Andrey Sheptytsky, OSBM (; uk, Митрополит Андрей Шептицький; 29 July 1865 – 1 November 1944) was the

Metropolitan Archbishop Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

of the

Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church , native_name_lang = uk , caption_background = , image = StGeorgeCathedral Lviv.JPG , imagewidth = , type = Particular church (sui iuris) , alt = , caption = St. George's ...

from 1901 until his death in 1944. His tenure spanned two

world war A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World WarI (1914 ...

s and seven political regimes: Austrian,

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

, Ukrainian, Polish,

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

, General Government (Nazi), and again

. According to the church historian

Jaroslav Pelikan Jaroslav Jan Pelikan Jr. (December 17, 1923 – May 13, 2006) was an American scholar of the history of Christianity, Christian theology, and medieval intellectual history at Yale University. Early years Jaroslav Jan Pelikan Jr. was born on Dec ...

, "Arguably, Metropolitan Andriy Sheptytsky was the most influential figure ...in the entire history of the Ukrainian Church in the twentieth century". The

Lviv National Museum The Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum of Lviv ( uk, Національний музей у Львові імені Андрея Шептицького) is one of Ukraine's largest museums, dedicated to Ukrainian culture in all its manifestations. I ...

, founded by Sheptytsky in 1905, now bears his name. Information-Resource Center of Ukrainian Catholic University that was opened in September 2017 also bears his nameThe Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Center.

Life

He was born as

Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

Roman Aleksander Maria Szeptycki in a village 40 km west/northwest of

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...

called Prylbychi, in the

Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria,, ; pl, Królestwo Galicji i Lodomerii, ; uk, Королівство Галичини та Володимирії, Korolivstvo Halychyny ta Volodymyrii; la, Rēgnum Galiciae et Lodomeriae also known as ...

, then a

crownland Crown land (sometimes spelled crownland), also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it ...

of the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...

. The

Sheptytsky family Szeptycki (in Polish spelling; or (Sheptytsky) in Ukrainian spelling) was a major noble family in Ruthenia (Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, later Austria-Hungary, Poland and Ukraine). They used the Szeptycki coat of arms. The family was relate ...

descends from the

Ruthenian nobility Ruthenian nobility ( uk, Руська шляхта, be, Руская шляхта, pl, szlachta ruska) refers to the nobility of Kyivan Rus and Galicia–Volhynia, which found itself in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwe ...

, but in the 18th century had become Polish-speaking and

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

. The maternal Fredro family descends from the Polish nobility. Among his ancestors, there were many important church figures, including two metropolitans of

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...

, Atanasy and Lev. His maternal grandfather was the Polish writer

Aleksander Fredro Aleksander Fredro (20 June 1793 – 15 July 1876) was a Polish poet, playwright and author active during Polish Romanticism in the period of partitions by neighboring empires. His works including plays written in the octosyllabic verse (''Zemst ...

. One of his brothers, Klymentiy Sheptytsky, M.S.U., became a Studite monk, and another,

Stanisław Szeptycki Count Stanisław Maria Jan Teofil Szeptycki (3 November 1867 – 9 October 1950) was a Polish count, general and military commander. Biography Born in 1867 in Galicia, Austria-Hungary to the aristocratic Szeptycki family, he was the grandson of ...

, became a General in the

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stre ...

. He was 2 m 10 cm (6 ft. 10 in.) tall. Sheptytsky received his education first at home and then in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

. After graduating he went to serve in the

Austro-Hungarian Army The Austro-Hungarian Army (, literally "Ground Forces of the Austro-Hungarians"; , literally "Imperial and Royal Army") was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint arm ...

but after a few months he fell sick and was forced to abandon it. Instead, he studied law in

and Breslau, receiving his doctorate in 1888. During his studies he visited Italy, where he was granted an audience with

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-old ...

at the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

, and to the Ukrainian heartland of

, then under Russian rule, where he met some of the most prominent Ukrainian personalities of that time. He also visited Moscow.

Religious life

Despite his father's opposition, Sheptytsky became a monk at the

Basilian Basilian may refer to a number of groups who are followers of Saint Basil the Great and specifically to: * Basilian monks (founded c. 356), monks who follow the rule of Saint Basil the Great, in modern use refers to monks of Eastern Catholic Chur ...

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whi ...

Dobromyl Dobrómyl’ ( ua, Добро́миль, links=no, pl, Dobromil, links=no) is a city in Sambir Raion, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. It is located some 5 kilometers from the border with Poland. It hosts the administration of Dobromyl urban hromada, one of ...

