Ruthenian Uniate Church
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The Ruthenian Uniate Church (
The church had a single metropolitan territory — the
Background
During the
Decay of the Ruthenian Church in the Commonwealth
Both the Catholic and the Ruthenian churches suffered from the policy of nominations to higher benefices by the King, the indifference of the nobility, and a low state of clerical education and discipline.[3] The monarchs used nominations to bishoprics as rewards to faithful civil servants.[4] After Metropolitan Joseph II Soltan (1509–1522), the names of the great families are missing among the nominees to the bishoprics. While the great families could have obtained the nominations had they cared, since they did not, the nominees came from the poorer gentry and from the burghers.[5] Prelates continued to live the style of life they were used to as laymen: they took part in raids and carried on trade and money lending. The Ruthenian Church had no cathedral chapters to make up for the deficiencies of the bishops.[6]
The level of education of the Ruthenian peasantry had been falling during the sixteenth century.[7] This was one of the main reasons for ecclesiastical decay and one of the impediments to renewal. For the common people, their religion was ritualism; attendance was often limited to baptism and church burial.
Church of a conquered people
Poles regarded Ruthenians as a conquered people. As such, Ruthenians became a second class people in society, their culture backward compared to the other ethnic groups in the Commonwealth. This delayed the church in recovering from the predations of the Reformation. While the Ruthenian nobility had equal rights with the Polish nobility, by the fifteenth century their ranks had been thinned by war and waves of emigration to the east. The Poles who took their place came to control the
While the Catholic Church in the Commonwealth had successfully resisted the appeal of the Reformation, the Ruthenian church continued to decay. The Ruthenian elite looked externally for aid. The Patriarch in Constantinople could send neither aid nor teachers. Protestant aid was unacceptable to many of them. They therefore turned to the Pope in the hope that he would curb the excesses of the Polish Catholics against Catholic Ruthenians. In this way, they also hoped that acceptance of the Ruthenian hierarchy into Catholic communion would also lead to acceptance of the Ruthenian elite into the political structure of the Commonwealth.
Ecclesiastical structure
Before the partitions of Poland
At the time of the negotiations for union there were eight Ruthenian bishoprics in the Commonwealth:[10]
- The Metropolis of Kiev itself which had the following archdioceses(archeparchies):
- Archeparchy of Polotsk (located in the modern state of Belarus)
- Eparchy of Brest-Litovsk. The bishop also held the title of "Bishop of Volodymyr" in Volhynia.
- Eparchy of Lutsk and Ostroh also in the region of Volhynia. During the Great Northern War, Volhynia was occupied by Russian troops and the eparchy was converted to Orthodoxy until the troops were withdrawn.
- Eparchy of Turov and Pinsk in the region of Polesia
- Eparchy of Lviv
- Eparchy of Chełm
- Eparchy of Przemyśl and Sambir
Later, the Archeparchy of Smolensk was erected.
After the partitions of Poland
Following the partitions, its successor states treated the Uniate Church differently. This is a list of eparchies that followed upon the partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1772–1795):
- Within the Russian Empire
In the territory annexed by the Russian Empire, the Church was effectively dissolved; most of the eparchies were forcibly converted to the Russian Orthodox Church. See Synod of Polotsk.
- Within the Kingdom of Prussia
In the territory annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia, the Eparchy of Supraśl operated from 1798 to 1809. Following the Treaties of Tilsit, the territory was annexed by the Russian Empire. As a result, the Church was effectively dissolved and the eparchy was forcibly converted to the Russian Orthodox Church.
- Eparchy of Supraśl (previously part of the Eparchy of Volodymyr-Brest)
- Within the Austrian Empire
In the territory annexed by the Austrian Empire, the Church continued to operate. It was reorganized as a Greek Catholic Church — the Metropolis of Kiev, Galicia and all Ruthenia.
- Archeparchy of Lviv, Metropolitan of Galicia
- Eparchy of Chełm
- Eparchy of Przemyśl and Sambir
A similar situation continued in the Second Polish Republic of 1918 to 1939. Suppressed in the Soviet Union from 1946, the Ruthenian Uniate Church survived to become the core of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church from 1989. Today, the metropolis is styled the Major Archeparchy of Kyiv–Galicia.
List of metropolitan bishops
Metropolitans before the partitions of Poland
Metropolitans of Kyiv, Galicia and all Ruthenia:[11]
- 1596—1599 Michael Rohoza (Polish: Michał Rahoza, Belarusian: Міхаіл Рагоза)
- 1600—1613 Hypatius Pociej (Polish: Hipacy Pociej, Belarusian: Іпацій Пацей)
- 1613—1637 Joseph Rutski (Polish: Józef Welamin Rucki, Belarusian: Язэп Руцкі)
- 1637—1640 Raphael Korsak (Polish: Rafał Mikołaj Korsak, Belarusian: Рафаіл Корсак)
- 1641—1655 Antonius Sielawa (Polish: Antoni Sielawa, Belarusian: Антон Сялява)
- 1666—1674 Gabriel Kolenda (Polish: Gabriel Kolenda, Belarusian: Гаўрыла Календа)
- 1674—1693 Cyprian Żochowski (Polish: Cyprian Żochowski, Belarusian: Кіпрыян Жахоўскі)
- 1694—1708 Leo Załęski (Polish: Lew Ślubicz-Załęski, Ukrainian: Лев Слюбич-Заленський)
- 1708—1713 George Winnicki (Polish: Jerzy Winnicki, Ukrainian: Юрій Винницький)
- 1714—1729 : Лев Кишка)
- 1729—1746 Athanasius Szeptycki
- 1748—1762 Florian Hrebnicki
- 1762—1778 Philip Wołodkowicz
- 1778—1779 Leo Szeptycki
- 1780—1786 Jason Smogorzewski
- 1787—1805 Theodosius Rostocki
Post-partition administrators in Russia
- Heraclius Lisowski
- Gregory Kochanowicz
- Josaphat Bułhak
Successor entities
There are three successor entities:
- Major archbishop (or metropolitan) of the Metropolis of Kyiv and Halych is Sviatoslav Shevchuk.
