SAINT WALTER MYRON PROPHETA
Saint Walter Myron Propheta was born in 1912 in the City of Lviv in Ukraine to Archpriest and Mrs. Dimitray Propheta. Archpriest Dimitray, being the eleventh generation of Ukrainian Orthodox clergy in his ancestry, was known as Wolodymir I and was a spiritual leader of some influence, respected among the hierarchs of the Autocephalous Orthodox Communions as they existed in his time.
Saint Walter Propheta was ordained to the Presbyterate, becoming the twelfth generation to carry on the legacy of Ukrainian Orthodox Priesthood in his family, on May 5, 1933 by the Most Reverend Bodhan Schpylka, Bishop and future Metropolitan Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in America - Ecumenical Patriachate of Constantinople. After a quarter century of service to this Orthodox Jurisdiction as a Priest, Fr. Walter was elevated to the position of Mitred Archpriest and appointed Chancellor of the UOCA; these honours were bestowed upon him in 1959 by Hierarch Schpylka. As Presbyter, Propheta was first Pastor of St. Mary's Ukrainian Orthodox Church in South Plainfield, New Jersey and others.
In the late 1950s, the congregation at the Church of the Holy Resurrection in the Bronx, New York wished to have the vernacular brought into the celebration of the Divine Liturgy to replace the traditional Old Church Slavonic. It was Propheta's desire that the broader scope of not only the Church but also Orthodoxy be made available and accessible to all regardless of national origin. Due to a rubrical disagreement with Metropolitan Bodhan, who served as Dean of Priests as well as Pastor because Metropolitan Schpylka would not sanction the change, Archpriest Walter split from the Ukranian Orthodox Church and ventured into the realm of canonical autocephaly.
He took up the mission of restoring the vision of American Orthodoxy, like those who had come before him and whose succession he would soon share. In 1965, Propheta chartered the American Orthodox Catholic Church in New York. His resolve in this labour is shown by his cooperation with such well-known and long established Hierarchs as Archbishop Peter Zhurawetsky and Archbishop Hubert Augustus Rogers, and many others. He himself, however, remained faithful to his Ukrainian Orthodox heritage.
On October 4, 1964, Archpriest Walter Propheta was consecrated the to episcopacy by Metropolitan Joachim Souris of the Greek Archdiocese of Brooklyn and New Jersey, (former American Exarchate of the Patriarchate of Alexandria) and Metropolitan Theodotus DeWitow of the Holy Orthodox Church in America. This Episcopal Consecration was sanctioned by His Eminence Francis Cardinal Spellman, Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, although the episcopal consecration did not need the approval of the Roman Pope.
By the laying on of hands, Archbishop Theoklitos Kantaris of the Orthodox Churh of Cyprus, with Metropolitan DeWitow elevated Bishop Walter to the service of Archbishop and Metropolitan Primate of The American Orthodox Church/American Orthodox Catholic Church on March 30, 1965.
The influence of The American Orthodox Church/American Orthodox Catholic Church under His Excellency's Omophora in the 1960s and early 1970s extended to many parts of the world and was comprised of clergy and religious in Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, South America, Great Britain and the United States. Saint Walter Propheta died on October 8, 1972. He was laid to rest in the State of New Jersey. Propheta was canonized as a saint by the AOCC-Propheta Jurisdiction on June 9, 2004.