Sylwester Sembratowicz was born on 3 September 1836, in the village of Desznica, in south-eastern Poland.

From 1854 he moved for the academic studies in the Greek College of St. Athanasius, Rome, where he was ordained as a priest on 1 November 1860 and he obtained a doctorate in theology in 1861.

On 27 March 1885 he was formally appointed Archbishop of Lviv, i.e. the primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and he was enthroned on 5 May 1885.

As Primate, he reformed the Basilian Monastic Order, published vernacular prayer books and held a synod in 1891.

[4] On 29 November 1895 he was created cardinal priest by Pope Leo XIII[5] and he was assigned the titular church of Santo Stefano al Monte Celio on 25 June 1896.