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Ukraine

 

  Cathedral of Saint Volodymir on 31 July 2011 in Korsun  
 

...Свята Київська Русь - Holy Kyivska Rus. – Володимирський Собор в Корсуні – Cathedral of Saint Volodymir at dusk in Korsun on 31 July 2011

 

 

 

 

  in Kyiv Lavra Cathedral of the Dormition detail with Theodosia
    ... detail from the Cathedral of the Dormition, Kyiv Monastery of the Caves - Києво-Печерська Лавра

 

 

 

Petro Mohyla    
Петро Могила, Митрополит Київський, Галицький і всієї Русі – Petro Mohyla – Petru Movilă – Петр Могила – Piotr Mohyła
Metropolitan of Kiev, Halych and All-Rus' (и всея Руси) from 1633 until his death; canonized in 1996.
* 31 December 1597 O.S. (10 January 1597 N.S.) in Suceava, Principality of Moldavia, now in Romania -
1 January 1647 O.S (11 January 1647 N.S.) in Київ – Kyiv – Kiev – Киев – Kijów – Кіеў – Kijevas †,
then part of Poland when Poland was, as Poland had been since the Treaty of Lublin of 1 July 1569,
part of the unified state of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. (Old Style and New Style dates being of particular
significance in this period, as the so-called Gregorian Calendar was introduced by the fiat of Pope Gregory XIII in 1582.)
Monument is in the grounds of the Kiev Monastery of the Caves – Києво-Печерська Лавра – Киево-Печерская Лавра
   

 

 

 

    Голодомор в Україні 1932—1933 — Голодомор на Украине —The Holodomor    
  "death by hunger" or "to kill by hunger" or "to starve to death" or "extermination by hunger" or "hunger-extermination"  

 

 

 

   
  The Baptism of Rus by Vasnetsov  
 

While Christianity came to Київська Русь – Kyivan Rus' much earlier, indeed there is a tradition at the Apostle Andrew traveled as far as Kiev, and in an encyclical letter in 867 Patriarch Photius of Constantinople wrote of Christianity having been received by the Russians enthusiastically after the Bulgarians were converted in 863, the Baptism of Kievan Rus' — a monumentous event in European Christendom — is ususally dated to 988 with the baptism of Grand Prince Saint Volodymyr - Vladimir in Corson – Корсунь in Chersonesos, today a region of Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula, followed by mass baptisms in Kiev on the Dnieper river. As with most people of European Christendom though, it was a women ruler who was first baptized. With Kievan Rus it was first Saint Vladimir's grandmother, Saint Olga, who became a Christian, certainly by 957 and perhaps as early as 945.

Крещение Руси – Baptism of Rus', fresco by В.М. Васнецов – Viktor Vasnetsov,
in the Патріарший кафедральний собор св. Володимира – Saint Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kyiv,
which is the Patriarchial Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate,
the seat of one of the three major Ukrainian Orthodox Churches, divided from each other, and bearing one another little affection:

  • Українська Православна Церква Київського Патрiархату (УПЦ-КП)– the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate (UOCKP);
  • Українська Православна Церква Московського Патріархату (УПЦ МП) – the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) (UOC-MP); and
  • Українська Автокефальна Православна Церква (УАПЦ) – the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC).

In some times and places such divisions are called schisms.
Of course there are Protestants, as elsewhere of countless kinds and descriptions, and Muslims and Jews in the Ukraine.
And even among those claiming allegiance to Orthodoxy, there are smaller groups including Old-Ritualists, ROCOR loyalists and the UAOC-C
(Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church Canonical – Українська автокефальна православна церква канонічна (УАПЦ-К).
Latin Rite Catholics constitute perhaps as many as one percent of the population of the Ukraine, though descendants of Poles and other Catholics
would not usually look on the person of Saint Vladimir or the date of 988 as holding the same significance as do the big-O Orthodox.
The same is not true of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) – Українська Греко-Католицька Церква (УГКЦ).
Though in Full Communion with Rome and the Pope since the Union of Brest of 1595/1596, the Greco-Catholics count Saint Volodymr as their own.

 

 

 

 

  They [the Mongols] attacked Russia, where they made great havoc, destroying cities and fortresses and slaughtering men; and they laid siege to Kiev, the capital of Russia; after they had besieged the city for a long time, they took it and put the inhabitants to death. When we were journeying through that land we came across countless skulls and bones of dead men lying about on the ground. Kiev had been a very large and thickly populated town, but now it has been reduced almost to nothing, for there are at the present time scarce two hundred houses there and the inhabitants are kept in complete slavery. Going on from there, fighting as they went, the Tartars destroyed the whole of Russia. When the inhabitants of Kiev became aware of our arrival, they all came to meet us rejoicing and they congratulated us as if we were risen from the dead. We met with the same reception throughout the whole of Poland, Bohemia and Russia. Daniel [Prince of Galicia] and his brother Vasilko [Prince of Volynia] made a great feast for us and kept us, against our will, for quite eight days. In the meantime they discussed between themselves and with the bishop and other worthy men the matter about which we had spoken to them when we were setting out for the Tartars. They answered us jointly declaring that they wished to have the Lord Pope as their special lord and father, and the Holy Roman Church as their lady and mistress, and they also confirmed everything which they had previously despatched by their abbot concerning this matter. In addition they sent with us a letter and envoys.  
   

Giovanni de Plano Carpini, OFM, envoy of Pope Innocent IV to the Mongol khan, writing in 1246, an eyewitness account of the horrors still visible six years after the not-yet-Muslim Mongolian destruction of Kievan Rus'.

All countries have had their monsters. Few still count them as their civilization's first son eight centuries on.

 

 

  “The greatest joy a man can have is victory: to conquer one's enemy's armies, to pursue them, to deprive them of their possessions, to reduce their families to tears, to ride their horses, and to ravish their wives and daughters."  
    Genghis Khan – really Chinggis Khagan – (c. 1162 – 1227)  

 

 

        Україна- Об’єднане Європейське Християнство
        Ukraine - United European Christendom