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Ukrainian Catholic Church, largest of the Eastern Catholic churches, in communion with Rome since the Union of Brest-Litovsk (1596). Byzantine Christianity was established among the Ukrainians in 988 by St. Vladimir (Volodimir) and followed Constantinople (now Istanbul) in the Great Schism of 1054.

Ukrainian Catholic Church

Temporary reunion with Rome was effected in the mid-15th century, and a definitive union was achieved at Brest-Litovsk in 1596, when Metropolitan Michael Ragoza of Kiev and the bishops of Vladimir, Lutsk, Polotsk, Pinsk, and Kholm agreed to join the Roman communion, on condition that their traditional rites be preserved intact.

Ukrainian Catholic Church

The Orthodox did not accept the union peaceably and the bishops of Lvov (now Lviv) and Przemysl, as well as the Orthodox Zaporozhian Cossacks, opposed the Catholics. In 1633 the metropolitanate of Kiev returned to Orthodoxy, while Lvov joined the union in 1677, followed by Przemysl in 1692.

Ukrainian Catholic Church

The partition of Poland at the end of the 18th century brought all Ukrainians, except those in the province of Galicia, under Russian control. By 1839 the tsarist government had forcibly returned the Ukrainian Catholics to Orthodoxy. Galicia meanwhile came under the domination of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and in 1807 it was organized into the metropolitanate of Lvov.

Ukrainian Catholic Church

With the occupation of Galicia by Soviet armies in 1939, all church activity was suppressed, and the hierarchy was interned. In 1944 the Soviet authorities began to put pressure on the Ukrainian bishops to dissolve the Union of Brest-Litovsk. On their refusal, they were arrested and imprisoned or deported. A spurious synod in 1946 broke the union with Rome and "united" the Ukrainian Catholics with the Russian Orthodox. Not until December 1989, during the general liberalization of Soviet life, was the Ukrainian Catholic Church again made legal.

Ukrainian Catholic Church

A great number of Ukrainians emigrated to the Americas and Western Europe between 1880 and 1914 and again after World War II. They are organized into the metropolitanate of Canada, with the sees of Winnipeg (metropolitan see), Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Toronto, and the metropolitanate of the United States, with the metropolitan see of Philadelphia and the eparchies of Stamford, Conn., and St. Nicholas of Chicago. Apostolic eparchies exist in Australia (Melbourne), Brazil (Curitiba), France (Paris), England (London), and Germany (Munich).

Ukrainian Catholic Church