Sich-Krydor – St. Michael’s

[Decommissioned: No Church; Cemetery only]

UPDATE:

2018 – St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church , Sich-Krydor, was Dissolved on October 30-2016, and was demolished in 2018.

Sich church of St. Michael constructed 1934-1937, 8 miles north of Krydor; R.M. 435.

KRYDOR SICH — The church of St. Michael is the first church of the parish.

The church was constructed between 1934 and 1937 on a hilly two acre site eight miles north of Krydor. In 1937 Archbishop Basil Ladyka blessed the cornerstone of the church. Bishop Andrew Roborecki visited the parish church on several occasions and last celebrated Divine Liturgy in the church in 1959.

The church is a wood constructed cruciform structure measuring 50 x 20 feet with a large octagonal central dome which, both in the exterior and interior, gives the church a unique character. It is east-west oriented with a west main entrance through the vestibule. A choir loft extends above the vestibule and part of the nave and can be reached by a stairway from the nave.

The east wing of the church contains the sanctuary with the main altar and north and south adjoining sacristies which also exit to the church grounds. Behind the main altar hangs a large glass mounted oil print of the church patron; two additional glass mounted oil prints of the Holy Mother of God with the Christ Child and Christ Who Loves Mankind are found along the lateral walls of the nave. The oldest plaschenytsya or shroud (representation on cloth of Jesus Christ in the grave) in this church was brought by the faithful from their Motherland in 1910 and has been presented to the museum at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Rome.

The church does not contain pews for all the faithful; however, it has choir stalls on corresponding sides of the tetrapod which are reserved for the cantors, choirs and other church attendants. The church is lighted by candles only and heated by a wood burning heater.

Ukrainian settlers arrived in this area in 1914 from Horodenka, Lis’k and Sokal. Initially they belonged to the St. Demetrius parish in Krydor, In 1934 they formed into a separate parish and began constructing their own church. The founders of the parish were: Yakiv Sadlovsky (Sadlowski), Vasyi’ Babiychuk, Nykola Pa-veiko, Yeronim Haydukevych, Teodor Nasevych, Petro Kulyk, Teodor Sadlowski, Andriy Sadlowski, Stefan Marchuk, Hryts Tsona (Ciona), Dmytro Harasymko, Ivan Sanchuk, Semko Buy, Vasyi’ Roschuk, Mykhaylo Hanischak, Toma Polos, Vasyi’ Kolodiy, Stakh Nasevych and Mykhaylo Lozowchuk.

In 1941 the parish counted 14 members with 36 children (Prop. Knyha), m 1961, 30 souls (Directory), and in 1967 there were 35 individual members. Since that date the parish faced a high attrition rate as the older parishioners passed to eternity and the younger members left the community for job opportunities and more fertile lands. The parish has been liquidated, the church structure still remains on the site.

The Ukrainian Catholic parish of St. Michael, Krydor Sich, was under the pastoral charge of Krydor.

The name “Sich” comes from the historical Kozak era; it refers to the fortified kozak (cossack) settlements on the banks and islands of the Dnieper River (Canadian Place names of Ukrainian Origin, J. B. Rudnyckyj, p. 67).

Updated December 2020

The Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery of St. Michael’s, Sich-Krydor, falls under the Deanery of Saskatoon, under the pastoral charge of the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of St. George-Saskatoon, which includes the North Battleford and Hafford District, with Very Reverend Janko Kolosnjaji as Parish Administrator.