History of Christianity in Ukraine

rdf:langString History of Christianity in Ukraine

rdf:langString The history of Christianity in Ukraine dates back to the earliest centuries of the history of Christianity, to the Apostolic Age, with mission trips along the Black Sea and a legend of Saint Andrew even ascending the hills of Kyiv. The first Christian community on territory of modern Ukraine is documented as early as the 9th century with establishment of the Metropolitanate of Gothia centered in Crimean peninsula. However, on territory of the Old Rus in Kyiv it became the dominant religion since its official acceptance in 988 by Vladimir the Great (Volodymyr the Great), who brought it from Byzantine Crimea and installed it as the state religion of medieval Kyivan Rus (Ruthenia), with the metropolitan see in Kyiv. Although separated into various Christian denominations, most Ukrainian Christians share a common faith based on Eastern Christianity. This tradition is represented in Ukraine by the Byzantine Rite, the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches, which have been at various historic times closely aligned with Ukrainian national self-identity and Byzantine culture. Being officially eliminated since the end of World War II, the recent revival of Ukrainian national religions started just before dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989 with reestablishment of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church which also triggered recovery of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church movement out of diaspora and transition of the former Russian Orthodox Church clergy who were native Ukrainians. Now, beside its two national autocephalous Ukrainian churches the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, currently, in Ukraine the Russian Orthodox Church continues to maintain a strong presence through its former "exarchial" branch, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate). Additionally, there is a smaller number of Byzantine rite adherents in the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church who were dominated by the Kingdom of Hungary in the past. At the same time Western Christian traditions such as the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church and Protestantism have had a limited presence on the territory of Ukraine since at least the 16th century, worshipers of these traditions remain a relatively small minority in today's Ukraine.