Turning the pages back... (02/02/97)

Turning the pages back...

February 5, 1696

This year marks the 101st anniversary of St. Teodosiy Uhlytsky's death on February 5, 1696, in Chernihiv. Born in Ulianiv in the Podilia region in the 1630s, he studied at the Kyivan Mohyla Academy and entered the Kyivan Cave Monastery (Pecherska Lavra) upon graduation.

After serving as a deacon at St. Sophia Cathedral, he moved to the monastery near Baturyn (later Hetman Ivan Mazepa's capital), and then served as hegumen of the St. Onuphrius Monastery in Korsun (1662-1664) and the Vydubychi Monastery in Kyiv (1664-1688).

In 1688, Uhlytsky was named archimandrite of the Yeletskyi Dormition Monastery in Chernihiv and assistant to Archbishop Lazar Baranovych, a staunch defender of Ukrainian Orthodoxy from the encroachments of the Moscow Patriarch. Four years later, Uhlytsky was elected auxiliary bishop to his mentor, and was sent to Muscovy to be consecrated by Patriarch Adrian.

This consecration helped to undermine the Chernihiv Eparchy's relationship with the Kyivan Metropolitan and increase the Moscow Patriarchate's authority. Nevertheless, Uhlytsky maintained good relations with Hetman Mazepa and offered key support to the Chernihiv printing press, which served as a linchpin in the maintenance of independence from the Holy Synod's decrees that all books be "in agreement with Muscovite books."

After Uhlytsky's death, his remains were associated with a number of miracles and healings, and he was canonized in 1896. St. Teodosiy's feast day is September 22, or September 9 according to the Julian calendar.

Sources: "Uhlytsky, Teodosii," "Baranovych, Lazar," "Chernihiv printing press," Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Vols. 1, 5 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993).

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