The Union of Brest was the the 1595-96 decision of the Ruthenian Church of Rus’, the Metropolia of Kiev-Halych and all Rus’, to break relations with the Patriarch of Constantinople and to enter into communion with the Bishop of Rome. At the time, this church included most Ukrainians and Belarusians who lived in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The hierarchs of the Kievan Church gathered in synod in the city of Brest and composed 33 articles of union which were accepted by the Bishop of Rome. At first it was widely accepted but, within several decades, it lost much of its initial support. Several uprisings, particularly the Khmelnytskyj and the Zaporozhian Cossak uprisings caused the Commonwealth to lose Ukraine. By the end of the 18th century the Ukrainian Church united to Rome became the sole church for Ruthenians living in the Commonwealth. After the Partition of Poland, all but Galicia enter into the Russian Empire and within decades all but the Chelm Eparchy would revert to Orthodoxy. The latter would be forcibly converted in 1875.

In Austrian Galicia, however, the church underwent a transformation to one of the founding cornerstones of the Ukrainian national awakening in the 19th century. It became the center for Ukrainian culture during the Second Polish Republic and Ukrainian nationalism during the Second World War. Although between 1946 and 1989 it was forcibly adjoined to the Russian Orthodox Church by Soviet authorities, it would come out of the catacombs as the Ukrainiain Greek-Catholic Church in the prelude to Ukraine’s independence.

The Union of Brest was solemnly and publicly proclaimed in the Hall of Constantine in the Vatican. Canon Eustachy Woltowicz of Vilnius read the letter of the Ruthenian episcopate in both Ruthenian and Latin to the Pope on June 12, 1595 declaring their desire for union with Rome. Cardinal Silvio Antoniani thanked the Ruthenian episcopate in the name of the Pope and expressed his joy at the happy event. Adam Pociej, Bishop of Vladimir, in his own name and that of the Ruthenian episcopate, then read, in Latin, the formula of abjuration of the Greek Schism. Bishop Cyryl Terlecki of Lutsk read it in Ruthenian. They all then affixed their signatures to the document. Pope Clement VIII addressed to them an allocution, expressing his joy and promising the Ruthenians his support and a medal was struck to commemorate the event. The inscription on the coin read: Ruthenis receptis.

On the same day the Pope published the Bull Magnus Dominus et laudabilis which announced to the Roman Catholic world the return of the Ruthenians to the unity of the Roman Church.

The Bull cites the events which led to the union, the arrival of Pociej and Terlecki at Rome, their abjuration, and the concessions made to the Ruthenians. (More to come)