The role of female monasticism in the struggle for the legalization of the UGCC

Abstract

The process of the UGCC coming out of the underground in the 1980s was closely connected with monasticism. Monasticism remained an integral institution of the UGCC throughout the ban on the Church under Soviet rule. The movement for the legalization of the Church lasted for more than 40 years, starting in 1946, when the Church officially ceased to exist at the non-canonical Lviv Pseudo-Council, all Greek Catholic bishops led by Metropolitan J. Slipy were arrested and later sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. . Throughout the period of persecution, the UGCC institutions demonstrated their resilience, despite the Soviet government's negative attitude toward religion in general and the propaganda of militant atheism. Authorities eradicated religious beliefs in various ways, closed and turned UGCC churches into outbuildings, and the Soviet system was convinced that the process of self-liquidation of "remnants of Uniatism" was irreversible. The nuns made a significant contribution to the legalization of the UGCC.