The Greek Catholic Cathedral of St John the Baptist in

Przemyśl Przemyśl () is a city in southeastern Poland with 56,466 inhabitants, as of December 2023. Data for territorial unit 1862000. In 1999, it became part of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship, Subcarpathian Voivodeship. It was previously the capital of Prz ...

serves as the mother church of the

Ukrainian Greek Catholic The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) is a major archiepiscopal '' sui iuris'' ("autonomous") Eastern Catholic church that is based in Ukraine. As a particular church of the Catholic Church, it is in full communion with the Holy See. ...

Archeparchy of Peremyshl-Warsaw. It is located at the Ulica Katedralna in Przemyśl, in southern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. The church was built in the 17th century by the

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

order and dedicated to St. Ignatius. After Przemyśl fell under Austrian rule and the suppression of the order in 1773 it slowly fell into ruins and in 1820 was closed by Austrians and turned into a storehouse. With the gradual democratization of region in the second half of the 19th century plans appeared to restore the church, finally carried out in 1903 and in 1904 the former Jesuit church was reconsecrated in 1904 as Sacred Heart of Jesus. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

it served as a garrison church and also offered a weekly Mass in the Byzantine Rite for Ukrainian Catholics whose church had been closed by the

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

government. In 1991 the church was subject of a controversy, when the

Latin Catholic Church The Latin Church () is the largest autonomous () particular church within the Catholic Church, whose members constitute the vast majority of the 1.3 billion Catholics. The Latin Church is one of 24 Catholic particular churches and liturgical ...

(with personal oversight by pope

John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

) decided to donate the building to the Greek Catholic population in Przemyśl, to serve as the cathedral of the Archeparchy of Peremyshl-Warsaw in place of the Carmelite Church, which after

has returned to the

Carmelites The Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel (; abbreviated OCarm), known as the Carmelites or sometimes by synecdoche known simply as Carmel, is a mendicant order in the Catholic Church for both men and women. Histo ...

. After this decision, local Polish nationalists blockaded the entrance to the Greek Catholics and organized a hunger strike. After several weeks of debate and negotiation they desisted.

References

External links

Parafia Archikatedralna p.w. św. Jana Chrzciciela w Przemyślu

Eastern Catholic cathedrals in Poland Church buildings of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Poland Buildings and structures in Przemyśl Basilica churches in Poland

Jesuit churches in Poland Ukrainian Catholic cathedrals Przemysl, St. John the Baptist, Cathedral of Przemysl, St. John the Baptist, Cathedral of Churches dedicated to John the Baptist in Poland {{UkrainianGreekCatholic-church-stub

See also

References

External links