EMINENT ARMENIAN ARCHBISHOP REBURIED IN LVIV

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 8, 2011 – 11:57 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – An eminent pre-war archbishop will be reburied in
Lviv, Ukraine, following a long-running campaign by Polish authorities.

Jozef Teodorowicz (1864-1938) was the Armenian Catholic archbishop of
the city, noted for his social work and for his role as a determined
advocate of the re-emergence of the Polish state following World War
I after over a century of partitions by Russia, Prussia and Austria.

Prior to 1914, Teodorowicz held a seat in Austria’s House of Lords,
when Lviv – then Lemberg – was the capital of the Austro-Hungarian
kingdom of Galicia.

The archbishop was initially buried in the so-called Eaglets Cemetery,
a pantheon that was constructed during the successive Polish-Ukrainian
and Polish-Soviet wars (1918-1921). The necropolis was conceived in
tribute to the defenders of the city.

In 1939, the archbishop’s remains were moved to a private grave in
the adjoining public cemetery, for fear of desecration.

Ultimately, following Ukraine’s Orange Revolution, the Eaglets Cemetery
was formally reopened in June 2005, after extensive renovation.

The mass was led by Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz, Roman Catholic Archbishop
for Warsaw, who also holds the post of ordinary for the city’s
Armenian congregation.

The Armenian community had lived in Lviv since the medieval era,
and it became assimilated amongst the Polish one. The majority of
those that survived the war were resettled after Poland’s borders
were moved west in 1945.

The Armenian Cathedral itself, built in the fourteenth century, and
used as a warehouse during much of the communist era, was reopened
in 1997, prior to the visit of Pope John Paul II, thenews.pl reported.