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11DOI: 10.17223/23451785/1/16
Orthodoxy in the Carpatho-Dniestrovian Lands (On the Occasion of 200th Anniversary of the Kishinev Diocese and the Centenary of the Second Marmarosh-
Sighet Trial)
S. G. Sulyak
St. Petersburg State University 7/9 Universitetskaya Embankment, Saint Petersburg, 199034, Russia E-mail: sergei_suLeak@rambLer.ru
Православие в Карпато-Днестровских землях (К 200-летию основания Кишиневской епархии и 100-летию Второго Мармарош-Сиготского процесса)
С.Г . Суляк
Published in: Rusin. 2013. Vol. 34. Is. 4. pp. 8-15 (In Russian).
URL: http://journals.tsu.ru/rusin/&journal_ page=archive&id=1108&article_id=34121
The Galician Diocese of the Archdiocese of Kiev played a key role in the dissemination and preservation of Orthodoxy in the Carpatho-Dniestrovian lands.
The Diocese came into being in the middle of the 12th century after Galych (Halych) had become the capital of the homonymous Principality in 1141. The first information of the Halych Archdiocese dates back to 1303 - 1304. It was short-lived and then refounded in 1371 upon Polish King Casimir III the Great's demand; King Casimir annexed Galychina (Halychyna).
By the 13th century, Subcarpathian Rus' (Ugorskaja Rus') had become part of the Kingdom of Hungary. After the death of Daniel Galitsky (Daniel of Galicia), the last representative of the princely family, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Polish Kingdom had been in conflict throughout forty years for the Galych-Volhynia Principality. The strife resulted in Galicia becoming part of Poland.
During the intensification of struggle for the Galych-Volhynia Principality in the lands that previously had been its part, the Moldavian Orthodox Church was at first surbodinate to the Galician Archdiocese due to colonization of Vlachs and Rusins, then to the Constantinople Patriarch and sporadically to the autonomous Archbishopric of Ohrid.
At the end of the 1530s, the Moldavian Principality came finally under the Turkish rule. However, its religious connection with Carpathian Rus' was not interrupted.
The population in Galichina and Subcarpathians being part of Catholic Poland and Hungary experienced ethnic and religious persecution. In 1569 there was the unification of Poland and the Great Duchy of Lithuania and Ruthenia, and they became a single state called Rzeczpospolita Polska (under the Union of Lublin). In 1596 the majority of Orthodox bishops from Western Rus' signed the Union of Brest. The Union of Uzhgorod was signed in 1646, the Union of Mukachevo was concluded in 1664 and the Union of Maramures was signed in 1713.
Populace still called their faith "russka", most of the clergy and laymen stuck to the Eastern rite and opposed Latinization. Moldavian Gospodars (kings) and boyars provided great support to Orthodoxy in Carpathian Rus' donating considerable sums to churches and to the Dormition Stavropegial Brotherhood in Lvov. The Moldavian hierarchs appointed Orthodox bishops. The last Orthodox Bishops of Marmarosh losif Stoica and Dositei Teodorovici were ordained by the Metropolitan of Suceava and Moldavia.
The Dormition Stavropegial Brotherhood (1572 - 1788) helped to introduce printing in the Moldavian Principality and forwarded there the Orthodox literature printed in Lvov.
A great contribution to the preservation of Orthodoxy was made by the natives of Moldavia. On becoming head of the Western Russian Orthodox Church at dark hour, the Metropolitan of Kiev, Galych (Halych) and All Rus' Peter Mogila (Movila) was able to recover possession and return to the Metropolitanate of many churches and monasteries which had previously been seized by the Uniats with the royal support. When Peter Mogila became the metropolitan, he transformed the Kiev Brotherhood School to the Mohyla Collegium later known as the Kiev Mohyla Academy which became a model for theological institutions in Russia. Then Peter Mogila founded the Slavonic-Greek-Latin Academy in Vinnytsia, established a monastery of the Kiev Brotherhood and printing works subordinate to the Kiev Metropolitan.
In 1772 Galichina was annexed to Austria as a result of the first partition of Poland. In 1774 Austrians occupied Bukovina, the northern part of the Moldavian Principality; a year later they annexed it under
the treaty with Turks. Thus, at the end of the 18th century most of the Halych Principality lands became part of the Austrian (Austro-Hungarian since 1867) Empire. Despite the fact that Orthodoxy was one of the state's official religions spread in Bukovina, the Austrian authorities tried their hardest to stop the population's returning to their "old" faith.
The beginning of the 20th century saw the most tragic events in the struggle of Rusins for their ethnicity and Orthodoxy.
Mass conversions of the Rusins of Ugor (Subcarpathian) and Halych Rus' to Orthodoxy began in 1903. Orthodox priests Alexey Kabaliuk (Ugor Rus') and Maxim Sandovich (Halych Rus') became their spiritual leaders. In 1994 the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church canonized the Holy Martyr Maxim (Sandovich), then in 1996 he was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. In 2001 the Carpatho-Russian Schiarchimandrite Alexis (Kabaliuk) was canonized by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
At the beginning of 1904, the First Marmorosh-Sighot (Maramorosh-Sighet) trial took place in Ugor Rus' against the peasants from the Subcarpathian village of Isa in the Khust District of Transcarpathian Oblast (Region). More than 160 Orthodox monks and nuns hailed from that village at the beginning of the 20th century. They were accused of praying for the Russian tsar and of inciting people against the Uniate faith. Seven peasants were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment lasting from 9 days to 14 months and punished by large fines.
The Second Marmorosh-Sighot (Maramorosh-Sighet) trial was held from December, 29, 1913 to March, 3,1914. Initially, 189 people were brought to trial, mostly peasants from villages Isa and Velikiye Luchki (Nagylucska, Vel'ky Lucky) situated near Mukachevo.
During their arrest and imprisonment the peasants were abused and beaten by the Hungarian gendarmes. Later, the prosecutor reduced the number of the defendants to 94 people accusing them of incitement against the Magyar people, the Greek Catholic religion and the clergy as well as of violation of the laws. The defendants were sentenced to a total of 39.5 years in prison.
The Prut-Dniester Interfluve experienced a different fate. This territory later called Bessarabia became part of the Russian Empire under the Peace Treaty of Bucharest resulting from the Russo-Turkish War of 1806 -1812.
In 1808, during the Russo-Turkish War, the former Metropolitan of Kiev Gavriil Banulescu-Bodoni was appointed the Exarch of Moldo-Wallachia. Through the participation in 1811 - 1812 in the sessions of the Holy Synod and the Commission for the administrative arragement
of the region included into the Russian Empire, he worked towards retaining the civil and ecclesiastical administrative scheme that had been introduced to Wallachia and Moldavia on a provisional basis.
The Eparchy of Chi§inau and Khotyn headed by Banulescu-Bodoni was established in Transnistria on August 21, 1813. Besides Bessarabia, the new Eparchy included the so-called Khan Ukraine (Ottoman Ukraine) or the Ochakov steppe with such cities and towns as Tiraspol, Ananiev, Odessa and their counties (before 1837), and the Khush Diocese (Zaprutskaya Moldova, Western Moldavia). As part of the diocese, there were 826 churches.
Nowadays, the Metropolis of Chi§inau and All Moldova of the Russian Orthodox Church has 610 parishes, 24 monasteries and 5 religious retreats (sketes).
Keywords
Carpatho-Rus', Galician Principality, Moldavia, Bessarabia, Metropolia, Unia, Orthodoxy, Peter Moghila, Pamba Berynda, Gavriil Banulescu-Bodoni.
