Conversion of Chelm Eparchy
Encyclopedia
The Conversion
of Chełm Eparchy
, which occurred from January to May 1875, refers to the generally forced conversion
of the last Uniate Eparchy in the Russian Empire
, which was centered in the Volhynia
n city of Chełm (Kholm), to the Orthodox
faith.
state of Kievan Rus'
was converted to the Eastern form of Christianity
by Vladimir I of Kiev
. Following the East-West Schism
between the Roman and Byzantine Churches, the form of Christianity that Kievan Rus followed became known as Eastern Orthodox Church
. In 1241, Kievan Rus was conquered by the Mongols. Over the centuries, the parts of Rus that would one day become Ukraine
and Belarus
were absorbed by the Poland. Within the mostly Roman Catholic Polish state
, the native Orthodox population and Church of the former lands of Ruthenia were pressured to transfer their allegiance from the Patriarch of Constantinople
to the Pope of Rome. Between 1595-1596, the Union of Brest
saw the creation of the Uniate Church (later the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
) in Ruthenia. Like other Eastern Catholic Churches, the Uniate Church maintained the liturgical
, theological and devotional traditions of the Orthodox Church despite its new allegiance to Rome.
When the Russian Empire
gained the territories of Belarus, Ukraine and Poland through a series of wars and Partitions of Poland
that lasted from the 17th through the end of the eighteenth centuries, the Uniate Church was systematically absorbed by the Russian Orthodox Church, and in 1839 abolished altogether with the Synod of Polotsk. However, the latter event did not affect the Eparchy of Chelm. Thus after the November Uprising
in 1831, the Synod of Polotsk which disestablished the Uniate church outside the Kingdom of Poland did not affect Eparchy of Chełm.
The greater longevity of the Uniate Church in this region was attributed to several factors. The Eparchy's territory came under Russian control later than did any other Uniate territories ultimately absorbed by Russia (1815 unlike 1795). During the Third Partition of Poland
in 1795, it was granted to Austria. Only two decades later, after the Russian victory in the Napoleonic Wars
did it become part of Russia. Also, unlike other Uniate regions within the Russian Empire, it had been part of the autonomous Congress Poland
. Another factor affecting the Uniate Church's longevity was its deep roots in the local population, which unlike other Uniate territory was deeply mixed with Poles and Ukrainians both ethnically and culturally. Both groups in the Chełm region tended to view the Russian authorities as their mutual enemy. The Tsarist pressure on the Polish population, was also applied differently than that on right-bank of the Bug. The use of Polish hymns, organs, and rosaries within the Uniate eparchy was considered a matter of pride, and attempts by Russian officials to curtail their use were defiantly ignored.
In contrast to the pro-Polish attitude of many of Chełm's Uniate parishioners and clergy, during the mid-nineteenth century the Uniate Church of neighboring Galicia was dominated by anti-Polish Russophiles (for more information about them, see Ukrainian Russophiles
) Galician Russophile priests, recruited in Vienna by the Russian embassy and in Lviv by Yakov Golovatsky, the Russophile president of the University, were encouraged to accept posts in Chełm by the Russian government, which provided them with higher salaries and more prestiguous positions than they could expect in Galicia itself. The newcomers were often opposed by the local people of Chełm, and petitions to the last Uniate Bishop complained of "Galician wolves". The Russophile Galician priests would play a major role in the conversion of Chełm Eparchy.
against Russia by Poles, the autonomous Congress Poland
was abolished. After having struggled with Russian authorities, the Uniate bishop Mikhail Kuzemsky issued a letter of resignation and left Chełm. His resignation was not accepted by the Vatican
, while the Russian authorities appointed a Galician Russophile priest, Markell Popel, as administrator of the Eparchy, despite Popel living in open concubinage
.
The Conversion to Orthodoxy was immediately preceded by the "purification" the Chełm eparchy of all Latin rituals from the Liturgy, ordered by Popel in October 1873. Initially, it was ignored by many priests, until the Russian state ordered them to sign a declaration that they would abide by the new rules by the New Year of 1874. Over twenty priests refused, and were either arrested or escaped to Galicia. Resistance to the changes was widespread among the people, particularly in the northern areas of the eparchy. In numerous parishes, the priests attempting to implement the reforms were dragged out of the church or their belongings were packed outside the rectory. Russian police and Cossacks were used to force the parishioners to accept the new rules; parishioners were sometimes beaten or shot. The struggle over ritual has been described as being comparable to that of the Old Believer schism
, and one case of self-immolation
was recorded.
