Details of his biography are uncertain, as a priest from the Diocese of Munkács with the same name also served in the United States. He began his theological studies in Zurich, Switzerland, and completed them in Baltimore, Maryland. He then spent three years in Genoa and Paris. In 1906, the Roman Catholic bishop of Scranton accepted him among his seminarians as a Greek Catholic rite seminarian, since at that time there was not yet a fully established structure for Greek Catholic priests serving in America. As a seminarian who had completed his studies, he served at the Greek Catholic parish in Scranton, PA, and was ordained a priest on June 30, 1906.