Bishop Holiney was born in a family with a five children[1] in the village Dobrotiv of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. After graduation from the school education, he joined the Ivano-Frankivsk Theological Institute of Greek-Catholic Church, where extramurally completed his philosophical and theological studies from 1991 until 1996 with the qualification of teacher of religion.[2] In the same time he belonged to the group of priests and seminarians, united around Fr. Mykhailo Kosylo, clandestine priest and educator, where Petro Holiney completed his seminarian formation.[3] He was ordained as a deacon on 9 April 1992 by Bishop Sofron Dmyterko for then the Eparchy of Ivano-Frankivsk, incardinated into the newly created Eparchy of Kolomyia – Chernivtsi on 20 April 1993 and lately ordained as a priest on 29 November 1998 by Bishop Pavlo Vasylyk for this circumscription.[4]
Pastoral and educational career
After his diaconal ordination, Fr. Holiney was responsible for the restoration of the Greek-Catholic parishes in the Chernivtsi Oblast[3] and, from 1996 to 1998, he carried out his pastoral ministry in the Deliatyn parish. From 1997 to 2001 he studied at the Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University in Ivano-Frankivsk, obtaining a diploma in history. After his priestly ordination, he held the position of assistant priest of Deliatyn parish and, later, he was in charge of youth ministry in the deanery of Yaremche (2000–2014), history teacher in the state school #1 in Deliatyn (2003-2016) and dean of the district of Yaremche (2014–2016).[2]
