Father Stefan Czmil was born on 20 October 1914 in Sudova Vyshnya, a small town in Western Ukraine, some 30 kilometers from the Polish border Rawa Ruska/Medyka. His parents, Stefan and Julia Szydlowska, were Ukrainian patriots and Christians, who managed to instill into their son a sincere love of Ukraine and the Greek-Catholic Church, as the Ukrainian Catholic Church then was officially known. After the first school years in his native town, and because he showed a keen interest in his studies, in 1925 he was sent to the Ukrainian all-boys gymnasium in Peremyshl [now Przemysl, Poland], Ukrainian town under Polish rule. The then catechist of the Gymnasium, Father Petro Holynskyj, a great admirer of Saint John Bosco, founder of the Salesian Congregation, never ceased to recount interesting