After completing his compulsory military service in the Czechoslovak Army, he served briefly as a pastor in several Subcarpathian parishes in Berezovo and Nizhny Bystriy before being assigned as professor of philosophy at the Eparchial Seminary in Ungvár (today Uzhhorod) in 1939.
Following his mandatory military service with the Czechoslovak Army, he served briefly as a pastor in several Subcarpathian parishes in Berezovo and Nizhny Bystriy before being assigned to teach philosophy at the Eparchial Seminary in Ungvár (now Uzhhorod) in 1939.