Today, on January 29, 2017, it was reported that Bishop Emeritus of the RCC Diocese of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia Stanisław Padewski died in Poland. The last years he lived in the convent of Capuchin brothers in Sędziszów Małopolski, Credo reports.
Stanisław Padewski was born on September 18, 1932 in Nova Huta (Buchach district, now Monastyrysky district) of Ternopil region. In 1945, the Padewski family was relocated to Poland, in Lower Silesia. There Stanisław was trained in pedagogical and general high schools.
On August 27, 1950 he entered the Order of Friars Minor (Capuchins) in Krakow. He received philosophical and theological education at their Higher Theological Seminary. On February 24, 1957, he was ordained to the priesthood in Krakow by Bishop Stanislaw Rosponda. In 1961-1966, he studied Humanities (specialization - Slavic Studies) at Catholic University of Lublin and Jagiellonian University in Krakow. On June 22, 1966, he received a master’s degree for the paper titled “Slavic matters in Polish and Latin literature of Zygmunt I Stary.”
In the 1970s, he came to Ukraine to help the local priests. In 1988, Fr Stanisław Padewski was the first of the Capuchins to have returned to Ukraine and worked in different parishes, particularly in Bar and Polonne. Eventually, he was granted Ukrainian citizenship.
On April 16, 1995, Pope St. John Paul II, continuing to rebuild the structure of the Catholic Church in Ukraine, appointed Stanisław Padewski (then a parish priest in Vinnytsia) as an auxiliary bishop of Kamyanets-Podilsky. On June 10, 1995 Fr Padewski was consecrated a bishop in the Cathedral of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul of Kamyanets-Podilsky. His episcopal motto was “Agnus vincit.”
On October 10, 1998, Bishop Padewski was appointed auxiliary bishop of Lviv. On May 4, 2002, he assumed the office of the first diocesan (Ordinary) Bishop of the newly created diocese of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. The grand introduction (ingression) of the first ordinary bishop of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia in the Cathedral of the Assumption took place on 10 July 2002.
On March 19, 2009 when Pope Benedict XVI accepted resignation of Bishop Padewski from administration of the Diocese of Kharkiv and Zaporizhia, where Bishop Padevskyy was a senior bishop. For health reasons he left for Poland, where he stayed in the monastery of Capuchin brothers.
He was fluent in Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, Italian and English. He had written and published in Ukrainian many books, including “Gravity of Hearts” (Kamyanets-Podilsky 1996), “The Eleventh Commandment” (Lviv, 2000), “Take the side of the Spirit” (Lviv, 2000), “Symbols of Christ” (Lviv, 2001), “Master, where are you” (Lviv, 2003), “Bride of the Lamb” (Vinnytsia, 2003), “Light of the Past” (Khariv, 2003), “Coming home" (Lviv, 2006). He published several dozen articles in Catholic mass media in Ukraine and abroad. He wrote a regular column in “Parish Newspaper” (later – “Catholic Herald”).