The Lemko Association is excerpting this article from Karpatska Rus’, Vol. 92 (2021), No. 1, to mark John Madzik’s passing in 2024. May his memory be eternal – vechnaya pamyat!
by Robert John Klancko
Once in a while, a luminary emerges from amongst the populace and gains the respect, notoriety, and honor of his constituent group. This is usually a person whose life of hard work and dedication toward a common objective enables and creates visibility and recognition as a role model and leader, a person to emulate and follow. What they all have in common is that they have become legends in their own time, national treasures.
John Madzik in Toronto, 1980, wearing traditional Lemko chuha
I’ve had the honor to have known some of these unique individuals: Dr. Homer Babbidge, President of the University of Connecticut; Igor Sikorsky, founder of Sikorsky Aircraft; Very Reverend Paul Schneirla of the Antiochian Archdiocese and the Standing Council of Canonical Orthodox Bishops; and Peter Hardy, founder of Peerless Aluminum Foundry and leader of the Lemko community in the U.S.A., to just name a few. Each of these persons have held the respect of their professional and social communities.
Included in this listing of luminaries is John Madzik, formerly of Bortne, Galicia in the Carpathian Mountain Region of Central Europe, and now of Ansonia, Connecticut. John has dedicated his life’s energy to the study of his native village of Bortne and is a walking encyclopedia of knowledge about the Lemko people.
Bortne (in Polish, Bartne) is a village in the county of Gorlice, 16 km south-east of the city of Gorlice, one of the major cities of South-Central Poland., and this area is located near the border with Slovakia. The “claim to fame” of Bortne is that it was the home-town of the father of the great Russian composer Dmytro (Dimitry) Bortniansky. It is said the elder Bortniansky immigrated to Russia for religious reasons.
John Madzik and family in Bortne, 1966
John’s parents were Anastasia and Mychal (Michael). His siblings were Anna, Maryna, Teodor, Matij, Olena, and Theodosia, all of whom are deceased. Vechnaya Pamyat, may their memories be eternal. Three other siblings, Osyf, Melania, and Antonia are still alive and living in Poland. His older brother Matij (Maciej, Matthew) is his only sibling that immigrated to the United States, and he also lived in Ansonia, Connecticut as does John. Matij reposed at the age of 79 in 2004. I have had the honor of knowing both Matij and John.
The Madzik family in Zimna Woda in 1947
In 1947 when John was 12, he and his family were forcibly relocated to the village of Zimna Woda (Cold Water), which is in Northeast Poland. This relocation was part of the infamous Akcja Wisla, (Operation Vistula) which was the relocation of minorities such as Boykos and Lemkos from the south-eastern provinces of Poland to the so-called “Recovered Territories” in the west and north of the country. This was a program carried out by pro-communist authorities to squelch support and assistance to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. Approximately 141,000 civilians were relocated to these formerly German territories, which were ceded at the end of World War II by the Yalta Conference to Poland. With the fall of communism, in the latter part of the twentieth century, this operation was was condemned as ethnic cleansing.
In the 1950s a limited amount of reparations were paid to these displaced peoples. I remember that my grandfather, who lived in the United States, received $78 a year for 5 years from the Polish government for the family farm which he had inherited.
In 1957 and 1958, 5000 families returned to their family homesteads. John returned to the Madzik family homestead in 1958. He rebuilt and ran the family farm as best that he could until he emigrated. In the interim, he worked as a section surveyor in the city of Brzeg from 1950-1955. This employment provided him the skills of map-making, a skill that came in handy as he created detailed maps of Bortne and the individual family lands. From 1955 to 1957 he served as a corporal in the Polish army.
In 1960 John married the love of his life, Emilia Kuzmicz. They were blessed with 55 years of marriage. Emilia, after a long illness, reposed at the age of 78 on December 22, 2015. Their son Paul was born in 1961 and their son Stephen 19 1966. Unfortunately, Stephan died in infancy.
John and Emilia in 1960
John and Emilia were quite the Lemko couple, attending picnics and festivals in their native dress. As he matured, son Paul would also join them, dressed as a true son of the Lemko Region.
Seeking a better life, in 1966, and with the assistance of John’s brother-in-law Peter Kuzmicz, John and his young family emigrated to the western suburbs of Sidney, Australia. He worked as a pipe layer for the South Wales Water Company and a machinist with Fairfax Ltd. The Australian climate proved difficult for the health of their young son Paul, and having lost one son already, they decided to relocate. Fortunately, with the assistance of John’s older brother Matij (Matthew), they were able to book passage to the United States of America.
In May of 1969, they arrived in the United States of America. Initially, John was employed from 1969 – 1991 as a machinist at the Farrell Corporation in Ansonia, Connecticut. Farrell’s was a heavy equipment manufacturer, and employed many people of Lemko heritage. Karlak, Warcholik, Savoysky, Chaplik, Cherhoniak, etc. were common names that could be found in their employment register.. In 1991, after Farrell’s was sold to another company, John left and obtained employment as a Machine Repairman at G&O Manufacturing in New Haven. G & O is a manufacturer of heat transfer equipment and radiators. After many years of plying his highly skilled mechanical trade, John retired in 2004.
