Priest Volodymyr Toma Tymiak: prosopographical portrait

Abstract

The article analyses a prosopographical portrait of the priest Volodymyr Toma Tymiak. His life and pastoral ministry under various political regimes have been studied: the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the restored Polish state, the first Soviet occupation, the arrival of German rule, and the second Sovietisation. This article comprehensively examines the historical background and cause-and-effect relationship of the arrest of Father Volodymyr Tymiak in 1950, as well as the locations where he was held in custody. Particular attention is paid to reconstructing the chronology of the repressed clergyman’s life and pastoral work following his return in 1956.

The aim of this scientific intelligence is to reconstruct a prosopographical portrait of Father V. Tymiak and to compile his profile, as his life has not been studied by modern historians. This academic study also aims to contribute to the history of everyday life, as it studies the life of a pastor who lived through numerous challenges and changes in political leadership, culminating in a direct confrontation with the Soviet regime.

The study employed general scientific methods of synthesis and analysis, systematisation, deduction and induction, and classification, as well as discipline-specific methods: diachronic (periodisation), microhistorical analysis, chronological, comparative-historical, oral history and biographical research. The study is based on the scientific principles of objectivity and historicism.

The novelty of this study lies in the fact that, for the first time, archival materials from the ‘Personal file of the priest Tomi Volodymyr Tymiak. Started in 1926 – completed in 1932’ from the Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine in Lviv and the Criminal Case from the archives of the Security Service of Ukraine have been introduced for scientific use for the first time, and the recollections of eyewitnesses and close relatives of Father V. Tymiak have been included in the scientific discourse.

Study results. The article reconstructed a prosopographical portrait of the priest Volodymyr Tymiak. His biographical details, the locations of his pastoral ministry and the circumstances of his arrest have been established; the course of the court proceedings has been reconstructed; and the final years of his life have been highlighted.

Conclusions. Priest Volodymyr Tymiak was one of those pastors who, through their tireless daily work, bore witness to their loyalty to God and the Ukrainian people. Having received a high-quality education, he began his pastoral ministry in various parishes, devoting eleven years of his life in particular to the faithful of the village of Supranivka. Despite the hardships imposed by the Soviet regime, he demonstrated an unshakeable faith and a desire to serve those who needed it. It was precisely these Christian virtues that he passed on to his descendants.