A Long Farewell: The Funeral of Fr. Basil Stetsuk

ONE YEARS AGO TODAY, Thursday, October 11, 1923, was the funeral of Fr. Basil Stetsuk. 2,000 people filled St. Nicholas Church with another 4,000 pouring out onto the streets. Just four days earlier, the 35-year-old Fr. Basil Stetsuk was preparing to hear confession before Liturgy when the fateful pentititent shot him to death.

9:00 a.m.: St. Nicholas was already filled to the brim with 2,000 as people filed past the open casket.

10:00 a.m.: The bells toll as the funeral service begins. 14 priests serve, led by Fr. Peter Poniatyshyn. The Church’s Lysenko Choir sings the responses as the bass section serves as a drone under each priest’s intonation.

11:00 a.m.: Fr. Myron Danylevych delivers the funeral homily. Every inch of the church is filled with people.

1:00 p.m.: The Funeral Divine Liturgy finishes as the 2,000 exit the Church where another 4,000 have been waiting—in the middle of a workday—for the funeral procession.

Police lead the slow procession followed by the Cross. 40 members of the “Sokil” organization of St. Michael’s Church, where Fr. Stetsuk was murdered, carry banners. The “Sich” choir that Fr. Stetsuk directed, follows. The Lysenko choir is behind them.

200 children from the parish school wearing native costumes follow along with other organizations. Then a column of 100 young girls carry flower wreaths.

The “Sich” orchestra is next in procession where Fr. Stetsuk’s widow and two young children follow.

2:00 p.m.: Bells toll from St. Nicholas along with other neighborhood churches as the procession heads south on Oakley and passes the Slovak parish (now condos).

3:00 pm.: The funeral procession ends at Grand Avenue, nearly a half a mile south of St. Nicholas Church. Thousands of people lined the route and stores were closed in honor of the slain Fr. Stetsuk.

4:30 p.m.: The casket arrives at Mt. Carmel Catholic Cemetery where throngs of people await the final Panakhyda in the cemetery chapel. Fr. Valentine Baloch, who Emily Strutynsky’s claims gave her the murder weapon, delivers the final words.

Fr. Baloch announces it was time for “the final kiss” and the choir begins to sing. At the end, members of the “Sich” organization bow their heads as the orchestra plays the funeral melody “Holy God, Holy Mighty….” Then, a lone trumpet plays taps.

Vichnaya Pam’yat (Memory Eternal) is then sung by all for the final time. Newspapers recounted the constant crying and wailing from those in attendance throughout the whole day.

The casket is placed into a vault to one day await reburial in his native village in Ukraine, which never happened. He was reburied at St. Mary's Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery in Fox Chase, PA (Philadephia).