Santa Sofia a Via Boccea

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Santa Sofia a Via Boccea

English name:	Holy Wisdom at Via Boccea
Dedication:	Holy Wisdom
Denomination:	Ukrainian Catholic Church


Titular church	1985–

Built:	1967–1968
Consecrated:	1968
Architect(s):
Artists:
Contact data
Address:	478 Via Boccea

Santa Sofia a Via Boccea is a church dedicated to Holy Wisdom ("Sancta Sophia" in Latin), one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It served as the Mother Church, of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, while St. George's Cathedral in Lviv was controlled by Russians.

The church is a meeting place and religious center for Ukrainians. Mass is celebrated according to the Byzantine-Ukrainian rite, while the church is in full communion with the Holy Father.

The church was built in 1967–1968 on the orders of Josyf Cardinal Slipyj, Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Catholic Church who had spent almost 20 years in soviet GULAG in Siberia, and was released in 1963 but not allowed to return to Soviet occupied Ukraine. It is modeled after an eponymous church in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Relics of Pope Clement I (88–97) are kept in the church. As it is of the Byzantine rite, it has an iconostasis, painted by Jucenalij Josyf Mokryckuj.

In 1985, Pope John Paul II erected the church as one of the tituli suitable for Cardinal Priests. The first Cardinal Priest with title to Santa Sofia a Via Boccea was Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky. The current titular of the church is H.E. Lubomyr Cardinal Husar, M.S.U., Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halych for the Ukrainians. He was appointed on 21 February, 2001.

In 1998 the church was raised to the status of minor basilica.

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