Holy Ascension at Wasel

The area between Smoky Lake and Two Hills is rich in Ukrainian pioneer heritage.  Holy Ascension Russo Orthodox Church and Cemetery near Wasel is one of many I like to visit when in the area. 

The churchyard is a mile and a half north of the North Saskatchewan River and covers about eleven acres of land, making it one of the larger churchyards I've seen in my travels.  In most cases, the cemetery is directly beside the church but here it is on a raised plateau five hundred feet northwest of the church...just a nice walk on a fall day.  I love the view across the cemetery, past the church and over the vast prairie landscape.    

In past times being a member of a church congregation was an important part of life for most everyone...

...and since there were only monthly services conducted at Holy Ascension, a little girl named Matushka Vasylyna Ungurian would walk barefoot with her family over four miles north to Saints Peter and Paul at Dickie Bush to worship most every other Sunday.

Not many years later and all grown up, she married Vasyl Ostashek at Holy Ascension.  They homesteaded, farmed and raised a family near the church...and later on in life Vasyl became an ordained priest and he and Matushka served Holy Ascension along with several other nearby temples for the rest of their natural lives.  

Then at the age of one hundred and five years, Matushka joined Vasyl, who had passed away twenty years earlier, at her home church of Holy Ascension.  God bless them.  I love a happy ending. 

Walking barefoot all those miles?  That was in order to save her "Sunday best shoes."

Information courtesy of the Canadian Orthodox History Project.

Photographed near Wasel, Alberta on September 19, 2021.