Eastern Catholic clergy in Ukraine
The
Background and origins
In 988, the
History
The centuries of Polish rule were characterized by a steady erosion of the economic and social status of most of the local Galician clergy. Prior to the Habsburg reforms, a very small number of Greek Catholic clergy, often Polonized nobility, were linked to the Basilian order. The Order was independent of the Greek Catholic hierarchy and continued to enjoy certain wealth and privileges which it did not share with the rest of the Church.[8] In striking contrast, the Galician priests who were not of noble origin, although not serfs, were frequently forced to work for the Polish nobles and treated little better than peasants by them,[2] and these priests' sons who did not follow their fathers' vocation were often placed under the same feudal obligations as were hereditary serfs.[8] Such circumstances fostered a sense of solidarity and closeness between the priests and the peasants.[2] There were cases of Ukrainian priests or their sons participating in or leading armed insurrections against Polish nobility.[9] The situation changed when the region of Galicia was annexed by Austria in 1772.
Travelling the lands newly acquired from Poland in 1772, Austrian emperor Joseph II decided that the Greek Catholic clergy would be ideal vehicles for bringing about enlightened reform among the Ukrainian population.[9] With this in mind he undertook major reforms designed to increase the status and educational level of the Ukrainian clergy in order to enable them to play the role he assigned for them. The Greek Catholic Church and its clergy was raised in status in order to make it legally equal in all respects to its Roman Catholic counterpart. The previously independent Basilian Order was subordinated to the Greek Catholic hierarchy. Ukrainian Catholic priests were granted stipends by the Austrian government, liberating them economically from the Polish nobles who were now prevented by the Austrians from interfering with them. Ukrainian priests were also allotted larger tracts of land that further contributed to an improvement in their financial situation. Whereas previously the Ukrainian priests had typically been taught by their fathers, the Austrians opened seminaries specifically for Ukrainian Catholic students in Vienna (1774) and Lviv (1783) that provided subsequent generations of priests with University-level education and a strong exposure to Western culture.[2] The sons of priests who served in the bishop's administration were given the same rights to state offices as had the sons of nobles.[10] As a result of the Austrian reforms of the late 18th century, the Ukrainian Catholic priests thus became the first large educated social class within the Ukrainian population in Galicia.[11]
The Austrian reforms granting education, land, and government salaries set the stage for the clergy's dominant position in western Ukrainian society for several generations. Both significant Ukrainian social movements, that of the
The situation changed somewhat by the late nineteenth century. The clergy's colossal efforts to educate the peasants resulted in the relative loss of priestly power. New members of the intelligentsia arose from the peasantry, some of whom objected to what they considered to be the priestly patronizing attitudes towards peasants as childlike or drunkards needing to be taught and led.
Impact on society and culture
Scholar Jean-Paul Himka has characterized the Galician clergy as having "an Orthodox face, Roman Catholic citizenship and an enlightened Austrian soul."
