Santa Sofia a Via Boccea
Santa Sofia a Via Boccea is a church in Rome, Italy. It is dedicated to Holy Wisdom, one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. It served as the mother church of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church while St. George's Cathedral in Lviv was controlled by the Russian Orthodox Church.
Description
The church is the national church for the Ukrainians in Rome, a meeting place and religious center for the community. The Divine Liturgy is celebrated according to the Byzantine-Ukrainian rite, whilst still in full communion with the Catholic Church.The church was built in 1967–1968 on the orders of Cardinal Josyf Slipyj, the Major Archbishop of Lviv, who had spent about 18 years in a Soviet gulag, and upon his release was not allowed to return to Ukraine.
The building is modeled after Kyiv's Saint Sophia Cathedral. The relics of Pope Clement I are kept in the church. Following the Byzantine rite, the church has an iconostasis, painted by Juvenalij Josyf Mokryckyj.
In 1985 Pope John Paul II erected the church as one of the titular churches suitable for a cardinal-priest.
In 1998 the church was raised to the status of a minor basilica.