Archbishop Borys Gudziak virtually attends funeral of the iconographer Ostap Lozynsky: the Lord has called one of his special evangelists

Friends and colleagues from different countries gathered at his funeral, which was held in the chapel of the Ukrainian Catholic University, which Ostap and Ivanka Dymyd painted together. For those who could not get there, the funeral was live-streamed. Metropolitan Borys Gudziak also joined from the United States. He expressed his condolences to family and friends and spoke about his first acquaintance with Ostap in the winter of 1988. “I was happy to meet him when he was five years old. It was the Sunday before Lent, February 1988. I had the opportunity to meet his parents and their milieux, to get acquainted with a small domestic Church, a community of people who seek freedom, seek beauty and do not only think about it, but create with their participation, prayer, and words future independent Ukraine and a free Church.”

The Metropolitan also said that Ostap was seven years old when he gave a short interview to American journalists, for whom Borys Gudziak served as a translator. They were reporting on the first free Easter of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and the boy was already sharing what he was learning to paint “in the Ukrainian folk style.

“Today we thank God for this man who strived to be free, generous, ad honest, who was learning and teaching us about the search for God, communication, beauty, good taste, and pure joy. Now we should roll up our sleeves to continue work that what Ostap has started” stated Archbishop Borys to those gathered at the funeral.

The Philadelphia Archeparchy expresses its condolences to the family and friends of Ostap Lozynsky and is grateful for his icons, particularly for the Nativity of Christ icon, which was used as last year’s Christmas card of the Archeparchy and had graphic designs which Ostap personally contributed.

Eternal memory!