View source for Andrey Sheptytsky

{{Short description|Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (1865–1944)}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2022}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| type = archbishop
| honorific-prefix = 
| name = Andrey Sheptytsky
| image = Andrzej Szeptycki (a).jpg
| caption = Sheptytsky in 1921
| church = [[Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church]]
| archbishop_of = [[Ukrainian Catholic Major Archeparchy of Kyiv–Galicia#List of primates|Metropolitan of Galicia, Archbishop of Lviv (Lemberg)]]
| ordination = 22 August 1892
| consecration = 17 September 1899
| consecrated_by = Metropolitan Archbishop [[Julian Sas-Kuilovsky]]
| appointed = 12 December 1900
| enthroned = 17 January 1901
| ended = 1 November 1944
| predecessor = Metropolitan Archbishop [[Julian Sas-Kuilovsky]]
| successor = Cardinal [[Josyf Slipyj]]
| birth_name = Roman Aleksander Maria Sheptytsky
| birth_date = 29 July 1865
| birth_place = [[Prylbychi]], [[Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria|Galicia]], [[Austrian Empire]]
| death_date = {{BirthDeathAge||1865|7|29|1944|11|1}}
| death_place = [[Lviv]], [[Ukrainian SSR]], [[Soviet Union]]
| buried = [[St. George's Cathedral, Lviv|St. George's Cathedral]],<br/>[[Lviv]], Ukraine
| nationality = [[Ukrainian people|Ukrainian]]
| resting_place_coordinates = {{coord|49|50|19.48|N|24|0|46.19|E|type:landmark_region:UA_scale:1000}}
| venerated = 
| saint_title = 
| feast_day = 
| coat_of_arms = Herb Szeptycki.svg
| honorific_prefix = [[Venerable]]
| honorific_suffix = [[Order of Saint Basil the Great|OSBM]]
| ordained_by = [[Yulian Pelesh]]
}}
{{Quote box
 |quote = I am Ukrainian from my grandfather, great-grandfather. And our church and our holy ritual I love with all my heart devoting to the Lord's affair my whole life. So I know that in this regard I could not be foreign to people who have given their heart and soul for the same cause.
 |author = Andrey Sheptytsky
 |source = ''Pastoral letters'', 2 August 1899.<ref>Hakh, I. ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20170108060232/http://zbruc.eu/node/39730 Great descendant of the old family (Великий нащадок давнього роду)]''. {{Ill|Zbruch (newspaper)|uk|Збруч (газета)}}. 31 July 2015</ref>
 |width = 25%
 |align = right
}}

'''Andrey Sheptytsky''', [[Order of Saint Basil the Great|OSBM]] ({{Langx|pl|Andrzej Szeptycki}}; {{langx|uk|Андрей  Шептицький |translit=Andrey Sheptytsky}}; 29 July 1865 – 1 November 1944) was the [[Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church|Ukrainian Greek Catholic]] [[Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Lviv|Metropolitan of Galicia and Archbishop of Lviv]] from 1901 until his death in 1944.<ref>{{Cite web|url= http://incognita.day.kyiv.ua/mitropolit-andrej-shepticzkij.html|title= Митрополит Андрей Шептицький - Україна Incognita|website= incognita.day.kyiv.ua|access-date= 2020-04-09|archive-date= 2020-04-07|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200407080105/http://incognita.day.kyiv.ua/mitropolit-andrej-shepticzkij.html|url-status= dead}}</ref> His tenure in office spanned two [[world war]]s and six political regimes: [[Austria-Hungary|Austrian]], [[Ukrainian People's Republic|Ukrainian]], [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Soviet]], [[Poland|Polish]], [[Nazi Germany|Nazi German]], and again [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Soviet]].

