On February 27, Lviv Museum of History of Religion will host a presentation of the book “The Knight of St. George's mountain. How Western Ukraine became Catholic, “and a show of a popular science film of the same name by the historian, screenwriter and writer Victor Zaslavskyy.
This is a story about the life and work of Josyp Shumlanskyk, an Orthodox, and later Greek Catholic bishop of Lviv, Galicia and Kamyanets-Podilskyj (1643 - 1708). The annex to the book contains fragments of the works by Iosyp Shumlanskyy – well-known textbooks for priests "Mirror" and "Metric" and his will.
The announced union of the Russian hierarchs with Rome dates back to 1596. And when on the territory of Volyn, Belarus and even Kyiv the Uniate churches emerged, Lviv Archdiocese (these are the territories from Lviv to Kamyanets, from the river of Dniester to Bug, almost the whole contemporary Western Ukraine) and Przemysl diocese did not change position: they were faithful to Orthodoxy. Only in 1700, at the turn of the century, through the efforts of Archbishop Iosyp Shumlanskyy the Galician Ukrainian came under the Union.
It should be noted that this was a time of constant war with the Turks and Tatars, uneasy relations with the Cossacks and Russia. Only resolute and bold could win. Iosyp Shumlyanskyy, the bishop-reformer, educator, soldier and diplomat, famous due to his victories on the battlefield, and service to the people and the Church, was of their kin.
“Over forty years of Archbishop’s service Iosyp Shumlyanskyy managed to do a lot. He implemented reforms that can only be compared with the reforms of Petro Mohyla. He was able to establish order in the administrative system of the Lviv diocese, he was the first to pay attention to the problems of rural priests and made great efforts to raise the level of their education and morality. He successfully defended the rights of the Russian Church before the king and magnates. And most importantly, he was able to introduce the Union in western Ukraine peacefully, avoiding conflict and preserving ritual, culture and identity of the Russian Church. Thus, he opened a new chapter in the history of our country, marked the beginning of a new time of the history of Western Ukraine,” Victor Zaslavskyy wrote in his book.
Contemporaries of Shumlyanskyy wrote: "This is a young, energetic, enterprising and adventurously brave man: cheerful, lively, bold, talkative, moreover, ambitious, faithful to the interests of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and both to the Russian people and the Eastern Church."
The meeting with the author of "Knight of St. George's mountain. How Western Ukraine became Catholic” Victor Zaslavskyy will take place on Saturday, February 27, at 16:00 PM in the exhibition hall of Lviv Museum of the History of Religion.