Hryhoriy Lakota
Hryhorij Lakota, also known as Gregor Lakota was a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church auxiliary bishop who suffered religious persecution and was martyred by the Soviet Government.
Hryhorij Lakota was born 31 January 1893 in Holodivka, in Austrian Galicia. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of Przemyśl on 16 May 1926. On 9 June 1946, he was arrested by the NKVD and sentenced to ten years imprisonment, as part of Joseph Stalin's suppression of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic church. He was martyred at the Abez labour camp, near Vorkuta on 12 November 1950.
Lakota and another Ukrainian Catholic Bishop, Josyf Slipyj, became the inspiration for the character of Kiril Pavlovich Lakota in the novel The Shoes of the Fisherman.
Hryhorij Lakota was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 27 June 2001 in the Ukraine.
