Saints of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Our Apostolic Founders

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church venerates St. Andrew the First-Called as its Apostle and Founder. It was St. Andrew who visited the hills of Kyiv and blessed them and the city that was to be built on them and which was to become the Beacon of Orthodox Christianity for centuries after. St. Andrew placed a Cross on one of the hills and this is now kept as a Relic in the Church of St. Andrew in Kyiv. The familiar St. Andrew’s "X" shaped Cross is highly honoured in the Ukrainian Church and the slanted lower bar on the Orthodox Cross also refers to the St. Andrew’s Cross and identifies the Ukrainian Church as the Apostolic Church of St. Andrew.

St. Andrew’s disciple, St. Titus, is also venerated alongside the Apostle. Three early Scythian disciples of St. Andrew who accompanied him to the Kyivan area are also honoured: Sts. Ina, Pina and Rima. Yet another associate of St Andrew is a woman saint: the Virgin-Martyr Oriozela of Reuma. Other Gothic martyrs at this time are Sts. Triphon, Parthenius and Kalohera, Basilisk of Comana and Savvas the Reader.

Another Apostolic Founder of the Ukrainian Church is Pope St. Clement I, a disciple of Sts. Peter and Paul who was banished to Crimea where he died a martyr’s death by drowning with an anchor around his neck. His symbol is the anchor and a church in his honour was under the waters of the Black Sea, but the tide always lifted for his Feast Day so that people could visit it, see his Relics and the anchor. St. Clement wrote the Epistle of St. Clement that was formerly read in churches throughout the Roman Empire and he is said to be the scribe who helped St. Paul write the Epistle to the Hebrews.

St. Volodymyr the Great took relics of St. Clement to Kyiv and made him a Patron of Kyiv and his Royal House. St. Volodymyr’s devotion to St. Clement is also based on Volodymyr’s Scandinavian background where Clement was Protector and Patron of Sailors. A Scandinavian parish, which continues in London, England to this day, is named for St. Clement.

An Icon of St. Clement adorns St. Sophia Cathedral to this day. Sts. Cyril and Methodius took relics of St. Clement to Rome from the place of his Martyrdom where a Christian community flourished and where they already found a written Slavic literature on which they built their Church Slavonic language.