On Friday, 18 September, in Lviv, the reburial will take place of the Ukrainian women’s movement activist Maria Fedak (Sichynska). Her ashes will be laid to rest in plot No. 49 of Lychakiv Cemetery, next to the grave of her husband, the prominent Galician lawyer and philanthropist Stepan Fedak.
The funeral service will begin at 12:00 at the Garrison Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul at 11 Teatralna Street. The organisers emphasise that the start time has been changed compared with the previous announcement, which stated 14:00.
After the service, at 12:40, a citywide farewell ceremony is planned on Rynok Square. At 13:00 the solemn reburial will take place at Lychakiv Cemetery at 33 Mechnykova Street.
The remains of Maria Fedak were exhumed on 10 September in Luxembourg, where she was buried at the Bonnevoie Cemetery together with her daughter Sofia and son-in-law, OUN leader Andrii Melnyk. Andrii and Sofia Melnyk have already been reinterred at the National Military Memorial Cemetery; now Maria Fedak’s ashes are being brought back to Ukraine.
«Maria Fedak is the wife of the renowned Ukrainian lawyer Stepan Fedak, who is buried at Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv. She is also the mother-in-law of Andrii Melnyk — the leader of the OUN — and the mother-in-law of Yevhen Konovalets. She was buried in Luxembourg at a cemetery together with her daughter Sofia and Andrii Melnyk. Andrii and Sofia Melnyk have already been reinterred at the National Military Cemetery, and now the process of reburial of Maria Fedak is under way. This is important because Ukraine has finally begun to bring back from abroad eminent historical figures who had a great influence on the country’s development. In particular, the ashes of Yevhen Konovalets and Andrii Melnyk have already been returned. Thus outstanding Ukrainians will rest in Ukrainian soil» — Pavlo Bohaitsyk, deputy director of the Lychakiv Cemetery Museum-Reserve
The report also recalls that the ashes of the leaders of the liberation movement, Yevhen Konovalets and Andrii Melnyk, were previously returned to Ukraine and reburied at the National Military Memorial Cemetery. The return of Maria Fedak’s ashes to Lviv is seen as a continuation of this work and a step towards restoring historical justice.
Maria Fedak was born in 1874 in Ternopil region into a priest’s family. She was an active participant in the women’s educational movement in Galicia, sat on the leadership of the Tруд (Trud) association, and was involved in charitable work and support for arrested students.
Together with her husband, Stepan Fedak, she raised eight children in a patriotic spirit, creating a strong rear base for the Ukrainian underground. Two of her daughters became the wives of leaders of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists — Yevhen Konovalets and Andrii Melnyk.
During the Second World War, fleeing Soviet repressions, the family emigrated to the West together with their younger daughter Sofia and son-in-law Andrii Melnyk. Maria Fedak died in Luxembourg and was buried at the city’s Bonnevoie Cemetery, where Andrii and Sofia Melnyk later also found their final resting place.