According to the church historian [[Jaroslav Pelikan]], "Arguably, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky was the most influential figure&nbsp;...in the entire history of the Ukrainian Church in the twentieth century".<ref>{{cite book | last= Pelikan | first= Jaroslav | title= Confessor Between East and West | location= Grand Rapids | publisher= William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company | year= 1990 | isbn=0-8028-3672-0 | url-access=registration | url= https://archive.org/details/confessorbetween0000peli }}</ref> He had a major role in raising Ukrainian national consciousness in modern-day [[western Ukraine]] and expanded the Ukrainian Catholic Church. He defended the interests of Ukrainians to the [[House of Lords (Austria)|Austro-Hungarian House of Lords]] and Emperor [[Franz Joseph I of Austria|Franz Joseph]], established schools and a hospital society, and founded a seminary and the order of the [[Ukrainian Studite Monks]]. Sheptytsky also facilitated the appointment of the Ukrainian Catholic hierarchy for Ukrainian immigrants in Canada and the United States. He was a member of the [[Ukrainian National Council|National Council]] of the [[Western Ukrainian People's Republic]], and was briefly detained after [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]] became part of Poland in the [[aftermath of World War I]]. He also defended the Ukrainian Orthodox from persecution by the Polish government.<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last1=Katchanovski |editor-first1=Ivan |editor-last2=Kohut |editor-first2=Zenon E. |editor-last3=Nebesio |editor-first3=Bohdan Y. |editor-last4=Yurkevich |editor-first4=Myroslav |title=Historical Dictionary of Ukraine |year=2013 |publisher=The Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-7847-1 |pages=552–554 }}</ref> In addition, he became the main sponsor of the nascent [[Russian Greek Catholic Church]] in 1907, with the approval of [[Pope Pius X]], and remained responsible for the Russian Catholic hierarchy on behalf of the [[Holy See]] until shortly before his death.<ref name="Ecerkva">{{Cite web |last=Parfentyev |first=Pavel |title=Слуга Божий Митрополит Андрей Шептицкий и русский Экзархат католиков славяно-византийской традиции |trans-title=Servant of God Andrey Sheptytsky and the Russian Exarchate of Catholics of the Slavic-Byzantine tradition |date=2007 |language=ru |access-date=9 February 2025 |work=Ecerkva.com |url=https://ecerkva.com/andrey-sheptytsky/37-2017-06-23-00-39-05 }}</ref>

Several locations in Ukraine have been named after him. The [[Lviv National Museum]], founded by Sheptytsky in 1905, now bears his name. The Information-Resource Center of the [[Ukrainian Catholic University]] that was opened in September 2017 also bears his name {{emdash}} The Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Center.<ref>{{Cite web|url= https://center.ucu.edu.ua/en/about-the-center/|title= About the Center|date= 2018-05-11|website= UKU Center|language=uk|access-date=2019-08-30}}
</ref>

==Life==

=== Early life and education ===
He was born as [[Count]] '''Roman Aleksander Maria Szeptycki''' in [[Prylbychi]], a village 40&nbsp;km west/northwest of [[Lviv]], in the [[Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria]], then a [[Cisleithania|crownland]] of the [[Austrian Empire]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Nowak |first=Magdalena |title=Roman Aleksander (w zakonie Andrzej) Szeptycki (Szeptyc'kyj) |url=http://www.ipsb.nina.gov.pl/a/biografia/roman-aleksander-w-zakonie-andrzej-szeptycki-szeptyckyj |access-date=2023-08-08 |website=www.ipsb.nina.gov.pl |language=pl}}</ref> His parents were {{Ill|Jan Kanty Szeptycki|pl}} and [[Zofia Szeptycka|Zofia née Fredro]].<ref name=":0" />

The [[Szeptycki family]] descends from the [[Ruthenian nobility]], but in the 18th century had [[Polonization|become Polish-speaking]] and [[Catholic Church|Catholic]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}} The maternal Fredro family was descended from the [[Polish nobility]] and, through his mother, the future [[Metropolitan Bishop]] was the grandson of [[Romanticism in Poland|Polish Romantic]] poet [[Aleksander Fredro]]. The Szeptycki family produced a number of bishops of both Catholic rites, most notably in the 18th century. Greek Catholic Bishops of Lviv and Metropolitans of Kiev were: [[Athanasius Szeptycki|Athanasius]] and [[Leo Szeptycki|Leo]], {{Ill|Barlaam Bazyli Szeptycki|lt=Barlaam Bazyli|pl|Barlaam Bazyli Szeptycki}} was also bishop of Lviv. {{Ill|Atanazy Andrzej Szeptycki|lt=Atanazy Andrzej|pl|Atanazy Andrzej Szeptycki}} was a Greek Catholic bishop of Przemyśl and Nikifor was archimanrite of Lavriv. The Latin Catholic [[Bishop of Płock]] was {{Ill|Hieronim Antoni Szeptycki|pl}}, while his nephew Marcin was elected to the position, but did not take it. One of his brothers, [[Klymentiy Sheptytsky]], M.S.U., became a [[Ukrainian Studite Monks|Studite monk]], and another, [[Stanisław Szeptycki]], became a General in the [[Polish Army]]. He was 2 m 10&nbsp;cm (6&nbsp;ft. 10 in.) tall.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

