October 3rd marked 40 days from the day of Father Andriy Manko’s death. On thisday a Liturgy was offered for Fr. Andriy in our church and the following day the entirecongregation joined in prayer at the offering of a Panakhyda for the repose of his soul.Following the church service everyone was invited to come to the church hall for amemorial breakfast. As parishioners shared warm memories of Father Andriy, they hadan opportunity to view an exhibit of photographs of Father Andriy’s life.

May he always be remembered!

Biography Fr. Andriy Manko

Father Andriy was born to Wasyl and Teophilia Manko, on December 13, 1957 in the city of Lviv. Аfter completing High School he studied mechanical engineering at the Academy of printing. In 1989 Fr. Andriy joined the order of The Most Holy Redeemer (the Redemptorists), where his father’s brother Oleskiy (Ireney) Manko had been. September 21, 1989, under the direction of Fr. Mykhajlo Vynnytskyj, Fr. Andriy started his novitiate. After a year in the novitiate he professed his first vows on September 21, 1990. He then began his studies in St. Alphonsus Seminary, the newly renovated seminary in Holosko, part of Lviv. Three years later, on September 21, 1993, Andriy took his final vows.

On February 15, 1995, on the feast of the Presentation, Metropolitan Maksym Hermanyuk consecrated him a deacon. And on September 22nd 1995 Bishop Mykhajlo Koltun consecrated him a priest in the city of Zboriv. As deacon, he served at the parish in the city of Novoyavorivsk and it is there that he first experienced being a priest. Soon after that, Fr. Andriy went to Siberia to the city of Prokopivsk, where he worked with Ukrainian immigrants for almost a year. In 1997 Fr. Andriy was sent to Canada to help his confreres in the Yorkton province. Two years later he came to Newark, NJ, here to our St. John’s parish, where he worked as assistant pastor for 13 years. He celebrated Divine Liturgies and other services, he preached, visited the sick; he baptized, married and buried our parishioners and did very much for the good of our parish. But he always dreamed of returning home and working with people in his own country. And when, in October of 2012 Fr. Andriy returned to Ukraine, he lived at the Redemptorist monastery of St. Joseph in Ivano-Frankivsk and worked at the church of the Mother of God of Perpetual Help.

In August of this year, due to a serious illness, Fr. Andriy was hospitalized in the city of Lviv. 25 years after he professed his first vows, 22 years after he professed his final vows and after 20 years of priesthood, he took his last breath on August 26th, 2015 at the age of 57.