In 1831 seminarians were required by the head of the Church to take classes in
Priests also founded temperance societies, reading clubs, and were significant figures in the Ukrainian cooperative movement.[8] As an example of priests' impact in one community, in the village of Lanivtsi in southern Galicia, the local priestly dynasty established the community's credit union, local reading club, and child-care facilities.[14]
The role of the clergy had a profound impact on the Ukrainian national movement. In contrast to the Polish intelligentsia, which largely derived from the lower nobility, the western Ukrainian intelligentsia largely derived from the clergy.[8] Studying in Vienna, Ukrainian seminarians came into contact with the West at the time when Romantic nationalism and the virtues of the "People" had come to dominate modern thought in central Europe.[22] The Ukrainian seminarians established contact with Czech students who were undertaking an extensive revival of their national culture and came to imitate their efforts.[9]
Most of the leaders of the Ukrainian Women's Union (Soyuz Ukrainok) were the wives and daughters of priests.[9]
The historical background of the Galician clergy contributed to a strong hostility and rivalry towards Poles, as well as a fierce sense of loyalty to Austria and the Habsburg dynasty by most Galician clerics. These attitudes were transmitted to their parishioners and thus reflected in Ukrainian society as a whole, earning western Ukrainians the nickname "Tyroleans of the East" for their loyalty to Austria.[8] In the words of Ukrainian Catholic pilgrims visiting the tombs of the first two Austrian rulers to rule Ukraine, "lost deep in thought, we gazed at the coffins of Maria Theresa and her son Joseph, whose names are written in golden letters in our people's history." [18]
Daily life
Education
Prior to the annexation of Galicia by Austria, Ukrainian priests had typically been taught by their fathers, and their rudimentary education had been largely limited to the liturgy, basic knowledge of the
The university-level education of Galician priests differentiated them from the more modestly-educated Orthodox priests of the neighboring Russian Empire and contributed to the difficulty in the Russian Orthodox Church's attempts to gain converts among western Ukrainians
Family life
The vast majority of clergy had families. In 1894, only 3 percent of Galician priests were celibate.[26] Although seminarians spent the school year studying in the cities of Vienna or Lviv, they spent their summer vacations courting in various Ukrainian villages. Priests married prior to their ordination at about 26 years of age. Their brides were usually the daughters of other priests. After being ordained, the priests typically spent ten to twenty-five years in being transferred to different parishes before settling in one place as its pastor.[27]
The family of the Ukrainian Catholic priest had three sources of income. A modest government salary was sufficient for household expenses and to pay for one son's education. Priests also made money from sizable farms (priests' landholdings were larger than those of peasants and typically varied in size from 12.5 to 50 hectares,[8] compared to 2.8 hectares owned by the average peasant [28]) and from sacramental fees for burials, weddings, christenings, etc. Due to their level of income the Ukrainian priests were typically the wealthiest Ukrainians in their villages. However, they often felt poor because their living expenses were much higher than those of peasants. Ukrainian priests were expected to educate all of their sons, a financial burden that drove some of them into debt. They were also expected to subscribe to various newspapers, to make charitable contributions and to dress and eat better than peasants.[29] Priestly income also paid for their daughters' dowries, buying and repairing carriages, investments for the farm, and clothing for their wives to wear in society, [8] often imported from Vienna or Paris.[24]
Reflecting the clergy's role as community leaders and organizers, family life usually centred not on religion but on political and social questions. According to the memoirs of one priest's son, his own family and that of other priests were "honorable" but much more concerned about national than religious issues. Conversations centred on economic concerns, village affairs and politics, and in his and other priestly families, moral or religious matters were not discussed.[30] Despite the role of the Ukrainian clergy within the Ukrainian national revival, the clergy's educational and social status resulted in the Polish language being the language of daily use by most clerical families until the end of the 19th century.[31]
Priests' wives were also active in the community. They administered "folk medicine" in their communities and cultivated and administered herbs, grasses and other plants with supposed medicinal value.[32]
John-Paul Himka described the lives of several priests. Amvrozii de Krushelnytsky (1841–1903), father of Ukrainian opera singer Solomiya Krushelnytska. The son of a priest of noble origins, he served in a parish that was endowed with 91.5 hectares of arable land, an orchard and beehives. He had six daughters and two sons and found it difficult to meet his financial obligations. He paid for tutors for all of his children but went into debt for many years in order to pay for his daughter Solomiya's conservatory. Krushelnytsky was fluent in several languages and enjoyed foreign literature (Goethe, Schiller, Shakespeare) and Ukrainian literature (Taras Shevchenko and Ivan Franko), and was able to visit his daughter in Milan in 1894 and Vienna in 1895. He encouraged the peasants to educate their children, was a member of Prosvita, and organized a choir in his parish; he also taught the violin.[33] Danylo Taniachkevych (1842–1906) served in a parish with an endowment of only 8 hectares of arable land. He studied in Lviv, belonged to Prosvita, founded reading societies, and was a deputy in the Austrian parliament for three years. Taniachkevych adopted and cared for the six children of his deceased father-in-law; this drove him into debt and poverty to such an extent that his family often went hungry.[34]
Prominent Western Ukrainians with ties to the clergy
- Stepan Bandera, Ukrainian nationalist leader; father was a priest and mother was a priest's daughter
- West Ukrainian National Republic; priest's son
- Chicago, Illinois, grandfather was a priest, mother daughter of a priest, direct descendant of Yov Knyahynetsky.