Sheptytsky was baptized in the [[Roman Rite|Roman rite]] at the parish church in Bruchnal (today [[Ternovytsia]]).<ref name=":0" /> Sheptytsky received his education first at home and then in Lviv and later in [[Kraków]].<ref name=":0" /> His confessor was Jesuit {{Ill|Henry Nostitz-Jackowski|pl}}, who was carrying out the reform of the [[Greek Catholic Church|Greek Catholic]] [[Basilian monks|Basilian Order]] in [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]]. Probably under his influence, Sheptyskiy made the decision to join the Basilians, which, however, provoked opposition from his father.<ref name=":0" /> Hence in 1883 he went to serve in the [[Austro-Hungarian Army]] but after a few months he fell sick and was forced to abandon it.<ref name=":0" />

Instead, he went to study law in [[Breslau]]. There he was a member of the Literary and Slavic Society run by {{Ill|Władysław Nehring|pl}}, as well as the Upper Silesian Society and the Polish Academicians' Reading Room.<ref name=":0" /> With his brother Alexander, he founded the Polish-Catholic Student Theological Society "Societas Hosiana" in 1884.<ref name=":0" /> From the 1885/6 academic year, he continued his studies at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, at which time he changed his nationality declaration from "Polish" to "Ruthenian".<ref name=":0" /> In April and May 1886 he visited Rome. From November to December 1887 he stayed in Kyiv and then in Moscow.<ref name=":0" /> Together with mother and brother Leone he was granted an audience on March 24, 1888, with [[Pope Leo XIII]] at the [[Vatican City|Vatican]]. Pope blessed his intention to join Basilians.<ref name=":0" /> On May 19, 1888 he received doctorate.<ref name=":0" />

According to his biographer Fr. Cyril Korolevsky, Sheptytsky's lifelong dream of creating the [[Russian Greek Catholic Church]] as a means of reuniting the [[Russian people]] with the [[Holy See]] goes back at least to his first trip to Russia in 1887. Afterwards, Sheptytsky "wrote some reflections" between October and November 1887, and expressed his belief, "that the [[East–West Schism|Great Schism]], which became definitive in Russia in the fifteenth century, was a bad tree, and it was useless to keep cutting the branches without uprooting the trunk itself, because the branches would always grow back."<ref>Cyril Korolevsky (1993), ''Metropolitan Andrew (1865-1944)'', translated and revised by Serge Keleher. Eastern Christian Publications, [[Fairfax, Virginia]]. Page 249.</ref>

=== Religious and political life ===
Sheptytsky became a [[Novitiate|novice]] at the [[Order of Saint Basil the Great|Basilian]] [[monastery]] in [[Dobromyl]] on June 2, 1888. He took the name, Andrew, after the younger brother of [[Saint Peter]], [[Andrew the Apostle]], considered the founder of the Byzantine Church and also specifically of the Ukrainian Church.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}} Beginning in 1889, he studied Ukrainian there under {{Ill|Wojciech Baudiss|pl}}.<ref name=":0" /> He then studied at the {{Ill|Jesuit College in Kraków|pl|Kolegium jezuitów w Krakowie (ul. M. Kopernika)}}, passing the exam in 1894.<ref name=":0" /> On September 3, 1892 he was ordained a priest in [[Przemyśl]].<ref name=":0" /> He was made [[hegumen]] of the [[Monastery and church of St. Onuphrius, Lviv|Monastery of St Onuphrius in Lviv]] in 1896. In 1898, he took up the post of professor of moral and dogmatic theology at the Basilian seminary in Krystynopol. There he founded the [[Ukrainian Studite Monks|Studite Order]], based on the rule of [[St. Theodore the Studite]].<ref name=":0" />
[[File:Szeptycki plaque Krakow.jpg|thumb|left|Memorial plaque in Kraków, marking the place where Szeptycki lived]]
In 1899, following the death of [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|Cardinal]] [[Sylwester Sembratowicz]], Sheptytsky was nominated by [[Emperor]] [[Franz Joseph]] to fill the vacant position of Greek Catholic Bishop of Stanyslaviv<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://egypt.mfa.gov.ua/en/news/38256-29-lipnya150-richchya-vid-dnya-narodzhennya-andreja-shepticykogo-predstojatelya-ukrajinsykoji-greko-katolicykoji-cerkvi|title=Єгипет - July 29 – 150 anniversary of the birth of Andrey Sheptytsky, Metropolitan of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church|last=Kitsoft|website=egypt.mfa.gov.ua|language=en|access-date=2020-04-09}}</ref> (now [[Ivano-Frankivsk]]), and [[Pope Leo XIII]] concurred. Thus he was [[consecration|consecrated]] as bishop in Lviv on 17 September 1899 by Metropolitan [[Julian Sas-Kuilovsky]] assisted by Bishop Chekhovych and Bishop Weber, the Latin-Rite auxiliary of Lviv.<ref name="AE">{{cite web |url=http://annalesecclesiaeucrainae.blogspot.com/2008/04/reluctant-to-accept-and-reluctant-to-be.html |title=The Reluctant-to-Accept and the Reluctantly-Accepted Bishop |date=10 April 2008 |author=Athanasius D. McVay |work=Annales Ecclesiae Ucrainae |access-date=28 March 2011}}</ref> On February 5 of that year, he received a doctorate in theological sciences in Rome, nostrified at the Faculty of Theology of the Jagiellonian University.<ref name=":0" /> A year later, following the death of [[Julian Sas-Kuilovsky]], Sheptytsky was appointed, at the age of thirty-six, Metropolitan of Halych, Archbishop of Lviv and Bishop of Kamenets-Podolsk; he was enthroned on 17 January 1901.<ref name="CH">{{Catholic-hierarchy|bishop|bszep|Archbishop Andrij Aleksander Szeptycki (Sheptytsky), O.S.B.M.|23 January 2015}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> From February 1901, he sat with the [[House of Lords (Austria)|House of Lords]] of the [[Imperial Council (Austria)|Imperial Council]] in Vienna with the title of secret counselor. He also became deputy speaker of the [[Galician Diet]], a position he held until 1912.<ref name=":0" />

