Glory Be to Jesus Christ: A Parish of Two Languages on South 11th Street
St Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Church has stood on South 11th Street on Milwaukee's south side since 1953, a Byzantine-rite Catholic parish that has kept the Ukrainian language alive in worship, school, and community life for more than seventy years. The church building sits among the brick storefronts and small industries of the surrounding neighborhood, and the parish hall a few doors to the north at 1037 S. 11th Street is the center of much of the parish's educational and social life. Together they form the home of one of the most active Ukrainian-American Catholic communities in Wisconsin.
The parish is a community of two languages. Every Sunday morning the faithful gather first in English and then in Ukrainian, a rhythm that welcomes both longtime Ukrainian-American families whose grandparents built the parish and newcomers who have arrived from Ukraine in recent years. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic tradition the parish follows is one of the Eastern Catholic churches in full communion with Rome, drawing on the Byzantine liturgical heritage that uses the Julian calendar for many of its great feasts. The parish is part of the Saint Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy, one of the Eastern Catholic eparchies of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the United States, and is linked in prayer with the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Winnipeg and the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Stamford.
Sunday and Feast Day Worship
Sunday worship centers on two Divine Liturgies. At 8:30 a.m. the Divine Liturgy is celebrated in English, and at 10:00 a.m. a second Divine Liturgy is celebrated in Ukrainian. On the church's feast days a single Divine Liturgy is offered at 8:30 a.m. After Sunday Liturgy the parish gathers for coffee, food, and fellowship in the parish hall, a tradition that turns the end of Mass into an extended parish gathering and an opportunity to greet newcomers, catch up with old friends, and welcome visitors.
The parish follows the Byzantine liturgical calendar alongside the Roman calendar. The Great Feast of the Synaxis of the Archangel Michael on November 10 is the parish's Khramove Sviato, or church feast day. On that day the Divine Liturgy is celebrated at 10:00 a.m. and is followed by a festive lunch and an entertainment program for the whole community. Other major feasts observed through the year include the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, celebrated with a Christmas Divine Liturgy, and Pascha, the center of the liturgical year. The 2018 Pascha was marked by a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy presided over by His Grace, Bishop Benedict, drawing the wider Ukrainian Catholic community to Milwaukee for the great feast.
Holy Week and Pascha
During Holy Week the parish walks through the Passion with the full Byzantine cycle of services. Great Thursday brings the reading of the Twelve Gospels at 5:30 p.m., Great Friday brings the placement of the Holy Shroud at 4:00 p.m., and Holy Saturday brings the Vespers with the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great at 8:30 a.m., followed by the blessing of Paschal baskets at the end of the Divine Liturgy. The church remains open for the veneration of the Holy Shroud from 8:30 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. on Holy Saturday. Pascha itself is celebrated at 10:00 a.m. with Paschal Matins, the Divine Liturgy, and the blessing of the pasky.
Sacraments and Pastoral Care
Confession is heard thirty minutes before any scheduled service or by appointment with the pastor. Very Rev. Ihor Darmohray, the parish priest, also prepares parishioners for Baptism, celebrates the Mystery of Crowning (Marriage), visits the sick, and ministers at funerals. Anyone wishing to arrange a sacrament is asked to contact the rectory.
The parish celebrates First Holy Communion for the children of the community, an event documented through the parish photo galleries and video channel as one of the milestones of parish family life. Children preparing for the sacrament are guided through the Byzantine Catholic tradition of receiving the Eucharist under both kinds. The parish has also welcomed new altar servers into service, with the young men of the parish taking their place at the altar alongside the priest. A Memorial Day panahyda is offered each spring to remember the deceased, particularly veterans of military service.
The Ukrainian School: Школа Українознавства
Beyond Sunday Mass, St Michael's keeps the Ukrainian language and heritage alive through its parish school of Ukrainian studies, the Школа Українознавства, which meets in the parish hall. Children in the school learn the alphabet, read syllables, words, and sentences, and study the everyday life of their ancestors. They practice penmanship, recite tongue twisters, solve riddles, and learn Ukrainian customs and traditions. Birthdays are celebrated together, and the children prepare for cultural holidays such as St. Valentine's Day throughout the school year.
The school gives Ukrainian-American children a place to grow up speaking and writing the language of their forebears, and serves as a meeting point for families who want their children to keep a living connection to Ukraine. For many of the children, the Ukrainian school is also their first introduction to Ukrainian Christmas traditions, Easter egg decorating, and the wider calendar of Ukrainian religious holidays that the parish observes throughout the year. Each fall the parish welcomes a new cohort of children ready to begin their Ukrainian studies.
A Calendar of Ukrainian Tradition
St Michael's marks the rhythm of the Ukrainian year with events that draw the wider Milwaukee Ukrainian community together. Koliada, the traditional Christmas caroling, brings the parish choir into homes in early January, with singers traveling from house to house over two days to share the news of Christ's birth and to collect donations for charitable causes. A recent year's caroling alone raised more than $7,700 in support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the tradition continues to be one of the most beloved events of the parish year.
Taras Shevchenko's Day in March gathers the parish for cultural performances, songs, and readings honoring Ukraine's national poet, and is one of the most photographed events of the parish calendar. Pysanky workshops in spring teach the centuries-old art of Ukrainian egg decorating to new generations, while summer brings the annual church picnic with a Ukrainian-style buffet, Ukrainian entertainment, Ukrainian souvenirs, and themed raffles that have included tickets to Ukrainian music concerts in Chicago.
