Saint Barbara's Church

Saint Barbara's Church (Tserkva sv. Varvary). A Catholic church in Vienna built by the Jesuits in 1652. After the abolition of the Order of Saint Barbara in 1773, the church was granted to the Greek Catholics by Empress Maria Theresa, in 1775. In 1784 a parish was organized at the church, and it became a center of Ukrainian community life in Vienna. Eventually the parish became an important cultural center for the Ukrainians of the Austrian Empire, particularly when the Barbareum seminary and a crown boarding school functioned there. Its notable curates were Yeronim Striletsky (1784–1804), Ivan Snihursky (1813–18), Ivan Fogarashii (1818–34), P. Paslavsky (1834–47), Spyrydon Lytvynovych (1848–57), Yuliian Pelesh (1875–83), and M. Hornykevych (1923–56). The parish owns a valuable archive. In 1862 the Saint Barbara Brotherhood was created; it has been in existence (with small interruptions) since then.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]