For the past two centuries, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has often been associated above all with Lviv and western Ukraine. There are important historical reasons for this. In much of central, eastern, and northern Ukraine, as well as in Belarus, the Eastern Catholic Church was eventually suppressed under the Russian Empire. In Galicia, however, the Church survived and developed, and Lviv became one of its principal centers.
Yet the Lviv Eparchy was actually one of the last eparchies of the Kyivan Metropolitanate to accept the Union with Rome.
When the Union of Brest was proclaimed in 1596, Bishop Hedeon Balaban of Lviv remained outside it. More than a century would pass before the Lviv Eparchy formally entered into communion with Rome.
The central figure in this process was Bishop Yosyf Shumliansky. He became Bishop of Lviv in 1676 and privately professed the Catholic faith the following year. For more than two decades, however, he worked gradually to prepare the clergy, monastics, brotherhoods, and faithful of his eparchy for communion with Rome.
The process was not immediate. At an eparchial council convened in 1694, Shumliansky encountered opposition, particularly among some clergy and monastics. Rather than forcing the issue, he continued his efforts to build support for unity.
Finally, on July 1, 1700, clergy and laity gathered at the Dormition Church in Lviv for an eparchial council. There the union of the Lviv Eparchy with Rome was solemnly proclaimed. According to historian Ihor Skochylias, one of the distinctive features of the Lviv Union was that it was achieved through a long process of preparation and persuasion rather than coercion.
The significance of the event became particularly visible in the centuries that followed.
Under Russian rule, the Greek Catholic Church was progressively suppressed in the territories of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth incorporated into the Russian Empire. In Galicia, which came under Habsburg rule, the Church survived and developed into one of the most important institutions of Ukrainian religious and public life.
During the nineteenth century, Greek Catholic clergy and Church institutions played a significant role in education, culture, social organization, and the development of modern Ukrainian cultural and national consciousness. Lviv consequently emerged as one of the principal centers of Ukrainian intellectual and national life.
In the twentieth century, this tradition found one of its most important representatives in Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, who served as Metropolitan of Halych and Archbishop of Lviv from 1901 until his death in 1944.
Sheptytsky became not only the head of the Greek Catholic Church but also an extraordinary spiritual, cultural, and social leader. His vision encompassed education, culture, charitable service, Christian unity, and the dignity of the human person. His leadership made him one of the most influential figures in modern Ukrainian Church history.
Today, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky is remembered as a prophetic figure whose vision continues to speak to Ukraine and the Church.
The entry of the Lviv Eparchy into communion with Rome in 1700 was therefore much more than a local ecclesiastical event. The Church that developed in Galicia would become an important force in preserving the Eastern Christian tradition and fostering the cultural and national identity that contributed to the emergence of modern, independent Ukraine.
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In the nineteenth century, the Greek Catholic Church in Galicia played an important role in Ukrainian education, culture, social life, and national development.
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