Ukrainian Orthodoxy		Orthodoxie ukrainienne

Kyivan Patriarchate Glorifies New Saints in Honour of Two Jubilees

Dr. Alexander Roman (email)

This year marks the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus’ by St Volodymyr the Great and also the 900th anniversary of St Michael’s Golden-Domed Cathedral in Kyiv that was built to honour Kyiv’s main patron Saint, St Michael the Archangel. 

St Michael’s Cathedral was also the Shrine of the relics of St Barbara the Great-Martyr who likewise became a patron of Kyiv.  In fact, pilgrims continue to go there to venerate her relics (akathist prayer-services were formerly given as presents to tourists in Kyiv) and a portion of her relics are likewise enshrined in the Chapel of the Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Canada in Winnipeg, brought there by the great Metropolitan and scholar, Ilarion Ohienko.

The celebrations that are planned and that are already under way in Kyiv reflect the importance of these anniversaries to the history of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and people.  They also reflect the current tensions between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate.  The former has planned liturgical services that will see the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople joined by the Patriarch of Moscow in Kyiv. 

Patriarch Filaret and the Sobor of the bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Kyivan Patriarchate, began their celebrations Friday evening, 11 July 2008 with an All-Night Vigil for the feast of the Holy Chief Apostles Sts. Peter and Paul.

The Vigil also included the rite of Canonization/Glorification of the following Ukrainian Orthodox Saints:

Saint Yaroslav the Wise, Sovereign of Kyivan-Rus’

The Holy Prince St Konstantyn Ostrozhky

The Holy Metropolitan of Kyiv, Saint Job (Iov Boretsky)

The Holy Righteous St. Petro Kalnyshevsky, the last Koshovy leader of the Zaporozhian Kozak Sich.

Icons of the new Saints were blessed and held in procession as Moleben-prayer services were sung in their honour.

As the two jubilee-anniversaries celebrate the foundation of the Church of Kyivan-Rus’, the canonizations reflected several hundred years of the turbulent and martyric history of the Church of Kyiv.

St Yaroslav the Wise was a direct descendant of the Enlightener of Kyivan Rus’, the Equal to the Apostles St Volodymyr the Great and also St Olga the Great who was actually the first Kyivan Rus’ Sovereign to have brought Christianity in a formal way to her land/empire following the initial steps taken by her predecessors, Sts. Nicholas Askold and Dir of Kyiv (local saints of Kyiv as discussed by Metropolitan Ilarion Ohienko in his book “the Canonization of Saints in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church”) under St Photios of Constantinople.

St Yaroslav brought to fruition the grand idea of the Christian empire of Kyivan-Rus’ and it was he who built the great Cathedral of St Sophia and the Golden Gates, envisioning Kyiv as the “New Jerusalem.”  It was he who had his Christian empire dedicated to the Most Holy Mother of God and his personal significance and greatness in Ukrainian, Russian and European history cannot be overstated.

He was always locally venerated as a royal Saint in Kyiv and in St Sophia’s Cathedral where his relics were enshrined.  He joins his wife, St Irene and eldest son, St Volodymyr, rulers of Novhorod, in the Church calendar (he was earlier glorified a Saint by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate along with Sts. Volodymyr Monomach and Svyatoslav II – who first built St Michael’s Cathedral).

St Konstantyn Ostrozhky lived in the time of the Union of Brest which saw Ukrainian and Belarus (together known then as “Ruthenian”) Orthodox bishops place themselves under the Pope of Rome.  The most prominent Prince of Ukraine at the time, he was often referred to as the “uncrowned King of Ukraine.”  (Indeed, when Hetman Bohdan Khmelnitsky was asked what position he occupied as leader of Ukraine, he simply replied, “I am Ukraine’s King!”).

The Prince bitterly opposed the Union for two reasons:  1) It was concluded in secret and without the participation of the princes – something that was unheard of by way of protocol in Europe at the time;  2) That it was not a “union of equals” but of a “coming under” the Pope of Rome of the Orthodox Church and so it  compromised the Orthodox faith and ecclesial praxis.

St Konstantyn saw in the Union of Brest an effort by Catholic Poland to introduce a kind of “final solution” in terms of full ecclesial and cultural assimilation of its Ruthenian Orthodox subjects living under the Polish Crown.  He therefore bitterly opposed it and led the opposition to it. 

At the same time, it would be wrong for Catholics today to see in St Konstantyn someone who was viciously “anti-Western.”  He was no such thing.  He, and St Peter Mohyla, Metropolitan of Kyiv, had wide connections with European Catholic royalty and civilization.  Although a true defender of the Orthodox Church and of his people, St Konstantyn attacked mainly the form of church union as promulgated by the 33 decrees of the Union of Brest and the clandestine (and therefore unacceptable) way it was brought to fruition.

