John (Snegursky)

Born in the village of Berestyany (now Samborsky district, Lviv region). In 1800 he graduated from high school in Sambir.

He attended the science of theology at the Vienna seminary Barbareum , studied theology at the University of Vienna and the University of Lviv . He was ordained to the priesthood in 1808 by Bishop Levitsky involved in work for the benefit of the people, entering the educational society founded in 1816 .

After ascending the sovereign throne of 1818 , Snegursky founded the institute of clergy-teachers in Przemysl to counter the polonization of the Russian people through the Polish public school. Keeping his clergy in strict discipline, the bishop of Snegursky was at the same time condescending to him and did not treat him as rudely as Metropolitan Levitsky. He ordered the service to be carried out exactly according to the charter, to hold sermons and to teach the people the catechism .

Since music in the Latin church attracted Uniates, Snegursky decided in 1829 (on the advice of his chaplain and professor of theology, Joseph Levitsky ) to introduce musical singing into the service, and for this purpose he wrote out works by Dmitry Bortnyansky from St. Petersburg . Thus, Snegursky laid the foundation not only for church, but also for Russian music in Galicia in general. The first Galician-Russian musicians and composers left his school ^[1] .

Snegursky established in 1829 a printing house in Przemysl, which he presented to the Kryloshan Cathedral. Until the whole of Austro-Ugric Russia, until 1829 there was only one printing house of the Stavropigi Institute in Lviv . Since 1829, the Przemysl printing house began to publish primers, prayer books, catechisms, liturgics, treasures, and so on.

In order to educate himself as good priests, Snegursky tried with the government to transfer the seminarians of his diocese of the fourth year of theology from Lviv to Przemysl, for which he organized a seminary at his episcopal capital. Now the future priests of the diocese remained one year under his leadership. He insisted that they study the Church Slavonic language in the last year of their Semnar sciences and entrust the teaching of this subject to John Lavrovsky first, and then to Anthony Dobryansky . They first taught the grammar of Mrazovich , until Dobriansky in 1837 published his Grammar of Church Slavonic in Polish.

Snegursky supported the young Yakov Golovatsky , who was engaged in Russian literature, he was the first of the Uniate hierarchs to constantly use Russian speech and incline the priests to speak Russian in the church, which, however, met with resistance, because the priests were accustomed to the Polish language.

Snegursky represents with his personality, after Leo Sheptytsky and Peter Belyansky , the first most clear dawn in the Galician horizon. He excelled the former with national consciousness and the certainty of his goals, the practicality of his mind and self-sacrifice. He lived in the most difficult circumstances, because then Polonization weighed Galician Rus with a heavy burden and the government was opposed to any Russian movement. Despite this, Snegursky laid the foundation for the national revival of Galician Rus and already with him was visible Russian mental life.

• Svistun F. Carpathian Russia under the control of Austria
• Zhelekhovsky Yu. John Snegursky, his life and work in Galician Rus.
• Kelsiev V.I. Galichina and Moldova.