He was active in promoting the revival and expansion of the [[Eastern Catholic Churches]] in the territory of Russian Empire, visiting incognito that country several times and secretly ordaining bishops and priests there. He also took an active part in the [[Velehrad]] congresses. He also strove for the revival of the [[Belarusian Greek Catholic Church]], and to this end contacted important leaders of the movement for [[Belarusian nationalism]], including [[Ivan Luckievič|Ivan Lutskevich]].<ref name=":0" />

Sheptytsky supported the Ukrainian national movement, founding a Greek Catholic seminary in Stanislaviv, supported the opening of a Ukrainian gymnasium there, and a Ukrainian university and hospital in Lviv.<ref name=":0" /> He sponsored an exhibition of Ukrainian artists in Lviv in 1905, led a Ukrainian pilgrimage to Palestine, and led a Ukrainian delegation to Emperor [[Franz Joseph I of Austria|Franz Joseph]] seeking reform of the electoral law.<ref name=":0" /> At the same time, he sought to prevent Polish-Ukrainian nationalist conflicts in Galicia. In 1904, he issued a pastoral letter to Polish Greek Catholics, urging them to love their own nation and warning against harming others under the guise of patriotism.<ref name=":0" /> In 1908, he harshly condemned the assassination of Galician governor [[Andrzej Kazimierz Potocki]] by Ukrainian student {{Ill|Myroslav Sichinskyi|uk|Січинський Мирослав Миколайович}}.<ref name=":0" />

Sheptytsky visited North America in 1910 where he met with Ukrainian Greek Catholic [[Ukrainian Americans|immigrant communities]] in the [[Religion in the United States|United States]];<ref>{{Cite web |title=More Growing Pains |url=https://stcyrils.weconnect.com/M |access-date=2024-08-18 |website=Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church |language=en}}</ref> attended the twenty-first [[International Eucharistic Congress]] in [[Montreal]]; toured [[Ukrainian Canadians#Settlement – first wave (1891–1914)|Ukrainian communities]] in [[Post-Confederation Canada (1867–1914)|Canada]]; and invited the [[Redemptorist]] fathers ministering in the Byzantine rite to come to Ukraine.

=== World War I ===
[[File:A sheptytskyj.jpg|thumb|right|Sheptytsky 1917]]
After the outbreak of [[World War I]], Sheptytsky proposed eventual creation of the Ukrainian state out of the Russian territories, he also appealed believers to stay loyal to the emperor of Austria.<ref name=":0" /> When Russians entered Lviv Sheptytsky was arrested on September 18, 1914 and sent to Kyiv. While being there he tried to recreate union by consecrating Yosif Botsyan as bishop of Lutsk.<ref name=":0" /> For this activity, he was deported to [[Nizhny Novgorod]], then [[Kursk]], after that to [[monastery of Saint Euthymius]] in [[Suzdal]] and finally to [[Yaroslavl|Yaroslav]].<ref name=zbruc11116/><ref name=":0" /> He was released in 1918 and returned to Lviv from the Russian Empire. [[Bolsheviks]] destroyed his parents' rural house in Prylbychi where he was born.<ref name=zbruc11116>Senkivska, N. [https://web.archive.org/web/20170108134316/http://zbruc.eu/node/58161 Metropolitan Andrei: life story in retro-photographs (Митрополит Андрей: життєпис у ретро-світлинах.)]. ''Zbruc''. 1 November 2016</ref> During the destruction the family archives were lost.<ref name=zbruc11116/> Sheptytsky again visited the United States in 1920.<ref>{{Cite web |title=More Growing Pains |url=https://stcyrils.weconnect.com/M |access-date=2024-08-18 |website=Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church |language=en}}</ref>

