PATRIARCH KIRILL RECALLS THAT RUS "DID NOT BOW THE KNEE" AFTER THE UNIA OF CONSTANTINOPLE
Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill recalled in a sermon the circumstances of the adoption by Constantinople in the 15th century of a Unia with the Catholic church and the firm resolve of the clergy and all believers in Rus to preserve Orthodoxy, and he declared that today, also, attempts "to wrest Orthodox Ukraine from the Russian church" will not be crowned with success.
According to the patriarch, in the 15th century the Orthodox church suffered severe trials: "In 1439, the emperor of Orthodox Byzantium, along with the patriarch of Constantinople, made a decision to reunite with the Catholic church, that is, in essence, to adopt Catholicism." The Constantinople patriarch traveled to the Italian city of Ferrara in order to sign a Unia at a council. At the time, Constantinople was seeking protection from the looming threat of conquest by the Ottoman Turks and "the emperor, for purely pragmatic considerations, wishing to obtain military help from the West, decided to adopt Catholicism and to reunite with Rome."
"Clouds were gathering over Rus. Metropolitan of Kiev and all-Rus Isidore, who had been legally sent from Constantinople, accepted the Unia in Italy and in a cardinal's vestments, red cap, and red robe came to the city of Moscow. He expected that everybody would bow the knee before him, but this did not happen. Grand Prince Vasily Vasilievich drove Isidore from Moscow. This expulsion happened with the direct participation of the clergy, who did not accept either Isidore or the Unia," the patriarch explained.
At that time, the holy prelate of Moscow, Iona, became the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, the first metropolitan installed by the bishops of the RPTs and the first primate of an autocephalous, independent Russian church, who exerted very much effort for maintaining ecclesiastical unity in Rus. In his turn, Isidore, who had been driven from Moscow and was supported by the Constantinople patriarch, settled in the western regions which, as before, remained loyal to Moscow and to the metropolitan of Moscow and all-Rus.
After several years, Patriarch Kirill continued, by the efforts of the prince of Lithuania and the direct order of Pope Callistus, the western dioceses of the Russian church were severed from Moscow by force. Some of them accepted the Unia and some remained Orthodox, but they were forbidden to commemorate the name of the metropolitan of Moscow and all-Rus.
"We know how difficult was the history of the western Russian dioceses, located on the territory of what is now Lithuania, Belorussia, and Ukraine, and how difficult it was to resist the political pressure, but nevertheless the spiritual bond was always maintained. And when under the sovereign Alexis Mikhailovich, by the efforts of Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Nikon, in 1654 there occurred the reunification of Ukraine with Russia, our brothers, who had been wrested away by difficult historical circumstances, again entered into communion with the city of Moscow," the head of the RPTs said.
He recalled that in 1686, Patriarch of Constantinople Dionysius transferred to the holy prelate of Moscow all rights to jurisdiction over the Ukrainian land. "Thus there occurred not only the political reunification of Ukraine with Russia; there occurred ecclesiastical unification, the restoration of the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church, and this event had such enormous significance for the salvation of Orthodoxy in the western and south-western dioceses," the primate declared.
He said that today, "when conversations are under way to the effect that it is necessary to again wrest Orthodox Ukraine from the Russian church, nothing new is happening."
"This has already been in those times about which we have just spoken. But after all nothing has been achieved. And not because certain political forces have so predetermined it but because it is impossible to sunder the spiritual unity of Sacred Rus. And if this happens sometime—God forbid!—then it is not known what will happen to the Orthodox church. Because the spiritual unity of Sacred Rus keeps many from bowing to evil and we must maintain this unity with all our might and strengthen it," Patriarch Kirill concluded. (tr. by PDS, posted 3 September 2018)
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