The purification having been completed by the end of 1874, from January 1875 until May of that year all of the parishes proclaimed their union with the Orthodox Church. The Uniate eparchy was dissolved and incorporated into the newly created Orthodox eparchy of Chełm and Warsaw
, with Bishop Popel becoming suffragan bishop
of Lublin
resident in Chełm. The Chełm clergy was purged of most of its native priests, who were replaced by emigrating anti-Polish Russophile
priests from eastern Galicia. In March 1881, out of 291 Orthodox priests in the former eparchy, 95 were native Chełm priests who had converted, 53 were Orthodox priests who had moved into the Eparchy from elsewhere, and 143 were Galicians. Sixty-six native Chełm priests who refused to convert fled to Galicia, 74 were exiled to Russia proper or imprisoned, and seven died as martyrs. During the struggle over purification and conversion, a total of 600 faithful were deported and 108 lost their lives.
The unpopularity of the conversion within Chełm had been strong enough that when, a generation later in 1905, following the Russian Revolution of 1905
in which the Tsar issued a series of liberalisation policies under which the formally Orthodox population of Chełm was allowed to return to Catholicism, 170,000 out of 450,000 Orthodox did so by 1908 despite the Russian authorities only allowing conversion to the Latin Rite.
In 1912 the Imperial authorities created a new Kholm Governorate
, split from Congress Poland, to facilitate Russification
and conversion of the non-Eastern Orthodox Christians.
Following World War I, Chełm was incorporated into the Second Polish Republic
and this time the Orthodox population was persecuted, bearing the brunt of Polonization efforts. After World War II, Chełm was retained by the Polish People's Republic and, by irony, today it is a strong centre for the non-Galician Ukrainian culture and the Polish Orthodox Church
.
Religious conversion
Religious conversion is the adoption of a new religion that differs from the convert's previous religion. Changing from one denomination to another within the same religion is usually described as reaffiliation rather than conversion.People convert to a different religion for various reasons,...
of Chełm Eparchy
Eparchy
Eparchy is an anglicized Greek word , authentically Latinized as eparchia and loosely translating as 'rule over something,' like province, prefecture, or territory, to have the jurisdiction over, it has specific meanings both in politics, history and in the hierarchy of the Eastern Christian...
, which occurred from January to May 1875, refers to the generally forced conversion
Forced conversion
A forced conversion is the religious conversion or acceptance of a philosophy against the will of the subject, often with the threatened consequence of earthly penalties or harm. These consequences range from job loss and social isolation to incarceration, torture or death...
of the last Uniate Eparchy in the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, which was centered in the Volhynia
Volhynia
Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come...
n city of Chełm (Kholm), to the Orthodox
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
faith.
Background
In 988 East SlavicEast Slavs
The East Slavs are Slavic peoples speaking East Slavic languages. Formerly the main population of the medieval state of Kievan Rus, by the seventeenth century they evolved into the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian peoples.-Sources:...
state of Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus was a medieval polity in Eastern Europe, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240....
was converted to the Eastern form of Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
by Vladimir I of Kiev
Vladimir I of Kiev
Vladimir Sviatoslavich the Great Old East Slavic: Володимѣръ Свѧтославичь Old Norse as Valdamarr Sveinaldsson, , Vladimir, , Volodymyr, was a grand prince of Kiev, ruler of Kievan Rus' in .Vladimir's father was the prince Sviatoslav of the Rurik dynasty...
. Following the East-West Schism
East-West Schism
The East–West Schism of 1054, sometimes known as the Great Schism, formally divided the State church of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western branches, which later became known as the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, respectively...
between the Roman and Byzantine Churches, the form of Christianity that Kievan Rus followed became known as Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
. In 1241, Kievan Rus was conquered by the Mongols. Over the centuries, the parts of Rus that would one day become Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
and Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
were absorbed by the Poland. Within the mostly Roman Catholic Polish state
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
, the native Orthodox population and Church of the former lands of Ruthenia were pressured to transfer their allegiance from the Patriarch of Constantinople
Patriarch of Constantinople
The Ecumenical Patriarch is the Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome – ranking as primus inter pares in the Eastern Orthodox communion, which is seen by followers as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church....
to the Pope of Rome. Between 1595-1596, the Union of Brest
Union of Brest
Union of Brest or Union of Brześć refers to the 1595-1596 decision of the Church of Rus', the "Metropolia of Kiev-Halych and all Rus'", to break relations with the Patriarch of Constantinople and place themselves under the Pope of Rome. At the time, this church included most Ukrainians and...
saw the creation of the Uniate Church (later the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church , Ukrainska Hreko-Katolytska Tserkva), is the largest Eastern Rite Catholic sui juris particular church in full communion with the Holy See, and is directly subject to the Pope...