John’s mechanical ability and hands-on craftsmanship has served him well at his home and at the home of any friend or neighbor who needed a helping hand, and finally with living space modifications made in home during his wife Emilia’s illness.
However, this is but one facet of John’s life. The most exciting is his love for his motherland, the Lemko Region, and along with that, his research into the people, the customs, and his beloved village of Bortne. John is a very organized person. His library, his artifacts, and his research note books are all meticulously kept. His ability to organize and research topics is what astounds the common person, but is a necessary skill and talent for his work to be successful. He has employed these attributes in the research work that he has done.
In the early 1960’s before he left Bortne, he worked with the Polish anthropologist Roman Reinfuss, regarding the four volume opus on the culture of the people “Nad Rzeka Ropa”, (Along the Ropa River) and in 2002, along with Vladek Maksimovich, he co-authored the book “Lemkivske Vesilia” (Lemko Wedding). The original record and movie “Lemko Wedding” is a significant classic and achievement of the Lemko people in the United States. It was produced by Waterbury native Stefan Skimba and signified the emergence of the Lemko people in the United States.
In addition, on lemko.org, there is a three volume unpublished manuscript by John entitled “Bortne i Okolycia” (Bortne and its Environs). Volume 1 is 327 pages in length (2006), Volume 2 is 250 pages in length, and the supplement is 55 pages (2014). This manuscript is essentially all the contents of his research notebooks. These notebooks are his life’s achievement, the result of his lifelong research into his heritage, his people, and his home village.
For years, John was a member of the Slavic Studies Group at Southern Connecticut Connecticut State University that was led by Dr. Paul Best. John was considered to be a valued ethnic resource, and Dr. Best relied on his advice,and counsel. In fact they both even journeyed to an academic conference in Poland together. On YouTube, there is a 3 hour and 20-minute video made in 2008 and posted in 2014 titled “John Madzik, Lemko from Bortne”. It is an interview with John speaking about his life and Lemko customs, culture, and history. Unfortunately, it is solely the Lemko “po-nashemo” language, so it can be a challenge for a non-native speaker. But even for those who “resumeetye takye malo”, “understand only a little”, it brings back cherished memories of grandparents chatting away at the kitchen table.
Another cherished memory is getting down on all fours, on John’s living room floor examining the detailed maps of Bortne that he created. Every house, every stone wall, every plot of land, they were all there. All of this meticulously is plotted out to the finest detail. Regarding his library, which is crowned the three huge note books brimming with John’s research; he not only created an inventory of the families, past and present, but their professions, their homes, and where possible, the data regarding those who immigrated. They were also filled with photographs, biographies, and Lemko customs and folklore.
But best of all of what he has accomplished, are John’s Holubsty (stuffed cabbage); a delicacy that I miss the most now, having moved to Davidson, North Carolina. John is also an accomplished cook. During his beloved wife Emilia’s illness, he was the chef of the house. In laymen’s terms, his holubsty were “to die for”. In my perspective, they were “tak yak moiya baba robila”/ “just like my grandmother made”, which is the highest honor I can bestow.
John is a “people person” and he excels when he is talking with only one person or most of all with crowds. About 15 years ago, I produced a Russian Christmas/New Year’s Tea at the Quick Center at Fairfield University. John was there in full Lemko regalia along with 50 large posters focused on his research and homeland. It was estimated that some 3000 people of mixed ethnic roots attended this three-hour event on a sub-zero Sunday in mid-January.
However, undaunted with the turmoil of the event, there was John with crowd after crowd hanging on to his every word. John was bringing the essence of what it means to be a Lemko to a vast amount of people to never knew the term before. He epitomized the role of St. Paul being a missionary to the unchurched. For over 3 hours, on his feet, not taking a break he performed with ease and clarity.
Yet there is one more characteristic that needs mentioning. Like the illustrious individuals who were mentioned at the beginning of this article, John is small of stature, he is humble, and he is very knowledgeable. I have found that many people who are tall in reputation are not tall in physical stature, yet they make up for it with their humility, their compassion, their ethics, and their knowledge. John has been a successful and devoted father and husband; he used his technical talents to further this country’s manufacturing base. He has been a devoted member of the Eastern Orthodox Church (Three Saints Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in Ansonia, and St. John the Baptist Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in Bridgeport). He is proud to be an active supporter of the Lemko Association of the USA, even having served as its treasurer. But most of all he has been a dear and faithful friend to many.
It needs to be recognized that John has been singular in his zeal to preserve the memories of Bortne, his home village, and the customs, culture, arts, and history of his cherished Lemko people. John is not a person who seeks fame, but he is a person who possesses a deep desire to exhibit who and what his ethnic people were and continue to be. We all are fortunate to know him, to work with him, and to benefit from his knowledge.
John Madzik indeed is a living Lemko American treasure, and I am honored to have had the opportunity to learn from him, to know him, and to have his friendship.
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