A book by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky on travel to the Holy Land republished in Ivano-Frankivsk

The original gift-book “How Rus walked in the footsteps of Danylo” is a reproduction of rare editions issued in 1907. This is the story of a pilgrimage of a large group of Galicia natives that included 566 people - 500 Ukrainians and 66 Poles, to the Holy Land, which was organized in 1906 by the Metropolitan Andrey. The authors of the book - travel chroniclers were Vasily Matsorak and Julijan Dzerowycz. The book title, according to its publishers, is due to the fact that one of the first pilgrims from Ukraine to the holy places was Danylo, hegumen of one of the monasteries in Chernihiv region who prayed at the Holy Sepulchre for the people of the prince and the boyars, at the time of Sviatoslav II of Kyiv.

“The goal of my work and my guidance which I provide to those who want to accept it,” Metropolitan says, “is to unite everyone under the banner of Christ. I do not impose my guidance. I do not want anyone follow me blindly. Similarly, the teaching of Christ does not know blind guidance or blind obedience - it is the teaching of love and freedom.”

“I got to hand this book from a friend of mine - without cover, without a name, without end, printed in the old spelling, but very interesting to read. I did not know its name - told the employee of the publishing house “Apostle” Halyna Lytvyn. - The book was reprinted through the efforts of Lviv Historical Archive where I called. I was told to send photos of several pages. After I did it, I got the answer. The original book was called “How Russ walked in the footsteps of Danylo” and it narrates about the first pilgrimage of Galician natives to the Holy Land, led by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. So we got from the archive the electronic version of this book. The archive worker Oksana Hayova has been searching for the text for a very long time. Thus, due to this we are able to reissue the old book, having converted it to the modern spelling and updating vocabulary.”