Lviv (Lwów, Lemberg), Diocese of

LVIV (Lwów, Lemberg), Diocese of. - Seat of three archbishops-metropolitans, of the Latins, of the Armenians, of the Ruthenians.

I. LVIV OF THE LATINS

The archbishopric-metropolis of the Latins, with its seat at Halicz, was founded by the bull of Gregory XI Debitum pastoralis officii, of 13 Feb. 1375, with the suffragan dioceses of Przemyśl (Premislia), Łuck (Luceria), Chelm (Chelm), Kamieniec of Podolia (here the bishopric was founded in 1375 with the first bishop Wilhelm, d. in 1375), Kijów (Kiev), where the first bishop was the aforementioned abbot of Opatow Gerard in 1234-41 (the diocese was suppressed in 1795 after the dismemberment of Poland), Ceret or Seret, founded in 1370 with the first bishop Andrzej, later bishop of Wilna.

The current suffragan dioceses are Przemyśl and Łuck. The first archbishop (of Halicz) was Maciej, d. in 1377. In 1412-14 the episcopal see was transferred to Lwów. Area: 2215 sq km. (nine tenths of the archdiocese are currently under Soviet occupation). The following statistics refer to 1939. Catholics: 81,000 (987,800). Parishes: 29 (416). Priests incardinated in the diocese: 57 (795). Regular priests: 4 (279). Religious women: 38. Major seminary. In 1939 there were 69 male religious houses, with 543 members; 292 female, with 2470 members. Institutions of instruction and education: 6 male, with 630 pupils; 16 female, with 1835 pupils. Institutions of charity, assistance and care: 138, with 1532 inmates. Diocesan priests who perished during the Soviet and German occupation: 81, slaughtered or dead in prison or in concentration camps.

Eminent archbishops: Bl. Jakób Strepa, d. in 1411, buried in the Cathedral, cult confirmed on 11 Sept. 1790; Mikołaj Traba (1358-1422), later first primate of Poland; Jan Rzeszowski, first archbishop of Lwów, d. in 1436; Grzegorz z Sanoka, writer, d. in 1477; Jean Długosz (1415-80), historian; Wilczek h. Poraj, d. in 1540; Jan Dymitr Solikowski, d. in 1603; Mikołaj

Ignacy Wyżycki, d. in 1757; Wacław Hieronim Sierakowski (1699-1780); Łukasz Baraniecki, d. in 1858; Józef Twardowski (1864-1944), expelled by the Soviets.

Notable churches: the Cathedral Basilica, Gothic, of 1350-1479, with the miraculous image of Our Lady of Mercy; before this image in 1656 John Casimir, king of Poland, made a solemn vow electing Mary as queen of the Kingdom of Poland; near the Cathedral, the Boim chapel of 1610, Renaissance style; church and convent of the Dominicans of 1749-64, on the site of the old one of the 13th century; in the church a miraculous statuette of Mary; cloister and church of the Bernardine fathers of 1600-1609, in which are found the relics of Bl. Jan z Dukli (1411-84), cult confirmed on 21 Jan. 1733, patron of Poland and Lithuania, who in 1648 saved Lwów from the siege of the Cossacks and Tatars; church of the Jesuit fathers, of 1608; church of St. John the Baptist of the 13th-14th century.

The city of Lwów «antemurale totius christianitatis», «semper fidelis», founded in the 13th century, was rebuilt by Casimir the Great, king of Poland, in 1340. There is an academy (university), founded by John Casimir, king of Poland, in 1661. The Ossolineum national institute, founded in 1817, counted over 600,000 volumes and 7500 manuscripts; it possessed a museum, an art gallery, etc., largely devastated by the Soviets. At Halicz there is a Ruthenian cathedral of the 12th century and a church of the Franciscan fathers of 1596. At Tarnopol an ex-Dominican church of 1623 and a Ruthenian parish church with the miraculous image of the Madonna.

II. LVIV OF THE ARMENIANS

In the 11th and 16th centuries, colonies of Armenian refugees settled in Poland and were recognized by the local government as an ethnic minority. From as early as 1365, when Archbishop Gregory made the union with Rome, the Armenian archbishops of L. were the substitutes of the patriarchs of Etchmiadzin, and their jurisdiction also included the Armenians of Wallachia and Moldavia.

In 1625 the fugitive katholikos Melchisedek settled in L., and being Catholic he had his newly appointed bishops also make the Catholic profession of faith. The non-Catholic Armenians disapproved of this action and unleashed a persecution.

In 1632 Mikołaj Torossowicz, ordained by the katholikos Melchisedek, was appointed by Pope Urban VIII and recognized as archbishop of L. In 1652, after various negotiations, he succeeded in being recognized also by the katholikos Philip; and with this he was admitted as archbishop also by the non-Catholic Armenians.

Eminent archbishops: Humanian Wartan (d. 1715); Samuel Cyryll Stefanowicz (d. 1858); Józef Teodorowicz, writer (d. 1938). In 1939 the archdiocese counted: 8 parishes, 5000 Catholics; 19 diocesan priests. Under the Soviet occupation the Armenian Church was almost completely destroyed.

III. LVIV OF THE RUTHENIANS

It was founded in 1539 by the Polish king Sigismund. In 1595 its titular was one of the most stubborn opponents of the union with Rome, which he opposed even when it took place at Brest-Litovsk in 1596. Only in 1701 did the union of L. with the Holy See take place, through the work of the bishop Józef Szumlański, who had already secretly united with Rome in 1680.

(phot. Enc. Catt.)

In the 17th century L. became almost a patrimony of the Szeptyckyj family, from which three excellent bishops came. After L. became Austrian territory on the occasion of the first partition of Poland (1773) and the entire metropolis of the Uniates disappeared, Pope Pius VII erected in 1807 the new metropolis, L.-Halych, with its seat at L. Its titular therefore became the head of the entire cultural and religious life of the Ukrainians residing in Austria. Two of them were created cardinals, Micbat Lerwicki (d. 1858) and Sylwester Sembratowicz (d. 1898); Andrea Szeptyckyj (d. 1944) also acquired great fame. His successor Giuseppe Slipyj was sentenced in 1946 to 8 years of forced labor by the Soviets, who had become masters of the territory. At the same time the communist authorities brutally suppressed the union of the Catholics with the Holy See and installed in the see a dissident bishop under the obedience of the patriarchate of Moscow.

Alberto M. Ammann