Omelyan Kovch

Отець Омелян Ковч

Blessed Оmelyan Kovch (August 20, 1884, Tlumach — March 25, 1944) was a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic priest murdered in Majdanek concentration camp.

He was born in a peasant family in the town of Tlumach in the Kosiv region of Western Ukraine, and was ordained in 1911 after graduating from the Sts. Sergius and Bacchus College in Rome. He served as a parish priest from 1921 to 1943 at the church of St. Nicholas in the village of Peremyshliany, and was the father of six children.

In the spring of 1943 he was arrested by the Gestapo for harboring Jews. On March 25, 1944 he was gassed at Majdanek concentration camp near Lublin, Poland.

On September 9, 1999, the Jewish Council of Ukraine awarded him the title of "Ukraine's righteous".

His beatification took place on July 27, 2001 in Lviv, during the Byzantine rite liturgy conducted by Pope John Paul II.

References

• Patron Saints Index

Persondata
Name	Kovch, Omelyan
Alternative names	Kovch, Omelian
Short description
Date of birth	20 August 1884
Place of birth	Tlumach, Ukraine
Date of death	25 March 1944
Place of death	Majdanek concentration camp, Poland