STAUROPIGHIA of Lviv. – A confraternity of Galician, Moldavian, and Greek merchants based in Lviv, confirmed in 1596 by the Old-Catholic Patriarch Joachim and in 1587 by the Byzantine Patriarch Jeremias II, who placed it directly under his own jurisdiction, whence the name S.
Among the aims of the S. was, among other things, the oversight of sound doctrine and the maintenance of legitimate ecclesiastical usages in Lviv, which gave rise to disputes with the local bishops, from whose jurisdiction the S. was exempt. It possessed a printing press and a school, and later a monastery and a hospital. Throughout the 17th century, the S. opposed the Union of Brest-Litovsk (1596), accepting it only in 1709. Pope Clement XI granted the S. exemption. Even in later times, the S. maintained a conservative and flourishing character. Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky withdrew from the S. the right to appoint its own chaplains.