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Retired pastor still rhyming his way into hearts
Wednesday, March 14, 2001 By Susan Seibel
The famed rhyming priest of the Order of St. Benedict had to come up with a new rhyme last week.
"Seventy nine and feeling fine," has rolled melodically off the Rev. Theodore Seginak's tongue for a year, but he turned 80 March 5.
"I don't feel like an old man or an old lady. After all, I'm only 80. I'm young at heart and try to do my part," said Seginak after musing a moment. "Hmm, I might have to work on that one a bit."
Seginak is retired and lives at Holy Trinity Monastery in Butler.
Born in Gary, Ind., his formal dedication to the Byzantine Catholic Church began in 1944 when he became a monk. He was ordained a priest in 1949.
Before he retired in August as pastor of SS. Peter & Paul Byzantine Catholic Church in Punxsutawney, Seginak served as a missionary, pastor and administrator in many churches in the United States, rhyming his messages of faith along the way.
"Work and pray and you'll be with God some day!" is just one of the rhymes that punctuate his speech.
With quips like "Who's got the knack? Father Seginak!" he makes a lasting impression.
He's got a million of them.
"I formulate things like that right on the spot," he explained. "Some people think it's funny and others think it's facetious, but everybody has a gift and we're not supposed to put it under a bushel basket."
Elsie Hettish, 73, recalled Seginak's 13 years at SS. Peter & Paul.
"He'd always make a rhyme out of something," she said. It's been nearly a year since he left, she said, but people in the parish still ask about him and they remembered his birthday last week.
While Seginak was at SS. Peter & Paul, Hettish kept the books and cleaned the church, which is more than 100 years old and richly decorated with icons.
"Well, I'll tell you, he was a people's priest," she said fondly. "He didn't care if you were rich or poor. It didn't matter."
Seginak's trademark is his openness to people of every faith, Hettish said.
"He went to the hospital to visit both Byzantine and Roman Catholics. And he heard confessions from the Roman Catholics because he always made himself available," she said.
Despite the Great Schism, the split in the Catholic church around 1054 that separated the faithful into western -- Roman -- or eastern -- Orthodox -- camps, some sects of the Orthodox church returned to the Roman Catholic church, retaining their eastern rituals, or rites, as have the Byzantine Catholics.
Father Seginak never hesitated to tend to Roman Catholics in need.
"Well, I had to help out the Roman Catholics because their priests were always 'roaming' around, get it?" sparkled Seginak.
He just can't help himself.
Seginak came full circle when he retired to the monastery in Butler. In 1955, he was appointed the monastery's first superior and he remained in charge for 20 years.
As a superior, he was required to travel to Rome every two years for a conference. As a result, he met several popes.
Judson M. Procyk, archbishop of the Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh, said, "Father Seginak has many gifts of grace and nature. We are grateful for his many years of service ... He brought to our archeparchy a warm and compassionate heart of a loving and devoted priest."
Seginak, born of Czechoslovakian parents, can do something not just any poet can do. He can rhyme in Old Church Slavonic, the ancient language of SS. Cyril and Methodius, but only the old timers can understand it.
"There's not much call for it anymore," he said, reciting a bit anyway, clipping out the old Eastern European language without a hitch.
Now that he has retired, Seginak spends his days in prayer and helping his fellow monks, priests and candidates to sustain their simple lifestyle.
But he hasn't retired from rhyming.
Susan Seibel is a free-lance writer.
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