Among other significant historical commemorations, the year 2017 marks the 125th
anniversary of the birth of Yosyf Slipyi: priest, scholar, rector, bishop,
metropolitan, cardinal-in-pectore and, following 18-years in the Soviet Gulag, major-archbishop,
cardinal, and finally acclaimed patriarch of a Church that had spread across five continents of the globe. It also marks the centenary of his priestly ordination at the hands of
his mentor, Metropolitan Andrey Count Sheptytsky.
As this year began, I happened to be working on an article about Slipyi
but not out of an interest for him, per se. My interest in him, and for the
purpose of which I was given access to still-classified files, is as a member
of Sheptytsky’s inner circle; his closest
collaborators that shared his vision and strove to make it reality. My purpose
it to examine Slipyi’s early career and describe the qualities, achievements,
and circumstances which led to him to become Sheptytsky's successor as head of
the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church.
(to be continued...)
