Rev. Peter Mayevsky

Rev. Peter Mayevsky [о. Петро Мaєвський], (b. 1893 in Halychyna in the village of Konovychi; d. June 3, 1982, in Los Angeles, California). Orthodox priest in Ukraine, Canada, and the U.S. Both his parents died when he was a teenager, leaving him to struggle on his own to continue his education. He studied for the priesthood and in 1921 was ordained in Kyiv by Metropolitan Vasyl (Lypkivsky). When Ukrainian Orthodox priests became the target of Soviet persecution, Fr. Mayevsky was compelled to leave his homeland. He arrived in Winnipeg in 1931 and spent his first year as an itinerant priest serving the farming communities of the Manitoba prairie. By the following year, he was transferred to St. Mary the Protectress (Sobor) in Winnipeg, where he assumed the duties of pastor, school teacher, and choir director. During his fifteen years in Canada, he organized and directed hundreds of choral concerts and stage plays within the parish. He also taught the church choir to sing full liturgies by composers such as Koshetz, Leontovych, Yatsenevych, Honcharov, and Haivoronsky. In 1946, when the Ukrainian community in Los Angeles invited Father Mayevsky to serve as their pastor and musical director at the newly formed parish of St. Vladimir, he accepted the challenge. For the next thirty years he renewed his effort to promote the very best in Ukrainian choral music. He passed away in 1982 and is buried at St. Andrew’s Cemetery in South Bound Brook, NJ.

1921: Ordained in Kyiv

1931: Came to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

1932-1945: Pastor of St. Mary the Protectress Sobor (Winnipeg, MB)

1946-1982: Pastor of St. Vladimir UOC (Los Angeles, CA)