The Jubilee Year of Mons. Volodymyr Malanchuk CSsR, the first Apostolic Exarch for Ukrainians in France, was inaugurated in Paris on September 29, 2025. The Cathedral of Saint Volodymyr the Great hosts celebrations, exhibitions, and initiatives to celebrate his life, his spiritual legacy, and his service to the Ukrainian community.
During the Divine Liturgy presided over by Mons. Hlib Lonchyna, the Decree establishing the Jubilee Year dedicated to Mons. Volodymyr Malanchuk in the eparchy was proclaimed from September 29, 2025, to September 28, 2026.
An exhibition dedicated to Bishop Volodymyr Malanchuk, the first Apostolic Exarch for Ukrainians in France, is open in the cathedral. Photographs of his life are on display, as well as liturgical objects and vestments worn by him. This year’s events are coordinated by Father Ruslan Pikh, C.Ss.R., and Father Yurii Zalutskyi.
The clergy and all the faithful are invited to actively participate in the events of the Year of Bishop Volodymyr Malanchuk CSsR to better discover his spiritual legacy and service.
Further information is available on the official website of the Eparchy of Saint Volodymyr the Great of Paris: https://ugcc.fr/fr/actualites/decret-proclamant-l-annee-2025-2026-de-monseigneur-volodymyr-malanchukdans-l-eparchie-saint-volodymyr-le-grand-de-paris/
Source: Eparchy of Saint Volodymyr the Great of Paris of the Ukrainians for France, Benelux, and Switzerland.
Biography of Mons. Volodymyr Malanchuk CSsR (1904-1990)
Volodymyr Malanchuk was born on August 20, 1904, in the village of Bazar, Tarnopol region (now Ukraine).
Together with his two younger brothers, Julian (1907) and Mykola (1909), they were orphaned. At the end of the First World War, Volodymyr was in Kiev, where he attended gymnasium, but following the Bolshevik invasion of 1918 he returned to Galicia. Here he began his studies at the minor seminary in Lviv, where his confessor was Father Jozef Schrijvers. It was on his advice that Volodymyr, together with other young men, left to study in Belgium: in Essen, in the Redemptorist novitiate, he completed his secondary studies between 1921 and 1924. There he also entered the Redemptorist Community.
He spent a year of novitiate in Sint-Truiden, where he took his first religious vows on September 21, 1925. He subsequently began his studies at the seminary in Beauplateau. In 1930, he returned to Galicia, where he completed his final year of studies and was ordained a priest on April 26, 1931, by Metropolitan Andrei Szeptycki (Sheptych’kyj). After ordination, he taught at the Redemptorist novitiate in Zboiska and, from 1934, taught philosophy at the Redemptorist seminary.
Essen, Belgium, 1922. Volodymyr is second from left. 
Zboiska, 1931. Seminary teachers with Bishop Czarnecki. V. Malanchuk, seated, second from left.
From 1937 to 1939, he studied theology at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lwów, where he earned a degree. Funding for his studies was provided by Bishop Mykoła Czarnecki. At the beginning of World War II, he and a group of students travelled to German-occupied Poland, to the town of Tuchów. He did not stay long and instead travelled to Germany, seeking an opportunity to leave for Belgium or Canada. However, he was unable to obtain the necessary documents, so he remained in Bavaria, where he taught philosophy to the German Redemptorists. At the same time, he began his pastoral ministry among Ukrainian emigrants. The apostolic administrator for Ukrainians in Germany, Father Petro Werhun, appointed Father Volodymyr dean of Bavaria. At the same time, he attended courses at the University of Munich. In 1943, he earned a doctorate in philosophy.
After the war, together with other Ukrainian priests, he founded a seminary for students from Galicia who had fled from the communists. He served as spiritual director and teacher there. In 1949, he moved the seminary to the Netherlands. For a short time, he served as vicar general for the Apostolic Visitor for Ukrainians in Western Europe, Bishop Ivan Buczki, in England.
In 1951 he left for Canada, where he assumed leadership of the vice-province of Yorkton. On July 22, Pope John XXIII established the Apostolic Exarchate for Ukrainians in France and appointed the monk Volodymyr Malanchuk as exarch.
Mons. V. Malanchuk with Pope John XXII. 
Episcopal coat of arms of Mons. Malanchuk 
Mons. Volodymyr Malanchuk
He received episcopal consecration in Winnipeg on February 19, 1961, and a month later, on March 19, he was installed in Paris, in the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Bishop Volodymyr actively participated in the Second Vatican Council.
In 1982, he retired and returned to Canada. His brother, Mykhailo Hrynczyczyn, became the new bishop of the Ukrainians in France. After returning to Canada, Bishop Volodymyr lived in the Redemptorist monastery and, towards the end of his life, in a retirement home. He died on September 29, 1990, in Winnipeg, where he was buried.
Biography of Bishop Malanchuk and archive photos sent by Fr. Ruslan Pikh CSsR.
