The destruction of Kyiv in 1240 by the Mongol invasion marked a turning point in the history of the Church of Kyiv. The once-great spiritual and political center of Rus’ was devastated, and the life of the Church entered a new historical period.
Without the strong center that Kyiv had once provided, the leadership of the Church gradually moved to other regions. In 1299, Metropolitan Maximus transferred the residence of the Metropolitan of Kyiv from Kyiv to Vladimir-on-Klyazmain the northeastern lands of Rus’. At the same time, new political and cultural centers began to emerge in different parts of the former Kyivan world.
One of these centers developed in the southwestern lands of Rus’, in the Kingdom of Galicia-Volhynia. Founded and strengthened by King Danylo Romanovych, this state became an important political, cultural, and commercial center in the region.
This situation created new challenges for the Church. The metropolitan who governed the Church in the territories of Galicia and Volhynia now resided far away, in a different political realm. This raised concerns among the rulers of the region.
Prince Lev, the son of King Danylo, recognized the difficulty of having the metropolitan living outside the lands that he governed. However, it was his son, Prince Yuri I, who took the decisive step. Prince Yuri petitioned the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to establish a separate metropolitanate that would better serve the Church in these lands.
In response to this request, Constantinople approved the creation of a new ecclesiastical province. In 1303, the Metropolitanate of Halych was established. The decision was confirmed by the Byzantine Emperor Andronicus II Palaiologos, and the official ecclesiastical charter was issued by Patriarch Athanasius I of Constantinople.
A metropolitanate is an ecclesiastical province headed by a metropolitan bishop who oversees several dioceses, known as suffragan eparchies. The newly created metropolitanate included several important dioceses of the region, among them Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Lutsk, Peremyshl, Turov, and Kholm.
The establishment of the Metropolitanate of Halych reflected the growing importance of the southwestern lands of Rus’. It also demonstrated how the Church adapted its structures to changing historical and political circumstances.
However, the Metropolitanate of Halych did not last long. In 1347, the Byzantine emperor John VI Kantakouzenos, with the agreement of the patriarchal synod, issued a decree suppressing the metropolitanate and placing its territories again under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan of Kyiv.
There are indications that later, possibly around 1370, a metropolitan connected with Halych may have briefly served again. Nevertheless, by the end of the fourteenth century, the Metropolitanate of Halych had disappeared from the ecclesiastical map of the Kyivan Church.
Yet even when church structures disappear, their memory remains. In the life of the Church, many institutions have been suppressed or abolished during times of political domination or occupation. This has happened repeatedly throughout history.
Nevertheless, the historical memory of the Church endures. The memory of vibrant cities, active Christian communities, and growing ecclesiastical life continues to live in the consciousness of the faithful.
Centuries later, this historical memory continued to shape the identity of the Church. Today, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church bears the title Major Archbishop of Kyiv and Halych, uniting the legacy of these two historic centers.
"The church lives. It has a history. Most importantly, it has a future."
Keys:
#BorysGudziak #history #ugcc_history
