Religion

The Lemkos were faithful to the Orthodox Church until the 17th century. In 1691, the territory of the Carpathians was taken over by the Union of Brest, when the Przemyśl bishop Innocenty Winnicki joined it. Concluding a union with the Catholic Church was met with great reluctance, both on the part of the Orthodox clergy and the faithful. The "forced" Uniates were not very zealous in fulfilling their religious duties, since under the threat of a penalty of 6 fines, they were "encouraged" to go to the church. The revival of Orthodoxy in the Lemko region took place at the beginning of the 20th century. Then, as a result of numerous disputes related to the Romanization of the rite and pro-Ukrainian agitation conducted by the Greek Catholic clergy, the faithful, often in whole villages, converted to Orthodoxy. Before World War I and at the beginning of the 1930s, more than 20,000 Jews were converted to Orthodoxy of the faithful of the Greek Catholic Church. In 1947, the Uniate Church ceased to exist because the Greek Catholic religion was officially liquidated and the faithful turned to the Orthodox Church.