Soter Ortynsky
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His Grace, The Most Reverend Stephen Soter Ortynsky Hentosh | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Church | Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church |
| Appointed | March 26, 1907 |
| Term ended | March 24, 1916 |
| Successor | Constantine Bohachevsky, Basil Takach |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | July 18, 1891 (Priest) |
| Consecration | May 12, 1907 (Bishop) by Andrey Sheptytsky |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 29, 1866 |
| Died | 24 March 1916 (aged 50) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
Stephen Soter Ortynsky Hentosh, O.S.B.M. (Ukrainian: Сотер Ортинський; 29 January 1866 – 24 March 1916) was an Austrian Catholic prelate who served as the first bishop of all Greek Catholics in the United States. He was a member of the Order of Saint Basil the Great.
He was born in Ortynice in Sambor County as Stephen Ortynsky de Labetz (Stefan Ortyński), into a family of the minor nobility of the Łabędź coat of arms.
January 1, 1889, he made his vows with the Basilian Order.
July 18, 1891, he was ordained a priest by Metropolitan of Lviv Sylvester Sembratovych and celebrated his first Liturgy at the Monastery Church in Dobromyl.
March 26, 1907, with Ea Semper Pope Pius X appointed him bishop for the Greek Catholics in America and named him titular Bishop of Daulia.
May 12, 1907, he was consecrated Bishop by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, Bishop Konstantyn Chekhovych and Bishop Hryhory Khomyshyn in St. George's Cathedral, Lviv.
May 28, 1913, the Apostolic See named Bishop Ortynsky as exarch, granting him full ordinary jurisdiction, making him independent of every Latin diocese. On August 17, 1914, the Congregation de propaganda fide put out a decree about the governance of the Greek Catholic Church for the next ten years, called “Cum Episcopo”. It had four main points: 1) The bishop is subject only to the apostolic see and his seat is to be New York City while the vicar general and rector of the seminary should be in Philadelphia; 2) That they establish a seminary; 3) That the faithful should belong to their own church; and 4) Deals with mixed marriages and states that youth should be baptized in the rite of the father.
Bishop Ortynsky contracted pneumonia and died in Philadelphia on March 24, 1916. An estimated 10-15 thousand people attended the funeral. The celebrant was the Vicar General of the Eparchy, Very Rev. Aleksander Dzubay.
