St. Igor of Kiev

Joyous feast! С праздником! Today we commemorate the Holy Great Prince Igor of Kiev. St. Igor came to lead Rus' during a time of great internal division within its royal family, and only served briefly as great prince before his overthrow and banishment to a monastery. The Saint embraced the monastic life and was eventually tonsured to the great schema.

After a short time in the monastery a mob of his family's opponents sought St. Igor out, dragging him out of the monastery church during the Divine Liturgy and murdered him. When the Saint's body was later recovered and taken to St. Michael's Monastery the candles near it lit of their own accord. The Saint was buried at another monastery on the outskirts of Kiev.

In 1150 St. Igor's relics were translated to the city cathedral of Chernigov, whilst the wonderworking Igorov Icon before which he had been praying prior to his martyrdom was enshrined in the catholicon of the Kiev Caves Lavra. More on his life can be found here. May St. Igor's blessing and prayers be with us all!

Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God

Joyous feast! С праздником! On this day we commemorate one of the best known icons of Rus', the Pochaev Icon from Volhynia's Pochaev Lavra of the Dormition. The Lavra was founded as a monastery in 1340 by two monks and has been associated closely with the Mother of God since its founding as she appeared to the monks and a herdsman on a nearby hilltop, leaving behind an imprint of her foot on one of the hilltop's rocks.

In 1559 a traveling Constantinopolitan Orthodox metropolitan visiting Volhynia gave a local noblewoman an icon of the Mother of God from Constantinople as a memento of his stay in the region. With time a radiance began to be noticed coming from the icon, and in 1597 the noblewoman's brother was healed by the icon, after which it was given in thanksgiving to the Pochaev Monastery, which enshrined it in the Church of the Dormition.

This icon, the Pochaev Icon, has resided at the Pochaev Lavra for 414 years and has been glorified by many miracles. In 1675 the Icon delivered Pochaev from invading Tatars, who saw the Mother of God together with angels brandishing swords and St. Job of Pochaev over the Church of the Dormition as they prepared for their final assault on the Lavra. As a result the Tatars fled, while others who were captured embraced Orthodoxy and even the monastic life.

In 1721 the Pochaev Monastery was occupied by the Ukrainian Catholic Church, but the Pochaev Icon remained and continued to be glorified by miracles. When Pochaev returned to Orthodoxy in 1832 the Icon was further glorified by the healing of a blind woman who venerated it. The Icon remains a treasured relic of the Pochaev Lavra alongside the imprint of the Mother of God's footprint and is kept in the Lavra's Cathedral of the Dormition to this day.

More on the Pochaev Icon can be found here and here. May the Mother of God's protection and intercession be with us all!

St. Michael of Kiev

Joyous feast! С праздником! St. Michael was the first Metropolitan of Kiev elected by the Church of Constantinople after the conversion of St. Vladimir and Rus' in 988, arriving in Rus' in 989 with other clergy sent to continue the Christianization of the country. Some chronicles say that the Saint was a Syrian, but others claim him to have been a Bulgarian or Serb.

Metropolitan Michael was zealous in preaching the Gospel, traveling throughout Rus' to baptize and teach his young flock and everywhere founding churches and schools. The Saint was gentle, but also strict and is remembered in some chronicles as 'the Initiator' for his work in implanting Orthodoxy in the hearts of the people of Rus'.

St. Michael reposed in 992 having only served three years in the Kiev cathedra and was buried in the city's Church of the Tithe. More on the Saint's life can be found here. May his blessing and prayers be with us all!

St. John the Russian

Joyous feast! St. John the Confessor was born in the 1600s in what today is Ukraine and raised as a devout Orthodox Christian. Drafted into military service, the Saint fought the Ottoman Turks and was captured by them in 1711 and enslaved in the village of Procopia in Asia Minor. Although St. John's master beat him and sought to convert him to Islam the Saint refused, saying that, "Neither by threats, nor with promises of riches and delights you will turn me away from my holy faith. I was born a Christian, and a Christian I shall die."

Despite his mistreatment St. John served his master zealously and was mocked by his fellow slaves for his commitment to his duties. The Saint's master, seeing his faithfulness, offered to let him live as a free man and resettle him wherever he wished, but St. John preferred to remain in his service so that he could continue his nightly prayers in the stables.