In this he followed in the foot-steps of his ancestor, St Theodore Prince Ostrozhky who died as a holy monk in the Kyivan Caves Lavra.  St Theodore was a former military leader who set as a personal goal for himself the liberation of all of western Ukraine from the Polish invader. 

It was St Theodore who, while staying at Czestochowa during peace talks with the Poles, tried to take down the icon of the Madonna of Czestochowa to take back to Ukraine with him.  During his trial for “blasphemy,” the prince stated that since the icon was taken from Ukraine (by Vladislav Oposlkie), he felt it only just that he returned the “stolen property . . .”

The Ostrozhky Princely family were always great contributors and supporters of the Kyivan Caves Lavra and so St Konstantyn and his son Aleksandr, were both interred in the Lavra following their deaths as defenders of Ruthenian Orthodoxy and of the Ruthenian people.

So afraid were the Poles that these two would be one day canonized as Orthodox saints and become banners of the people against them that they secretly removed their relics from the Lavra’s crypt and . . . burned them . . .

They thought the Orthodox Church would not glorify them as saints without their relics.  Last Friday’s events in Kyiv has finally laid to rest that thought with two Holy Ostrozhky Princes and Defenders of Orthodoxy now hallowing the already hallowed underground crypts of the Kyivan Caves Lavra.

St Iov (Boretsky), Metropolitan of Kyiv was likewise a great defender of his Church and people.  It was he who established St Michael’s Cathedral as his primatial seat during the restoration of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine and Belarus.  He himself became the first Orthodox Metropolitan of Kyiv following that same restoration under Patriarch Theophanes of Jerusalem.

The Boretsky noble family produced a number of renowned Churchmen who played a notable historic role in Ukrainian history. 

Closer to our times, there is the Metropolitan of Kyiv of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, the Holy New Hieromartyr Nicholas Boretsky who refused to sign a Bolshevik document affirming that there was no persecution of religion in the USSR . . . When presented with the document, the Hieromartyr replied, “If there was no persecution of religion in the USSR, I wouldn’t be here . . .” 

In addition, another famous Boretsky was the Ukrainian Catholic Eparch of Eastern Canada, Vladyka Isidore Boretsky of Toronto.  A friend of Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox alike, Vladyka was beloved by one and all.  (I am proud to have been baptized by him and to be related to him.)  The Boretsky family is also descended from the line of St Volodymyr the Great and St Yaroslav the Wise.

St Petro Kalnyshevsky was a victim of Russian imperialism under Peter I.  He died after a period of long imprisonment amidst deprivations of all kinds.  He is the first Kozak leader to be glorified a Saint (although not the first Kozak i.e. St John the Rusyn, St Pachomy of Patmos, St Dmitry of Rostov whose father was a Kozak, St Peter Mohyla, a former Kozak officer himself and others).  Other Kozak leaders who previously had enjoyed a local cult of religious veneration included Hetman Bayda-Vyshnevetsky and Hetman Bohdan Khmelnitsky. 

In addition, Hetman Ivan Mazeppa’s annual memorial commemoration has become an affirmation of Ukrainian patriotism by both Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Ukrainians. 

The sad situation of religious division in Ukraine recently came to a head when the UOC-MP affirmed that the anathema hurled at Hetman Mazeppa for siding with the Lutheran King Charles of Sweden against Peter I in the Battle of Poltava will not be lifted – and this even when the Holy Patriarch of Moscow, Saint Tikhon the Hieroconfessor (+1925) had earlier affirmed that such politically motivated anathemas had no force whatever in the Church.  The anathema against Hetman Ivan Mazeppa forced Orthodox Ukrainians to have memorial services for him to be held in Ukrainian Catholic parishes on Sept. 21-22, the evening of his death.  The Russian Orthodox Church, however, went so far as to bless a formal service actually CELEBRATING and renewing the anathemas against Hetman Mazeppa on that date! 

The “service” is a sorry statement of abuse heaped on the memory of the Hetman for daring to lead an independence movement in Ukraine against Russia.  In it, the Hetman is actually affirmed as someone who is “three times the traitor that Judas was!” 

And, at one time, the Melkite Greek-Catholic Church actually had the date of the “commemoration of the victory of Peter I over the Swedes” in its liturgical calendar before it realized how misguided and uninformed this action was and had it removed in subsequent liturgical publications.  But I digress . . .

The fact remains that 1020 years after the Baptism of Kyivan-Rus’ and 900 years since the founding of the Cathedral of the Patron Saint of Kyiv, the Holy Archangel Michael, and church politics in Ukraine hasn’t gotten any less nasty.

May these new Saints intercede for the Ukrainian Church and People!

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