Hryhoriy Yakhymovych was born on 16 February 1792 in Podborce (today
Pidbirtsi), a town in the region of
Galicia, a part of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He went to school in Lemberg (modern day
Lviv in Ukraine), which had since been incorporated into the
Austrian Empire, and was
ordained on 14 September 1816. During 1818–1819, he served as a parish priest at a Greek Catholic church in
Vienna, while he was studying at the
Higher Scientific Institute for Diocesan Priests at St. Augustine's. He would go on to earn doctorates in theology, philosophy, and the liberals arts from the institute. He returned to
Galicia in 1819, working as the head of the Department of Religion at the newly reopened
University of Lemberg. He continued to work at the university for most of his life, and was a professor of
pedagogy from 1825, and a professor of theology from 1837. During his tenure, he was appointed as a
canon in 1835, and as rector of the Lemberg Theological
Seminary in 1837. Yakhymovych was appointed as an
auxiliary bishop of the
Archeparchy of Lviv by
Pope Gregory XVI in July 1841 and honored with title of the former see of Pompeiopolis in Cilicia. He was consecrated on 21 November of that year by the Metropolitan of Galicia (Ruthenian Archbishop of Lemberg)
Mykhaylo Levitsky in the
Lviv St. George Cathedral. During the
revolutions of 1848, Yakhimovich was the leader of the
Supreme Ruthenian Council, which supported the
Ukrainian National Revival and the pro-Austrian position of the
Western Ukrainian clergy, as opposed to the
Western Ukrainian Russophiles. He was selected on 5 September 1859 and confirmed as the
Metropolitan of Lemberg on 23 March 1860, which made him the
primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. He also served rector of the University of Lemberg from 1860 to 1861. He suddenly died in Lemberg on 29 April 1863. ==Role in the Ukrainian National Revival==