Andrés Sapelak

Who is Andrés Sapelak?

Andrés Sapelak, S.D.B. is an Argentinian hierarch of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. He is the oldest bishop in this Eastern Catholic Church.

Sapelak was born in Ryszkowa Wola, Second Polish Republic in a Ukrainian family and ordained a priest on June 29, 1949 from the religious order Salesians of Saint John Bosco. He was appointed Auxiliary bishop of Faithful of the Oriental Rites as well as Titular Bishop of Sebastopolis on August 14, 1961 and ordained bishop on October 15, 1961. On February 9, 1968 Sapelak was appointed bishop of Eparchy of Santa María del Patrocinio en Buenos Aires where he remained until his retirement on December 12, 1997.

He is returning in Ukraine and worked as parish priest in Verkhnodniprovsk city in the Ukrainian Catholic Archiepiscopal Exarchate of Donetsk – Kharkiv.

In November 2013 he received Ukrainian citizenship.