Thou art Peter: Kyivan Christianity on the Rocks

Among the sainted Metropolitans of Kyiv, there are two that are celebrated around the Nativity and Theophany Seasons that deserve special acclaim.  Like their common name of Peter indicates, they are a true and solid foundation of the Kyivan Church.

The first, St Peter Akerovych, lived in the fourteenth century at a time of civil strife among the Princes and Mongol incursions into Rus'.

Peter came from Volodymyr-Volyn and was the son of pious Orthodox parents.  As a Priest, he moved quickly through the hierarchical ranks until he became the Primate of the Church of Kyivan Rus' as its Metropolitan.

While his predecessors had been engaged in establishing Orthodox Christianity in St Volodymyr's Empire since AD 988, Peter found himself faced with the unenviable task of protecting the spiritual efforts and achievements of those early mission-minded years.

Kept in check by the miraculous intervention of St Theodore of Smolensk, who married the Khan's daughter and pacified Mongol aggressiveness toward Rus,' the situation had now changed with attacks by the Tatars from the south.

Kyiv itself was attacked several times, and not only by pagan invaders.  As Metropolitan Ilarion Ohienko has discussed in his works, Ukrainian princes "burned with envy" against Kyiv.  

They had not yet developed a "national consciousness" but were instead solely concerned with the immediate success of their parochial interests (is this something we Ukrainians still suffer from?).

Although it is true that Andrew Boholiubsky attacked Kyiv, there were other Ukrainian princes who laid seige to Kyiv in similar or worse ways.

Slowly, Kyiv became a wasteland.  Even the great Cathedral of St Sophia became little more than a barn where feed was stored and where animals hid from the cold!

Kyiv was always vulnerable to renewed attacks and this is why Peter decided to move the centre of his Kyivan Metropolia north to Volodymyr on the Klyasma.

Peter was not only a capable administrator and spiritual guide for the souls entrusted to him.  He was also an accomplished theologian well-known throughout Europe.

He himself participated in the union talks between Rome and the Orthodox Church held in Lyons.  As the records show that he was in favour of reunification, this could mean that his own education could have been western, as was the case with many classical Ukrainian academics and theologians.

At home, he managed to deal effectively with Princes and Boyars who wanted to control the Church.  

Peter also managed to strengthen missionary efforts directed at the outlying tribes in the extended reaches of the empire of St Volodymyr.  

He established rules governing the life of Priests and renewed the tradition of icon-writing in Rus.' His own creation, an Icon of the Mother of God called "Petrivska" or "Peter's" was declared Miraculous and has come down to us, along with its feastday and liturgical commemoration.

A true Thaumaturge or Miracle-Worker, he awed his contemporaries with more than his education and administrative abilities.  The peasant class loved him for this, since his miraculous power over nature demonstrated the reality of God to them more than words ever could.

In time, St Peter Akerovych made another move, this time to an unknown town called "Moscow" that was chosen precisely because it was so unknown and so well-protected by the surrounding, forbidding environment.

We must note that Peter never intended, as later Muscovite propaganda maintained, to make Moscow a new seat of authority for the Kyivan Metropolia.  Peter and his successors for a time, never changed their title of "Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Rus.'

Although modern Russian calendars have changed Peter's title to that of "Moscow," the Old Believers of Russia, who maintain very ancient calendars, continue to have him listed as "Metropolitan of Kyiv" which is how he always titled himself, in fact.

Even though the later Moscow Grand Dukes and Tsars considered St Peter to be their national saint, even to the point of visiting his Tomb before their coronation etc., this does not change who St Peter was nor the Church of which he was the Metropolitan.

St Peter's glorification represents the first time that a saint was glorified without the direct involvement of the Patriarch of Constantinople.  St Theognostus, his successor simply informed the Ecumenical Patriarch about the miraculous events at Peter's Tomb and the devotion of the people.  Theognostus then went on to collect the relevant information and conduct an Orthodox glorification of St. Peter.

While St Peter I of Kyiv worked to protect his Metropolia from extinction and, in so doing, moved away from the Primatial Seat in Kyiv, St Peter Mohyla (II) resurrected Kyivan Church authonomy at Kyiv.

An Orthodox Moldavian living in the seventeenth century, Peter Mohyla and his princely family always looked to Kyiv as their Spiritual Mother.  

Peter was so tied to his Kyivan Orthodox faith and culture that he felt special love for the Ukrainian people.  He became an officer in the Kozak Army as a young man and fought the Turks.

Although he was in line for the princely Throne of Moldavia, Peter decided to dedicate his life to the Orthodox Church.  He was tonsured a Monk at the Kyiv Caves Lavra and was ordained a Priest.  

He rose through the ranks and was chosen Metropolitan of Kyiv by acclaim, including his many friends in the Kozak Host who saw him as one of their own - for indeed he was!

As Kyivan Metropolitan and Archimandrite of the Kyivan Caves Lavra, St Peter began his long record of achievements on behalf of the Ukrainian Church which makes him the greatest of all Kyivan Metropolitans!

He reestablished Kyiv as the spiritual centre, the New Jerusalem of the Orthodox Church.  His Kyivan-Mohyla Academy adapted the scholastic methods of the west in training new Orthodox Churchmen and lay leaders.

He produced his famous "Catechism" that adopted western methods of teaching to communicate the Orthodox Faith to the people.

He wrote and published many treatises, patristic translations and other Orthodox spiritual and Ukrainian national literature which clearly established him as a true "Teacher" of the Church, like St Basil and St John Chrysostom.  The depth and spiritual riches of the Kyivan Baroque Period had their beginning with St Peter Mohyla.

He firmly took the reins of his Metropolia as an autocephalous Orthodox Church and glorified all 125 Venerable Fathers and 61 Venerable Myrrh-bearing Heads of the Kyivan Caves Lavra for the Kyivan Church and world Orthodoxy!

A Canon was composed by Meletius Syriga in their honour as well as in honour of All Saints of Rus' who were also glorified by St Peter "to be read by any who so wishes, whenever and wherever they could."  

There is a translation of this Canon today that includes many later Russian saints.  The library of Metropolitan Ilarion has an original copy.  It would be wonderful if a Ukrainian Orthodox scholar could translate this beautiful original service into Ukrainian and English for contemporary use.

St Peter also used his personal wealth to renovate St Sophia and other religious and cultural landmarks at Kyiv.

In his last will and testament, Peter donates the last of his money to the poor and to the institutes he founded at Kyiv, especially for St Sophia "the Mother of all the Churches of Rus.'

Peter was buried in the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyivan Caves Lavra.  During restoration work there in contemporary times, his Relics were discovered.

He was glorified a saint in Kyiv in 1993 and his Feast is January 1^st or one week following that of St Peter Akerovych.

St Peter Mohyla was truly a towering figure in his time and for all generations.  European by education and background, Orthodox by spirituality and Slavic by adoption, Peter ranks as one of the greatest Churchmen ever.  No wonder Roman Catholic scholars and others acclaim him.

Both St Peters constitute a major Rock of Faith on which the Kyivan Church today rests as its foundation.

Their legacy attests to the strength and resilience of character of Kyivan Christianity as well as to its contemporary relevance to those who belong to its heritage and those who have the opportunity to drink deeply of its spiritual waters.

Dr. Alexander Roman  alex@unicorne.org