Winnipeg in 1972 at the invitation of Metropolitan Maxim Hermaniuk after being exiled from Ukraine.

A year after his arrival in Winnipeg, his body succumbed to the torture and drugs he endured during his final prison sentence in a jail in Komunarsk, eastern Ukraine and he died on June 30, 1973.

“It is a good opportunity for Winnipeg to become aware of this precious treasure right here: a martyr’s shrine,” says Fr. John Sianchuk, C.Ss.R., shrine director.

“Doors Open bring in people from all walks of life and from all faiths. This year with the war in Ukraine this shrine is especially apropos since Blessed Vasyl himself suffered and was tortured under Russian/Soviet aggression,” he continues.

The shrine chapel, commissioned by the Redemptorists of the Yorkton Region after the beatification of the bishop by the Pope, was designed by local architect Ben Wasylyshen.

Following his beatification, the bishop’s body was exhumed in September 2002 and according to Vatican protocol was re-vested with new vestments and placed in a stainless steel sarcophagus.

“We wanted to build the shrine to house his remains. Once you are beatified, whatever is left of your body should be in a church. In the case of the bishop, we have a full body,” Sianchuk says.

The shrine also houses a museum which holds artefacts belonging to Bishop Velychkovsky including items he personally used as well as secret documents which were smuggled into and then buried in Ukraine.

“Among the things we have is a spoon which Bishop Velychkovsky used in prison as a chalice and the staff he received from the bishop who ordained him in a hotel room. It’s ended up here with us. We have all these precious things,” Sianchuk says.

“We also have secret documents from Rome, which he buried in a garden of a house in Lviv, Ukraine. We went to the house in 2004 and we found them in a glass jar buried three feet deep between two trees and we brought them here,” Sianchuk added.

While many of the participating buildings and free tours are unique to Doors Open Winnipeg, the shrine is open to everyone throughout the day.

“The shrine witnesses to the cost one sometimes has to pay for the freedom to believe and to be faithful to one’s faith,” Sianchuk says.

“I believe that the people of Ukraine can take inspiration from the life of Blessed Vasyl who never gave up in his struggle for truth, faith and freedom. He continued to remain faithful to his beliefs placing himself in great danger to his own life and freedom. In the end he laid down his life for this cause.”

Doors Open Winnipeg is a yearly event first established in 2004 in partnership with Heritage Winnipeg and the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ. Part of Doors Open Canada, Heritage Winnipeg has managed the event on its own since 2005.

“We wanted to bring Doors Open to Winnipeg, as a free event to Winnipeg as it allowed visitors to explore and learn about our unique built and cultural heritage. It allows people to tour buildings and go on walking tours not normally open the rest of the year,” says Cindy Tugwell, executive director of Heritage Winnipeg.

“This year we have 55 buildings and walking tours. We are not near our pre-COVID numbers, but we are much higher than 2020 or 2021.”

During the pandemic, the event shifted to September and was modified to conform to COVID-19 public health regulations.

“Although it was much smaller, we never stopped the in-person event. I believe we were the only Doors Open event in Canada that did not go virtual. We felt the physical tours and social connectivity were a very important component to this event. We also started pre-registrations so all COVID restrictions were followed, and almost all our tours were sold out to their capacity,” Tugwell says.

Buildings taking part this year include the The Parish of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary which is celebrating its 100th anniversary, Grant’s Old Mill Museum which is a re-creation of the 1829 water-powered grist mill originally built by Cuthbert Grant, one of the early leaders of the Métis people, and the Vaughan Street Jail.

“Probably the most unusual building featured is still the Vaughan Street Jail, as it is not open to the public since closing decades ago. The theatrical performances inside during Doors Open Winnipeg, make learning some of judicial history intriguing and interesting, while raising awareness to visitors that the building needs to be protected and utilized,” Tugwell says.

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