Blessed Оmelyan Kovch was a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic priest murdered in Majdanek

Majdanek

Majdanek was a German Nazi concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland, established during the German Nazi occupation of Poland. The camp operated from October 1, 1941 until July 22, 1944, when it was captured nearly intact by the advancing Soviet Red Army...

 concentration camp.

He was born in a peasant family in the town of Tlumach

Tlumach

Tlumach is a small city located in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, in western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Tlumach Raion .The current estimated population is around 8,800 .-History:...

 in the Kosiv

Kosiv

Kosiv is a city located in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, in western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kosivsky Raion ....

 region of Western Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

, and was ordained in 1911 after graduating from the Sts. Sergius and Bacchus College in Rome. He served as a parish priest from 1921 to 1943 at the church of St. Nicholas in the village of Peremyshliany

Peremyshliany

Peremyshliany is a town in Lviv Oblast of Ukraine. It is administrative center of the Peremyshliany Raion. Population is 7,565 .It had a Jewish population of 2,934 in 1900.-Famous natives:* Naftule Brandwein, klezmer musician* bl...

, and was the father of six children.

In the spring of 1943 he was arrested by the Gestapo

Gestapo

The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...

 for harboring Jews

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

. On March 25, 1944 he was gassed at Majdanek concentration camp near Lublin

Lublin

Lublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,392 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...

, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

.

On September 9, 1999, the Jewish Council of Ukraine awarded him the title of "Ukraine's righteous".

His beatification

Beatification

Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...

 took place on July 27, 2001 in Lviv

Lviv

Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...

, during the Byzantine rite

Byzantine Rite

The Byzantine Rite, sometimes called the Rite of Constantinople or Constantinopolitan Rite is the liturgical rite used currently by all the Eastern Orthodox Churches, by the Greek Catholic Churches , and by the Protestant Ukrainian Lutheran Church...

 liturgy conducted by Pope John Paul II.