National Museum of Lviv renamed in honor of Sheptytsky (01/08/06)

National Museum of Lviv renamed in honor of Sheptytsky

LVIV - President Viktor Yushchenko recently issued a decree to name the National Museum of Lviv after its founder, Count Andrey Sheptytsky, former metropolitan of Halych.

A ceremony took place on December 15, 2005, to mark both the naming of the museum and its 100th anniversary. A jubilee exhibit opened on December 19, to commemorate the history of the museum, as well as many of its contributors and benefactors, foremost among them Metropolitan Sheptytsky.

The metropolitan, whose secular name was Roman Oleksander Sheptytsky, was born into a noble family on July 29, 1865, in Prylbychi, Yavoriv county, Halychyna. He was ordained in August 1892 and went on to earn a Ph.D. in law at the University of Krakow, and to complete his studies of theology and philosophy at the Jesuit seminary in Krakow.

He was a cultural and civic leader, and served as metropolitan of Halych, archbishop of Lviv and bishop of Kamianets-Podilskyi and, prior to that, as bishop of Stanyslaviv. He was also a member of the Galician Diet and the Austrian House of Lords and the Imperial Ministerial Council.

A defender of the Ukrainian nation and his Church, he was arrested by Russian and Polish authorities at various times during and after the first world war. During World War II he advocated an independent Ukrainian state and spoke out against the Nazis' treatment of the people of Ukraine and, in particular, against their persecution and extermination of the Jews. He took a fearless stand also against the Soviet regime.

After his death in 1944, a popular movement for Sheptytsky's beatification arose. He was recognized in 1968 by Pope Paul VI as a Servant of God. Ukrainian Catholic leaders are continuing their efforts to have him recognized as a saint.

The National Museum of Lviv was originally founded by Sheptytsky in 1905 as a church museum on the grounds of St. George's Cathedral of the Lviv Metropolitanate. It acquired national museum status in 1908, after which it was legally named the Lviv Church Museum.

In 1909, with the blessings of the museum's curatorship, it was officially named after its founder and most valuable benefactor, Sheptytsky. However, the museum was transferred to the public domain of Ukraine shortly thereafter, in 1913.

Metropolitan Sheptytsky was a patron of the arts, as well as a very generous philanthropist; the museum's first artifacts were donated by him and his family. Among the items donated were rare manuscripts, ancient books, embroideries, icons, wood carvings and religious artifacts recovered from Basilian monasteries throughout Ukraine. During the first 25 years of the museum's operation, Sheptytsky donated approximately $111,000 and over 10,000 additional historical artifacts from his personal collection.

Sheptytsky was the museum's most generous benefactor, but not the only one. Over the years, the museum received donations from significant persons like historian Anton Petrushevych, Prof. Volodymyr Shukhevych and the Prosvita Society.

A figure whose role in the museum's history was comparable to that of Sheptytsky's is its former director Ilarion Sventsitsky, who oversaw the museum's operation from 1905 to 1952. Sventsitsky significantly affected the museum's status during its first 50 years of existence; he successfully represented the museum at various art institutions and research centers throughout Europe.

In celebration of the museum's distinguished existence in Lviv, several special exhibits were prepared. Among them were "Echo of the Centuries: From the Lviv National Museum's Treasure Trove," "Ukrainian Art at the Turn of the 20th Century" and "Early Ukrainian Art of the late 15th-18th Centuries."

The museum continues to operate successfully today, despite a lack of funding, which once was much more prevalent. The curatorship hopes to see a surge of generous benefactors, as it is mostly the donations of artists and historians themselves upon which the museum's future is dependent.

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