=== World War II ===
After the [[German invasion of Poland]], Sheptytsky issued a pastoral letter appealing not to succumb to propaganda. On October 9, 1939, after the Soviets occupied eastern Poland, without the consent of the Holy See, he created a new territorial division of the Greek Catholic Church on the territory of the USSR.<ref name=":0" /> During the Soviet occupation, he tried to protect the independence of the Church from control by the Soviet authorities. He protested the atheization of youth, organized synods and secretly ordained bishops. He also contacted the [[Polish Underground State|Polish underground]] ([[ZWZ]]) to ease Polish-Ukrainian relations.<ref name=":0" />

Sheptytsky welcomed the [[Wehrmacht]] entering Lviv and supported the [[OUN-B]]'s [[Declaration of Ukrainian Independence, 1941|declaration of Ukrainian independence]] on June 30, 1941. After the dissolution of [[Yaroslav Stetsko]]'s government, he became honorary chairman of the Ukrainian Council of Seniors. On July 22, 1941, in a letter to [[Joachim von Ribbentrop]], Germany's foreign minister, he protested against the annexation of [[Eastern Galicia]] to the [[General Government]].<ref name=":0" /> In August 1941, he assumed the protectorate of the newly established Ukrainian Red Cross. Gradually, he developed a dislike for the [[Nazi Party]], being disgusted by their policies toward the civilian population. In June 1942, he promulgated the document ''The Ideal of Our National Life'', in which he presented a vision of an independent, united Ukraine united by a single Church in union with the [[Holy See]].<ref name=":0" /> In February 1942, he signed a letter to [[Adolf Hitler]] issued by the [[OUN-M]] opposing German policies and demanding the establishment of an independent Ukraine. Nevertheless, in the summer of 1943, Sheptytsky appointed chaplains for the forming Ukrainian [[SS-Galizien]] division.<ref name=":0" />

This was because Sheptytsky initially supported the [[14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician)]], even blessing new recruits.<ref>Serbyn p.65</ref> According to his close friend [[Rabbi]] [[David Kahane]], however, Sheptytsky had believed that the Division would be used to fight [[Stalinism]] and personally expressed disgust in a conversation with the Rabbi about the Division's subsequent role as perpetrators of the [[Holocaust in Ukraine]].

Also in February 1942, Sheptytsky sent a letter to Heinrich Himmler protesting [[the Holocaust in Ukraine]].<ref name=":0" /> During [[World War II]], he saved at least 150-200 Jews, mainly children, by hiding them in Greek Catholic orphanages, monasteries, and convents, where they were trained in how to pass as Greek Catholics. He collaborated in this work with the superiors of the Studite orders, Sister Josefa (Helena Witter) and his brother [[Klymentiy Sheptytsky]].<ref>''Holocaust Survivor Speaks at UCU, Praises Sheptytskys, Ukrainian Catholic University News''</ref><ref name=":0" /> At his archbishop's residence in Lviv, he gave shelter to Kurt Lewin, the son of Jecheskiel Lewin, the chief rabbi of the Lviv progressive synagogue.<ref name=":0" />

In August 1942, Sheptytsky sent a letter to Pius XII in which he reported on the brutal Nazi policies and unequivocally condemned the murder of Jews, and also admitted that his original assessment of the Germans' attitude toward Ukrainians was wrong.<ref name=":0" /> He also issued on November 21, 1942, the pastoral letter, "Thou Shalt Not Kill",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ji.lviv.ua/n28texts/ne-ubyj.htm|title=Не убий!|access-date=22 December 2015}}</ref> to protest [[The Holocaust|Nazi atrocities]]. 

