Leo Sheptytsky

It comes from the Galitsky count kind of Sheptytsky ^[1] . Born in Przemysl on August 23, 1717; received his primary education in Lviv , in the papal college, then, taking the priesthood, studied theology at the Nazarene College in Rome and at Academia Ecclesiastica and improved in languages ​​and jurisprudence. Having studied secular and ecclesiastical law well, even in young years Sheptitsky received a Ph.D. in Rome, and upon returning to his homeland he entered the Order of Basilian , taking the name Leo. By the will of his uncle, Metropolitan Athanasius of Sheptytsky , he was appointed his confessor at the same time and remained in this position until 1743, when he was appointed archimandrite of the Melnitsky Uniate Monastery in Volyn in the possession of Sangushka. In this dignity, on March 9, 1748, Leo Sheptitsky, at the direct choice of the king, was appointed candidate for the Lviv episcopal department and on May 14, 1749, he was appointed bishop of Vladimir (Vladimir-Volynsky) Godebsky to the bishop of Lviv, Galitsky and Kamenetz-Podolsky.

Having taken over the administration of the diocese, Sheptytsky became an energetic champion of the rights and fundus of the Uniate Church; made some church reforms in the spirit of Catholicism; he tried to increase the level of education in the spiritual environment, appointing, among other things, only those who received a theological education as clergymen; he also worked on improving the material situation of the Uniate clergy; built an episcopal house in Lviv; Cared about the development of the Lviv Collegium. All these undertakings of Sheptytsky, especially his church reforms, were met with hostility by the Roman Catholic Church of Poland; Encouraged by the same papal nuncio, Bishop Leo entered into a long struggle with her, which ended only in 1757, mainly due to the compliance and kindness of Sheptytsky himself. Around this time, a road to high honors opened before him. In July 1762, the Lvov bishop was elected co-adjudicator of the Kiev Metropolitan Volodkovich, and in December of that year he was approved in this rank by Pope Clement XIII , and in the autumn of the following 1763 in St. Lvov Church St. Jura held a solemn oath of allegiance to the papal throne. Further elevation of Sheptytsky was greatly facilitated by his noble relatives; his brother, Roman Catholic, Kashtelyan Peremyshlsky (kinship with Roman Catholics was a prerequisite for receiving the rank of bishop of the Uniate or Orthodox Church of the Commonwealth), sat in the Senate and had access to the court of King Stanislav-Augustus . Thanks to him, Leo Sheptytsky often visited the court and, as a representative of the Russian Uniate Church in the Commonwealth , took part in coronation celebrations along with the Latin clergy.

In 1767 he was granted the Order of St. Stanislav . In the next 1768, the elderly Metropolitan Volodkovich handed over to him all the affairs of the management of the Kiev Metropolis, thus giving him the opportunity to expand his circle of activities, and now mainly aimed at elevating the union in the kingdom, with Sheptitsky now facing the strongest resistance from the Basilian order , claiming the exclusive right to occupy the highest ecclesiastical positions and the land possessions of the Uniate bishops. The struggle, which began back in the 60s, was waged very energetically from both sides; but neither the bishop nor the Basilians could provide sufficient grounds for their demands, and the king was obviously on the side of Sheptitsky. The political events that preceded the first partition of Poland , and then the transition of Galicia to Austria during the first partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, suspended this struggle.

In 1775, the king granted the Order of the White Eagle to Sheptytsky, and on February 2, 1778, after the death of Volodkovich, his coadjutor himself entered the Kiev Metropolitanate, having received, according to custom, the dignity of archimandrite Pechersky (although Kiev and the Kiev Pechersky Monastery with 1686 were under the rule of the Moscow state , and the activities of the Uniate Church there was banned). The very appointment of Sheptytsky to the Kiev Metropolitanate took place in Warsaw . Departing from here in January next 1779 to Ukraine for a personal inspection of his metropolis, Sheptytsky stopped at the feast of St. Trinity in the city of Radomyshl and here he suddenly died on the night of May 24-25, 1779.

• Encyklopedyja Powszechna, Warsaw, 1867, v. 24, pp. 623-627.
• Gazeta Warszawska, 1776, No. 51.
• Bantysh-Kamensky, “Historical news of the union that arose in Poland”.
• Krachkovsky, "Essays on the Uniate Church."