Alberta Register of Historic Places

St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral

Edmonton

Other Names:

ST. JOSAPHAT'S UKRAINIAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL

Statement of Significance

Description of Historic Place
St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral is a large Byzantine-style church located on 18 city lots in Edmonton's McCauley neighbourhood. Built between 1939 and the mid-1940s, the cathedral is distinguished by its seven domes, columned entry portico, and red brick veneer embellished with darker brick pilasters and inlaid cream coloured crosses.

Heritage Value
The heritage value of St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral consists in its association with the establishment and development of Ukrainian Catholic religious life in Alberta and in its excellent representation of Ukrainian-Canadian church architecture.

Prior to the turn of the twentieth century, Ukrainian Catholics on the prairies frequently found themselves bereft of clergy familiar with their language, culture, or liturgy. In 1902, the Ukrainian Basilian Fathers arrived in Edmonton to minister to the Ukrainian Catholic population. They represented some of the earliest Ukrainian Catholic missionaries in western Canada. Under the leadership of Reverend Sozont Dydyk, the Basilians built the original St. Josaphat Church in 1904. The faith community continued to expand in the succeeding decades; by the late 1930s, the church was deemed too small for the growing parish. In 1938, plans were drawn up for an ambitious new building to both comfortably accommodate the church's parishioners and commemorate the 950 year anniversary of the Christianization of the Ukraine. Construction on the church began the following year and was completed in the mid 1940s. The church was solemnly dedicated in 1947. One year later, a Papal Bull divided the Ukrainian Catholic Exarchate of Winnipeg - encompassing all of Canada - into three exarchates (administrative districts) located in Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Toronto. As the sole Ukrainian Catholic church in Edmonton, St. Josaphat was designated a cathedral, with Most Reverend Neil N. Savaryn appointed Bishop Ordinary for the Apostolic Exarchate of Edmonton serving Alberta and British Columbia.

St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Church is one of the finest examples of Ukrainian-Canadian church architecture. The building's architect, Philip Ruh, was an Oblate priest tasked with working as a missionary among Canada's Ukrainian Catholics. He sensitized himself to the aesthetic and spiritual sensibilities of Ukrainian Catholics and was responsible for designing over thirty churches for this faith community throughout western Canada and Ontario. St. Josaphat is the most grandiose example of Ruh's work in Alberta, expressing the architect's rich sense of historical continuity with the Byzantine tradition and his appreciation for Ukrainian Baroque ideals. Based on the nine-part cruciform plan - the largest of the Ukrainian Baroque designs - the church embodies Baroque exuberance in its polychromatic exterior, featuring dark brick pilasters and yellow brick crosses, and in the dramatic structure of its cupolas. The church's interior was adorned in the 1950s with the iconographic work of Professor Julian Bucmaniuk, a well-known muralist who rendered traditional Byzantine iconography in brighter colours and with a greater emphasis upon realism. Bucmaniuk often utilized parishioners as models for his images of holy men and women. The whole of the church participates in the Eastern Christian vision of sacred space, from the seven cupolas representing the sacraments and the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the interior iconography expressing the sanctification of human experience through the presence of the Divine.

Source: Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, Historic Resources Management Branch (File: Des. 1085)

Character-Defining Elements
The character-defining elements of St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral include such features as:
- mass, form, scale, and style;
- nine-part cruciform plan with apse oriented to the east;
- large central main dome open to the interior and six smaller, closed domes;
- form and style of domes, set high on octagonal drums, including copper-covering, crowning wrought-iron crosses, wooden fascias and mouldings (painted to resemble glazed terra cotta complete with false mortar joints), Insulbrick corner drum piers, decorative drum cornices including cross formee motif, wood dentil and arched corbelled table details, inset wooden columns of the Tuscan order and blind arches with faux marble painted finish;
- red brick veneer, pilasters and stringcourses of darker coloured brick, painted cream concrete crosses, painted concrete stringcourses, and wooden mouldings;
- semi-circular, double-coursed brick arches over windows and concrete sills;
- central, triangular pediment on front facade featuring statuary niche, dentillation, and decorative crosses;
- fenestration pattern and style, including semi-circular arched windows on the main level and tall, narrow rectangular windows on the lower level;
- long, wide entry staircase;
- portico extending the full-width of the facade and featuring eight Tuscan columns;
- arrangement and style of doors, including use of both double and single doors with semi-circular fanlights, all enclosed within painted concrete arches;
- floor plan;
- mass, form, style, and spatial arrangement of columns, arches, pendentives, domes, semi-domes, and balcony;
- painted iconostasis and wall frescoes;
- black marble wall, stained glass windows.

Location

Street Address:	10825 - 97 Street NW
Community:	Edmonton
Boundaries:	Lots 15 to 32, Block 27, Plan D
Contributing Resources:	Building: 1

ATS Legal Description:

Mer	Rge	Twp	Sec	LSD
4	24	53	4	13 (ptn.)

PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):

Plan	Block	Lot	Parcel
D	27	15-32

Latitude/Longitude:

Latitude	Longitude	CDT	Datum Type
53.554426	-113.488863	GPS	NAD 83

UTM Reference:

Northing	Easting	Zone	CDT	Datum Type

Recognition

Recognition Authority:	Province of Alberta
Designation Status:	Provincial Historic Resource
Date of Designation:	1983/08/04

Historical Information

Built:	1939 to 1946
Period of Significance:
Theme(s):	Building Social and Community Life : Religious Institutions Expressing Intellectual and Cultural Life : Architecture and Design
Historic Function(s):	Religion, Ritual and Funeral : Religious Facility or Place of Worship
Current Function(s):	Religion, Ritual and Funeral : Religious Facility or Place of Worship
Architect:	Philip Ruh
Builder:
Context:	HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE The present St. Josaphat's Church was built between 1939 to 1944 in commemoration of the 950th anniversary of the coming of Christianity to Ukraine. The church was built for a parish dating back to 1904. When the original "exarchate" of the Ukrainian Catholic Church was divided into three in 1948, Edmonton was made the center of one exarchate, with St. Josaphat's as the cathedral. The original grandiose Byzantine architecture of this cruciform church was already there as a result of commissioning the Reverend Philip Ruh to design a large-scale edifice befitting the large congregation. Ruh drew on his lengthy experience designing Ukrainian churches of many sizes in western Canada, including other "prairie cathedrals", to produce the most elaborate Ukrainian Church in Alberta. Once it was officially designated a Cathedral, Bishop Savaryn requested and obtained the services of noted Ukrainian church artist Julian Bucmaniuk to paint the interior, bringing him from Europe in 1950. Until his death in 1967, Bucmaniuk painted and taught students to paint the interior. Thus, both the architectural and the artistic elements have been invested with detailed meaning, and any structural modifications should maintain consistency with those elements and avoid tampering with original design as much as possible.

Additional Information

Object Number:	4665-0517
Designation File:	DES 1085
Related Listing(s):	4664-0059
Heritage Survey File:	HS 30826
Website Link:	http://www3.telus.net/public/josaphat/
Data Source:	Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, Historic Resources Management Branch, Old St. Stephen's College, 8820 - 112 Street, Edmonton, AB T6G 2P8 (File: Des. 1085)