One of Oldest Ukrainian Salesian Fathers Dies in Rome

On April 5, Ukrainian Hieromonach Roman Samotyi died in the Instituto Pio XI Monastery of Salesian Fathers in Rome at the of 94. He was a monk for 75 years and a priest for 64 years.

Fr. Roman Samotyi was born on November 18, 1917, in the village of Mervychi near the town of Zhovkva in Lviv Oblast. As a young man he emigrated to Italy where he studied in the minor seminary of Salesian fathers in the town of Ivrea in 1922-1933.  On August 16, 1936, he joined the Association of Salesian Fathers and took his monastic vows on June 28, 1943. After his studies of philosophy and theology, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Ivan Buchak in 1948.

During the whole period of activity of the Ukrainian Pontifical Minor Seminary in Rome, he was a teacher and tutor of many generations of students from Ukraine and the diaspora. From 1996, he lived in the Teresa Gerini monastic community of Salesian Fathers.

On April 5, in the Instituto Pio X Monastery of Salesian Fathers I, the Apostolic Visitator for Ukrainian Greek Catholics in Italy, Bishop Dionisii Liakhovych, in concelebration with Fr. Ivan Datsko served a memorial service for the repose of Fr. Roman Samotyi.