Sviatoslav Shevchuk


Sviatoslav Shevchuk
Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Galicia
Primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
Shevchuk in 2011
ChurchUkrainian Greek Catholic Church
Elected23 March 2011
Installed27 March 2011
PredecessorLubomyr Husar
Other post(s)
Orders
Ordination26 June 1994
by Myroslav Lubachivsky
Consecration7 April 2009
by Ihor Vozniak
Personal details
Born (1970-05-05) 5 May 1970 (age 54)
Nationality Ukrainian
DenominationCatholic Church
MottoChurch Slavonic: Гдⷭ҇ь просвѣще́нїє моє́ и҆ сп҃си́тель мо́й
The LORD is my light and my salvation
Coat of armsSviatoslav Shevchuk's coat of arms
Ordination history
History
Diaconal ordination
Ordained byPhilemon Kurchaba
Date21 May 1994
Priestly ordination
Ordained byIvan Cardinal Lubachivsky
Date26 June 1994
Episcopal consecration
Principal consecratorIhor Voznyak
Co-consecratorsMiguel Mykycej and Julian Voronovsky
Date7 April 2009
Episcopal succession
Bishops consecrated by Sviatoslav Shevchuk as principal consecrator
Dmytro Hryhorak18 September 2011
Borys Andrij Gudziak26 August 2012
Eugeniusz Mirosław Popowicz21 December 2013
Mykhaylo Bubniy7 April 2014
Vasyl Volodymyr Tuchapets21 May 2014
Bohdan Manyshyn24 May 2014
Yosafat Moschych3 August 2014
Hryhoriy Komar22 August 2014
Bohdan John Danylo4 November 2014
Teodor Martynyuk22 May 2015
Volodymyr Hrutsa7 April 2016
Andriy Rabiy3 September 2017
Petro Loza12 July 2018
Ivan Kulyk1 December 2019
Stepan Sus12 January 2020
Mykola Bychok7 June 2020
Arkadiusz Trochanowski23 January 2021
Michael Smolinski20 January 2024
Sviatoslav in the Polish Senate

Sviatoslav Shevchuk (Ukrainian: Святосла́в Шевчу́к; born 5 May 1970 in Stryi, Ukrainian SSR) is a Ukrainian Catholic prelate who has served as the Major Archbishop of Kyiv–Galicia and Primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) since 25 March 2011.

At the time he was born, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was illegal under the Soviet Union. His parents and grandparents were devout Catholics and active in the Underground Church. He recalled that on a family trip to the Orthodox shrine of Pochaev around 1985, he prayed before an icon of the Theotokos, expressing his desire to become a priest. A couple of years later, while studying medicine in the city of Boryslav, he began to attend a secret seminary in Yaremche, in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains.[1]

He completed his mandatory military service as a field medic, based in Eastern Ukraine. In the waning days of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was legalized again, and Shevchuk was able to complete his seminary studies in a reopened seminary in Lviv.[2]

In August 1991, at the direction of his superiors, he moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to study philosophy. He briefly spent time with the Salesian community there. Returning to Ukraine, he was ordained a deacon on May 21, 1994.[2]

  1. ^ Burger, John (2023). At the Foot of the Cross: Lessons from Ukraine. Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor. pp. 70–71. ISBN 978-1639660278.
  2. ^ a b Burger, John (2023). At the Foot of the Cross: Lessons from Ukraine. Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor. pp. 79–82. ISBN 978-1639660278.