Meletii Lonchyna (baptismal name Matei; August 19, 1863, Derniv - November 5, 1933, Dobromyl) was a church leader, priest of the UGCC, Basilian, missionary, abbot of Basilian monasteries in Galicia, composer, author of about 50 church songs.
He was born on August 19, 1863, in the village of Derniv (now Kamianka-Buzka district, Lviv region). He studied at the Lviv Academic Gymnasium, where he also took music and piano lessons. On November 27, 1883, he entered the Basilian novitiate in Dobromyl. He took his first vows on July 7, 1885. He studied philosophy at the Dobromyl Monastery and completed his theological studies at the Jesuit College in Krakow. During his studies, he composed several church songs. On August 5, 1888, he took perpetual vows and was ordained a priest on December 2, the same year. He worked in various Basilian monasteries: he was a catechist in Zhovkva (1891-1894), a preacher in Lviv (1894), from where he went on popular missions with other Basilian missionaries, served as deputy abbot of the Buchach monastery (1895), ran the parish office in Zhovkva and was a preacher there (1896).
Since 1897 he held leading positions in the Basilian Order: abbot of the Zhovkva Monastery (1897), abbot and parish priest in Drohobych (1898-1900), consultant (adviser) of the Order (1898-1902), abbot of the Lviv Monastery of St. Onufriy (1901-1902). Onuphrius (1901-1918), and from 1904 he was a consultant of the Order, abbot of the St. Jurassic Monastery in Christinopol (1918-1928) and at the same time the spiritual director of the novitiate of the Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Virgin Mary and director of the Apostolate of Prayer in the Lviv Archeparchy. For health reasons, in 1928 he was transferred to the monastery of St. Onufriy in Dobromyl, where he served as confessor of Basilian students.
He died on November 5, 1933, in the Dobromyl Monastery.
His works.
Father Meletii Lonchyna is known as a church composer and author of a manual on church singing, composing religious songs in the vivid Ukrainian language. His church songs were especially popular:
"Don't put us down..."
"Soar, Virgin"
"All-Holy Mary",
"Nazareth Blossoms in Love",
"In fear and obedience".
He also published:
"A Short Study of the Apostleship of Prayer" (Zhovkva 1905),
"The Rite of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the First Sunday of the Month" (8th ed., Zhovkva 1917),
"Duties and Privileges of the Local Administrator of the Apostolate of Prayer" (Zhovkva 1918),
M. Meschler, "St. Joseph in the Life of Christ and in the Life of the Church [Archived October 1, 2021, at the Wayback Machine]" (translated from German, Zhovkva 1921),
"Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (10th ed., Zhovkva 1925),
"The Apostolate of Prayer in Union with the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ (2nd ed., Zhovkva, 1926),
"Prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary for the month of May" (16th ed., Zhovkva, 1933).
Fr. Meletiy Lonchyna's memoirs about the Dobromyl reform were published posthumously: "On the History of the Dobromyl Reform" // Almanac of Basilian Theologians. Yearbook I. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the reform of the Basilian Order (1882-1832). Compiled by Nil Savaryn, Markian Kohut, and Roman Lukan, OSBP. 1933, Krytynopil, printing house of the Basilians in Zhovkva, pp. 40-47.
