Mykhailo Zubrytskyi of the Pomian coat of arms (October 22, 1856 – April 8, 1919) was a Greek-Catholic priest, Ukrainian ethnographer, folklorist, historian, public figure (including local self-government in the West Ukrainian People's Republic), publicist, and full member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (from July 29, 1904; the only rural priest to hold such a rank).

A letter from Ivan Franko to Shchasnyi Selskyi dated April 11, 1875, has been preserved, in which he writes: "Our Ruthenian affairs at the Drogobych Gymnasium, as usual, are very weak.

There were times when an old stepmother, Alexandra Durnota, a lumberjack who came to Drohobych from Opaka, and with whom Mykhailo Zubrytsky rented accommodation with breaks for three years, shared beggar's bread with him, which was donated to her near the St. Trinity Church.

However, officials deliberately delayed the process for almost a year and only released him with the condition that he would not continue his studies at the Drogobych gymnasium but would work with his parents on the land.

[7] On November 17, 1883, Father Zubrytskyi became the parish priest in the village of Mshanets (now in the Sambir raion of Lviv Oblast), where he served for 31 years until April 25, 1914.

He vehemently protested against the celebration of Polish national and religious holidays, the low professional training of teachers, and the assimilationist behavior of the conquerors.

He criticized the "stuffing" of Ukrainian children's heads with useless Polish "stories about Krakus, Wanda, Kazimierz, and Esterne, about Barbara Radziwiłł, etc."

He even considered the choice of names for children not a trivial matter, but an integral part of a conscious attitude towards Ukrainian traditionalism and patriotism.

Through various means, he endeavored to instill in his fellow priests a sense of duty and a proper understanding of the need for their everyday work with people, education, especially in children of school age, fostering not only awareness of national unity but also personal responsibility for the fate of all Ukrainians.

He left behind many significant scholarly and journalistic works that attest to Father Zubrytsky's substantial contribution to transforming the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church into a powerful bastion of the Nation and a fighter for the restoration of its conciliarity and independence.

After Vespers, young people would come for plebaniya, where they sang church hymns and gradually learned to read using movable type.

"A number of questions concern the behavior of parishioners: whether they made their Easter confession, refrained from work on Sundays and holidays, and participated in night watches near the church.

The protocol states that sobriety among the villagers is at a high level..." "...it is noted that all metric books and parish records are kept locked in a cabinet.

The visitation protocol concludes with informal remarks from the dean: "The honorable Father Mykhailo Zubrytsky faithfully fulfills his pastoral duties."

Until the end of his life, he consistently opposed cases of neglect of the Ukrainian language by chauvinistic officials in government institutions, postal workers, and others.

He saw the results of the Austrian occupation regime better than many politicians and officials, and he knew perfectly well numerous ways and forms of covert and overt violations of those not particularly broad rights promised in the legislation of the imperial government.

He was outraged by the practice of privileged treatment of certain peoples in the Habsburg Empire, the exploitation of Galician peasantry by industrially developed parts of Austria, restrictions on the national consciousness work of Ukrainians, discrimination against native teachers, predatory deforestation, the impunity of landlords and officials, tax manipulations, misrepresentation of the national composition of the population and its representation in county councils, police surveillance of the intelligentsia, illegal extortion, harsh conscription, the existence of forced begging, and so on.

[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] On April 4, 1892, he founded the "Spilkova Kramnytsya" (Ruthenian Store) in Mshanets, affiliated with the "Prosvita" reading room, initially owned by 10 local peasants, later by 16.

A certain culmination of Father Mykhailo's national and state views is his journalistic work "It is not the time for Moscovites and Poles to serve" ("Svoboda", 1912).

He not only borrowed the title from Ivan Franko but also showed complete agreement with his political ideas expressed in the poetic works "It is not the time" and "The Serf".

[5] In an outspoken and sharp journalistic form, he depicts what happened during the rule of Poland and Russia in Ukraine (specifically asserting that during the founding of Saint Petersburg, 20,000 Ukrainian Cossacks perished).

The establishment of Austrian rule in Galicia, its policy towards the indigenous population, the utilization of the Polish social elite, and other chauvinistic groups to maintain and strengthen the dominance of the conquerors are interpreted entirely from the standpoint of Ukrainian national interests.

His political and journalistic interventions in the press comprehensively portray the true picture of life and the struggle of the occupied Ukrainian people.

A unique monument dedicated to the formation and initial steps of the government structures of the West Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR) in Lisko, Przemyśl, Ustrzyki, and their surroundings, is his chronicle of events covering a short period from November 6 to December 21, 1918.

In 1912, they were selling 5 books by Father Zubrytskyi:[38] He skillfully used examples of national liberation movements in other countries for political awareness among his fellow countrymen, both near and far.

In 1894, Zubrytsky noted that people had stopped selling their fields (on the contrary, those who had the means tried to buy more), ceased going caroling and visiting each other as before, limited the number of godparents to only 2-4 (previously, they would bring up to twenty and, apparently, everyone was treated to horilka), and during meals, weddings, and funerals, only half as much vodka was consumed as before.

From 1916, he worked in the village of Berehy Dolishni, where he witnessed events related to the formation of the ZUNR (West Ukrainian People's Republic) in November 1918.

It is reliably known that the priest Mykhailo Zubrytskyi, who took over the parish of Berehy Dolishni in 1914 (with the daughter church of the village of Lodyny), organized assistance to Ukrainian military units with a significant number of his parishioners.

He greatly appreciated the oral and material culture of the peasants: he collected folk songs and left wonderful drawings of buildings and clothing.

He authored research works on ethnography, folklore, and history: An active defender of the national and cultural rights of Ukrainians in Transcarpathian Ukraine, he published articles in "Dilo," "Bat'kivshchyna," "Zoria," and "Zapysky Naukovoho Tovarystva imeni Shevchenka" ("Proceedings of the Shevchenko Scientific Society").