As you drive South on Colonel By Drive, past Dow’s Lake (it used to be Dow’s Swamp, but the water level was raised in the 1820s to facilitate the canal) you look up to the right and see a distinctive Ukrainian church framed by riverbank trees.

The Ukrainian Catholic Parish of St. John the Baptist had its beginnings in 1914, with services in various Roman Catholic churches. In 1918 the parishioners converted a building at Rochester & Balsam into a church for their exclusive use. In 1966 a start was made on a new facility on the corner of Carling & Irving with the building of a parish hall, but eventually the decision was made to build on the current site.

The church building, designed by architect Julian Yastremsky in a modernized version of the Cossack Baroque style, was completed in 1987. Designated as a Sobor (Shrine), it is meant to be a national monument commemorating the Millenium of Christianity in Ukraine (988-1988, for those of you who slept through history in Ukrainian Saturday morning school). Unlike most Ukrainian Catholic church buildings, it is not the property of the Episcopal Corporation but belongs to the Basilian Order, which helped raise money for it nationally and staffs the pastor’s position.

The interior of St. John the Baptist was decorated in traditional style in 1999-2000 by Prof. Lyubomyr Medvid and Stephan Yuzefiv of the Academy of Decorative & Folk Arts of Liviv, Ukraine. Prof. Medvid also designed the stained-glass windows.

The dome is painted with an image of Christ Pantocrator- the Universal Ruler. Stained glass windows portray the sixteen prophets, at the base of the dome are icons of the twelve apostles and the four corners below the dome contain images of the four Evangelists. The main icon behind the altar is the Mother of God of the Sign. The iconostas in front of the altar includes an image of the patron saint of the church at far right and St. Nicholas at far left. On the North and South walls one can see famous Doctors of the Church, while icons in the four corners portray the 12 major feast days of the year. The stained glass windows contain images of saints of the Ukrainian Church. The choir loft is decorated with an image of the Christianization of Ukraine by St Volodymyr.

At the front of the Church one can also see a copy of the Icon of the Mother of God of Perpetual Help, the 13th century Cretan original being housed in the Redemptorist Fathers’ Church of St. Alphonsus in Rome. With the spread of the Marian cult in the Catholic Church, thousands of copies of the icon have been painted for distribution to churches around the World. Most, including this one, have been blessed by the Pope.

For more detailed information on the icons and overall decoration, consult a number of leaflets available in racks in the vestibule, or see the website: www.st-john-baptist-shrine.ca.

St John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Shrine
952 Green Valley Cres.
(613)723-1673