St. Mary’s was founded as a Ukrainian Catholic Parish in 1900–1 and its first church was erected about two miles east of Chipman seven years later. In 1915, a split developed in the congregation, with several members deciding that they wanted to join the Russo-Orthodox Church. Based on a legal precedent set ten years earlier, the proponents of Orthodoxy were allowed to continue holding their services in the original church. Those who were committed to remaining Ukrainian Catholic constructed the present St. Mary’s, in a three-domed Byzantine style, in 1916. The iconostasis was built in 1922 by Phillip Pawliuk of Lamont, and was painted in 1928 by Peter Lipinski, who also adorned the interior with a wealth of religious pictures and traditional borders.
Highlights of his work include the imitation cut stone on the walls, the decorative borders, the angels on the ceiling of the main dome and the oil paintings with integrated painted frames on canvas glued directly to the walls. Wasyl Eleniak, one of the first Ukrainian settlers to arrive in Canada in 1891, was a founding member of this congregation and is buried in the cemetery beside the church.
See HERE for more information on Peter Lipinski.
Play Memory Eternal Chant
Visit the Cemetery
GPS Co-ordinates: 53.696048, -112.639213
Cemetery Co-ordinates: 53.695380, -112.638311
Affiliation: Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Edmonton
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