When St. John fell asleep on this day in 1730 his body was given over to the clergy of Procopia, who buried it surrounded by the village's Orthodox Christian inhabitants. Three years later the Saint's relics, having been revealed to be incorrupt in a vision, were exhumed and enshrined in Procopia's Church of St. George, later being translated in part to Panteleimonou on Mount Athos in 1881 and in 1924 to the Greek island of Eubeia together with the residents of Procopia as part of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey.

Through St. John's prayers many are helped and in the past not only Greeks, but also many Orthodox Armenians and Turkish Muslims came to St. John's relics in Procopia to be healed. More on St. John's life can be found here. May his blessing and prayers be with us all!

St. Job of Pochaev

Christ is risen! Joyous feast! St. Job is well known through Ukraine and all of Rus' for his holy life and labors in resisting the imposition of the Union of Brest in what then was the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. More on his life can be found here. May his blessing and prayers be with us all!

Historic Wooden Church Burns Down

A historic 18th century wooden church has burned down in Zalyzhzhia, Ukraine. More here.

Kiev Patriarchate Leader Speaks Out Against Ukrainian President

Patriarch Filaret (Denysenko) of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate has called Ukrainian President Viktor F. Yanukovych "a Russian governor." More here.

Ukrainian Orthodoxy Trends Towards Moscow

As the idea of solidarity between the Belorussian, Russian, and Ukrainian peoples has grown more popular in 21st century Ukraine so too the popularity of the country's Ukrainian Orthodox Church. More here.

New Poll of Orthodox Christians in Ukraine

A recent poll has shown that of Ukrainian Orthodox Christians 46% self-identify as members of the autonomous Church of Ukraine under the Moscow Patriarchate and 22% self-identify as members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate. More (in Russian) here. Hat tip to Ad Orientem for linking to a reposting of this!

UAOC Primate Calls for World Orthodoxy to Resolve Ukrainian Schisms

Metropolitan Mefodiy (Kudryakov) of Kiev, First Hierarch of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church formerly in communion with the Ukrainian Orthodox Churches of the USA and Canada under the Ecumenical Patriarchate, has renewed his call for the healing of the schisms within Ukrainian Orthodoxy, addressing his appeal to all of world Orthodoxy and not only to the Church of Constantinople as had been previously done. More here. Hat tip again to Byzantine Texas for posting this first!

Festal Services in Ukrainian Orthodox Parish in Romania

Bishop Lucian (Mic) of Caransebes celebrated Annunciation today in a parish in Zorile, Romania. (More on that here.) This wouldn't be particularly noteworthy were it not that this parish is a Ukrainian Orthodox community in Romania (and therefore under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Bucharest, whose canonical territory Romania is) and on the Julian calendar, whose Romanian Orthodox faithful were persecuted and cast out of the Church of Romania from the 1920s onwards.

Were all the Orthodox to follow the principles being adopted by the Bucharest Patriarchate outside Romania, then the Zorile parish would be under Moscow or perhaps Kiev, whilst others in southwestern Romania would be under the Pech Patriarchate and still more in southern and southeastern Romania would be under the Sofia Patriarchate. Perhaps in the near future the Bucharest Patriarchate will transfer its non-Romanian parishes in Romania to their "rightful" Churches so that 'there is Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, for all are divided in Christ Jesus' as the Scriptures say...

Patriarch Bartholomew Committed to United Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Patriarch Bartholomew (Arhondonis) of Constantinople has reaffirmed his commitment to the reunification of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine during his recent visit with Prime Minister Mykola Azarov of Ukraine. More here.

Kiev Patriarchate under Siege

In an interview with Express Patriarch Philaret (Denisenko) of Kiev of the schismatic Ukrainian Orthodox Church has stated that the current Ukrainian government is seeking to liquidate his jurisdiction in the country. In recent months the state has begun returning churches taken from the Moscow Patriarchate at the time of Patriarch Philaret's excommunication to the control of the Moscow Patriarchate's autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Moscow Patriarchate has also made a greater effort in recent months to dialogue with the hierarchs and clergy of the Kiev Patriarchate to bring them back into the communion of the worldwide Orthodox Churches. More here.

Kiev's Church of the Tithe Not To Be Rebuilt

The Ukrainian government has decided to build a museum over the foundations of the ancient Church of the Tithe in Kiev instead of restoring the church as it had previously indicated it would. There is already a small church next to the site that was meant to serve in place of the Church of the Tithe until it could be rebuilt. More here.

