This week we celebrate the 155th anniversary of Andrey Sheptytsky birth (secular name Roman Maria Alexander Sheptytsky) (1865 - 1944) – a prominent church and public figure, spiritual leader of the Ukrainian people in the difficult times of the first half of the XX century. Andrey Sheptytsky was the Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which he headed for almost 44 years.
Throughout the years, under any government, Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky was an undisputed spiritual authority for the clergy, for the intelligentsia, for the common people. He had to be reckoned with by representatives of every government that came to Galicia: Soviet power in 1939-1941; Nazi occupiers; and again, the Soviets.
A special aspect of Andrey Sheptytsky's life and work was that he and his brother Klymentiy organized a whole system of rescuing Jews by monks of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which saved the lives of 150 to 200 Jews.
Metropolitan Andrey has not yet been canonized, has not yet been recognized as the Righteous Among the Nations. But he is honored by Ukrainians, Jews and other people for whom the human, spiritual values that Andrey Sheptytsky adhered to important.
We bring to your attention the online lecture by Dr. Igor Shchupak “Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky: a spiritual feat for the sake of life”.
In the permanent exhibition of the Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine”, residents and guests of Dnipro can see unique things – liturgical books that once belonged to Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky.