The Basilian Fathers: Their Mission and Their Museum

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CCI Newsletter, No. 27, June 2001

The Basilian Fathers: Their Mission and Their Museum

by Dagmar Rais, Curator, the Basilian Fathers Museum

A 45-minute drive east of Edmonton lies the small town of Mundare, an important historical centre of Ukrainian settlement and of the Basilian Fathers in Canada. A Ukrainian Catholic religious order of priests and lay brothers, the Basilian Fathers came to Canada in 1902 to serve the Ukrainian people who had begun to settle here in 1891.

When contacts with communities in Ukraine were cut off by the Communist regime during the 1940s, the Basilians realized that they had a role to play in preserving not only the religious life but also the cultural life of Ukrainian-Canadians. To meet this need they decided to establish a museum in the location of their first mission, the town of Mundare.

The core of the original museum collection was an accumulation of artifacts acquired by Father Josaphat Jean, a French Canadian who assimilated into Ukrainian life and eventually became a Basilian monk. In 1910, inspired by the desire to do missionary work among the Ukrainians in Canada, he went to Ukraine to learn the language and the Byzantine Rite. Motivated by the colourful history of Lviv and impressed with the monastery library holdings, he began to collect old liturgical books and icons. He later started collecting a wide variety of artifacts with the intention of establishing a Ukrainian museum in Canada. This dream was realized in 1953 with the opening of the first Ukrainian museum in Mundare by the Basilian Fathers.

The current museum was opened in 1990. It boasts three galleries: one focuses on Ukrainian settlement in western Canada; the second highlights the history of the Basilian Fathers in Alberta; and the third houses changing exhibitions related to the community.