In Memoriam
The Falling Asleep of Bishop Emeritus
John Sebastian Lula, OFMO
April 18, 2026
With deep sorrow and with the peace that surpasses all understanding, the Franciscan Friars of the Forsaken announce that our Brother in Christ, Bishop Emeritus John Sebastian Lula, OFMO, has fallen asleep in the Lord on April 18, 2026, after a long and courageous battle with cancer.
Born in May 1947, Bishop John served faithfully within the Ukrainian Orthodox Catholic Church WRM and the Byzantine Orthodox Catholic Church. Formerly a Roman Catholic and a member of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, he later entered into Orthodox Christian life, was ordained to the priesthood, and was consecrated to the episcopacy in 2002.
In 2025, Bishop John established the Order of the Friars Minor Observant — the community more commonly known as the Franciscan Friars of the Forsaken — and served faithfully as its Bishop Protector until his death. The community he founded exists because he believed that the Franciscan charism had a home within Orthodox Christianity, and that the forsaken of this world deserved brothers who would go to them without counting the cost.
Today the Franciscan Friars of the Forsaken lost their founder, their Bishop Protector, and their brother. We did not share the same state at the end, but we shared the same habit, the same Rule, and the same Lord.
We prayed the prayers of departure for him today. We commended his soul to God with the words the Church has always used for her dying — words prayed for the faithful since the earliest centuries. We trust that Christ the Good Shepherd has acknowledged him as one of His own flock.
Following a Memorial Service, His Eminence Archbishop Michael, OFMO, will assume Bishop John’s episcopal duties. Bishop John’s ashes will be entombed at Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Friary in El Paso, Texas — the community he brought into being — where he will remain among the brothers he loved.
Death is not the end of the Franciscan story. St. Francis called her Sister Death — not an enemy, but a passage. Bishop John has walked through that passage today. We will follow when God calls us. Until then, we continue the work he entrusted to us: serving the poor, walking with the indigenous, praying without ceasing, and living the primitive Rule of St. Francis without compromise.
Please pray for the repose of his soul, and for the community he leaves behind.
and let perpetual light shine upon him.
May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
✛
May his Memory be Eternal!
In Christ,
Rev. Bro. Greywolf, Guardian
Rev. Bro. Washakie & Rev. Bro. Thomas
Franciscan Friars of the Forsaken
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Friary · El Paso, Texas