Pastor of the 20th Century: Metropolitan Andriy, Still Unrecognized
OH, MY GOD! FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART I BOW TO YOUR BOUNDLESS GRANDEUR. I THANK YOU FOR THE GRACE AND TALENTS WITH WHICH YOU ENDOWED YOUR LOYAL SERVANT METROPOLITAN ANDRIY SHEPTYTSKY. I BEG YOU, GRANT ME GRACE IN YOUR PATERNAL MERCY, FOR WHICH I HUMBLY PRAY TO YOU. AMEN
(Conclusion. For the first part, see the previous issue)
Metropolitan Andriy was above all kindhearted, sensitive, and, if you will, a holy person. He had a calm and balanced spirit and never took offense or became angry when somebody failed to understand him or fathom the grandeur of his mind. He was not understood in his lifetime and was suspected of siding with the Polish side. Nor was he understood after his death: in Soviet times he was maligned and labeled as a Ukrainian “bourgeois nationalist.” He is still not understood for a number of reasons. Some may not venerate him as a saint out of a simple lack of information. After the metropolitan’s death in 1945, his brother, the Rev. Klymentiy, wrote to his family, “Word is spreading wide about the grace and miracles wrought thanks to the prayers of our Metropolitan Andriy.” He succeeded in raising an entire generation through the example of his life. During his lifetime he was called the “saint of St. George’s Hill,” and was trusted and loved. Yet after 1945 attempts were made to blot out the very memory of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Hosts of people were executed and exiled. The truth about the metropolitan, which was kept hidden for fifty years, must now be restored and disseminated.
The Soviets allowed a public funeral of the metropolitan because they had no other option. They wanted to arrest him as early as 1939 but stopped short of this, because by then he had a worldwide reputation. In 1941 the Germans took a dim view of his speeches. It took a lot of courage for him to write “Thou shalt not kill” during the German occupation. When the occupational authorities continued their murderous spree, the metropolitan wrote a letter condemning all killing. The Nazis did not dare become angry. Then the Soviets returned; no one knows what would have happened if the metropolitan had not died at the age of 79, exhausted by his life and illnesses. After his death the Soviets decided to “make a grand gesture” and allowed his funeral to take place. People were surprisingly brave: they came from the countryside and remote regions. A day or two later they disappeared. They knew what was in store for them, but they plucked up their courage and marched in a procession across the city.
The Rev. Klymentiy wrote, “Actually, today, at half past one in the afternoon, our dear metropolitan breathed his last. You see, I am so sad, I feel so empty inside, and I think you will be shocked, too. He was so kind, he had such a passionate, big heart — a unique person from any angle. What can we do about it? This was God’s will. Tomorrow the coffin will be taken to St. George’s Cathedral and laid to rest in the crypt on Sunday. He departed this righteous life, and I can imagine him being greeted in heaven by our kinfolk-mum, dad, Yury, and Leon. But it’s much harder for those who stay behind here on earth.”
Ms. Oksana Hayova says she began studying Metropolitan Andriy’s life in 1990. Before that, all documents concerning either the national liberation struggle or the history of the Ukrainian church were kept in secret archives. Once they were declassified, researchers were allowed access to them. Prior to this there was no unbiased literature or biography of Metropolitan Andriy Sheptytsky. Once Ms. Hayova started working on his letters, she never looked back, for she was recreating his life story through his letters, not books. Throughout her work she learned many important facts about his activity: “Metropolitan Andriy founded the National Museum in Lviv. The metropolitan founded a public infirmary, hospital, Ukrainian school, and severalorphanages.” On the 125th anniversary of Metropolitan Andriy’s birth (July 29), our church was still underground, and St. George’s Cathedral was in the hands of the Moscow Patriarchate. This injustice rankled Ms. Hayova: “This person had done so much, and no one was talking about it!” Then she hit upon the idea of staging an exhibition of documents and materials to mark the 125th anniversary of Metropolitan Andriy. This momentous and fascinating exhibition took place against all odds.