According to historian [[Ronald Rychlak]], "A [[German Foreign Office]] agent named 'Frederic' was sent in a tour through various Nazi-occupied and satellite countries during the war. He wrote in his confidential report to the German Foreign Office on September 19, 1943, that Metropolitan Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky, of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, remained adamant in saying that the killing of Jews was an inadmissible act. 'Frederic' went on to comment that Sheptytsky made the same statements and used the same phrasing as the French, Belgian, and Dutch bishops, as if they were all receiving instructions from [[Holy See|the Vatican]]."<ref> Ronald J. Rychlak (2010), ''Hitler, the War and the Pope'', Revised and Expanded, [[Our Sunday Visitor]], page 328.</ref>

One of the rabbis whose life was saved by Metropolitan Sheptytsky, [[David Kahane]], stated: "Andrew Sheptytsky deserves the undying gratitude of the Jews and the honorific title 'Prince of the Righteous'".<ref>[http://www.exlibris.org.ua/mirchuk/r02.html Petro Mirchuk: The Matter of the Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Andrij Sheptytsky]</ref> In addition, among the Jews who, thanks to Sheptytsky's help, survived the war were [[Lili Pohlmann]] and her mother, [[Adam Daniel Rotfeld]] (later Poland's foreign minister), two sons of the [[chief rabbi]] of [[Katowice]] (including the prominent cardiac surgeon Leon Chameides).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Historia pomocy - Rodzina Szeptyckich {{!}} Polscy Sprawiedliwi |url=https://sprawiedliwi.org.pl/pl/historie-pomocy/historia-pomocy-rodzina-szeptyckich |access-date=2023-08-10 |website=sprawiedliwi.org.pl}}</ref>

Sheptytsky maintained contacts with the Polish underground and tried to mediate in the Polish-Ukrainian conflict. In the autumn of 1941, he met with [[Jerzy Braun (writer)|Jerzy Braun]], an envoy of [[Government Delegate for Poland]] [[Cyryl Ratajski]] and General [[Stefan Rowecki]], Commander-in-Chief of the ZWZ, to whom he made a proposal to delegate two Ukrainian representatives to the National Council in London.<ref name=":0" /> Sheptytsky was aware of the ongoing [[Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia|genocide of the Polish population]] organized by the forces of OUN-B and the UPA since the summer of 1943. He did not condemn it outright, but in a pastoral letter of August 10, 1943, he called for saving the lives of those in danger, and in another of August 31, he urged both sides to stop fighting. In early 1944, he condemned the killings and their perpetrators, regardless of their motives. In a "word for Easter" dated April 16, 1944, he called for harmony between neighbors.<ref name=":0" />

During this period he secretly consecrated [[Josyf Slipyj]] as his successor. Sheptytsky died in 1944 and is buried in [[St. George's Cathedral, Lviv|St. George's Cathedral]] in Lviv. In 1958 the cause for his [[canonization]] was begun, but stalled at the behest of Cardinal [[Stefan Wyszynski]]. [[Pope Francis]] approved his life as being one of heroic virtue on 16 July 2015, thus proclaiming him to be [[Venerable]].

== Views ==
Sheptytsky in the early years of his episcopacy expressed strong support for a celibate Eastern Catholic clergy. Yet he said to have changed his mind after years in Imperial Russian prisons where he encountered the faithfulness of married Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox priests and their wives and families. After this, he fought [[Latin Church|Latin Catholic]] leaders who attempted to require clerical celibacy among Eastern Catholic priests.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.acrod.org/news/releases/rome-conference|title=American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of the USA – Mandated Celibacy Among US Eastern Catholic Priests Theme of Seminar in Rome|access-date=22 December 2015}}</ref>

Sheptytsky was also a patron of artists, students, including many Orthodox Christians, and a pioneer of [[ecumenism]]{{emdash}}he also opposed the [[Second Polish Republic]] policies of [[linguistic imperialism]], coercive [[Polonisation]], and the [[forced conversion]] of Greek Catholic and Orthodox Ukrainians into [[Latin Church|Latin Rite]] Catholics.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100826074211/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,883791,00.html Cuius Regio], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', 24 October 1938</ref> He strove for reconciliation between ethnic groups and wrote frequently on social issues and spirituality. He also founded the Studite and Ukrainian [[Redemptorist]] orders, a hospital, the [[National Museum of Lviv|National Museum]], and the Theological Academy. He actively supported various Ukrainian organizations such as the [[Prosvita]] and in particular, the [[Plast]] Ukrainian Scouting Organization, and donated a campsite in the [[Carpathian Mountains]] called ''Sokil'' and became the patron saint of the Plast fraternity [[Orden Khrestonostsiv]].

