On this occasion, on December 2, the Bishop’s Divine Liturgy was held in the Seminary Church, which was presided over by Bishop Ihor (Vozniak).
For two days, December 1-2, the community of the Lviv Theological Seminary of the Holy Spirit UGCC is celebrating the 240th anniversary of its foundation.
So, on Friday, Vespers was held in the Archcathedral of St. Yura, as well as a walking prayer procession with candles to the historical building of the General Seminary in Lviv, str. Copernicus A memorial service was held here for all deceased rectors, teachers and seminarians.
Today, December 2, is the Bishop’s Liturgy, the Festive Academy and the festival of octets of Greek-Catholic seminaries from Kyiv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Drohobych and the Basilian Institute of Higher Theological Studies.
We will remind you that the Lviv Theological Seminary of the Holy Spirit of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is a higher educational institution created to train candidates for the priesthood with a philosophical and theological education.
For reference
The General Theological Seminary in Lviv was founded by Tsar Joseph II on August 30, 1783. Its purpose was to educate priests from Halychyna, Zakarpattia, Pryašiv region, Kryzhevsk eparchy (Yugoslavia), Semihorod and Croatia. The later Galician Metropolitan Antin (Angelovych) became its first rector. During his studies at Markiyan Shashkevych’s seminary (especially in 1836), Telehovskyi was the rector.
In 1929, the Greek Catholic Theological Academy was created on the basis of the seminary through the efforts of Count and Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi.
The festive opening of the General Academy took place on October 6, 1929 with the participation of Metropolitan Andrey (36 Kopernyka St., in the church of the Lviv Theological Seminary). The purpose of founding the Theological Academy was to form at least a part of the university in order to raise the level of theological science. Joseph the Blind became the rector of the Theological Academy.
In 1939, the seminary was closed. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the UGCC came out of the underground. In 1990, the Lviv Theological Seminary of the Holy Spirit officially resumed its activities on the territory of the Lviv region. The premises of the old summer pioneer camp in the village of Rudno were allocated for the Seminary.
With the arrival of the rector of the seminary, Dr. Bohdan Prakh, in 1999, work began on the design and construction of a new complex of the Spiritual and Educational Center of the UGCC directly in Lviv.
In 2001, during his visit to Ukraine, the Holy Father Ivan Paul II blessed the cornerstone for the construction of the complex of the Lviv Theological Seminary of the Holy Spirit.
During the years 2001-2005, a new complex of buildings was built as part of the building of the Lviv Theological Seminary, the Theological and Philosophical Faculty of UCU, the economic building of the seminary and the building of the student body of the Redemptorist Fathers on this territory.
The dedication of the newly built complex of the Lviv Theological Seminary of the UGCC took place in August 2005 with the participation of Patriarch Lubomir (Huzar) and members of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC.
LODA