Archeparchy of Kyiv
About
Archeparchy of Kyiv (Latin Archidioecesis Kioviensis) is an archeparchy of the Greek Catholic Church located in Kyiv. It embraces the territory of Central and North Ukraine that is Kyiv city, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Cherkasy, and Chernihiv regions. The total area is 178 270 km2 which is spreading on 6 750 settlements. The total population of this territory is around 9 778 600 people.
Nowadays Archeparchy of Kyiv is divided into eleven protopresbyters:
- Left-bank Kyiv Protopresbytery
- Right-bank Kyiv Protopresbytery
- Bar Protopresbytery
- Berdychiv Protopresbytery
- Bila Tserkva Protopresbytery
- Brovary Protopresbytery
- Vyshhorod Protopresbytery
- Vinnytsia Protopresbytery
- Zhytomyr Protopresbytery
- Cherkasy Protopresbytery
- Chernihiv Protopresbytery
In total in the archeparchy of Kyiv, there are 96 parish communities where 128 priests and 10 deacons perform their pastoral ministries, and around 66 candidates for the priesthood are trained in the seminary (data for 2015).
On the territory of the archeparchy, in Kniazhychi village (Brovary District, Kyiv Region) Kyiv Trinitarian Theological Seminary is located.
Coat of arms of the archeparchy of Kyiv
In the archeparchy of Kyiv, there are 14 monasteries of which 6 are for men and 8 for women. The monasteries unite 25 brothers and 37 sisters. Sinkel of monasticism of the arch archeparchy of Kyiv is responsible for the coordination of activity of the monasteries. The main directions of activity of the monasteries are pastoral, evangelistic-catechetical, socio-charitable, and administrative.
Since March 2009, the archeparchial magazine Sobor has been published.
Location
Materials
Bishops
Since the 27th of March 2011, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk has been the ruling eparch of the archeparchy of Kyiv. And the Reverend Bishop Yosyf Milyan has been an auxiliary bishop since the 16 of April 2009.
The Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Kyiv is the cathedral of the archeparchy. The pro-Cathedral temple is the Co-Cathedral of the Virgin Mary in Vyshhorod with the miraculous icon of the Mother of God.
History
The Archeparchy of Kyiv of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is one of the successors of the Kyiv Metropolis that was established in 988 as a result of the baptism of Kyivan Rus by Volodymyr Sviatoslavich as a church eparchy of the Patriarchate of Constantinople with its center in Kyiv.
In 1458 because of the rebellion of the Moscow Metropolis in Moscow, the Patriarchate of Constantinople formed a new Kyiv Metropolis, which was beyond the influence of Moscow hierarchies and princes.
a) The division of the Kyiv Metropolis into the Uniate and Orthodox Church.
In 1596 after signing the Church Union of Berestia, due to the decision of most of the church hierarchy, the unity between the Kyiv Metropolis and the Holy See was restored. Such the only ecclesial structure lasted until 1620 when Hetman of Ukraine Petro Sahaidachny asked Patriarch Theophanes III of Jerusalem to consecrate Metropolitan Iov Boretsky and new bishops for Kyiv Orthodox Metropolis. This event was the beginning of existing of the two Kyiv Metropolises Uniate (Greek-Catholic) and Orthodox.
b) Liquidation of the Uniate Metropolis (1839)
The Kyiv Uniate Metropolis was liquidated in 1839 on the pseudo-Council in Polotsk and was forcibly joined by The Russian Orthodox Church.
c) Revival of the UGCC in Central Ukraine
After the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church came out of the underground and revival the independence of Ukraine at the beginning of the 90-s of the XX century, UGCC started to function in Left-Bank Ukraine.
On the 2nd of April 1996, according to the ordinance of Cardinal, Major Archbishop of the UGCC Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky, the exarchate of Kyiv-Vyshhorod was instituted. It embraced the whole territory of Ukraine except Halychyna. Afterward, new ecclesial structures separated from the Kyiv-Vyshhorod exarchate. They are part of the Kyiv-Galician Metropolis of UGCC:
- Archeparchy of Kyiv
- Exarchate of Lutsk
- Exarchate of Donetsk (in 2014 it was abstracted from the exarchate of Donetsk-Kharkiv).
- Exarchate of Kharkiv (in 2014 it was abstracted from the exarchate of Donetsk-Kharkiv).
- Exarchate of Odesa (in 2014 it was abstracted from the exarchate of Odesa-Crimea).
- Exarchate of Crimea (in 2014 it was abstracted from the exarchate of Odesa-Crimea).
On the 21st of August 2005, the see of the Head of the UGCC was transferred from Lviv to Kyiv.
On the 18th of August 2013, the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ of the UGCC was blessed.
Shrines
The most significant shrines of the archeparchy of Kyiv are the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Kyiv and Vyshhorod miraculous icon of the Mother of God, which is placed in the Cathedral in Vyshhorod (Kyiv Region). Also, one of the pilgrimage sites is the Church of St. Nicholas on the Askold’s Grave in Kyiv which was the first church that Pope Saint John Paul II visited in the summer of 2001 during his trip to Ukraine. Another shrine is the Church and Monastery of Saint Basil the Great in Kyiv where relics of Saint Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, and Blessed holy-martyr Josaphat Joseph Kotsylovsky are kept.
Contacts
Address: St. Mykilsko-Slobidska, 5, Livoberezhna metro station, Kyiv 02002, Ukraine
Phone: +380 (44) 517-37-48
Email: [email protected]
Website: ugcc.church