Maybridge, Saskatchewan

There hasn’t been a baptism in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Dormition in Maybridge, Saskatchewan since the late 1970s, but Sonia Pryslak remembers them well. After she had her children, her baba told her that she wasn’t to leave the house for 6 weeks. When these 6 weeks had passed, she and the baby were “churched” and the baby was baptized. During the baptism ceremony, the baby was held by the godparents, sprinkled with water, and anointed with oil. Then the baby’s hair was cut in the shape of a cross. The bits of hair that had been cut off were burnt. The baby was then wrapped with a towel and returned to the mother. Sonia was always taught that it is important to baptize the baby early because, without baptism, a deceased infant is not a person and cannot be buried in the cemetery. Because baptism was so important, when her son was born in winter, the priest came to their home and performed the baptism there.