Stolen 'Sheptytsky chair' returned to Ukraine

This was reported by Radio Svoboda.

According to Valerii Marchenko, the senior pastor of the Christian Evangelical Church in Lviv, who brought the artifact to St. George's Cathedral, the recovery was possible through the efforts of the Ukrainian military.

“One day, a sergeant from Lviv called me and informed me the soldiers found the chair while liberating the territory. One of the restorers told them that in the late 80s and early 90s of the 20th century, Metropolitan Nikodym Rusnak of the Russian Orthodox Church, who was expelled from Lviv, was in Kharkiv and illegally took this artifact. After Metropolitan Nikodym's death, the chair ended up with a restorer. When offered 5 thousand euros, he refused to sell it, and later, when the Ukrainian military came, he expressed his wish to return the artifact,” says Pastor Valerii Marchenko.

The military transported the chair from Russia to Ukraine, and today the pastor handed it over to UGCC Metropolitan Ihor Vozniak in Lviv.

Currently, the artifact requires restoration.

The chair used to be in St. George's Cathedral or in the metropolitan chambers and was used by the then Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky.

The history of the furniture item that belonged to Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky requires further research. The chair is believed to date back to the eighteenth century and could have belonged to a representative of the Sheptytsky family, Metropolitan Athanasius Sheptytsky (1686-1746), who is buried in the crypt in St. George's Cathedral and laid the foundation stone for its construction.

Andrey Sheptytsky was a prominent Ukrainian religious and public figure, Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. He headed the Church in the first half of the twentieth century and actively supported the development of education, culture, and medicine.