- Belarusian Greek Catholic Church
- Russian Greek Catholic Church
Development in Ukraine and Belarus
Today, the Ruthenian Uniate Church has two ecclesiastical jurisdictions: the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church. The Ukrainian jurisdiction operates in the following countries under a metropolitan bishop:
- Poland under the Metropolitan of the Archeparchy of Przemyśl–Warsaw
- the United States under the Metropolitan of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia
- Canada under the Metropolitan of the Archeparchy of Winnipeg
- Brazil under the Metropolitan of the Archeparchy of São João Batista em Curitiba
It operates in the following countries as eparchies under the care of the Major Archbishop :
- Argentina as the Eparchy of Santa María del Patrocinio in Buenos Aires
- Australia, New Zealand and Oceania as the Eparchy of Saints Peter and Paul of Melbourne
- United Kingdom as the Eparchy of the Holy Family of London
- France, Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and Switzerland as the Eparchy of Saint Vladimir the Great of Paris
It operates in the following countries as an exarchate, directly responsible to the Holy See:
- Germany and Scandinavia as the Apostolic Exarchate of Germany and Scandinavia
- Italy and San Marino as the Apostolic Exarchate of Italy
Related
- Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, Byzantine Rite church of Carpathian Ruthenians (better known as Rusyns).
Notes
- ^ In 1893, Russian painter Ilya Repin "depicted the moment when a Jesuit encourages residents of Vitebsk join the union," in a drawing on the theme of "preaching Kuntsevych".[9]
References
- ^ Siecienski, A. Edward (2019). Orthodox Christianity: A Very Short Introduction. Very Short Introductions. New York City: Oxford University Press. p. 108.
- ISBN 978-0-86554-436-9
- ^ Auguse Berga, Pierre Skarga, (Paris 1916), pg56-81
- ^ Kazimierz Chodynicki, Kosciol pravoslawny a Rzeczpospolita polsko (Warsaw 1934), p130-39
- ^ V. M. Ploshchanskii, Proshloe Kholmskoi Rusi. Dukhovenstvo (2 volumes; Vilna 1890-91), I, p61.
- ^ Albert M. Ammann, Abriss der ostslawischen Kirchengeschichte (Vienna 1959), p199-200.
- ^ Ploshchanskii, Proshloe, Volume I, p10, shows it for the Diocese of Kholm.
- ^ HRUSHEVSKYI, MICHAEL S., Istoria Ukrainy-Rusy, Volume V, Kiev, p38-40.
- OCLC 4599550.
[...] 1893 года на тему 'Проповедь Кунцевича', посвященных одному из героических эпизодов в жизни белорусского народа. Художник изобразил момент, когда монах-иезуит призывает жителей Витебска примкнуть к унии, [...]
- ^ Church Union of Berestia. Encyclopedia of Ukraine
- ^ Pelesz, Julian (1881). Geschichte der Union der ruthenischen Kirche mit Rom. Woerl. pp. 1083–84.
Further reading
- Frick, David A. (1984). "Meletij Smotryc'kyj and the Ruthenian Question in the Early Seventeenth Century". Harvard Ukrainian Studies. 8 (3–4): 351–375. JSTOR 41036202.
- Litwin, Henryk (1987). "Catholicization among the Ruthenian Nobility and Assimilation Processes in the Ukraine during the Years 1569–1648" (PDF). Acta Poloniae Historica. 55: 57–83.
- Nemec, Ludvik (1968). "The Ruthenian Uniate Church in its Historical Perspective". Church History. 37 (4): 365–388. S2CID 154527129.
- Shipman, Andrew J. (1912a). "Ruthenian Rite". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company. pp. 276–277.
- Shipman, Andrew J. (1912b). "Ruthenians". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company. pp. 277–279.
- Wolff, Larry (2003). "The Uniate Church and the Partitions of Poland: Religious Survival in an Age of Enlightened Absolutism". Harvard Ukrainian Studies. 26 (2002–2003) (1–4): 153–244. JSTOR 41036852.
External links
- Uniate Churches. Encyclopedia.com
- Uniates and Greek Catholic church at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
- Dzyuba, O. Kyiv Uniate Metropolitan Eparchy (КИЇВСЬКА УНІЙНА МИТРОПОЛІЯ). Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine