Bishop Alexander Chira was a bishop of the
Ruthenian Catholic Church. His immediate predecessor was Bishop Theodore G. Romzha. He is designated as a
Confessor of the Faith
Confessor of the Faith is a title given by some Christian traditions. In Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, Christians who professed their faith in times of Christian persecution and therefore had to suffer persecution, exile, torture, mu ...
.
Personal information
Chira was born January 17, 1897, in the village of Irhóc,
Máramaros County
Máramaros County (; ; ; ; ; ) was an administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is now in north-western Romania and western Ukraine. The capital of the county was Máramarossziget (present-day Sighetu Marmație ...
(Vilhivci/Vilʹkhivtsi/Olkhovtsy).
His death was in exile on May 26, 1983, in the city of
Karaganda, Kazakhstan.
Chira "was one of the many victims of the Soviet persecution of the Greek Catholic Church."
While in a
concentration camp
A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...
in 1956, Chira clandestinely was appointed a bishop.
See also
*
anti-Catholicism
Anti-Catholicism is hostility towards Catholics and opposition to the Catholic Church, its clergy, and its adherents. Scholars have identified four categories of anti-Catholicism: constitutional-national, theological, popular and socio-cul ...
*
History of the Catholic Church
The history of the Catholic Church is the formation, events, and historical development of the Catholic Church through time.
According to the Sacred tradition, tradition of the Catholic Church, it started from the day of Pentecost at the uppe ...
*
Persecution of Christians
The persecution of Christians can be historically traced from the first century of the Christian era to the present day. Christian missionaries and converts to Christianity have both been targeted for persecution, sometimes to the point ...
*
Roman Catholicism in Romania
Romanian Catholics, like Catholics elsewhere, are members of the Catholic Church under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and Curia in Rome. The administration for the local Latin Church is centered in Bucharest, and comprises two archdioceses ...
*
Roman Catholicism in Ukraine
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chira, Alexander
Victims of anti-Catholic violence
Catholicism-related controversies
20th-century Eastern Catholic bishops
Bishops of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church
1897 births
1983 deaths
People from Zakarpattia Oblast