On October 6, 1929, the Greek Catholic Theological Academy was opened in Lviv. It was the only higher Ukrainian educational institution in what was then Poland. After Soviet troops arrived in Galicia in September 1939, the Academy was closed. During the Nazi occupation, studies resumed at the institution, albeit with a small teaching staff. In the spring of 1945, the Academy was finally liquidated. A significant number of its graduates and professors, including the rector, Yosyf Slipy, ended up in the Soviet Gulag or in emigration. In 1994, the institution was re-established under the name "Lviv Theological Academy," and in 2002, it was reorganized into the Ukrainian Catholic University.
Stepan (Roman) Kolomyets studied at the Greek Catholic Theological Academy in Lviv from 1930 to 1935. Afterward, he served as a parish priest in the village of Nadiiv in the Stanislavsk (now Ivano-Frankivsk) region. Following the establishment of the Soviet regime, he frequently relocated, persisting in his priestly ministry. On December 27, 1949, Stepan Kolomyets was arrested for preaching and sentenced to 10 years in prison with confiscation of property. He served his sentence in a correctional labor camp in the city of Ishimbay (now the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russian Federation). In early 1956, Kolomyets returned to the village of Broshniv-Osada in the Stanislavsk region, where his family lived. Despite threats and warnings from the KGB, he continued to secretly minister and bring the word of Christ to the laity. On July 14, 1974, Stepan Kolomyets died. He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1991.
The artifact is a booklet with a thick, gray-green cover. On the left side of the inner spread, a sheet glued to the cover features a black-and-white portrait photo of Stepan Kolomyets alongside his signature, which is certified by the seal of the "Rectorate of the Greek Catholic Theological Seminary in Lviv." Across 20 pages, printed forms bear the inscription "Greek Catholic Theological Department in Lviv" over a light green floral pattern, filled in by hand and stamped with the seals of the "Greek Catholic Theological Academy in Lviv." This lecture record contains entries dated from 1930 to 1935, bearing the signatures (or facsimiles) of prominent figures of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. These include Andrey Sheptytsky, Metropolitan of Galicia and Archbishop of Lviv; Bishop Yosyf Slipy, the first rector of the Academy; Father Vasyl Laba, the organizer and leader of the field clergy for the Galicia Division during World War II; and Father Mykola Konrad, a co-founder of "Renewal," the first Ukrainian Society of Catholic Students in Lviv.