BISHOPRIC CONSECRATION OF INNOCENTY WINNICKI IN HALYCH IN 1680: THE HISTORICAL EVENT IN THE CONTEXT OF THE «NEW UNION» AND RELATIONS BETWEEN THE DIOCESES OF LVIV, PEREMYSHL, AND MUKACHEVO

Abstract

The author analyses the context, meaning, and symbolism of the bishop of Peremyshl Innokentii Wynnyckyi’s consecration by the bishop of Lviv Yosyf Shumlyanskyi, commonly with the bishop of Mukachevo Yosyf Woloshynowsky and with support of the archimandrite of Univ Barlaam Sheptytsky in Halych (Krylos) Cathedral in 1680. Historian examines the event with a reckon in it gathered members of two antagonistic groups of the Orthodox Church who struggled with each other for a decade, then reconciled and acted together as a group of the «New Union» in their way to the Kyivan Uniate Metropolitanate. Volodymyr Moroz explains the importance of this common act in light of the thorough reconstruction and investigation of previous competitions between groups of bishop Antonii Wynnyckyi and bishop Yosyf Shumlyanskyi for the Diocese of Lviv and the Kyivan Metropolitanate. In this struggle, the two opposite camps progressively lost their radicalism but accepted the possibility of moving to the Church union. The author discovers and describes the roles and positions of Wynnyckyi’s and Shumlyanskyi’s groups’ prominent participants. He explored that Innokentii Wynnyckyi’s co-consecrator Yosyf Woloshynowsky was previously consecrated by Jeremiah Swystelnyckyi, not by Yosyf Shumlyanskyi. Consequently, like Swystelnyckyi, Woloshynowsky was a Wynnyckyi’s comrade, and he represented Wynnyckyi’s group during the consecration of Innokentii Wynnyckyi.

Nevertheless, after Antonii Wynnyckyi passed away, Yosyf Shumlyanskyi united two opposite Orthodox groups on the way to the Kyivan Uniate Metropolitanate. Innokentii Wynnyckyi promised to become the Uniate bishop already before the consecration. On this basement, the «New Union» group started a complex dialogue with the Kyivan Uniate Metropolitanate, the Roman Apostolic See, and the Polish king John III Sobieski. The king assisted this process; the Apostolic See discussed the mode of accepting Shumlyanskyi while denying Wynnyckyi, and the Kyivan Metropolitanate looked for acceptable compromises. In addition, the Kyivan Metropolitanate beware some intrigues of Shumlyanskyi, while he claimed to be a Kyivan Orthodox metropolitan and later tried to create an autonomous Halych Metropolitanate. When these discussions were in full swing, Shumlyanskyi and his comrades solemnly consecrated Wynnyckyi as a bishop of Peremyshl. This act in the ancient Cathedral of Halych declared the active and independent position of the «New Union» camp. It showed its firm intention to unite with the Kyivan Uniate Metropolitanate in some best conditions. However, they did not create the Halych Metropolitanate in the last quarter of the 17 century; there were representatives of the next generation of the «New Union» who became the Kyivan Uniate Metropolitans.