The Arrival of Fr. Ivan Voliansky
140 YEARS AGO TODAY, December 15, 1884, the 27-year-old Fr. Ivan Voliansky and his wife Pavlina arrived in New York City abord the S.S. Pennland pulled into New York City. Thus the first Greek Catholic priest arrived on American soil.
Bishop Sylvester Sembratovych, the soon-to-be Metropolitan Archbishop of L’viv and later a Cardinal, sent Fr. Ivan and Pavlina. both children of priests, were sent to minister to the coal mining immigrants in Shenandoah, PA and its surrounding locales.
After a short stop over in Jersey City, the Volianskys headed to Shenandoah, PA. Just three days after their arrival in America, the first service in North America would be celebrated.
Fr. Ivan and his wife would go on to found parishes and communities in Shenandoah, Shamokin, Hazelton, Wilkes-Barre, Kingston, Olyphant and Freedland, Pa., Jersey City, N.J., Minneapolis, MN, New York State, and Colorado.
They were in the United States until 1889. They returned for a brief stint in 1890. Pavlina died in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, in 1896. They had no children.
Fr. Voliansky, the missionary who served in America, Brazil, and across Autro-Hungarian and Polish territories, died in Ukraine on August 1, 1926.
Note: In many places Fr. Voliansky's name is spelled as: Wolansky, Wolanski, Volansky, etc. His first name is often given as John, the English equivelant of Ivan.
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