- Lviv University; priest
- Solomiya Krushelnytska, Opera singer; priest's daughter [9]
- Kost Levytsky, head of the Secretariate of the West Ukrainian People's Republic and cofounder and head of the Ukrainian National Democratic Party; son of a priest
- Ivan Naumovych, major Russophile ideologist and activist, member of Austrian parliament. A priest from a clerical family who was excommunicated and then joined the Russian Orthodox Church
- Western Ukrainian National Republic; priest's son
- Omelian Pleshkevych, co-founder of Selfreliance Ukrainian American Credit Union, president of World Council of Ukrainian Credit Unions; son and grandson of priests
- Markiyan Shashkevych, publisher of the first collection of Ukrainian-language literature in western Ukraine; priest
- Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church from 1901 until his death in 1944; seen as a "father figure" by most Western Ukrainians.[17]
- Independent Ukrainian Republic, priest's son
- Kyryl Studynsky, long-time head of the Shevchenko Scientific Society, and head of the People's Assembly of Western Ukraine; led the delegation to Moscow that formally requested the inclusion of Western Ukraine to the Soviet Union; from a clerical family
- Myron Tarnavsky, supreme commander of the Ukrainian Galician Army, priest's son from an ancient clerical family
- Oleh Tyahnybok, head of the right-wing Svoboda Party, descended from a brother of Lonhyn Tsehelsky.
- Western Ukrainian People's Republic and a founder of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America; priest's son
- Anatole Vakhnianyn, founder of Prosvita as well as the Lviv Conservatory; son and grandson of priests
- Avgustyn Voloshyn, president of Carpatho-Ukraine; priest
See also
References
- ISBN 966-8256-09-3
- ^ a b c d e Orest Subtelny. (1988). Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp.214-219.
- ^ Шляхетська свідомість збереглася в багатьох галичан 2010 12-04. Interview with Liubov Slivka by Vazyl Moroz, newspaper Galicia (Ukrainian)
- ^ Himka, John Paul. (1999). Religion and Nationality in Western Ukraine. McGill-Queen's University Press: Montreal and Kingston. Pg. 10
- ^ Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Entry: Petty Gentry, written by Yaroslav Isaievych Volume 3 (1993). Published by University of Toronto.
- ^ John-Paul Himka. (1988).Galician Villagers and the Ukrainian National Movement in the Nineteenth Century. MacMillan Press in Association with the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta, pg.116
- ^ L. Slivka. (2004). УКРАЇНСЬКА ШЛЯХЕТСЬКА ЕЛІТА: ПРОЯВИ САМОСВІДОМОСТІ ДРІБНОЇ ШЛЯХТИ ГАЛИЧИНИ НАПРИКІНЦІ XVIII – НА ПОЧАТКУ ХХ ст. The Ukrainian Noble Elite: View of self-image of the Galician Petty Gentry from the end of the eighteenth until the beginning of the 20th centuries. (Ukrainian) Ivano-Frankivsk: Ivano-Frankivsk State Medical University.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Jean-Paul Himka. (1986). The Greek Catholic Church and Ukrainian Society in Austrian Galicia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
- ^ a b c d e Martha Bohachevsky-Chomiak. (1988). Feminists despite themselves: women in Ukrainian community life, 1884-1939 . Edmonton, Alberta: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies press, University of Alberta. pp. 47-49
- ^ Stanislaw Stepien. (2005). Borderland City: Przemysl and the Ruthenian National Awakening in Galicia. In Paul Robert Magocsi (Ed.). Galicia: A Multicultured Land. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 52-67
- ^ Himka, John Paul. (1999). Religion and Nationality in Western Ukraine. McGill-Queen's University Press: Montreal and Kingston. Pg. 6.
