Unlike Latin-rite saints, our Eastern saints are not as widely known.
There are thousands of Eastern saints, and many, many martyrs.
In the year 2001, Pope John Paul the Great named new Ukrainian martyrs.
An article on the topic is as follows:
"Pope beatifies martyrs in Ukraine
Jun 27, 2001 11:44 PM
Pope John Paul put 27 people killed by Nazis and Communists on the road to sainthood before more than a million pilgrims on Wednesday and honoured "anonymous heroes" who died for their faith in the 20th century.
The beatified martyrs included a nun shot at the door of her convent, a priest crucified on a prison wall, another boiled to death in a prison cauldron and a bishop poisoned in hospital.
The crowd of more than a million, the largest yet of the Pope's five-day visit, packed into a muddy racetrack outside Lviv in western Ukraine, heartland of the country's Catholics.
Chanting "We love the Pope!" and waving blue and yellow national flags and Vatican banners, they gave the 81-year-old Pontiff a rapturous welcome on the last day of his tour.
But, urged by a clergyman to also greet President Leonid Kuchma, who flew in from the capital Kiev, many responded with jeers and whistling before falling silent for the Pope.
The president has been bruised by political crisis. Thousands joined street protests this year to demand he resign over the scandal of a murdered reporter.
As the ceremony drew to a close, Kuchma shook hands with and kissed the Pope. After the president descended from the podium, a middle-aged woman ran up to Kuchma, thrusting a document at him. Kuchma's bodyguards seized the woman and ushered her back to her place, where she began to pray.
A presidential spokesman later said the letter contained a request to help find housing and Kuchma had accepted it.
By beatifying the martyrs, and a nun who died in 1918 and was honoured for her charitable works, the Pontiff said he wanted people in the third millennium to forgive each other for the immense tragedies of the 20th century and move forward.
The 27, who died in concentration camps, Siberian gulags or later from the effects of torture and imprisonment, were declared blesseds of the Roman Catholic church.
"They were tested in many ways by the followers of the infamous Nazi and Communist ideologies," the Pope said in his homily to the vast crowd under a clear sky.
"These brothers and sisters of ours are the representatives that are known out of a multitude of anonymous heroes who in the course of the 20th century, the century of martyrdom, underwent persecution, violence and death rather than renounce their faith," he said.
Ukraine's catholics survive oppression
The martyrs were members of the eastern-rite Ukrainian Catholic Church, also known as Greek Catholics. Soviet dictator Josef Stalin tried to annihilate the faith because he saw it as an uncontrollable agent of Ukrainian nationalism.
Recalling memories of Nazi occupation and Communist rule in his native Poland, the Pope said the past must be honoured.
"Their memory must not be lost, for it is a blessing. We admire them and we are grateful to them...they have shown that love is stronger than death," he said.
But he said it was time to move on and shed the mutual resentment and intolerance of the last centuries.
The children of one martyr, Father Mykola Tsehelsky who died in a Siberian prison camp, said on Tuesday the ceremony vindicated their father's tolerance in the face of persecution. Greek Catholic priests are allowed to marry.
The ceremony was the highlight of the papal tour for many of Ukraine's six million Catholics, most of them Greek Catholics.
"Today is a big victory for the Greek Catholics because I remember we had to hide in the forests to worship. I never thought we would be allowed to see the Pope and pray publicly," said Anna Kysina, a grandmother from Striy, north of Lviv.
The ceremony allowed the Pope to end his visit to largely Orthodox Ukraine without the spectre of inter-church conflict which haunted his three days in Kiev.
The Pope's message of reconciliation and unity to allow Ukraine's two main Catholic and three Orthodox confessions to live in peace went ignored by Ukraine's largest Orthodox Church, which denounced the visit.
Two smaller Orthodox Churches welcomed the Pope, though turnout at masses in Kiev was low."
Though I could not find the icon on the Internet of the new Ukrianian Catholic martyrs, I have included the list:
1. Bishop Basil Velychkovskyi (1903-1973), died after years in labour camps.
2. Bishop Gregory Khomyshyn (1867-1947), beaten to death.
3. Bishop Nicholas Charnetskyi (1884-1959), paitiently endured torture.
4. Bishop Josaphat Kotsylovskyi (1876-1947), died in a concentration camp.
5. Bishop Ivan Sleziuk (1896-1973), interrogated mercilessly.
6. Msgr Peter Verhun (1890-1957), died in a Siberian labour camp.
7. Bishop Nykyta Budka (1877-1949), eaten by wild animals.
8. Abbot Clement Sheptytsky (1869-1951), founder of the Studite Order.
9. Bishop Gregory Lakota (1883-1950), "an angel in human form."
10. Bishop Simeon Lukach (1893-1964), stobborn underground leader.
11. Fr Andrew Ishchak (1887-1941), shot by retreating Bolsheviks.
12. Fr Vitalis Bairak (1907-1946), died from a prison beating.
13. Fr Oleksii Zarytskyi (1912-1963), died ministering in harsh Kazakhstan.
14. Fr Roman Lysko (1914-1949), sealed alive into a wall.
15. Fr Severian Baranyk (1889-1941), died, tortured and mutilated.
16. Fr Nicholas Konrad (1876-1941), murdered going to hear a confession.
17. Fr Nicholas Tsehelskyi (1896-1951), harrassed, beaten, exiled.
18. Fr Ivan Ziatyk (1899-1952), beaten and left to die on Good Friday.
19. Fr Emilian Kovch (1880-1941), exectuted by Nazis for saving Jews.
20. Fr Joachim Senkivskyi (1896-1941), boiled to death in a cauldron.
21. Sr Lavrentia Harasymiv (1911-1952), died in Siberian exile.
22. Sr Olympia Bida (1903-1952), underground catechist.
23. Sr Tarsykiia Matskiv (1919-1944), shot "because she was a nun."
24. Volodymyr Pryima (1906-1941), stabbed with a bayonet.
25. Fr Zynovii Kovalyk (1903-1941), crucified on a prison wall.
We stand on the shoulders of these blessed martyrs, and so must we one day be called as servants of Christ in His glory.
Glory be to Jesus Christ!
Glory forever!
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