Ukrainian Orthodoxy		Orthodoxie ukrainienne

Names of Bishops and Monks

Question:

Why is it that when a Ukrainian lay person or priest is ordained a monk or bishop, that the name they choose or are given at their ordination in not in the vernacular?  For instance, why are there Bishops Mikhail or Andrey, not Mykhailo or Andrij?  As priests they would have used their vernacular first name, but once ordained a bishop or monk the Old Church Slavonic (I'm guessing here) is used?  Is not the vernacular name good enough?

Response:

Dr. Alexander Roman alex.roman@unicorne.org

Thank you for your interesting question!

The Ukrainian vernacular names and their use have a fascinating history (my favourite is “Opanas” for “Panteleimon”).

Religious names and terms among Ukrainians have always been adapted by them not only to make them less formal sounding, but also to try and “translate” them into something understandable in the Ukrainian language.

Thus, the icon above the Royal Doors of the Iconostasis where Christ is enthroned and flanked on either side by the Most Holy Theotokos and St John the Baptist is called a “Deisis” in Greek.

The Ukrainians adapted it as “De-Isus” or “Where Jesus is.”  The same is true for the letters “HI KA” that is found on the icon of the Cross of our Lord.  “NIKA” in Greek simply means “He Conquers.”  But Ukrainians understood it to mean the letters of the sentence “Na-holhofi Iskupyl Kroviu Adama” in Slavonic or “He saved Adam by His Blood on Golgotha.”

Personal names underwent a similar Ukrainianization.  And we must say that even when Saint Volodymyr the Great received baptism, the Ukrainian people didn’t refer to him by his Christian name of “Basil” but by his (formerly) pagan Slavic name.  The same is true for Saint Yaroslav the Wise whose baptismal name was “George”, Sts Boris and Hlib “Roman and David” and so on.

Our people also understood Volodymyr’s Trident as consisting of two letter “B’s” for “V” of course, facing each other to signify St Volodymyr’s two names. 

In fact, the two “B’s” that were deliberately placed in the Trident come from the emblem of the Byzantine empire for the two words, in Greek, “King of Kings” (both of which begin with the letter “B”).  This is also why it is entirely nonsensical to depict the Ukrainian Trident, which is that of St Volodymyr the Great, without the Cross in the middle – the two B’s on either side refer to Christ yet the most important Christian symbol is missing from the Trident (and this after centuries of use!).

The practice of using the formal version of a Christian name for Bishops and Monastics simply speaks to their special spiritual/ecclesial state.  They are “set apart” in a particular way to serve the Church and speak with the authority of Christ.  (The spiritual experiences of monastics are very important to the Orthodox Catholic Church as they are called to participate most fully in the mystical Life of union with Christ).  They are also called to bear witness in a special and more perfect way to sanctity and the sanctity of the Saints whose names they are given at tonsure.  Bishops are always chosen from among monastics and when he is not a monastic, he received the monastic tonsure before being consecrated a bishop.  The formality of the name is therefore a way to underscore these individuals’ special calling, role and status within the Church of Christ.  Something similar occurs in the Church Slavonic renderings of the Names of Christ and the Saints.  Sacred Names are marked with a special “hat” which served to indicate that the Reader had to slow down and pronounce it with respect.  We do the same thing with the names of our Hierarchs and Monastics.

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