[2] Ziatyk was born on December 26, 1899, the day after Gregorian Christmas, in the hamlet of Odrekhova near Sanok in southeastern Poland.
He and his older brother Mykhailo were born to Maria and Stefan Ziatyk, who were rural peasants who lived in poverty.
Although he was already an ordained priest, he was required to spend a year in the novitiate, located in Hołosko, a town just outside Lwów (now Holosko, a suburb of Lviv, Ukraine), making his first profession in August 1936.
[1][4] During his first year as a Redemptorist, Ziatyk lived in the monastery dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Stanisławów (now Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine).
However, in autumn of the following year, he moved back to Lwów, to support a monastery there whose director had been absent, serving as both assistant superior and treasurer.
[1] The members of the community were also subjected to periodic interrogation, where they were asked to betray their religion and fellow arrestees in exchange for relief.
[1] He is buried in "Cemetery 373 in the Lake Baikal zone, in the district of Tajshet in the region of Irkyts’k [sic]".
[8] On April 6, 2001, the Holy See recognized Ivan Ziatyk as being a martyr and he was beatified by Pope John Paul II on June 27, the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the patroness of the Redemptorists.