GREEK CATHOLICS IN AMERICA 201 



Of course these Greek Catholics of such varied views have 

 organized into societies. Each church has its own local reli- 

 gious and singing societies, but there are other and larger bod- 

 ies known as "brotherhoods" or lodges (bratstva), which have 

 been of great assistance in building up the Ruthenian churches. 

 They are usually of the nature of mutual benefit societies, 

 assist in finding work, helping in religious matters and the like, 

 having always the Greek Rite and the Ruthenian race as their 

 main inspiration. Some of them provide that their members 

 must show that they have made their Easter communion or 

 forfeit membership, and provide for the dropping of a mem- 

 ber when he ceases to be a Catholic. These brotherhoods or 

 lodges are combined into a general federation or union which 

 takes in the whole United States. It has its annual convention 

 composed of delegates from the various brotherhoods, and 

 always has some well-known Greek Catholic priest as its spir- 

 itual director. The largest and oldest of these federated soci- 

 eties is the "Soyedineniya Greko-Kaftolicheskikh Russkikh 

 Bratstv" (Russian-Greek Catholic Union), which was founded 

 in Pennsylvania in February, 1892. It is almost wholly com- 

 posed of Slovaks and South Carpathian Ruthenians. It now 

 (1909) has 542 brotherhoods and 22,490 members, and has 

 besides a junior organization for young people in which there 

 are 163 brotherhoods and 5,400 members, and is in a flourish- 

 ing condition in every way. It also publishes a weekly Greek 

 Catholic newspaper at Homestead, Pennsylvania — the "Ameri- 

 kansky Russky Viestnik" (American Russian Messenger), 

 printed both in the Russian and the Slovak languages. In 

 Ruthenian politics it is the representative of the Ugro-russki 

 party. The second of these federations is the "Russky Na- 

 rodny Soyus" (Russian National Union), which was founded 

 in 1894 and is a Galician offshoot from the preceding society. 

 It is chiefly composed of Galicians who are Ukrainians, and 

 who express themselves strongly against the Russian Empire 

 and the Orthodox Church. It now has 249 brotherhoods and 

 12,760 members, and it likewise publishes a weekly newspaper, 

 the "Svoboda" (Liberty), which is printed in New York City, 

 in "phonetic" Little Russian. The third of these federations is 

 the "Obshchestvo Russkikh Bratstv" (Society of Russian 

 Brotherhoods), which was founded July i, 1900. It is com- 

 posed almost wholly of Galicians of the Moscophile party, and 



