On November 17, 1869, Klymentiy (Maria Kazimyr) Sheptytsky was born – Archimandrite of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Righteous Among the Nations, public figure, political prisoner of the Soviet regime.
Descended from one of the oldest aristocratic families of Galicia, the brother of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, Casimir received a first-class European education, studying in Munich, Krakow, and Paris. In 1892, he received the scientific degree of doctor of law at the Jagiellonian University (Krakow). At the same time, he graduated from the Forestry Institute. After that, he worked as a lawyer, helped his father manage family estates, and was an ambassador of the Galician Diet. In 1900–1907, he was a member of the Austrian Parliament, co-author of the “General Austrian Forest Law”. However, with the dissolution of the Austrian parliament, in 1907, Kazimyr Sheptytskyi left a promising political career, and in 1911, he decided to enter the path of serving God and chose the monastic name Clementi (in honor of the Pope of Rome).
In 1918, he became the abbot of the Univ monastery, and from 1926 – the abbot of the Studites of the Holy Dormition Univ Lavra. He played a significant role in history of Greek Catholic monasticism in the 20th century. In 1936–1937, together with the Metropolitan of the UGCC Andrey Sheptytskyi, he drew up a statute for the monks of the Studio Statute, known as the “Typicon”, which was approved by Pope Pius XII. Participated in the founding of the women's student monastery in Jaktorovo (Poland), a monastery in Canada. He was a member of the Theological Scientific Society, lectured at Innsbruck University. Since 1937, he lived in Lviv, helped his brother in the management of the church, was his constant assistant and adviser. Since 1939, he has been a member of the Ukrainian Catholic Institute, a church association named after Metropolitan of Rutskyi. In the same year, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi was secretly named Exarch of Russia and Siberia. In 1944, the successor Joseph the Blind named father Klymentiy archimandrite of the monks of the Studio statute.
During World War II, the Sheptytskyi brothers organized a unique system of rescuing the Jews of Galicia from the Nazi genocide. Thanks to their efforts, the lives of more than 200 people were rescued. As Adam Daniel Rothfeld recalled: “The Sheptytskyi brothers provided aid at the risk of their own lives.”
After the restoration of Soviet rule in Western Ukraine in 1944, a new wave of repression against the Greek Catholic clergy began. Thousands of priests and monks became its victims. In the summer of 1945, Klymentiy Sheptytsky collected 61 signatures of Greek Catholic priests with a request to release the arrested bishops and stop the persecution of Greek Catholics. In response to this, he was forbidden to live in Lviv; Sheptytsky spent the last period of his free life in the University. Continuing the struggle, he sent a letter to the Vatican describing the persecution of Greek Catholics. This letter was intercepted by the NKVD authorities, which became the reason for his arrest. In 1947, Klymentiy Sheptytsky was arrested and accused of “anti-Soviet activities and connections with the OUN and the Vatican.” After months of interrogation and torture, on January 21, 1948, Archimandrite Sheptytsky was sentenced to 8 years in labor camps.
The last place of stay of Klymentiy Sheptytsky was the infamous “Volodymyr Central” – an overpowered prison in the Russian city of the same name. By the end of the 80s of the XX century. the date of death of this remarkable person was not known. Only in July 1989, the commission of the Central Committee of the CPSU considered the request of a Polish citizen, the nephew of Father Klymentiy – Yan Kazymir Sheptytsky – and stated that the blessed died on May 1, 1951 in the Vladimir prison.
Unfortunately, the exact burial place of Archimandrite Klymentii Sheptytsky is still unknown. However, the memory of his actions lives on. In 1991, he was posthumously rehabilitated by the Prosecutor's Office of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1996, the State of Israel honored the feat of saving people during the Holocaust by awarding Klymentii Sheptytsky the title of Righteous Among the Nations. On June 27, 2001, he was beatified (counted among the blessed) by Pope John Paul II during the latter's visit to Lviv. In 2005 in the village University of Peremyshlyan district, Lviv region. A memorial plaque was opened in honor of Metropolitan Andrey and Blessed Archimandrite Klymenty Sheptytsky for the rescue of Jewish, Ukrainian and Polish children during World War II. In 2016, the name Klymenty Sheptytsky was assigned to the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life in Lviv.
Dilfuza Hlushchenko