Ms. Hayova’s archive contains the bulk of papers on Metropolitan Andriy’s life, as well as documents on the history of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which the metropolitan researched and collected during his lifetime. Curiously, the premises of the Central State Historical Archive are next to St. Andrew’s Church, where the metropolitan’s parents, Count Ivan and Countess Sofia, were married. In this very church Metropolitan Andriy received his First Communion; his spirit may be soaring somewhere inside. The materials related to Metropolitan Andriy’s life are still being studied. Ms. Hayova recounts, “It is not easy to discover things. Sometimes I was scared to touch the items. First of all, these are private letters, and I felt somewhat awkward. But then I thought: they are not meant just to bring me pleasure. I must talk about them, and bring them to the people.”
Word has it that some photos picture the metropolitan wearing strange insignia, like a swastika. One should keep in mind, however, that very few people had access to his archive in Soviet times. As unbiased researchers were not in a position to check evidence, it was often falsified. Indeed, there are photos showing Ukrainian Scouts — by no means a Nazi organization — presenting him with a symbol of the sun. Nazism arose in 1933, whereas the photo was taken in 1929 at the Pidliuty scout camp.
It should be noted that the metropolitan always stood up for his people’s interests: in 1914, during the Ukrainian-Polish war, and in 1939. There are no good occupiers, but the metropolitan wrote a letter to Stalin, not because he loved him but because he knew what kind of government was imminent, and he needed to keep his people alive. The metropolitan had no illusions about the German authorities, but he had already experienced another terrible government. Nevertheless he later wrote to His Holiness the Pope that the German government turned out to be even crueler than the Bolshevik one — even satanic, one might say. The metropolitan was a diplomat, who wanted Ukraine to have its own army, for a real country cannot do without one. That is why he helped form the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen (USS, a leading regular unit of the Army of the Ukrainian National Republic — Ed.) in 1914 in the hopes that something would change when the German troops arrive. After the Soviet army retreated, a Ukrainian state was proclaimed on June 30, 1941. The metropolitan wanted to have a Ukrainian army, the USS — not to be confused with the German SS. It is small wonder that he negotiated at different levels, although he cherished no great illusions.
It is common knowledge that Metropolitan Sheptytsky hid Jews. Kurt Levin, the son of a rabbi, hid in the metropolitan’s chambers throughout the war. His entire family had been shot, so the eight-year-old boy came to St. George’s Hill. In 1944 the metropolitan blessed and sent him to the West. A US resident now, Levin named his sons Andriy and Klymentiy.
It is also known that Kahane, a Lviv rabbi, hid in Metropolitan Sheptytsky’s library. Kahane later immigrated to Israel and testified about Metropolitan Andriy’s rescuing activity. Besides housing some prominent Jewish figures in his residence, the metropolitan also hid over 150 Jewish children in the monasteries of Univ. In the event of a roundup, the monks would have been shot together with those children. Many times the metropolitan received anonymous letters asking him to caution one priest or another against issuing fake Ukrainian and Greek Catholic birth or baptism certificates because he was under surveillance. For example, the priest Emiliyan Kovch, who also hid several Jewish families, was executed together with them.
The metropolitan’s messages and decrees are particularly relevant even today. For example, “The goal of the Ukrainian people will be to create such social and Christian conditions as to provide citizens with a genuine and constant happiness and have enough internal strength in order to combat the tendencies of internal discord and successfully defend the borders from external enemies. Our Fatherland can only be so mighty and furnish all its citizens with happiness if it is a monolithic body with a single soul rather than a unit artificially made up of separate parts.” We have yet to achieve this.
Special comfort may be derived from the words that the metropolitan uttered before his death, “I will always pray for you, but I am asking you to pray for me as well. And be sure that whenever you call me, I will come to you that very minute.”
