Zofia Szeptycka

Sofia Ludvika Cecila Constancia Sheptytska (, 27 May 1837, Lviv, Austrian Empire, German Confederation— 17 April 1904, Prylbychi (now Yavoriv Raion Lviv Oblast Ukraine)), was a Polish countess, poet, painter. The mother of Andrey Sheptytsky, O.S.B.M., the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (1900–1944), and of the Blessed Hieromartyr Klymentiy Sheptytsky, MSU, an archimandrite of the Order of Studite monks of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
Biography.
Born in the family of Polish playwright Alexander Fredro. She was educated in Paris and Vienna. In 1855, she was close to the workers of the Hôtel Lambert. In 1856–1861 lived in Lviv, in October 1861 engaged with Jan Kanty Szeptycki. She had seven sons, two of whom died at an early age (Stephen 2, Yuri (Iso) at the age of 17). She was an extreme religiousist which deeply influenced her sons to make a decision to serve God. Roman later became a Metropolitan, Andrey and Kazimir – father Klymentiy, a Studite monk, a martyr for the Faith, died at the Gulag in May 1950. Her son, Stanislav, graduated from the Vienna Military Academy, and then became a general of the Polish Army. Alexander was a landowner, Lev stayed with his parents in the residence of Prylbychi. Lev and his wife were fusilladed by the NKVD in September 1939, in Prylbychi. Alexander died by the Gestapo in 1940, in Zamostie.
Works.
Sofia Sheptitskaya was a painter, who produced portraits of her father, mother, brother and a self-portrait created by her, which are placed in her books, as exhibits. The paintings created by her decorated Polish Catholic churches in Lviv, Kraków, Zhovkva and other places. For the Bernardine Church, Lviv, she painted the portrait of John of Dukla, where the Saint is buried.
Sofia Sheptytskaya is the author of a number of stories and essays written as for her family diary. In 1900–1903 she published the book "Memories of the Past Years". In 1904, after her death, newspapers "Gazeta Narodowa" and the Krakówian "Przegląd Polski" for the first time published separate stories from Sheptsytskaya. She wrote memories about Andrey Sheptytsky's youth years. The two-volume collection of the "Letters" by Sofia Sheptytskaya was published in Kraków in 1906–1907.
She died on 17 April 1904. Buried in Prylbychi's family land.