) in Ruthenia. Like other Eastern Catholic Churches, the Uniate Church maintained the liturgical
Divine Liturgy
Divine Liturgy is the common term for the Eucharistic service of the Byzantine tradition of Christian liturgy. As such, it is used in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches. Armenian Christians, both of the Armenian Apostolic Church and of the Armenian Catholic Church, use the same term...
, theological and devotional traditions of the Orthodox Church despite its new allegiance to Rome.
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
gained the territories of Belarus, Ukraine and Poland through a series of wars and Partitions of Poland
Partitions of Poland
The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...
that lasted from the 17th through the end of the eighteenth centuries, the Uniate Church was systematically absorbed by the Russian Orthodox Church, and in 1839 abolished altogether with the Synod of Polotsk. However, the latter event did not affect the Eparchy of Chelm. Thus after the November Uprising
November Uprising
The November Uprising , Polish–Russian War 1830–31 also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress...
in 1831, the Synod of Polotsk which disestablished the Uniate church outside the Kingdom of Poland did not affect Eparchy of Chełm.
The greater longevity of the Uniate Church in this region was attributed to several factors. The Eparchy's territory came under Russian control later than did any other Uniate territories ultimately absorbed by Russia (1815 unlike 1795). During the Third Partition of Poland
Partitions of Poland
The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...
in 1795, it was granted to Austria. Only two decades later, after the Russian victory in the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
did it become part of Russia. Also, unlike other Uniate regions within the Russian Empire, it had been part of the autonomous Congress Poland
Congress Poland
The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...
. Another factor affecting the Uniate Church's longevity was its deep roots in the local population, which unlike other Uniate territory was deeply mixed with Poles and Ukrainians both ethnically and culturally. Both groups in the Chełm region tended to view the Russian authorities as their mutual enemy. The Tsarist pressure on the Polish population, was also applied differently than that on right-bank of the Bug. The use of Polish hymns, organs, and rosaries within the Uniate eparchy was considered a matter of pride, and attempts by Russian officials to curtail their use were defiantly ignored.
In contrast to the pro-Polish attitude of many of Chełm's Uniate parishioners and clergy, during the mid-nineteenth century the Uniate Church of neighboring Galicia was dominated by anti-Polish Russophiles (for more information about them, see Ukrainian Russophiles
Ukrainian Russophiles
The focus of this article is part of a general political movement in Western Ukraine of the nineteenth and early 20th century. The movement contained several competing branches: Moscowphiles, Ukrainophiles, Rusynphiles, and others....
) Galician Russophile priests, recruited in Vienna by the Russian embassy and in Lviv by Yakov Golovatsky, the Russophile president of the University, were encouraged to accept posts in Chełm by the Russian government, which provided them with higher salaries and more prestiguous positions than they could expect in Galicia itself. The newcomers were often opposed by the local people of Chełm, and petitions to the last Uniate Bishop complained of "Galician wolves". The Russophile Galician priests would play a major role in the conversion of Chełm Eparchy.
Conversion
By the end of the 1860s, political circumstances had changed. In 1865, following a failed uprisingJanuary Uprising
The January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire...
against Russia by Poles, the autonomous Congress Poland
Congress Poland
The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...
was abolished. After having struggled with Russian authorities, the Uniate bishop Mikhail Kuzemsky issued a letter of resignation and left Chełm. His resignation was not accepted by the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
, while the Russian authorities appointed a Galician Russophile priest, Markell Popel, as administrator of the Eparchy, despite Popel living in open concubinage
Concubinage
Concubinage is the state of a woman or man in an ongoing, usually matrimonially oriented, relationship with somebody to whom they cannot be married, often because of a difference in social status or economic condition.-Concubinage:...
