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The religious History of Christianity in Ukraine dates to the earliest centuries of the apostolic church when, according to legend, it was preached by St. Andrew in parts of the modern territory of Ukraine.

Dominant role of Byzantine Christianity established[edit]

The acceptance of Byzantine Christianity as the dominant religion in the area of present-day Ukraine is generally attributed to [[Saint Volodymyr's Baptism of Kiev in 988, by which Christianity became the state religion of Kievan Rus. Following the Great Schism which divided Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, the territory of Kievan Rus continued to associate with the Byzantine Patriarch.

While most of the Christians in Ukraine were and still are Orthodox, since 1598 an Eastern Rite Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), which claimed varying with time but always a significant membership in western Ukraine, is in full communion with the Catholic see. Still, Eastern Orthodoxy remained a traditional religion in Ukraine and at some points in history was inseparable from most Ukrainians' national self-identity.

The political jurisdiction of Orthodox churches in Ukraine changed several times in its history. Currently, three major Ukrainian Orthodox church bodies coexist, and often compete, in Ukraine: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. Of them only the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, autonomous under the Patriarch of Moscow, has a canonical standing (legal recognition) within the worldwide Eastern Orthodox Church organization, and operates in communion with the other Eastern Orthodox Churches. However, since the differences within Ukrainian Orthodoxy are purely political rather than doctrinal, this situation may be resolved at some future point with a single Ukrainian Orthodox Church to unite the Orthodox Christians in the nation.

Protestantism, which has had some presence on the territory of Ukraine since at least the sixteenth century, was preached for the following centuries mostly by foreign visitors and settlers. While this situation has changed somewhat in recent decades, Protestants in today's Ukraine remain a relatively small minority.

Early history[edit]

Christianity was most likely first introduced into the lands of present-day Ukraine by the Goths, who established the Chernyakhov culture in the 2nd century. Although not a christian people as a whole, the incoming Ostrogoths certainly had relations with christian centers such as Rome and had come across missionaries in the lands they had previously inhabited. However, the the Gothic control over the area proved to be short-lived, as the Hunnic Empire swept into the area in the 4th century.

Saint Andriy]][edit]

Saint Andriy (Andrew) the apostle is believed to have traveled up the western shores of the Black Sea, to the area of present-day southern Ukraine, while preaching in the lands of Scythia. Legend has it that he traveled further still, up the Dnieper River, until he came to the location of present-day Kyiv in 55 AD, where he erected a cross and prophesied the foundation of a great Christian city. Although the Primary Chronicle refers to the apostle continuing his journey as far north as Novgorod, St. Andriy's visit to Ruthenian lands has not been proven, and in fact may have been a later invention designed to boost the autocephalic claims of Ukrainian churches. ^[1] Belief in the missionary visit of St. Andriy became widespread by the Middle Ages, and by 1621, a Kyivan synod had declared him the "Rus'-apostle".^[2] The 18th century Church of St. Andriy in Kyiv replaced an earlier structure from 1086, both of which were purportedly built on the very location of the apostle's cross, planted on a hill overlooking the city.

Crimean roots[edit]

According to a 9th-century tradition, Pope Clement I (ruled 88-98) was exiled to Chersonesos on the Crimean peninsula in 102, as was Pope Martin I in 655. Furthermore, it has been definitively recorded that a representative from the Black Sea area, the "head of the Scythian bishopric," was present at the First Council of Nicaea in 325, as well as the First Council of Constantinople in 381; it has been surmised that this representative would have to have been Bishop Cadmus of the Bosporan Kingdom. Ostrogoths who remained on present-day Ukrainian lands after the invasion of the Huns established a metropolinate at Drous in northern Crimena. By that time, the Goths, some of whom were Christians, had already settled in the area of Oium, so it is conceivable that churches had been created further inland. By the the 9th century, it is known that the Slavic population of western Ukraine under the rule of Great Moravia were Christian.

The rise in prominence of the East Slavs in Ukraine coincided with the rule of the Rus', whose pantheon of gods held a considerable following for over 600 years. However, Christianity was gradually spreading among the Rus' nobility with Princess Olga (St. Olga) being the first known ruler to have been baptized as Helen. Her baptism in 955 or 957 in Kiev or Constantinople (accounts differ) was a turning point in religious life of Rus' but it was left to her grandson, Vladimir the Great, to make Kievan Rus' a Christian state.

File:Baptizm of Olga Kirillov.jpg

Baptism of Princess Olga by S. Kirillov.

Christianity became dominant in the territory with the mass Baptism of Kiev in the Dnieper River in 988 ordered by Vladimir. Following the Great Schism in 1054, the Kievan Rus' that incorporated most of modern Ukraine ended up on the Eastern Orthodox side of the divided Christian world.

Early on, the Orthodox Christian metropolitans had their seat in Pereyaslav, and later in Kiev. The people of Kiev lost their Metropolitan to Vladimir-Suzdal in 1299, but regained a Ukrainian Metropolitan in Halych in 1303. The religious affairs were also ruled in part by a Metropolitan in Navahradak, (present-day Belarus).

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Crimean Khanate

Little Tartary

Ottoman Empire

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Russian Empire:

^ Panas, Kost' (1992). History of the Ukrainian Church (Історія української церкви), Transintekh; p. 12.
^ Wilson, Andrew (2000). The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-09309-8; pg.33.

[1] Panas, Kost' (1992). History of the Ukrainian Church (Історія української церкви), Transintekh; p. 12.

[2] Wilson, Andrew (2000). The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-09309-8; pg.33.

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