- ^ Orest Subtelny. (1988). Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pg. 328
- ^ Metropolitan Kuylovski, quoted in Jean-Paul Himka. Priests and Peasants: The Greek Catholic Pastor and the Ukrainian National Movement in Austria, 1867-1900. Canadian Slavonic Papers, XXI, No. 1 Ottawa: Carleton University pg. 10
- ^ a b Stella Hryniuk. (1991). Peasants with Promise: Ukrainians in southeastern Galicia, 1880-1900. Edmonton, Alberta: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta. pg. 195
- ^ Encyclopedia of Ukraine, National Democratic Party, written by Vasyl Mudry
- ^ Social-Political Portrait of the Ukrainian Leadership of Galicia and Bokovyna during the Reovlutionary Years of 1918-1919 Archived 2007-06-18 at the Wayback Machine Oleh Pavlyshyn (2000). Modern Ukraine, volume 4-5
- ^ a b Bohdan Bociurkiw. (1989). Sheptytskyi and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Under the Soviet Occupation of 1939–1941, pp. 101–123. Taken from Morality and Reality: The Life and Times of Andrei Sheptytskyi, edited by Paul Robert Magocsi. Edmonton Canada: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta.
- ^ a b Hans-Joachim Torke, John-Paul Himka. (1994). German-Ukrainian relations in historical perspective . Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, pp.31-34
- ^ Orest Subtelny. (1988). Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 249-250
- ^ Yaroslav Hrytsak. (2018). Ivan Franko and His Community. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University: Brookline, Massachusetts. pg. 182
- ^ Stella Hryniuk. (1991). Peasants with Promise: Ukrainians in southeastern Galicia, 1880-1900. Edmonton, Alberta: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta. pp. 129-130
- ^ Paul Robert Magosci. (2002). The roots of Ukrainian nationalism: Galicia as Ukraine's Piedmont . Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pg. 15
- ^ a b John-Paul Himka. (1988).Galician Villagers and the Ukrainian National Movement in the Nineteenth Century. MacMillan Press in Association with the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta pp. 113-115
- ^ a b Yaroslav Hrytsak. (2018). Ivan Franko and His Community. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University: Brookline, Massachusetts. pg. 281
- ISBN 0-295-98753-7.
- ^ David Goa. (1989). The Ukrainian religious experience: tradition and the Canadian cultural context. Edmonton, Alberta: University of Alberta Press. pg. 83
- ^ John-Paul Himka. (1988).Galician Villagers and the Ukrainian National Movement in the Nineteenth Century. MacMillan Press in Association with the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta pg. 115
- ^ Orest Subtelny. (1988). Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pg. 308
- ^ John-Paul Himka. (1988).Galician Villagers and the Ukrainian National Movement in the Nineteenth Century. MacMillan Press in Association with the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta, pp. 109-110
- ^ Tarnavky, Spohady, cited in Jean-Paul Himka. (1986). The Greek Catholic Church and Ukrainian Society in Austrian Galicia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press pg. 444
- ^ Orest Subtelny. (1988). Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 238-239
- ^ Stella Hryniuk. (1991). Peasants with Promise: Ukrainians in southeastern Galicia, 1880-1900. Edmonton, Alberta: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta. pg. 185
- ^ John-Paul Himka. (1988).Galician Villagers and the Ukrainian National Movement in the Nineteenth Century. MacMillan Press in Association with the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta, pg. 284
- ^ John-Paul Himka. (1988).Galician Villagers and the Ukrainian National Movement in the Nineteenth Century. MacMillan Press in Association with the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta, pp. 299-310