Presidential Omission Criticized in Ukraine

In congratulating the nation on the occasion of the Lord's Nativity President Viktor F. Yanukovych of Ukraine failed to mention the Ukrainian Catholic Church's celebration of the holiday alongside the country's Ukrainian Orthodox Churches. The vast majority of Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians, but some three to four million (out of forty-five million) are Byzantine Rite Catholics under the jurisdiction of the Vatican. More here.

Pictured is President Yanukovych during this year's Nativity services at the Pochayev Lavra in the western Ukraine.

Kiev Patriarchate Claims Government Pressuring Clergy to Abandon Schism

Patriarch Philaret (Denisenko) of Kiev, first hierarch of the large of the schismatic Ukrainian Orthodox Churches, claims that the Moscow Patriarchate has been using its friendship with the newly installed Ukrainian government to have pressure exerted on Kiev Patriarchate priests to abandon their schism and return to the communion of the world Orthodox Churches. More here.

Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Praises Metropolitan Volodymyr for Pro-Unity Work

There is still great hope amongst the various schismatic synods in the Ukraine that the Ecumenical Patriarchate will receive them into its jurisdiction and recognize the independence of their factions of Ukrainian Orthodoxy. Nonetheless, at yesterday's celebrations in honor of the 75th birthday of Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), First Hierarch of the autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Constantinopolitan Orthodox Church was represented by its Metropolitan Jeremias (Calligiorgis) of Switzerland. In his congratulations to Metropolitan Volodymyr, Metropolitan Jeremias praised him for his work in preserving and strengthening the unity of the canonical Orthodox Church of the Ukraine, which remains by far the largest synod in the country. More here.

Pictured are Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kiev together with Patriarch Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine and hierarchs of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Resolutions of the Summer Session of the UAOC Holy Synod

God only knows how I missed this, but this past July a session of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC), the second largest schismatic group active in the Ukraine, mandated that the First Hierarch of the UAOC commemorate Patriarch Bartholomew in all the services he celebrates to ensure the unity of the UAOC with worldwide Orthodoxy and show its desire for the full communion of a united, autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church with the Local Orthodox Churches.

The Holy Synod reaffirmed the absence of communion between the UAOC and the Kiev Patriarchate, the largest schism in the Ukraine, in the hope that this too would speed the establishment of an independent Local Orthodox Church in the Ukraine. The Holy Synod also agreed with the proposal of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church to establish a dialogue commission on the current issues dividing Orthodoxy in the Ukraine. Like I said, quite an eventful meeting and somehow I didn't manage to post anything about it until now! The Holy Synod's resolutions can be found in full here.

Pictured is the Church of St. Andrew the Apostle in Kiev, Ukraine, which serves as the cathedra of the Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine of the UAOC. The church was built on the site where St. Andrew is said to have planted a cross during his brief visit to what today is the Ukraine. Somewhat ironically considering the strong anti-Russian nationalism found in much of the UAOC, modern St. Andrew's was built with monies provided by Empress Elizabeth I of Russia, who personally laid its foundation stone.

Nineteenth UOCUSA Council

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA (UOCUSA), a jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, has just finished its nineteenth council ("sobor"). Among other things the assembled hierarchs, clergy, and representatives of the laity heard a report from a hierarch of the schismatic Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) on the state of that jurisdiction in the Ukraine. The UOCUSA was part of the UAOC until the 1990s when it united with the Ecumenical Patriarchate's Ukrainian Orthodox Diocese of America. Its cemetery at St. Andrew's Memorial Church in South Bound Brook, New Jersey, is the burial site of a number of hierarchs of the UAOC, among them Patriarch Mstyslav of Kiev, the former metropolitan of the UOCUSA who moved to the Ukraine after it gained independence to reestablish the UAOC there. In addition to the greetings from the UAOC the council also received the greetings of Patriarch Bartholomew, who was represented by his exarch in North America, Archbishop Demetrius of Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

15th Anniversary of the Enthronement of Philaret (Denisenko) of Kiev

The schismatic Kiev Patriarchate is preparing to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the enthronement of its first hierarch, Patriarch Philaret (Denisenko) of Kiev and All the Ukraine, this Thursday. More here.

Patriarch Philaret was defrocked by the Russian Orthodox Church, within which he was a senior hierarch under the Soviet Yoke, for immorality and for leading part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church into schism through union with the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, a World War II-era creation supported by Germany, at the behest of the Ukrainian government.