The Very Rev. Peter Buletza, an Orthodox priest who did much to preserve the language and culture of the Carpathian Mountains of Central Europe, died Friday in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., where he had moved after a 30-year pastorate in Rankin. He was 88.

"He was dedicated to the church, dedicated to his ministry. He always wanted to do what was right in the eyes of God," said the Rev. Paul Herbert, a retired fellow priest of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese, for many years a neighboring pastor in Homestead.

Father Buletza and his diocese have their roots in an ethnically distinct region of Central Europe with a complex political history, known as Carpatho-Rus. It includes parts of what are now Ukraine, Poland and the Slovak Republic.

Father Buletza was born in New Jersey to immigrant parents, but the family moved back to its homeland in the 1920s, when he was 6. He was educated there and began his studies for the priesthood. But in 1940, with World War II encroaching, he fled to the United States.

"Because he was an American citizen, he was able to escape," said Christina Duranko, a parishioner at St. Michael's Orthodox Church in Rankin.

He finished seminary in Connecticut. In September 1942, one week after marrying Mary Jaczina from his childhood parish in New Jersey, he was ordained a priest.

After his first assignment in Scranton, he became a missionary, establishing parishes in New Jersey and Wisconsin, Father Herbert said. Locally, he served churches in Monongahela and California before settling in Rankin in 1970. He was active in diocesan affairs and had been president of the Orthodox Clergy Brotherhood of Greater Pittsburgh.

Because he spoke and wrote fluent Rusyn, he taught it at the diocesan seminary in Johnstown, so that new priests could speak with older parishioners and new immigrants. He also wrote articles in Rusyn for the diocesan newspaper.

"Many times people would get letters from Europe, and he would be gracious enough to translate for them," Father Herbert said.

He was known for his singing of Rusyn plain chant. His voice may still be heard at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center, where a display of a 1920s Carpatho-Rusyn living room includes a funeral.

"People were buried from home in those days. You push the button and you can listen to him chanting. There were a handful of clergy and cantors who taped the funeral, and his voice can definitely be heard," Ms. Duranko said.

He retired in 2000, due to age and declining health. "When he had to step down, it was hard for him. He wanted to die with his boots on. He was so dedicated to the church, and he was always available to help the diocese in any way he could," Father Herbert said.

Father Buletza is survived by his wife, Mary; three sons, Peter of Brick, N.J., Paul of Philadelphia and John of Point Pleasant, N.J.; three daughters, Victoria Dean of Westlake, Ohio, Mary Breton of Brick, N.J., and Catherine Dudick of Wall, N.J.; nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

The funeral Liturgy is today at 10 a.m. in St. John's Orthodox Church, Perth Amboy, N.J., with burial in the church cemetery. Donations may be made to the Father Peter Buletza Seminary Scholarship Foundation or in his memory to the Camp Nazareth Fund, c/o The American Carpatho-Russian Diocese, 312 Garfield St., Johnstown 15906.