“That all may be one”. An Exhibition Dedicated to St. Josaphat Opened in Vilnius
On September 28, the Museum of Church Heritage in Vilnius, with the participation of the Father and Head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, hosted the grand opening of the exhibition “That All May Be One.” The exhibition is dedicated to the holy martyr Josaphat on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of his martyrdom and was organized in cooperation with the Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum in Lviv and the fathers of the Order of St. Basil the Great.
The exhibition reveals the personality and activities of St. Josaphat in the historical context of his life. The celebration of the 400th anniversary of his martyrdom enabled us to collect the heritage of the Ukrainian-Greek Catholic Church in Lithuania.
The Head of the UGCC noted that the figure of St. Josaphat today illustrates the profound inner unity that has existed for centuries between the Ukrainian and Lithuanian peoples. The Primate thanked all the organizers of the exhibition.
“Today, Josaphat shows us that Lithuania and Ukraine have a common history and spiritual and cultural heritage. Today, he is a figure who unites us all, who has brought us to this unique spiritual and cultural event, which is this exhibition we are opening today,” said His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
The exhibition “That All May Be One” features a gallery of portraits of Greek Catholic bishops from the St. Josaphat Museum, the first images of St. Josaphat in old prints, early editions of his biography, and documents illustrating the stages of his canonization, as well as a collection of relics from the Lithuanian National Museum.
It is worth mentioning that 26 exhibits in the form of images of St. Josaphat were brought from the National Museum in Lviv. They depict the evolution of the veneration of the holy martyr from his beatification in the seventeenth century to the images of the twentieth century.
“When we received such a proposal from the Museum of Church Heritage in Vilnius, we elaborated mechanisms and clarified what kind of exhibits the museum needs, namely, what the museum does not have, and how we can supplement this collection,” said Oksana Bila, deputy director of the National Museum in Lviv.
In turn, the director of the National Museum in Lviv, Ihor Kozhan, expressed his gratitude to the Lithuanian people for their support of Ukrainians: “The level of support and global attention to Ukraine is unprecedented. There has never been such solidarity in the history of humankind. Ukraine and Lithuania share a common history, values, and interests. We feel the help of Lithuania, which did not leave Ukraine in this war face to face with the enemy.”
The UGCC Department for Information
