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16 WWW. UNWLA.ORG “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЖОВТЕНЬ 2013 Inside Sts. Peter and Paul Garrison Church in L’viv A GEM IN THE HEART OF L’VIV: Sts. Peter and Paul Garrison Church While visiting the North Port, Florida, area in December of last year, I had the distinct privilege of meeting Rev. Father Stepan Sus. Fr. Sus is the D irector of the Ce nter for Military Chaplaincy of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of L ’ viv, Ukraine. He has also helped establish chaplaincy programs for children living in orphanages and other state - run institutions and for students at state - run colleges and universitie s. Learning then that Fr. Sus was D ean of St s . Peter and Paul Garrison Church in L’viv, we made it a point to visit the Church this past August during our trip to Ukraine and were struck by its vastness, beauty, and complicated history. Our editor Olesia W allo has researched the church’s background and is sharing with our readers below. – Marianna Zajac If you are traveling to L ’ viv in the near f u ture and wish to attend a Li t- urgy in English , need a quiet spot to pray, or would like to e x- plore more of L’viv’s exquisite religious art and architecture, you should visit the S ts . Peter and Paul Garr i- son Church. Located centrally in the old city , just one block east off the Market S quare and steps away from the Taras Shevchenko mon u - ment, this large and beautiful church is better known to the res i dents of L’viv as the Jesuit Church. Built in the early 17 th century by the Jes u- it Order, it was in the Order’s ownership for much of its existence, but with several interruptions. The first of these occurred in the late 18th century when the Jesuit Order was dissolved, only to be reinstated in the first decades of the 19th century. In the meantime, the church began functioning as the milit ary garrison church ; thus, its connection to the armed forces goes back more than two ce n- turies. When Western Ukraine fell under Soviet control, the Jesuit priest s, who had returned to L’viv in 1820 (and once more in 1852, after the disruptions caused by the “Spring of Nations”), were forced to leave yet again. The church which they had built was used first as a warehouse and then as a storage facility for the Vasyl Stef anyk Scientific Library, housing as many as 2.3 million books . Only in 2010 was the ow nership of the church building finally transferred to t he Ukrain i- an Greek Catholic Church , which re - established it as a place of worship and ministry to the armed forces pe r- sonnel under the Center for Mil itary Chaplaincy of the Ukrainian Catholic Arche parchy of L’viv. In July of 2011 , after sixty - five years of silence, the Garrison Church, now bearing the names of Holy Apo s- tles Peter and Paul, once again resounded with solemn praises of God . I n December of the same year, on the 20th anniversary of Ukra ine’s Armed Forces, the Church was formally inaug u- rated and consecrated. Since then its doors have been open to all L’viv residents and guests, i n- clu d ing the English - speaking ones for whom there is a special Sunday service in English. The Church also frequ ently welcomes visiting priests from the Ukrainian diaspora: for example, the Divine Li t- urgy on August 25, 2013, at the Garrison Church was celebrated by the Metropolitan Archbishop of Philadelphia Stefan Soroka and the Bishop of Stamford Paul Chom nycky. After suffering extensive damage during the world wars and decades of neglect during the Soviet era, the Church’s beautiful Baroque buil d- ing and magnificent interior decorations were in need of major renovations, which are now unde r- way. Its wall paintings of biblical and historical scenes, the first of which were completed in the 1740s by Jesuit monks from Moravia, have been badly damaged. In several places, they are almost completely lost.
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