Saints of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

The Cyrillo-Methodian Heritage of Kyiv

Sts. Cyril and Methodius are also numbered as the Teachers of the Slavs in the Ukrainian Church along with their five disciples: Sts. Clement, Gorazd, Nahum, Angelar and Sava. Cyril and Methodius were sent out as missionaries to the Slavs by St Photios, Patriarch of Constantinople, who is therefore listed in the Calendar of Ukrainian Saints by Metropolitan Ilarion Ohienko. 

It was the Kyivan Prince Askold who, on 18 June AD860, arrived with his fleet of over 200 ships, into the Bay of the Golden Horn to threaten Constantinople.  St Photios the Patriarch ordered prayer to be said by one and all in the City of Constantine, especially in the Church of Blachernae which contained the holy Robe of the Mother of God. 

This Robe was taken in procession around the Church and was dipped into the water.  An honourable truce was soon concluded between Askold and the Emperor.  St Photios then declared July 2^nd a Feast Day in honour of the Placing of the Robe at the Church of Blachernae to commemorate the saving of Constantinople.

The spiritually moving events of that time left their mark on the Kyivan Prince, however.  Askold sent a delegation to Constantinople in October of that same year to conclude further treaties, among which were articles about the Baptism of Kyivan Rus'.  Sts. Cyril and Methodius were then sent by St Photios the Patriarch to Kyiv where the two brothers met with Prince Askold in AD861.

Askold was baptized, as were many of his subjects, and received the name "Nicholas."  Sts. Cyril and Methodius sent the Slavonic service and other books to Kyivan Rus'.  Metropolitan Michael became the first Primate of Kyiv on the appointment of Patriarch St Photios.  Askold and Dir were later killed as defenders of Orthodox Christianity in their struggle against Oleh.  It was Oleh however who popularized Kyiv as the "Mother of all the cities of Rus'," a play on the Greek meaning of the word, "Metropolia."

Askold and Dir, locally venerated in Kyiv, deserve to be formally Glorified as Ukraine's first Christian Rulers and Enlighteners, who introduced the Cyrillo-Methodian tradition there and throughout the Slavic lands, and who initiated the first Baptism of Kyivan-Rus'.

Along with the first Baptism of Kyivan Rus' came a great devotion to the Blachernae Mother of God and Her Robe.  From that time, Kyivan Rus' was very devoted to the Mantle of Protection of the Virgin Mary, or the Pokrova and its feast, October 1, became a national holiday in Ukraine.  The very first Church of the Kyivan Caves Lavra was that of the Blachernae Mother of God. 

The same Mantle of Protection that saved Constantinople, saved many places in Ukraine, especially the Pochayiv Mother of God.  The Akathist Hymn in honour of the Mother of God is said to date from AD860 to thank Her for the saving of Constantinople.  It was at the singing of its first verse at Pochayiv in the seventeenth century during a Turkish seige of the monastery that the Mother of God appeared and spared the people there.

Thanks to Blessed Mykola Askold and Dir, Sts. Cyril and Methodius came to Kyiv and from there began their apostolic activity westward among the Slavs, armed with their Slavonic texts.  St Nestor the Chronicler also notes that it is from this time, AD860, that the name "Rus'" comes into vogue as the name for the Kyivan lands.

The Cyrillo-Methodian Choir of Saints was recently enlarged by the Glorification of the Orthodox Slavic Prince of Moravia, Saint Rostislav, who later received the missionaries in his country.

Poland itself was the beneficiary of the Cyrillo-Methodian heritage and Poland’s initial Rite, before AD1054, was the Byzantine Rite, before political and other considerations led to the adoption of the Roman Rite.  To this day, Poland’s Patronal Icon is the Byzantine (Ukrainian) Icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa (Kyiv-Belz).  

The same is true of the Czech lands, Bohemia and Moravia.  The Orthodox Church in the Czech and Slovak Republics is not “something new” being introduced from the outside, but the reestablishment of a strong, historic link to Orthodoxy.  

That link was strengthened by the blood of a New Martyr who was recently Glorified by the (Ukrainian) Metropolitan and Primate of the Czech and Slovak Orthodox Churches - His Beatitude, Dorotej.  The Holy New Hieromartyr Gorazd was a Serbian Orthodox Bishop serving to the needs of the Orthodox Christians of Prague and the then Czechoslovakia.  Gorazd was trained in Serbia under Ukrainian professors of theology and philosophy. 

With the outbreak of World War II and the occupation of Prague by the Nazis, Bishop Gorazd witnessed powerfully and wonderfully to the strength of Christ’s love to all the Czech people, Orthodox or not.  With the assassination of the Nazi “protector” of Czechoslovakia in 1942, thousands of Czechs were tortured and shot in an effort by the Germans to root out the assassins.  Bishop Gorazd received into his care the Czech heroes and other soldiers trying to escape the Nazis and hid them in the crypt of his cathedral of Sts. Cyril and Methodius. 

One of the soldiers turned traitor and the Church was attacked at dawn by the SS guards who killed them all right in the Cathedral.  Bishop Gorazd was tried for treason by the Nazis and then shot.   He was Glorified as a New Hieromartyr and is loved by all Czechs for his heroism.  To this day, the Crypt of Sts. Cyril and Methodius Cathedral is a shrine to the heroes that died there as it is to St Gorazd.  St Gorazd showed himself to be a true Disciple of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in showing his sacrificial love for his adopted people before whom He witnessed the truth of Orthodoxy.  It is interesting that this Holy Bishop also bore the name of one of the actual disciples of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, St Gorazd himself.

The Cathedral of Sts. Cyril and Methodius is today served by Ukrainian Orthodox Priests.  As a matter of fact, the Metropolitan of Prague regularly communicates with his faithful in four languages:  Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian and Russian.  These Ukrainian Orthodox Priests at the Cathedral are among the most zealous promoters of veneration for St Gorazd of Prague, distributing Icons and prayers in honour of the Hieromartyr.  St Gorazd deserves to be counted among the Cyrillo-Methodian Choir of Saints and he deserves to be in the Ukrainian Orthodox Calendar.