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From punk rock to patristics: A Ukrainian priest’s story

We always been attracted to being with people, enjoying their freedom and spontaneity. That’s why my buddies and I started playing in a punk rock band, because that’s what this music is. Playing guitar or drums, we were musically searching for something new, something that would inspire us, nourish us, but also simply satisfy us,” recalls Fr. Igor Seliščev, a Dominican currently living in the city of Khmelnytskyi, in Western Ukraine.

The road to faith

Looking at the friar in the white habit, it’s hard to connect him with the young boy with long hair who used to meet with his friends in garages to seek escape from the grim reality of Donetsk, where he grew up, through punk rock.

Listening to him today as he hosts broadcasts on an internet radio station, looking at his photos with young people and the faithful who come to the youngest Dominican monastery in the world, it’s easy to forget that the front line is only a few hundred miles from here. And although the city itself is in Western Ukraine, Russian rockets have fallen here as well.

Indeed, there’s only a superficial appearance of peace. The war has made its presence felt in Khmelnytsky. Dominicans and residents are taking in refugees from other parts of the country. Some students from Fr. Igor’s pastoral ministry have already been drafted. The rest are waiting in suspense for their turn. Fr. Igor is with them and helps them face difficult questions as they walk the road towards faith that he himself walked a few years ago.

Punk rock and the search for truth

Igor was raised in a religiously indifferent family. He abandoned his studies at the polytechnic institute after just two years because, as he notes, “It wasn’t my thing. I went there because everyone else was going, but that’s not enough motivation.” The passion he followed afterwards was linguistics, and he eventually graduated with honors.

Read more at Aleteia 

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