Early Life
Born June 11, 1915 to Rusyn immigrant parents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he graduated from De La Salle Catholic High School then studied at Nazareth Preparatory Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. Bishop Basil Takach sent him to St. Josaphat's Seminary in Rome, Italy for philosophical and theological education, where he earned a Licentiate (Master's) Degree in Sacred Theology. Bishop Alexander Evreinoff, the ordaining prelate for the Byzantine Catholics in Rome, ordained him to the priesthood on March 30, 1941, just before to his return to the United States.
He first served as pastor in Detroit, Michigan and Lyndora, Pennsylvania. He also served as a member of the Exarchate’s Matrimonial Tribunal and as professor of Patrology at the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of SS. Cyril and Methodius. Bishop Nicholas Elko appointed him in 1956 as the Chancellor of the Exarchate.
Bishop Elko, faced with a growing number of parishes, petitioned the Holy See for an auxiliary bishop. On October 23, 1956, Kocisko was ordained as a bishop at the Cathedral of Saint Paul of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh in the Oakland district.
Bishop Kocisko began residence at Holy Ghost Parish on the city’s North Side. For the next seven years, he served as auxiliary bishop and was appointed Rector of the seminary and Vicar General.
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