,(1888) returning to his roots to serve what was regarded as the peasant

. He took the name, Andrew, after the younger brother of

Saint Peter ) (Simeon, Simon) , birth_date = , birth_place = Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire , death_date = Between AD 64–68 , death_place = probably Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire , parents = John (or Jonah; Jona) , occupat ...

, Andrew the Apostle, considered the founder of the Byzantine Church and also specifically of the Ukrainian Church. He then studied at the Jesuit Seminary in Kraków, receiving a doctoral degree in theology in 1894. In 1892 he was ordained a priest in Przemyśl. He was made

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of the Monastery of St Onuphrius in Lviv in 1896. Szeptycki plaque Krakow

In 1899, following the death of Cardinal

Sylvester Sembratovych Sylvester Sembratovych ( uk, Сильвестр Сембратович, pl, Sylwester Sembratowicz; 3 September 1836 – 4 August 1898) was the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church from 1885 until his death in 1898 ...

, Sheptytsky was nominated by

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

Franz Joseph Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his ...

to fill the vacant position of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Bishop of Stanyslaviv (now Ivano-Frankivsk), and

concurred. Thus he was consecrated as bishop in Lviv on 17 September 1899 by Metropolitan Julian Sas-Kuilovsky assisted by Bishop Chekhovych and Bishop Weber, the Latin-Rite auxiliary of Lviv. A year later, on 12 December 1900 and following the death of Sembratovych's successor, Sheptytsky was appointed, at the age of thirty-six, Metropolitan Archbishop of

and enthroned on 17 January 1901. Sheptytsky visited North America in 1910 where he met with Ukrainian Greek Catholic immigrant communities in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

; attended the twenty-first International Eucharistic Congress in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

; toured Ukrainian communities in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

; and invited the

Redemptorist The Redemptorists officially named the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer ( la, links=no, Congregatio Sanctissimi Redemptoris), abbreviated CSsR,is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men (priests and brother ...

fathers ministering in the Byzantine rite to come to Ukraine. After the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Sheptytsky was arrested by the Imperial Russian government and imprisoned in

monastery of Saint Euthymius The Saviour Monastery of St. Euthymius is a monastery in Suzdal, Russia, founded in 1352. History Foundation The monastery was founded in 1352 by the monk Yevfimi from Nizhny Novgorod, invited by Grand Prince Boris Konstantinovich of Suzda ...

, Suzdal (1914-1917). He was released in 1918 and returned to Lviv from the Russian Empire.

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

destroyed his parents' rural house in Prylbychi where he was born.Senkivska, N
Metropolitan Andrei: life story in retro-photographs (Митрополит Андрей: життєпис у ретро-світлинах.)
''Zbruc''. 1 November 2016 During the destruction the family archives were lost. Andrey-sheptytsky

As a student, Sheptytsky learned

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

in order to better relate to the Jewish community. During pastoral visits to Jewish villages, he was sometimes met with the

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he harbored hundreds of Jews in his residence and in Greek Catholic monasteries. He also issued the pastoral letter, "Thou Shalt Not Kill", to protest

Nazi atrocities The governments of the German Empire and Nazi Germany (under Adolf Hitler) ordered, organized and condoned a substantial number of war crimes, first in the Herero and Namaqua genocide and then in the First and Second World Wars. The most notabl ...

. Alone among the church leaders in Nazi-occupied Europe, Sheptytsky openly spoke in defense of the persecuted Jews. He sent an official letter, as the First Bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, to Hitler and Himmler protesting about the destruction of the Jews. In a special Pastoral Letter addressed to his Ukrainian faithful, he strongly forbade them (under the pain of excommunication) from participating or helping in the destruction of Jews. In addition, he issued secret instructions to his secular and monastic clergy, ordering them to help the Jews by hiding them on church property, feeding them and smuggling them out of the country. One of the rabbis whose life was saved by Metropolitan Sheptytsky, David Kahane, stated: "Andrew Sheptytsky deserves the undying gratitude of the Jews and the honorific title 'Prince of the Righteous'". During this period he secretly consecrated

Josyf Slipyj Josyf Slipyi ( uk, Йосиф Сліпий, born as uk, Йосиф Коберницький-Дичковський, translit=Yosyf Kobernyts'kyy-Dychkovs'kyy; 17 February 1892 – 7 September 1984) was a Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek ...