Other highlights of the year include a parish pilgrimage to the Holy Hill Shrine near Hubertus, Wisconsin, where parishioners pray together at the basilica in the Kettle Moraine; the blessing of pyrohy when the parish makes varenyky together by the hundreds; Mother's Day; the Independence Day of Ukraine celebration in August with Ukrainian American performers such as Ivan Pylypets; St. Nicholas Day in December, when St. Nicholas visits the children of the parish; a Memorial Day panahyda for the deceased; and an Ecumenical Service at Cardinal Stritch University, where St Michael's joined other Christian communities in prayer for Ukraine.
The parish has also welcomed the Consul General of Ukraine in Chicago, Larysa Gerasko, and Vice Consul Yevgeny Drobot, who joined the parish for Divine Liturgy and met with parishioners to discuss services available to Ukrainian newcomers. A delegation of journalists from Kyiv and a group of Ukrainian American veterans have also been received at the church. The annual rummage sale, held each June over three days in the parish hall, raises several thousand dollars for charitable causes; one rummage sale raised more than $1,600 for the building repair fund, and another raised $2,700 in support of Ukraine. In 2012 the church itself was the subject of a special blessing ceremony, marking a renewed chapter in the life of the parish building.
St. Michael's Feast Day
The Synaxis of the Archangel Michael, observed on November 10 by the Byzantine calendar, is the patronal feast of the parish and the largest celebration of the year. The Divine Liturgy is celebrated at 10:00 a.m., and at the end of the Divine Liturgy the parish gathers for a festive lunch and an entertainment program. The church is filled with flowers and the sound of liturgical singing in Ukrainian, and the day has served as the anchor of parish identity across generations. In 2023 the parish marked the seventieth anniversary of its founding alongside the feast day, bringing several generations of Ukrainian-American Catholics back to the church their parents and grandparents built.
Aid to Ukraine: $141,000 and Counting
Since the start of the full-scale war in February 2022, St Michael's has become one of the most active Ukrainian-American hubs of humanitarian and military aid in Wisconsin. Parishioners have raised more than $141,000 through online donations, rummage sales, Christmas caroling, the Holiday Folk Fair, and the annual picnic. Funds have been directed to verified charitable organizations providing direct support, humanitarian aid, and supplies to soldiers and civilians in Ukraine, including the Serhiy Prytula Charitable Foundation, the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council, Razom for Ukraine, and Come Back Alive. Money raised has also been used to purchase and ship medical and military supplies directly to Ukraine, including shipments sent to volunteer funds in Sumy and Kherson.
The parish presented a $5,000 check to the International Institute of Wisconsin to support Ukrainian refugees arriving in the Milwaukee area, and the church hosted a Sunday outreach event at which representatives of the International Institute explained their services to members of the Ukrainian community. Parishioners have packed and shipped suitcases of supplies for soldiers on the front lines, collected new clothes, toys, and diapers for orphan children displaced by the war, and accepted donations of new and gently used military uniforms. The church has been recognized by the union of veterans and security forces of Ukraine, Zvytyaga, for its donation of military equipment.
Donations can be made by mailing a check to the parish office or by credit card through the online donation button. The parish also offers the option of mailing the Sunday financial offering directly to support the church itself.
Faith and Teaching from the Pulpit
The homilies preached at St Michael's draw on the Byzantine Catholic tradition of scripture reading and reflection, often pairing a Gospel passage with a witness from the lives of the saints or the modern Christian faithful. In one homily for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, the priest reflected on the Gospel account of the father who brought his epileptic son to the apostles for healing and was told that they could not cure him because of their little faith. From that passage the homily unfolded into the story of sixty Catholic nuns imprisoned in a Siberian labor camp, who refused to trade their religious habits for prison uniforms and walked barefoot through the snow singing the Our Father, none of them catching cold. The priest's reflection centered on the words of Christ, "Have faith in God," and the affirmation of St. John that this is the victory that is victorious over the world, our faith.
It is the kind of preaching that connects the Gospel to the lived experience of Ukrainian Catholics whose families have known persecution and exile, and gives the Sunday sermon a place at the heart of parish life alongside the Divine Liturgy itself.
Planning a First Visit
Sunday is the heart of the week at St Michael's. Visitors are welcome at either the 8:30 a.m. English Liturgy or the 10:00 a.m. Ukrainian Liturgy, and most weeks the parish gathers in the parish hall afterward for coffee, food, and conversation. The hall at 1037 S. 11th Street is where visitors will find the Ukrainian school during the week and the social events that follow many Sunday liturgies.
For those preparing for the sacraments, confession is heard thirty minutes before any scheduled service, and Father Ihor Darmohray can be reached through the rectory to arrange baptisms, weddings, visitations of the sick, and funerals. Newcomers are warmly greeted, and the parish's bilingual rhythm means that a visitor who speaks only English, only Ukrainian, or a mixture of both can follow the liturgy and join the community.
Those who wish to support the parish can give online through the donation button on the parish site, or by mailing a check to the parish office. Donations earmarked for humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine are forwarded to verified charitable organizations working on the ground.