The young doctor (ordained in 1899) nurtures healthy Christian values in the younger generation – as a catechist in Terebovlia, as a gymnasium teacher of religion in the Ternopil gymnasium.
"My dream was always to work in a school, to devote myself completely to the moral and religious education of youth... Knowing that this situation is very difficult, I take responsibility before God, my bishop and the Church and the people, but I will accept the yoke willingly and zealously carry it to the end of my life..."
In 1930, Fr. Dr. M. Konrad, at the invitation of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi, begins to teach sociology, ancient and modern philosophy at the Lviv Theological Academy, and eventually becomes the dean of the Faculty of Philosophy.
This is how Professor Vasyl Yashchun remembered him: "I see a bald, bespectacled, Fr d-r Mykola Konrad, who was then already in his late fifties, a conscientious teacher..., the author of the Outline of the History of Ancient Philosophy in 3 parts. Although Fr. Konrad had nothing to do with Confucianism, we, as often happens among students, "stitched" on him the pseudonym "Confucius". Father Konrad was a sincere and intelligent patriot. I remember how, at the beginning of the 1933-34 academic year, he encouraged us to go to a meeting of students in the Academic House, the program of which was to discuss the famine in Soviet Ukraine, and to oppose a possible riot of communists who would like to disrupt the meeting. And many of us then went to the meeting..."
"A great merit of Fr. Dr. Konrad, we read in the article by Fr. In Kuchabskyi's "Sacrifices" (Theology, vol. 54, Rome), – the successful formation of the Ukrainian worldview in accordance with the highest requirements of God's legal order. His activities were fully manifested during his pastoral care among Ukrainian academic youth, in his participation in the so-called "Academic Evenings". And in the end, the unforgettable merit of Fr. M. Konrad's credit is that he managed to crystallize Ukrainian ideological thought on the pages of the scientific and literary monthly "Dzvony".
A good clergyman and a strong ideologist, Fr. dr. Konrad knew how to find those patriotic strings in young souls who taught to perceive the Motherland in a different way: in the context of God's laws. His name is inextricably linked with the Society of Ukrainian Catholic Students "Obnova", of which he was the spiritual inspiration from the beginning. The slogan of the members of the society became "Ukraine for God", and the name was chosen based on the then popular appeal of Pope Pius XII addressed to the entire Catholic world: "Renew everything in Christ". Shortly after its foundation, "Obnova" rallied several dozen students of Lviv universities and soon reached the international level.
Stradch is a surprisingly picturesque village in the Yavoriv region, which has long been famous for its underground monastery (these caves still stand today), the memory of two thousand peasants tortured by the Tatar-Mongols, who, according to tradition, were mourned by the Mother of God when she appeared, and also – the Way of the Cross, which Pius XII endowed with Jerusalem Indulgence. At the very top of the over 350-meter-high pine-covered mountain, the walls of the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God, near which the martyr for the faith, priest Mykola Konrad, is buried. By what unconfessed ways of God did a brilliant professor and publicist, the spiritual leader of the Lviv student body, get to this village?
Once a 64-year-old priest was driving a cart to visit his sister in Yavoriv. On the road, he saw confused villagers. "These are the priests who run away, but they don't think about us, the people," someone shouted after him. They decided that the father was fleeing abroad. Such words deeply moved the father. He stopped... He learned from the people of Stradch (because this was the village of Stradch) that they were left without a pastor. He decided: he would stay here (he was free from work, because at that time the Lviv Theological Academy was closed by the communist authorities). When he took his family to the parish, they say, his wife's old mother was very sad: the road was so far, and the mountain was so high. "Lyunechka, where did you bring me? - she said scared. "But look, mother, it's so close to God from here," he reassured the old woman.
The locals sincerely loved their priest. He is still remembered with incredible warmth. "He was a real "shepherd of his flock," says Fr. S. Borovets. The priesthood was in the first place for him. He was available to everyone. He was so tolerant to everyone, from the landlord to the simplest shepherd, he showed his benevolence in such a way that people still remember it."
In the memory of Mr. Petro Koshla, the father remained "very pious, humble, merciful and selfless." "Father was very wise. And people were so deeply moved by him that I can't tell you, - shares Ms. Hanna Rak. Such he was: both to God and to people.... He secretly baptized the children of Russians (we had a military camp on Koroleva Hora [King’s Mountain]), and went to them with water. He cared a lot about the household- not about his own, but about the church’s; so wanted to put it firmly, but there was no time...".
A year after the priest's tragic death, the family decided to rebury him in a metal coffin. They did it in broad daylight – they didn't know what state the body was in. "It was intact. He was lying like a sleeping person," testified the son of the deceased, Volodymyr. Therefore, it is hoped that the martyr's relics are still incorruptible.
Father Mykola Konrad and Volodymyr Pryima are among the 26 Ukrainian-Catholic martyrs for the faith who were beatified by St. John Paul II in 2001 during his visit to Ukraine. Cantor Pryima is the only layman who has been declared blessed. He was a modest and honest man, the father of four children. The eldest son was 9 years old at the time of his death, and the youngest daughter was one and a half years old. Isn't that why Fr Mykola asked the cantor not to accompany him to the sick woman - he understood how dangerous it was. However, Volodymyr Pryima understood it as well. "After the Divine Service, cantor Pryima could not find a place for himself – several times he left the church, then he entered it. When he was asked why he was behaving so strangely, he answered that he had an inexplicable anxiety" (From the testimony of K. Olshevska).
Kateryna Labinska. RISU
