The Priest

​He was a man that had immigrated from the Ukraine, but he was not of Ukrainian decent; his background was unknown. He had traveled to Canada under the assumed name of a dead Ukrainian man named George Rudyk. From Ukraine he had made his journey to Canada. But this was not an easy journey as several times he had become violently ill and on one occasion he nearly died. Once in Canada the assumed George Rudyk had great difficulty with the English language and found himself to be an outsider in the Ukrainian communities that were in Eastern Canada so he decided to head out west to Alberta. Here he would take on a new identity and become a new man and claim his stake by whatever means necessary. His methods would be ones of deceit, deception and fraud.

​When he arrived in Alberta he realized that this was the true stronghold of the Ukrainian community in Canada. They were farmers and deeply spiritual and religious peoples. It was these two observations that George Rudyk would take advantage of and exploit in the Ukrainian community. His plan was to act and dress as a Ukrainian Orthodox priest who had just arrived from the Ukraine and was here to act as their spiritual leader and adviser. George quickly put his plan into action by stealing his cassock garment from a church back in Manitoba. He also knew enough about the Ukrainian Orthodox religion to fool the average farmer.

Upon his arrival the farmers were overwhelmed with delight. They kissed his hand or garment, they dropped to their knees and prayed to him. He would read passages to the farmers in open fields and in small villages. To the Ukrainian immigrants there was no doubt that he was their saviour, a man that had been brought to them from above. He was given lodging and food everywhere he went and was held in sacred regard. He could get anything that he wanted as he had total power and control of the Ukrainians in a reverential way. 

Once he knew that he had them under his spell it was time for him to engage in the next phase of his plan to hustle the Ukrainian farmers. He would begin collecting donations in the six areas where he preached. These donations would be for supposed churches to be built in the six regions. George clamied that the churches would be onion domed and the interior would be glittered with religious paintings and art, just like back home in the Ukraine. People became fanatical and donated generously to build all of the churches. He declined wages as a priest, claiming he was a man of the cloth and just wanted to build houses of God that were suitable for the Ukrainians in their new land.

He collected all of the funds for the church and the people grew anxious for the construction to start. Then one day he disappeared and the Ukrainian immigrants knew they had been hustled.

A week later he was found at the bottom of a well after being pitchforked to death. Apparently several farmers had caught up to him and did him in.