Religious leader of the UGCC in Galicia and the United States, Basilian priest, composer, author of more than 80 church songs.
Biography
He was born on July 12, 1863 in the village of Verbytsia, Rava district (now Lubiczka-Korolivska Commune, Tomaszów County, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland; the parish belonged to the Uhniv Deanery of the UGCC Diocese of Przemyśl. The son of Andriy Stekh son of Yakov and Pelagia from the Prytul family and Kateryna daughter of Andriy Abrysovskyi and Maria from the Tymchyn family. He was baptized on July 15, 1863.
At the age of 18, on November 12, 1881, after completing the fifth grade of the gymnasium, he entered the Basilian Order as a novice in Dobromyl. When the Dobromyl monastery and novitiate were transferred to the Jesuits (the so-called Dobromyl Reform), he also entered the novitiate and took his first vows on February 12, 1884. In Dobromyl he completed his high school studies. He was very fond of poetry and music, knew music theory well and even tried to compose religious songs. He completed his philosophy studies at the Monastery of St. Onufriy in Lviv in 1886-1887. At the same time, on behalf of the abbots, he enrolled in the conservatory and studied music. He studied theology at the monastery of St. George in Krytynopol. At that time he wrote such famous passion songs as "Under Your Cross I Fall" and "A Cross is Laid on My Shoulders." They were first sung by Basilian theologians, and then adopted by the people in Christopol. His religious poems began to appear in the Missionary magazine, and he set some of them to music.
The first reformed Basilians and their abbots. Dobromyl, 1885-1886:
Seated in the front row from left to right: Dmytro Zhukovsky, Felix Tsosel, TI, Klymentiy Sarnitsky, Kasper Shchepkovsky, TI, Adalbert Baudiss, TI, an unknown Jesuit, Julian Ziemba; Standing in the second row from left to right: Platonid Filias, Sava Lomnytsky, Julian Mryc, Emilian Kozanevych, Soter Ortynsky, Venedikt Skorobohatyi, Volodymyr Stech, Julian Datsiy; Standing in the third row from left to right: Dionysii Tkachuk, possibly Sylvester Kizyma, Antonii Martyniuk.
He was ordained a priest on September 15, 1889. His first place of work was St. Onufriyiv Monastery in Lviv, where he served as a preacher, confessor, and church choir director (in Lviv in 1890-1891, 1895; he also served in Buchach in 1894, 1896-1897).
In 1900, in Zhovkva, the first collection of his religious songs "Crown of Pious Songs" (78 pages) was published in the printing house of the Basilians. In addition to the aforementioned songs, it contained such popular songs as: "Christ is risen! Rejoice now", "O Jesus, You have come among us out of love", "Who, as You willed", "Praise the valleys, the mountains", "O Mary, Mother of God, have mercy on us", and others. The following year, the second edition of the collection was published. In 1900, he was transferred to the Buchach Monastery, where he was a preacher and prefect of the convivium for a year, and in 1901 he was the director of the main school in Drohobych. In 1902-1904 he worked at the Monastery of St. John the Baptist in Krasnopuscha. In 1902, his second collection of songs "Folk and Church Songs" was published, which was followed two years later by another edition. In 1905-1907 he worked at the parish of the Monastery of the Nativity in Zhovkva.
Pastoral work in the United States
In 1907, at the request of the first Ukrainian bishop in America, Soter Ortynsky, Fr. His first place of work in America was in Buffalo, where he organized a parish. The following year (1908), Bishop Soter asked Fr. Stech to organize a parish in Minneapolis. In 1909 he moved to North Dakota. In 1909, his third collection of songs, The Angelic Choir, was published in Zhovkva, and the following year (1910) it was published in a second edition.
The superiors of the Order and Fr. Stek himself asked that he be allowed to return to Galicia, but Bishop Ortynsky, having few priests, took steps through the Congregation of the Eastern Churches to ensure that Fr. The next bishop, Kostyantyn Bohachevsky, did the same. Seeing that he would not be able to return to the Order soon, Fr. Volodymyr invited his own sister to the United States, who would manage his house in Elmira Heights (1916), so that he could focus more on parish and missionary work. In 1928, his fourth collection of songs, Liturgical Melodies, was published in Zhovkva. Eventually, Fr. Volodymyr was transferred to Passyjka, where he worked until his death. He died on July 16, 1945.