.
The Conversion to Orthodoxy was immediately preceded by the "purification" the Chełm eparchy of all Latin rituals from the Liturgy, ordered by Popel in October 1873. Initially, it was ignored by many priests, until the Russian state ordered them to sign a declaration that they would abide by the new rules by the New Year of 1874. Over twenty priests refused, and were either arrested or escaped to Galicia. Resistance to the changes was widespread among the people, particularly in the northern areas of the eparchy. In numerous parishes, the priests attempting to implement the reforms were dragged out of the church or their belongings were packed outside the rectory. Russian police and Cossacks were used to force the parishioners to accept the new rules; parishioners were sometimes beaten or shot. The struggle over ritual has been described as being comparable to that of the Old Believer schism
Raskol
Raskol |schism]]') was the event of splitting of the Russian Orthodox Church into an official church and the Old Believers movement in mid-17th century, triggered by the reforms of Patriarch Nikon in 1653, aiming to establish uniformity between the Greek and Russian church practices.-The Raskol:...
, and one case of self-immolation
Self-immolation
Self-immolation refers to setting oneself on fire, often as a form of protest or for the purposes of martyrdom or suicide. It has centuries-long traditions in some cultures, while in modern times it has become a type of radical political protest...
was recorded.
The purification having been completed by the end of 1874, from January 1875 until May of that year all of the parishes proclaimed their union with the Orthodox Church. The Uniate eparchy was dissolved and incorporated into the newly created Orthodox eparchy of Chełm and Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, with Bishop Popel becoming suffragan bishop
Suffragan bishop
A suffragan bishop is a bishop subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop. He or she may be assigned to an area which does not have a cathedral of its own.-Anglican Communion:...
of Lublin
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,392 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...
resident in Chełm. The Chełm clergy was purged of most of its native priests, who were replaced by emigrating anti-Polish Russophile
Ukrainian Russophiles
The focus of this article is part of a general political movement in Western Ukraine of the nineteenth and early 20th century. The movement contained several competing branches: Moscowphiles, Ukrainophiles, Rusynphiles, and others....
priests from eastern Galicia. In March 1881, out of 291 Orthodox priests in the former eparchy, 95 were native Chełm priests who had converted, 53 were Orthodox priests who had moved into the Eparchy from elsewhere, and 143 were Galicians. Sixty-six native Chełm priests who refused to convert fled to Galicia, 74 were exiled to Russia proper or imprisoned, and seven died as martyrs. During the struggle over purification and conversion, a total of 600 faithful were deported and 108 lost their lives.
Aftermath
In Galicia, the forced conversion of Chełm was met with support on the part of the Russophiles and indifference among other segments of the Ukrainian population. Despite their opposition to the Russophiles, Galician Ukrainophiles were themselves supportive of Purification of Latin rituals and unsympathetic to the pro-Polish Chełm priests. The Russophiles succeeded in preventing most exiled priests from Chełm from obtaining positions in Galician Uniate parishes.The unpopularity of the conversion within Chełm had been strong enough that when, a generation later in 1905, following the Russian Revolution of 1905
Russian Revolution of 1905
The 1905 Russian Revolution was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. Some of it was directed against the government, while some was undirected. It included worker strikes, peasant unrest, and military mutinies...
in which the Tsar issued a series of liberalisation policies under which the formally Orthodox population of Chełm was allowed to return to Catholicism, 170,000 out of 450,000 Orthodox did so by 1908 despite the Russian authorities only allowing conversion to the Latin Rite.
In 1912 the Imperial authorities created a new Kholm Governorate
Kholm Governorate
Kholm Governorate or Chełm Governorate was an administrative unit of the Russian Empire. Its capital was in Chełm ....
, split from Congress Poland, to facilitate Russification
Russification
Russification is an adoption of the Russian language or some other Russian attributes by non-Russian communities...
and conversion of the non-Eastern Orthodox Christians.
Following World War I, Chełm was incorporated into the Second Polish Republic
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...
and this time the Orthodox population was persecuted, bearing the brunt of Polonization efforts. After World War II, Chełm was retained by the Polish People's Republic and, by irony, today it is a strong centre for the non-Galician Ukrainian culture and the Polish Orthodox Church
Polish Orthodox Church
The Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church, commonly known as the Polish Orthodox Church, , is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Churches in full communion...
.