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[German Version] (1724, Korotsk, Novgo­rod region – Aug 13, 1783, Zadonsk), one of the most important 18th-century Russian hierarchs. The son of a church sexton, he was baptized Timofey. He attended the seminary at the court of the bishop in Novgorod, and after being tonsured as a monk in 1758 he took the name Tikhon and served as the bishop’s prefect. In ¶ 1759 he was called to the seminary in Tver as professor of theology; soon he was made its rector. Consecrated “bishop of Keksholm and Ladoga” in 1761, he served as suffragan bishop of Novgorod. In 1763 b…

[German Version] White Russia or Belarus became independent in 1991, keeping the 1945 borders of the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (see below). In the 17th century, the territory between the upper Neman and the middle Dnieper settled by East Slavic tribes was officially called Belorussia (Lat. Alba Russia). The element Rus’ indicates its relationship to the medieval Kievan Rus’ (Kiev, Russia), while bela (“white”) remains unexplained, despite many attempts. ¶ Shortly after the baptism of the Rus’ in 988, the eparchy of Polotsk was founded. In parallel with…

[German Version] (Gumilevsky; Oct 23, 1805, Konobeev, Tambov, Russia – Aug 9, 1866, Konotop, Ukraine), archbishop of Chernigov; he founded the his-¶ toricist school of church history through intensive study of sources and historical-statistical descriptions. The most important works among his 159 listed publications are a history of the Russian Church ( Istorija russkoj cerkvi, 1848) and a survey of Russian religious literature between 862 and 1720 ( Obzor russkoj duchovnoj literatury, 1859). As spiritual leader, he was at pains to raise the level of education and …

[German Version] (Dec 19, 1773, Moscow – Dec 4, 1844, Feodosiya, Crimea) dictated the religious and educational policies of Russia during the reign of Alexander I. Appointed procurator general of the Senate in 1802 and procurator general of the Holy Synod in 1803, Golitsyn carried out a reform of the church school system in 1808. He supported the Russian Bible Society (Bible Societies: I, 3), which had been founded in 1813. In 1817 he became head of ¶ the combined Ministry for Ecclesiastical Affairs and Public Education. The merging of these two departments was based on t…

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[German Version] (1528 – May 23, 1583, Kovelʾ, Wolhynia). Descended from the dynasty of Smolensk/Yaroslav princes, Kurbsky is first mentioned in 1549 as a participant in Ivan the Terrible's campaign…

[German Version] (Tuptalo; 1651, Makarovo near Kiev – Oct 28, 1709, Rostov), was influenced by scholasticism and the early Enlightenment during his education in Poland-Lithuania. As archbishop of Rostov, from 1702, he founded there the first eparchial sch…

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[German Version] (1824–1871), one of the most prominent Orthodox theologians during the reform era of Tsar Alexander II, became a monk (religious name: Feodor) in 1846 and taught as professor of Bible and dogmatics at the Theological Academies of Moscow and Kazan. In 1848, he attracted public attention with his Three Letters to N.V. Gogol (N. Gogol), supporting the latter's embrace of the Orthodox tradition. In 1860, there appeared his controversial On Orthodoxy and its Relationship with the Contemporary World. His effort in this work was to bridge …

[German Version] (1574, Ruta, near Vilnius – 1637, Ruta), third metropolitan of the Uniate church (since 1596; Unions with Rome) of the Kiev (II) metropolitanate. His career in the church reflected the situation in the nobles’ republic in the age of confessionalization. After attending the Calvinist school in Vilnius, Rutsky studied at the universities of Cracow, Prague, and Würzburg and at the Greek College in Rome. Pope Clement VIII (1592–1605) won him to the side of the Eastern Rite. In 1606 he…

[German Version] (Apr 17, 1818, Moscow – Mar 1, 1881, St. Petersburg), Tsar of Russia (1855–1881). In domestic policy, the epoch of the “reform tsar” is rightly considered a turning-point. As the …

[German Version] (250 km northeast of Lviv [Lemberg], Ukraine), chosen seat of the Ruthenian Udel princes of Ostrog; from the mid-14th century steadily built up as a defensive fortress against Tartar attack. With the rise of the princes of Ostrog to the highest rank of the Polish-Lithuanian aristocratic republic, Ostrog gained particu…

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[German Version] After the Union of Brest in 1596, Orthodox laity, supported by the church brotherhoods, opposed a union with Rome (Unions with Rome) and called for the restoration of the Eastern church hierarchy. The election of Vladislav IV (1632–1648) enabled the Orthodox nobility to obtain the decree for the “Establishment of peace for the Russian people of ¶ Greek religion in the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Latvia,” and in 1632 achieved the foundation of the Mohilev archbishopric for the Eastern church in the Grand Duchy, within whose frontiers the mixed confessional structure remained in place. After the archbishopric of Mohilev became part of the Russian Empire, Catherine II in 1773 ordered the appointment of the assistant bishop of Vilnius as Catholic bishop of White Russia, with his seat in Mohilev, while the united communities remained under the archbishop of Polock. Since 1990, there have been attempts to …

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[German Version] (Ivan Železo; 1551, Polutʾja – 1651, Počaev, Volhynia), revered for preserving the ascetic tradition of the Eastern Church in Poland and Lithuania in the epoch of confessionalization. He became a priest and monk around 1580 and initially headed the monastery of the Exaltation of the Cross in Dubno. The limited number of writings which can be attributed to him consist primarily of citations from the church fathers and represent an exception in the confessionally polemic literature …

[German Version] (in Scandinavian: Helga; after her baptism: Helena; c. 890–969, Kiev; feast day Jul 11), grand duchess of Kievan Rus. As duchess of Pskov from the Rjurikid dynasty, she became regent in Kievan Rus in 945, after the murder of her husband, Grand Duke Igor. Through the formation of tax districts she made a significant contribution to the strengthening of territorial power, which was also furthered by the increasing Chris-¶ tianization of the eastern Slavs. Olga herself received baptism in 955 or 957. Negotiations conducted in Constantinople in connect…

[German Version] (Mikhail Ragoza; c. 1540? – 1599, Kiev?), metropolitan of Kiev and Halič. In Rohoza’s period in office, union with Rome (Unions with Rome) was agreed. He came from the lesser Ruthenian nobility, and appears in 1579 as archimandrite of the Monastery of the Ascension in Minsk. On his appointment in 1589, Patriarch Jeremiah II of Constantinople had high hopes for the renewal of the church province of Kiev. At synods in Brest in 1590 and 1594 Rohoza worked for reforms within the churc…

[German Version] (Apr 15, 1824, Glubokoye near Vilnius – Jun 9, 1898, Bialystok), scholar and rabbi. Even before the notorious Russian pogroms of 1881, he called for the return of the Jews to Palestine on the basis of an active settlement effort in the spirit of the Torah. With great organizational and propagandistic dedication, he set about reconciling the secular and orthodox elements within the emerging Chibbat Zion (Heb. “Love of Zion”), the Russian forerunner of the Zionist Organization (Zion…