== Commemoration ==
[[File:Stamps of Ukraine, 2015-17.jpg|thumb|A 2015 Ukrainian stamp depicting Sheptytsky]]
Jews who were saved thanks to actions of Andrey Sheptytsky have lobbied [[Yad Vashem]] for years to have him named [[Righteous Among the Nations]], just as his brother [[Klymentiy Sheptytsky]] had been, but so far Yad Vashem has not done so, mostly due to concerns with his initial belief that German invaders would be better for Ukraine than the [[Soviet Union]] had been.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/international-news/righteous-gentile-or-nazi-supporter |title=The Jewish Week: Righteous Gentile Or Nazi Supporter? Wartime leader of Ukrainian church sheltered many Jews, but the decades-long campaign has not brought Yad Vashem's highest honor. 04/09/12 By Steve Lipman |access-date=2016-09-11 |archive-date=2016-10-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011221711/http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/international-news/righteous-gentile-or-nazi-supporter |url-status=dead }}</ref> 

The first [[Statue of Andrey Sheptytsky, Lviv|monument to Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky]] was erected during his lifetime in 1932. It was destroyed by the Soviets in 1939. A new monument to Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky was inaugurated in Lviv on 29 July 2015, the 150th anniversary of his birth.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-07-30|title=Metropolitan Andriy Sheptytsky monument unveiled in Lviv|url=https://empr.media/culture/metropolitan-andriy-sheptytsky-monument-unveiled-in-lviv/|access-date=2020-08-12|website=EMPR: Russia - Ukraine war news, latest Ukraine updates|language=en-US}}</ref>

On 23 August 2024, the [[103rd Territorial Defense Brigade]] of the [[Armed Forces of Ukraine]] was named in his honor by a decree of President [[Zelenskyy]].<ref>[https://www.president.gov.ua/documents/5282024-51853 УКАЗ ПРЕЗИДЕНТА УКРАЇНИ №529/2024]</ref> On 19 September 2024, the [[Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine]] voted to rename the city of Chervonohrad to [[Sheptytskyi]] in his honor as a part of the [[Derussification in Ukraine|derussification campaign]].<ref>{{Cite web |title= |script-title=uk:Проект Постанови про перейменування окремих населених пунктів та районів |trans-title=Draft resolution on renaming individual populated places and raions |url=https://itd.rada.gov.ua/billInfo/Bills/Card/44913 |access-date=2024-09-19}}</ref>

==Images==
<gallery>
File:A. Szeptycki (retouched).jpg
File:Andriy sheptytskyi.jpg
File:Szeptycki_sm.jpg|Archbishop Andreas Szeptycki in Philadelphia, October 1910.
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[Yustyn Boiko]]
* [[Russian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Russia]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite journal |last=Himka |first=John-Paul |author-link=John-Paul Himka |date=2014 |title=Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and the Holocaust |url=https://www.academia.edu/5216498/Metropolitan_Andrey_Sheptytsky_and_the_Holocaust |journal=Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry |volume=26 |pages=337–359 |issn=0268-1056}}
* {{Cite book |last=Himka |first=John-Paul |title=State Secularism and Lived Religion in Soviet Russia and Ukraine |publisher=Woodrow Wilson Center Press with Oxford University |year=2012 |isbn=9780199937639 |editor-last=Wanner |editor-first=Catherine |chapter=Christianity and Radical Nationalism: Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky and the Bandera Movement |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/2489745/_Christianity_and_Radical_Nationalism_Metropolitan_Andrei_Sheptytsky_and_the_Bandera_Movement_}}
* {{Ill|Cyrille Korolevskij|fr}}, ''Metropolitan Andrew (1865–1944)'', Translated and Revised by Serge Keleher, Stauropegion, 1993, Lviv.
* {{Cite book |last=Krawchuk |first=Andrii |url=https://archive.org/details/christiansociale00kraw |title=Christian Social Ethics in Ukraine: The Legacy of Andrei Sheptytsky  . Ottawa, Ont: Sheptytsky Institute. |publisher=Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-1895937046 |location=Edmonton |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |last=Krawchuk |first=Christian |url=https://ruor.uottawa.ca/bitstreams/729d58b1-0eb5-474b-ac67-7e2bcce81b82/download |title=Social theory and Christian praxis in the writings of Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky, 1899-1944 |publisher=University of Ottawa |year=1990 |series=Dissertation Abstracts International |volume=52-11, Section: A |location=Ottawa |language=en |doi=10.20381/ruor-10871}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Krasnodemska |first=Iryna |date=2022 |title=The Role of Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytskyi in the Formation of Ukrainian National Identity |url=https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol42/iss9/5 |journal=Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe |volume=42 |issue=2 |doi=10.55221/2693-2148.2395}}
* {{Cite book |title=Morality and Reality: The Life and Times of Andrei Sheptyts'kyi |publisher=Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Study Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0920862681 |editor-last=Magocsi |editor-first=Paul Robert |editor-link=Paul Robert Magocsi}}
* Weiss Aharon, '''Andrei Sheptytsky''' in ''[[Encyclopedia of the Holocaust]]'' vol. 4, pp.&nbsp;1347–8
* {{Cite book |last=Wawrzonek |first=Michał |url=https://wydawnictwo.ignatianum.edu.pl/sites/wydawnictwo/files/publikacje_pdf/wawrzonek_excerpt_0.pdf |title=Memory, Politics and Legacy of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky |publisher=Ignatianum University Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-83-7614-588-4 |location=Krakow |language=en}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Wawrzonek |first=Michał |year=2021 |title=Politics of memory in Ukraine. A case study on the commemoration of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357249147_Politics_of_memory_in_Ukraine_A_case_study_on_the_commemoration_of_Metropolitan_Andrey_Sheptytsky |journal=Rocznik Instytutu Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej |volume=19 |issue=3 |pages=257-276 |doi=10.36874/RIESW.2021.3.11}}
* {{Cite |last=Wawrzonek |first=Michal |title=Andrey Sheptytsky’s Christian Patriotism |date=2010 |url=https://www.academia.edu/1788679/ANDREY_SHEPTYTSKY_S_christian_patriotism}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Zayachkivska |first=Nadiya |year=2016 |title=Andrey Sheptytsky – an Educator and a Caretaker of the Ukrainian Youth |url=https://journals.muni.cz/cphpjournal/article/view/15071/12143 |journal=Czech-Polish Historical and Pedagogical Journal |volume=8 |issue=1 |doi=10.5817/cphpj-2016-0010|url-access=subscription |doi-access=free }}
* The Ukrainian Division Halychyna by Dr. Roman Serbyn

