Andrei Scheptyzkyj

Metropolitan Andrej Scheptyzkyj 1921

Andrej Alexander Scheptyzkyj OSBM ( Ukrainian Андрей Шептицький , Polish Andrzej Szeptycki * 29. July 1865 in Prylbytschi , Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria ; † 1 November 1944 in Lviv ) was archbishop of Lviv and Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine . During his episcopate from 1901 to 1944, he led the church through two world wars and experienced seven political regimes, these were: Austro-Hungarian, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Soviet, National Socialist German and again Soviet rule.

Life

Origin and early years

Scheptyzkyj was born in Prylbytschi, a small village in today's Jaworiw district, northeast of Lemberg , as the son of a Polonized aristocratic family from which several well-known Ukrainian and Polish personalities emerged .

First he did military service in the Austrian army , then studied law in Krakow and Warsaw and was awarded a doctorate in law in 1888 . Despite his father's opposition, he gave up his membership in the Latin rite of the Roman Catholic Church in 1888 and entered a Ukrainian Greek Catholic Basilian monastery and took the name Andrei. On August 22, 1892, Scheptyzkyj was ordained a priest in the Greek Catholic rite . He studied at the Jesuit Seminary in Kraków and received his doctorate in theology in 1894 . In 1896 he took over the rectorate of the monastery of St. Onuphrius in Lemberg. After the death of Sylvester Cardinal Sembratowytsch in 1898, Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria nominated him as his successor in the office of bishop of the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine. Pope Leo XIII. confirmed the appointment on 19 February 1899. The episcopal ordination took place on 17 September 1899. The appointment as Major Archbishop took place on 12 December 1900, shortly after Andrey Sheptytsky was at the age of just 36 years ago on January 17, 1901 to the Metropolitan and Archbishop appointed .

In the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, as Lviv Metropolitan, he had a virile vote in the Galician Landtag .

Trips abroad

His trips abroad also took him to Canada and the United States of America in 1910 . He visited the Ukrainian congregations there and took part in the International Eucharistic Congress in Montreal .

Imprisonment

With the outbreak of the First World War , the metropolitan was arrested and imprisoned in several places in Ukraine and Russia. After his release in 1918 he returned to Lviv. He resumed his activities and supported several church organizations and institutions.

Rescue of Jews and collaboration with the Germans

His knowledge of Hebrew helped him visit Jewish towns in Ukraine, where he made many contacts.

Scheptyzkyj had good contacts with Jews living in Eastern Galicia . In July 1941 he promised a rabbi that he would see that the Ukrainian nationalists stopped killing Jews, which was unsuccessful. In February 1942 he asked Heinrich Himmler to forbid the Ukrainian police from participating in the murders of Jews.

In the months that followed, he and his brother Klymentij Scheptyzkyj housed dozens of Jews in his residence and in Greek Catholic monasteries. He turned against the National Socialist rulers and the Holocaust with his letter "You shall not kill"; Nevertheless, he supported the German armed forces as liberators from Soviet rule and advocated the establishment of a division of the Waffen SS made up of Ukrainian volunteers. During this time he nominated Jossyf Slipyj as his successor.

Death and aftermath

Final resting place in the crypt of St. George's Cathedral in Lviv.

After his death, on November 1, 1944 at the age of 79, Andrei Scheptyzkyj was buried in the Ukraine in St. George's Cathedral in Lviv. The beatification process has been pushed forward since 1958 . On July 17, 2015, he was awarded the heroic degree of virtue as an important preliminary stage to beatification, whereby he is referred to as Venerable Servant of God .

patron

He was considered the patron saint of artists and students and a pioneer of ecumenism . He maintained many contacts between the ethnic groups in Ukraine. He founded a hospital, the Ukrainian branch of the Redemptorist Order , the Ukrainian National Museum in Lviv and the Theological Academy , which today is considered the predecessor of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv.

Web links

Commons : Andrey Sheptytsky - collection of images, videos and audio files

Entry on Andrej Scheptyzkyj on catholic-hierarchy.org ; Retrieved June 20, 2017.
Biography on the pages of the Apostolic Exarchy in Germany and Scandinavia

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Andreas Kappeler : Small history of the Ukraine . In: Beck's series . No. 1059 . Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-58780-1 , p. 166 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206020.pdf
^ Promulgazione di decreti della Congregazione delle Cause dei Santi. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office , July 17, 2015, accessed July 17, 2015 (Italian).

predecessor	Office	successor
Sylwester Sembratowicz	Metropolitan of Lviv 1900–1944	Jossyf Slipyj

personal data
SURNAME	Scheptyzkyj, Andrei
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Scheptyzkyj, Andrej Alexander OSBM (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Ukrainian theologian, Grand Archbishop of Lviv and Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine
DATE OF BIRTH	July 29, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH	Prylbychi, Galicia
DATE OF DEATH	November 1, 1944
Place of death	Lviv

[:0-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Andreas Kappeler : Small history of the Ukraine . In: Beck's series . No. 1059 . Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-58780-1 , p. 166 .

[yadvashem-2] ttp://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206020.pdf

[3] Promulgazione di decreti della Congregazione delle Cause dei Santi. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office , July 17, 2015, accessed July 17, 2015 (Italian).