Reverend Izydor Nikon Sokhotsky

Rev. Izydor Nikon Sokhotsky was born on April 4, 1985 in Lany, Bibrka county, Ukraine and was a priest in the city of Shamokin, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a member and the head of the underground students' organization "Moloda Ukrayina" (Young Ukraine) at the Berezhany High School. He passed his high school exams with distinction in 1914. As a student of theology he belonged to the "Protection of the Ukrainian Constitution" in 1918 and travelled as a courier of the Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO) to Berezhany, in order to organize the transfer of government into Ukrainian hands. Afterwards he did his military service in the rank of under-ensign in the county Commission in Radekhiv, with the Directorate government in Kamianets in the Podilia and finally with the Field staff of the Ukrainian Galician Army (ChUHA) in Balt in the so-called four-squared region of death. After completing divinity studies in 1920 he registered with the Philosophy Faculty of the Lviv (Underground) Ukrainian University and in 1922 obtained his honorable discharge in philosophical studies. Izydor was ordained into the priesthood in 1923. In 1928 he was given the parish in Haj to administer, where he widely spread community activism. He oversaw the building of a large stone church and the one-story National Home, where the Regional Dairy Room and all Ukrainian organizations were located. In 1933 Metropilitan Andrej Sheptycky bestowed Rev. Izydor with decorations of distinction and later he was named the venerable counsellor at the Metropolitan's Consistory. During the Polish occupation he was twice arrested for his community work and in 1930 he was pacified.

He was a member of the Lviv branch of the reading house Prosvita, Silskyj Hospodar and the County Committee of the Ukrainian National Democratic Party (UNDO). In 1944, with the permission of his spiritual leaders, he left for Priashev and stayed there under the supervision of Bishop Pavlo Gojdych. After the end of the war he ministered in the displaced persons camps and in 1950 he emigrated to the United States, where Archbishop-Metropolitan Kyr Konstantyn Bohachevsky nominated him as director of the eparchy press.

Rev. Izydor Sokhotsky researched for many years contemprary Ukrainian history and also the history of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Among his numerous published works were:

1) "What did the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and clergy give to the Ukrainian Nation" (Philadelphia 1951, page 104);

2) "Independence Struggle in the Western Ukrainian Lands from 1918 to 1923" (Philadelphia 1956) This work was reviewed very positively by K. Porokhivsky in the daily "Ameryka" no. 179 in 1956. He points out that the author keeps to the foundation of what really happened, does not idealize any particular politicla figure and tears away the spectre of dangerous legends. Readers learn about several important things for the first time from this work. One of the important value-added benefits of the author was his providing a proper tribute to the memory of the President and Dictator of the Western Ukrianian National Republic, Dr. Yevhen Petrushevych, with whose name is associated the organization and activities of the 125,000 strong Ukrainian Galician Army, and most importantly, from the period of the First Hetmanate, the Ukrainian military strength, which was the only one capable of and able to meet the challenges of leading military actions on a large scale during the independence struggles of 1918-1922;

3) "Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Byzantine-Slavic faith in the United States" published in a collection "Ukrainian Catholic Metropolia in the United States on November 1, 1958 (Philadelphia 1959, pages 199-248). This is a pragmatic history of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the USA, from its foundation in 1884, fully supported through archival materials;

4) "A Short History of the Ukrainian Parish "Preobrazhennia Hospodnoho" in Shamokin, Pennsylvania" published in a nepaginovanyj collection entitled "A Memorial Book of the Ukrainian Parish Preobrazhennia Hospodnoho" (Transfiguration) in Shamokin, Pennsylvania", Shamokin, Pennsylvania 1959;

5) " The Builders of Contemporary Ukrainian Nationhood in Galicia", published in 1961 at the Ukrainian Library of the Shevchenko Scientific Society, no. 8, entitled "Historical Figures of the 19th and 20th Centuries" on pages 79-244. In this work, Rev. Sokhotsky provides biographies and descriptions of activities of such individuals as Julian Romanchuk, Oleksander Barvinsky, Dr. Yevhen Olesnycky, Dr. Kost Levytsky, Dr. Yevhen Petrushevych, Dr. Lev Bachynsky, Dr. Ivan Makuch and polkovnyk Dmytro Witovsky. This monographical work by Rev. Sokhotsky brought out several very positive reviews including that of M. Bolucha, I. Chaikovsky and V. Doroshenko. They all give the work very high marks and consider it a worthy addition to the promulgation of one of the historical epochs of contemporary Galician Ukraine, that in quick tempo arrived on the scene to battle for independence.

In addition to the mentioned works, Rev. I. Sokhotcky published many larger and smaller articles and works on historical themes in the periodical press and different collections. The Scientific Society of Taras Shevchenko nominated Rev. Izydor Sokhotsky on the basis of his historical work as one of its members on June 30, 1965.

Rev. Izydor Sokhotsky along with the well known historian Ivan Krevetsky saved an important historical document in 1920 dealing with Ukraine's independence struggles entitled " Diary of the Supreme Command of the Ukrainian Galician Army" from the Field Shtab CHUHA archives in Kyiv and donated it to the Liquidation Commission of the UHA. This was done under great personal risk as the Bolsheviks maintained vigilant surveillance over Ukrainians from Galicia.

Rev. Izydor Sokhotsky was married to Jaroslava Popovych. They resided in Shamokin, Pennsylvania and had one daughter Jaroslava Emilia.

Encyclopedia of Ukraine: Isydor Sokhotsky (pseudonym: Sydir Yaroslavyn) was born April 4, 1895 in Lany, Bibrka county, Galicia and died on May 22, 1977 in Philadelphia, USA. Church and community activist; member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society from 1965. He studied theology at Lviv University and philosophy at the Lviv (Underground) Ukrainian University before being ordained in 1923 and serving as a village priest. In 1944 he emigrated to Germany, and in 1950 to the United States, where he was pastor in Shamokin, Pennsylvania. He published popular studies on the role of the Ukrainian Catholic clergy (1951) and the Western Ukrainian struggle for independence in 1918-23 (1956), and co-edited a history of the Ukrainian Catholic church in the United States (1959). Sokhotsky also wrote "Istorychni postati Halychyny XIX-XX st." (Historical Figures of Galicia in the 19th-20th Centuries, 1961).

Сохоцький Ісидор (1895 — 1977; псезд. Сидір Ярославин), церк. і громадський діяч родом з Бібрщини, дійсний член НТШ (з 1965); закінчив богословські студії і філос. фак. Таємного Укр. Університету в Львові, з 1923 свящ. на Львівщині ; на еміграції у Німеччині і (з 1950) у США. Праці й ст. з новочасної укр. історії й укр. церкви, серед ін. «Що дали Гр.-Кат. Церква, і духовенство укр. народові» (1951), «Визвольна боротьба на зах.-укр. землях у 1918 — 23 pp.» (1956), «Укр. Кат. Церква візант.-сх. обряду в США» (у зб. «Укр. Кат. Митрополія в США»; 1959), «Іст. постаті Галичини XIX — XX ст.» (1961) та ін. Помер у Філадельфії.