“HE PRESENTED TO BE ORTHODOX, BUT ADHERED TO ANCIENT UNIATE PRACTICES”: AN ATTEMPT TO RECONSTRUCT THE HISTORICAL PORTRAIT OF PRIEST MYKHAILO ANDRIYOVYCH FEDORAK (1921–1995) PART 1: PERSONALITY FORMATION, FORMATION AND CONGRATULATION (1921–1958)

Abstract

The aim of the work. Coverage of the life and activities of Father Mykhailo Andriyovych Fedorak, parish priest of the UGCC community of the village of Yamnytsia near Ivano-Frankivsk, an example of which can demonstrate the evolution of the views and behavior of one of the priests from the formation of a personality in the Greek-Catholic environment and theological education in the conditions of “Orthodoxization” to the practice of an Orthodox “Uniate-minded” priest, and then to the full restoration of his Greek-Catholic religious-confessional individual self-identification. The results. The first part of the article examines the life and work of Father Mykhailo Fedorak, focusing on the formation of his worldview, the acquisition of theological education, and the circumstances of his ordination as a priest, which determined his “Uniate sentiments” and later influenced his pastoral and public work.Conclusions. The reconstruction of the life and activities of Father Mykhailo Andriyovych Fedorak (1921–1995), conducted on the basis of an analysis of a complex of historical sources using the methods of biography, prosopography, and microhistory, allows us to assert that he became a good example of zealous pastoral service for the Ukrainian people under the conditions of the Soviet totalitarian regime and in the revived independent Ukraine. At the same time, using the historiographic model “Church within the Church” (developed by V. Marcus, N. Shlichta, I. Hovera), we can confirm the presence in the activities of Father M.A. Fedorak of elements of formal loyalty and “double confessional self-identity”, which was formed as a result of the historical circumstances of the formation of his personality (the beginning of formation in the Studite monastery in Unev, training for the diaconate in Kolomyia, theological “self-education” and ordination from an Orthodox, actually “reunited” bishop) and largely determined his active pastoral work and potential conflict with the Soviet totalitarian regime. Important results of our research in the first part are the substantiation of the actual date of birth, the determination of the family circle, the reconstruction of the stages of the formation of his worldview and the acquisition of education, spiritual formation, and the receipt of priestly ordination.