Basil Hopko

After his ordination, Father Vasil' Hopko was first appointed administrator of the parish of Pakostov. Very quickly, Bishop Gojdič sent him to Prague, where he became the first pastor of the new Greek-Catholic parish in the city (1929-1936). In Prague, he deployed intense pastoral activity, devoting himself particularly to young people, the elderly, the unemployed, and orphans. There, he founded the Greek-Catholic Student Movement as well as the Greek-Catholic Youth Union. It was also in Prague that he reunited with his mother, who had returned from the United States after twenty-two years of separation. In 1936, he returned to Prešov to assume the position of spiritual director of the eparchial seminary. At the same time, he continued his theological studies and obtained a doctorate in theology in April 1940 at the University of Bratislava. During the Second World War, starting in September 1941, he became the personal secretary of Bishop Gojdič, while teaching moral and pastoral theology at the faculty of theology in Prešov from 1943. Between 1946 and 1949, he was the editor-in-chief of the monthly Blahovistnik (The Messenger of the Gospel) and published several works on spirituality. Faced with the rising communist threat and state atheism in Czechoslovakia after the war, Bishop Gojdič asked the Holy See for the appointment of an auxiliary to help him defend the Church. Father Vasil' Hopko was appointed auxiliary bishop of Prešov and titular bishop of Midila. His episcopal ordination took place on May 11, 1947, conferred by Bishop Gojdič.

Starting in 1949, the Czechoslovak communist regime intensified its persecutions against the Greek Catholic Church, seeking to liquidate it in favor of the Orthodox Church subservient to the power. On March 27, 1950, Bishop Gojdič and Bishop Hopko were placed in isolation. On April 28, 1950, during the sham synod called the "Prešov Council," the Greek Catholic Church was declared dissolved and outlawed. Categorically refusing to renounce his Catholic faith and his union with the Pope, Bishop Hopko was first placed under house arrest, then interned at the monastery of Báč (near Šamorín) and subsequently at the Franciscan monastery of Hlohovec. He was arrested there on October 18, 1950. There followed more than a year of extremely cruel interrogations and physical and psychological torture, notably in the Ruzyně prison in Prague. On October 24, 1951, the State Court of Bratislava sentenced him to 15 years in prison for "subversive activity" and "espionage" (due to his contacts with the Vatican), along with a fine of 20,000 crowns, the loss of his civil rights for 10 years, and the confiscation of all his property. He then began a long ordeal through the regime's harshest prisons (Bratislava, Ilava, Leopoldov, Prague, Mírov, and Valdice). During his detention, he suffered severe abuse and was administered small doses of arsenic to induce chronic poisoning. Gravely ill and exhausted, he was released on parole for health reasons on May 12, 1964, from Valdice prison. Suffering from deep depression following the mistreatment, he was hosted by a priest, then placed in a retirement home for elderly priests (1964-1968). During the Prague Spring in 1968, the Greek Catholic Church was legally re-established. Although his conviction was annulled by the court, he was not fully rehabilitated by the authorities. Pope Paul VI confirmed him as auxiliary bishop on December 20, 1968, but the communist regime opposed his full resumption of the leadership of the eparchy, and a Slovak administrator was appointed in his place. Bishop Hopko continued to offer his sufferings for the Church until his death, which occurred on July 23, 1976, in Prešov.

The cause for the beatification of Bishop Vasil' Hopko was officially opened after the fall of communism. The nihil obstat decree was issued by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on December 17, 1994. The eparchial inquiry took place in Prešov from January 30 to March 24, 2001. The validity of this inquiry was decreed on May 4, 2001. On July 7, 2003, Pope John Paul II promulgated the decree officially recognizing his martyrdom (in odium fidei). The beatification ceremony was celebrated by Pope John Paul II on September 14, 2003, on the Petržalka esplanade in Bratislava, during his apostolic journey to Slovakia. His liturgical memorial is set for July 23, the day of his birth into Heaven.

The spirituality of Bishop Vasil' Hopko is deeply marked by his unwavering fidelity to the See of Peter and his love for the suffering Christ. Throughout his thirteen years of captivity, he accepted his sufferings without ever complaining, finding his strength in prayer and the clandestine celebration of the Divine Liturgy. His devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to which he attributed his healing in his youth, sustained him in the darkest moments of the persecution. The legacy of Bishop Hopko is that of a "prisoner for the Lord" and a confessor of the faith. During the exhumation of his body for his beatification, toxicological analyses of his bones revealed an exceptionally high concentration of arsenic, scientifically confirming that he had been slowly poisoned by his communist jailers. His relics are today venerated in the Greek Catholic Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Prešov, where he rests alongside his bishop and companion in martyrdom, Blessed Pavol Peter Gojdič.