==Films==
*{{YouTube|Kg3WStbYvfw|Yad Vashem Interviews a Jew Whom Sheptytsky Rescued During the Holocaust}}
*{{YouTube|sBhbFFo4lzQ|Recording of a Sermon by Metropolitan Sheptytsky}}
*{{YouTube|B6L973zwcg4|Saved by Sheptytsky – a documentary about some of 150 Holocaust survivors saved by Sheptytsky as kids}}

==External links==
* {{commons category-inline}}
* {{in lang|en}} [http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CS%5CH%5CSheptytskyAndrei.htm Andrei Sheptytsky] at the ''[[Encyclopedia of Ukraine]]''
* [http://www.sheptytskyinstitute.ca/ Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies]
* [http://www.ukemonde.com/sheptytskyi/index.html Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytskyi who was called the "apostle of Ukrainian truth"], ''Welcome to Ukraine''
*[https://training.ehri-project.eu/sites/training/files/Ukraine%20D-3%20Sheptytsky%20Do%20Not%20Kill.pdf] (Ukrainian, pdf of scanned images)
*[https://training.ehri-project.eu/sites/training/files/EHRI_Ua_D03_Sheptyts%27kyi_Nov_1942_0.pdf] (English, pdf)
*[https://ukrainianjewishencounter.org/en/?s=Andrei+Sheptytsky Articles about Andrey Sheptytsky] at the Ukrainien Jewish Encounter
*[http://blogs.nybooks.com/post/293948036/he-welcomed-the-nazis-and-saved-jews He Welcomed the Nazis and Saved Jews]
*[http://catholicism.org/sheptytsky.html Metropolitan Sheptytsky, Apostle of Church Unity]
*[http://tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/187584/pinchuk-sheptytsky Sheptytsky Award] ''Tablet'', Vladislav Davidzon

{{S-start}}
{{s-rel}}
{{s-bef|rows=2|before=[[Julian Sas-Kuilovsky]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Ukrainian Catholic Major Archeparchy of Kyiv–Galicia#List of primates|Metropolitans of Galicia and Archbishop of Lemberg]]<br>{{small|''(as [[locum tenens]] in 1900)''}}|years=1901-1944}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Josyf Slipyj]]|as=[[Locum tenens]] until 1963}}
{{s-break}}
{{s-ttl|title=Bishop of Stanislau|years=1899—1900}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Hryhoriy Khomyshyn]]}}
{{S-end}}
{{Holocaust Poland}}
{{Ordinaries of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church}}
{{Eastern Catholic bishops of Lviv eparchy}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheptytsky, Andrey}}
[[Category:1865 births]]
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[[Category:Andrey Sheptytsky]]