Saints of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Future Saints

There are strong local cults of Holy Righteous individuals who may one day be formally Glorified as Orthodox Saints of Ukraine continue, including the cults of Elders who are titled, “Staretz” and contemporary veneration for martyrs such as the priest Nestor of Odessa. who was murdered on December 25th in 1993. Another Holy Elder is the Staretz Melchisedek, an ethnic Ukrainian, of the Roslavl forests who died having reached the age of 100 years!

Also, the formal Glorification of historical Ukrainian personages of great holiness is also a matter for future consideration. Included in this group are such historical figures like Askold and Dir, Metropolitan Stephan Yavorsky, the Venerable Job and Theodosius Kniahynytsky of the Manjava Skete and Prince Constantine Ostrozhky and his son, Alexander (discussed by Metropolitan Ilarion Ohienko in his work, Ukrainian Patrology). That there was a non-official cult in honour of the Ostrozhky Princes is shown by the fact of the burning of their dead bodies by the Poles for fear that they would be glorified. The Poles did this because they apparently thought the Orthodox Church would not glorify them if there were no physical remains or relics of them

Sometimes, due to political or other reasons, people had to be content with the non-official cult of a Ukrainian Saint. For example, before his formal Glorification at the end of the nineteenth century, St. Theodosius of Chernihiv was highly venerated by the Kozaks and there are stories of Kozaks reciting Troparions in honour of Theodosius. Seven Akathists in his honour were printed and circulated for popular devotion. All seven were rejected by the Moscow Church Canonization Committee for his Glorification, however. A new Akathist to St. Theodosius was later developed.

Also, sometimes veneration for a popular saint takes on interestng proportions. The Great Hieromartyr Saint Arsenius Matsievich was walled up in a fortified prison where he died from neglect. The local Orthodox population was not told who this prisoner really was i.e. an Orthodox Hierarch for fear by the authorities that there would be a local revolt. 200 miracles ascribed to him were accepted by the Church and his Glorification was approved but was interrupted by the Soviet Revolution. Arseny was Glorified a Saint on August 20, AD2000. Members of the Russian Aristocracy, even those who were not very religious, often had a veneration for Arsenius. A number even built life-size copies of his fortified prison where he died in their gardens and backyards!

There is a local cult in honour of Danylo Kushnir, mentioned by Metropolitan Basil Lypkivsky, who was martyred by Catholics – he was forcibly removed from the Orthodox church in which he was attending services and killed. During the eighteenth century, a movement developed in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in favour of a possible glorification of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnitsky and Bayda-Vyshnevetsky.

Other Saints, such as Seraphim of Sarov, who clearly recognized Kyiv as his Spiritual Mother, are also children of the Kyivan Church, whose spiritual influence extended throughout Eastern and even Western Europe and across the Asian mainland to North America.

Recent Saints of Ukraine include St Jonah of Kyiv, formerly John Miroshnechenko, from Poltava who built a monastery in Kyiv, St Basil Zelentsiv, New Hieromartyr of Poltava, St Gabriel of Kyiv and Mt. Athos, St Alexius of Carpatho-Rus', and St Theophan the New Recluse of Poltava.

"We glorify you, All you Saints who shone forth in the Ukrainian Land!"