In the 1880s, Eastern Europeans began immigrating to the United States. Father Juli’s grandfather came to New York from Ukraine around 1908, and his mother’s parents arrived in 1910. As Ukrainian Catholics, their churches were the centers of their communities. Father Juli recalls in a 1993 oral history interview that his maternal grandmother “was a very pious woman, and she was very much involved in the church. The church was everything to them, so it seems that everything revolved around the church…”

In 1988 Father Juli began serving at the Descent of the Holy Spirit Ukrainian Church in South Deerfield, Massachusetts. Before that he served at churches in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New York. For six years he studied iconography (the artwork and symbols) of the Catholic Church, and he is shown here with a variety of painted icons.

Father Juli took a leave of absence in 1996, to decide whether to continue as a priest or become a monk. He did not return to the South Deerfield church. In the religious life he became Very Reverend Igumen Mefodii.