Eternal Memory: +Hieromonk Nicholas (Bogdasavich)
Tuesday, December 28, 2021
JOHNSTOWN, PA - [Diocesan Chancery] -- With profound sadness the Diocesan Chancery announces that on Sunday, December 26, Hieromonk Nicholas (in the world, Murray Bogdasavich) of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist Hermitage, Combermere, Ontario fell asleep in the Lord. He was a son of the late Anthony and Frances (Churko) Bogdasavich and brother to Frank and Darryl (Kay). He will be sorely missed by the small community that gathered to pray at his hermitage, as well as by the parishioners of Christ the Saviour Orthodox Church in Ottawa, Ontario, especially the Kotantoulas family, with whom he shared a special bond.
Fr. Nicholas was born in Yorkton, Saskatchewan on August 18, 1935 to a Ukrainian Greek Catholic family and was raised in nearby Jedburgh. He entered the Congregation of St. Basil in 1955, making his monastic profession, and undertook his post-secondary studies in philosophy and theology with the Basilian Fathers. Father was ordained a priest in 1965. Graduate work in theology took him to Europe, and after a visit to Mount Athos, he discerned a vocation to the eremetical life. Returning to Canada, he lived as a hermit in the Combermere, Ontario, area, maintaining a close connection with the well-known Catholic community Madonna House. Finding himself drawn to Holy Orthodoxy later in life, Hieromonk Nicholas was received into the Orthodox Church in 1995. With the blessing of Metropolitan NICHOLAS of blessed memory, Fr. Nicholas continued living out his monastic calling at his hermitage. Hieromonk Nicholas was a faithful intercessor for Christ the Saviour parish in Ottowa, ON Canada and visited as often as his health and advancing age permitted, concelebrating with the clergy and hearing confessions.
Visitation will take place at Christ the Saviour Church in Ottawa, Ontario on Thursday, December 30 from 6:30 p.m., followed by Panakhyda at 8:00 p.m. Rite of Funeral for a Monastic on Friday, December 31 at 10:30 a.m. at Christ the Saviour, followed by burial at the parish cemetery (Holy Trinity Cemetery), 1890 Merivale Road, Ottawa, Ontario.
May the memory of God's servant the Priest-Monk Nicholas be eternal!
May Almighty God grant Eternal Rest in Blessed Repose to His newly-departed servant, the Protopresbyer John, who has fallen asleep, in the Heavenly Mansions, where there is neither sickness, sorrow or pain, but Life Everlasting, and make his memory to be eternal! Vicnaja jemu pamjat!