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December 21, 1326

The world of iconography, so different from that of individualized artistry that emerged following the Renaissance, has given us masterpieces, but the names of its masters are less known than those of, for example, Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo. Some names have come down to us, including that of St. Petro Ratensky (Petro of Ratne), who also held high clerical office.

His exact date of birth is unknown, but we do know he was born in Ratne of the Halych-Volhynian principality in the late 13th or early 14th century. That is, he lived after Kyiv lost its political pre-eminence in Rus' in the wake of the Mongolian invasion and repeated razings of the ancient capital, but still held an important place in the Eastern Slavic theological world.

As a monk in Dvorets, a town in the Lviv region, Ratensky painted icons and donated them to various churches in Ukraine and abroad.

In 1308, he was elected metropolitan of Kyiv and all Rus', but resided in Moscow.

A number of icons of the Theotokos (the Virgin Mary), including those at the Dormition Cathedral in Volodymyr Volynskyi, the Krekhiv monastery in Ukraine, and the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, Russia, have been attributed to him. The Theotokos of the Dormition Cathedral in Moscow's Kremlin also is his work.

Petro Ratensky died in Moscow on December 21, 1326, and was canonized by the Orthodox Church 14 years later.

Source: "Ratensky, Petro," Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Vol. 4 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993).

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 21, 1997, No. 51, Vol. LXV

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