as his successor. Sheptytsky in the early years of his episcopacy expressed strong support for a celibate Eastern Catholic clergy. Yet he said to have changed his mind after years in Imperial Russian prisons where he encountered the faithfulness of married Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox priests and their wives and families. After this, he fought

Latin Catholic , native_name_lang = la , image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran , caption = Archbasilica of Saint Joh ...

leaders who attempted to require clerical celibacy among Eastern Catholic priests. Sheptytsky was also a patron of artists, students, including many Orthodox Christians, and a pioneer of ecumenismhe also opposed the Second Polish Republic policy of

forced conversion Forced conversion is the adoption of a different religion or the adoption of irreligion under duress. Someone who has been forced to convert to a different religion or irreligion may continue, covertly, to adhere to the beliefs and practices which ...

of Polish Ukrainians into

Latin Rite Latin liturgical rites, or Western liturgical rites, are Catholic rites of public worship employed by the Latin Church, the largest particular church '' sui iuris'' of the Catholic Church, that originated in Europe where the Latin language once ...

Catholics. He strove for reconciliation between ethnic groups and wrote frequently on social issues and spirituality. He also founded the Studite and Ukrainian

orders, a hospital, the National Museum, and the Theological Academy. He actively supported various Ukrainian organizations such as the

Prosvita Prosvita ( uk, просвіта, 'enlightenment') is a society for preserving and developing Ukrainian culture and education among population that created in the nineteenth century in the Austria-Hungary Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. By the ...

and in particular, the Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization, and donated a campsite in the Carpathian Mountains called ''Sokil'' and became the patron saint of the Plast fraternity Orden Khrestonostsiv. Sheptytsky died in 1944 and is buried in St. George's Cathedral in Lviv. In 1958 the cause for his canonization was begun; but stalled at the behest of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski.

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

approved his life of heroic virtue on 16 July 2015, thus proclaiming him to be

Venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cat ...

. Jews who were saved thanks to actions of Andrey Sheptytsky have lobbied

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

for years to have him named

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sa ...

, just as his brother Klymentiy Sheptytsky had been, but so far Yad Vashem has failed to act, mostly due to concerns with his initial belief that German invaders would be better for Ukraine than the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

had been. He strongly supported the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician) blessing new recruits into the division.

Memory

The first monument to Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky was erected during his lifetime in 1932. It was destroyed by the Soviets in 1939. A new monument to Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky was inaugurated in Lviv on 29 July 2015, the 150th anniversary of his birth.

Images

File:Andrzej Szeptycki (a).jpg, Father Andrey in Rome, 1921 File:A. Szeptycki (retouched).jpg File:Andriy sheptytskyi.jpg File:Szeptycki_sm.jpg, Archbishop Andreas Szeptycki in Philadelphia, October 1910.

Notes

Films

* * *

External links

* *
Andrei Sheptytsky
at the ''

Encyclopedia of Ukraine The ''Encyclopedia of Ukraine'' ( uk, Енциклопедія українознавства, translit=Entsyklopediia ukrainoznavstva), published from 1984 to 2001, is a fundamental work of Ukrainian Studies. Development The work was creat ...

''
Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies

''Welcome to Ukraine''
''Thou Shalt Not Kill''
(Ukrainian, pdf of scanned images)
''Thou Shalt Not Kill''
(English, pdf)
He Welcomed the Nazis and Saved JewsSheptytsky Award
''Tablet'', Vladislav Davidzon {{DEFAULTSORT:Sheptytsky, Andrey 1865 births 1944 deaths Catholic resistance to Nazi Germany

Andrey Andrey, Andrej or Andrei (in Cyrillic script: Андрей, Андреј or Андрэй) is a form of Andreas/Ἀνδρέας in Slavic languages and Romanian. People with the name include: *Andrei of Polotsk ( – 1399), Lithuanian nobleman * ...

People from Lviv Oblast People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Austro-Hungarian Eastern Catholic priests Ukrainian Austro-Hungarians Polish Austro-Hungarians Ukrainian nobility 19th-century Polish nobility Ukrainian philanthropists Ukrainian anti-communists 19th-century Eastern Catholic archbishops 20th-century Eastern Catholic archbishops 20th-century venerated Christians Leaders of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Venerated Catholics by Pope Francis Venerated Eastern Catholics Order of Saint Basil the Great Burials at St. George's Cathedral, Lviv Ukrainian prisoners and detainees People who rescued Jews during the Holocaust Prisoners and detainees of Russia Founders of Eastern Catholic religious communities Eastern Catholic writers 20th-century Polish nobility