Ukrainian Pontifical Minor Seminary

Ivan Buchko obtained the consent of the General Curia of the Salesian Fathers for the Ukrainian Salesians to take care of the minor seminary. The General Curia agreed and concluded the first agreement, which was signed on November 24, 1951, by Ivan Buchko and Fr. Renato Gugliotti, Rector Major of the Salesians. The General Curia appointed two French Salesians to the newly established Seminary: Fr. Laurent D'Heygere, as rector (1951-1953), and his brother, Joseph Kares, as housekeeper, and two Ukrainian Salesians: Fr. Andrés Sapelak as a head teacher, and Fr. Hryhoriy Harasymovych as a clergyman and confessor. In 1956 it was moved to Castel Gandolfo • Vasil Sapelyak (1967—1976) • Volodymyr Grynyshyn (1978—1983) • Mikhail Prishlyak (1983—1989) • Ewhen Nebesniak (1989—1999) == Impact ==

The seminary considerably influenced literary and cultural activity of Ukrainian diaspora. The Rev. Ewhen Nebesniak and the Rev. Rafail Turkoniak are the most prominent representatives of that activity. Both of them are UK-born former students of the Minor Seminary in Rome. The Rev. Ewhen Nebesniak wrote a detective story Nasha khata (Our House) in 1997. In 2012 he published a thriller Smertelne penalti (Deadly Penalty). Additionally, he wrote a number of books for children and he is the author of a film script on the theme of the Holodomor famine of 1932–33 in Soviet Ukraine. The Rev. Rafail Turkoniak is famous for his translations of the Bible into modern Ukrainian from Ancient Greek (2000) and from Old Church Slavonic (the Ostrih Bible, 2006). In 2007, he received Ukraine's National Shevchenko Award. == References ==