Obituary for Stephen Zinski (04.05.24)

The psalmist wrote, or perhaps sang, “I rejoiced when I heard them say, let us go to the house of the Lord.” While grieving his loss, the people of Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church rejoice in the reposing of our esteemed and beloved cantor, Mr. Stephen Zinski, and in his going to the house of the Lord. Steve lived his life for, and in, the house of the Lord.

He graduated from St. Basil’s Seminary in Stamford, Connecticut and then from Catholic University of America in Washington, DC in 1969. He received his Master’s Degree in Science from Duquesne University on May 6th of 1973.

His surviving high school classmates to this day still refer to him as the best student in his class, a magnificent peer and a terrific basketball player who was loved by all his teammates and coaches. To those who came to know him later in life through his work making pyrohy at his church in Carnegie, he was viewed the same way: magnificent in character and beloved by all.

He served the people of God as a teacher in Catholic elementary schools in the Pittsburgh diocese, where he taught children everything from Math and Science to Religion and Music. It was common for grown men to stop him in public spaces and yell out, “Mr. Z!” Invariably they were once his students from his years teaching elementary school in South Side, Brookline or one of the various other neighborhoods within his beloved Pittsburgh. He served as cantor at St. John’s Ukrainian Catholic Church (South Side) and at his home parish of Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church in Carnegie for a combined total of more than 50 years. In that time, he blessed countless people through his beautiful singing of the Church’s timeless chants. Steve made it his mission to preserve the musical patrimony of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. He translated chants and hymns, while preserving the ancient melodies of his people. He compiled the parish’s liturgical books so as to make the ancient liturgies accessible to congregants new and old. This was his way of evangelization. He loved the traditions of his Church and his people. It has been said that tradition is not the preservation of ashes, but the passing along of the fire. Steve passed on the fire of faith in the countless young people that he mentored and taught to chant the ancient prayers of the sacred liturgy. They will be part of his lasting legacy.

Steve’s vocation was music—and he lived his calling to the fullest. Through his sonorous voice countless souls experienced a foreshadowing of that heavenly chorus to which we are called, and in whose measured melody and euphoric crescendo the saints will exalt forever at the wedding banquet in the shade of the Tree of Life.

This rarest of men was as inimitable in character as he was in voice, and none shall ever hear a voice nor meet a man such as him ever again. He loved his church and all her traditions, just as he loved the people in his life: knowing and caring about every detail. These details, such as the birthday of the latest grand-niece in the family tree to the anniversary of a bishop’s ordination from fifty years ago, were as important to him as the little notes are to the sparrow straining its sweet morning melody. All these details were compiled together by his mind into a mosaic of love. Compiling and sharing this information with others was his way of saying: “You are important to me…your milestones are my milestones, your joys are my joys, your sorrows are my sorrows.”

Perhaps because of his love for music, the Lord Jesus Christ called him to the heavenly choir at the intersection of Pascha (Easter) on the old calendar and Ascension on the new. This most dedicated of cantors will be laid out at church “in-state” with all the honor that the tradition of the Ukrainian Catholic church prescribes. Viewing is at Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church, 730 Washington Ave, Carnegie, Pa, on Wednesday, May 8 from 4pm-8pm with Parastas beginning at 7pm. Requiem Divine Liturgy is on Ascension Thursday at 10am at the same location with burial to follow at Trinity Acres in Collier. Vichnaya Pamyat’! Or, as Steve loved to sing: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling death by death, and to those in the tombs giving life!”