“God Was Always with Me”: In Memory of Fr. Dmytro Seniw
On 23 August 2026, in his 87th year of life and 60th year of priestly ministry, Mitred Archpriest Fr Dmytro Seniw passed into eternity. He was the first Ukrainian Catholic priest to be ordained in Australia.
Fr. Dmytro was born on 17 August 1940 in Rakovac, near Prnjavor in Bosnia, into the large Ukrainian family of Mykhailo and Anna Seniw. His ancestors came from Galicia and settled in Bosnia at the end of the nineteenth century, carrying with them their love for Ukraine, their faith and Ukrainian traditions.
His childhood fell during the difficult years of war and its aftermath. In 1942, the family lost their father, and later they were forced to leave their home. After the Second World War, the family lived in Yugoslavia, and in 1952 they found themselves in a refugee camp in Trieste. It was during these difficult years that Dmytro Seniw’s vocation to the priesthood gradually began to take shape.
In 1953, he left to study at the Minor Seminary in France and later continued his formation in Italy. After completing the Minor Seminary, he entered the Major Seminary in Rome and studied at the Pontifical Urban University, where he pursued studies in philosophy and theology. During his years in Rome, he had the opportunity to meet His Beatitude Josyf Slipyj and to assist him during liturgical services.
After completing his studies in 1966, Dmytro Seniw arrived in Australia, where he was reunited with his family after thirteen years of separation. On 26 March 1967, at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Melbourne, Bishop Ivan Prasko ordained him to the priesthood. This was a historic moment for the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Australia: Fr Dmytro became the first Ukrainian Catholic priest to be ordained on Australian soil.
From the very beginning of his priestly ministry, Fr. Dmytro served Ukrainian communities across Australia. He served as an assistant priest in Melbourne and Sydney and provided pastoral care to the faithful in Canberra, Queanbeyan, Wollongong and many remote areas of New South Wales. He served twice as parish priest in Canberra and Queanbeyan, as parish priest in Perth from 1978 to 1983, and in Adelaide from 1989 to 1995. For many years, he also served as Youth Chaplain of the Eparchy, taking an active part in youth camps and in the formation of younger generations of Ukrainians in Australia.
His ministry was closely connected with important chapters in the development of Ukrainian Catholic communities in Australia. In Canberra, together with parishioners, he worked to establish the parish community and secure land for a future church. He played an active role in the celebrations marking the Millennium of the Baptism of Rus’-Ukraine in the Australian capital and in the pilgrimage of Ukrainian Australians to Rome in 1988. In 1994, Fr. Dmytro was appointed Mitred Archpriest, and in 1995–1996 he served as Administrator of the Cathedral Parish.
Another important part of his life was his work in publishing and writing. Fr Dmytro prepared and published religious and historical materials, and later gathered the memories of his life and priestly journey in the book The First Ukrainian Catholic Priest Ordained in Australia, 1967. He himself summed up his life simply: despite all the difficulties along the way, “God was always with me.”
Nearly six decades of Fr. Dmytro Seniw’s priestly life became part of the history of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Australia and of the life of the Ukrainian community on this continent.
May the Lord receive the soul of His newly departed servant, the priest Dmytro, into His eternal dwelling place and grant him eternal rest.
Eternal memory!
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