The Patriarchate is the disgraced Testament of Joseph the Blind

Abstract

The idea of ​​the creation of the Ukrainian Patriarchate is simultaneously an attempt at combining the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with the Roman Apostolic See and, above all, with the work of the Jesuit Anthony Possevino of Poland at the court of Prince Konstantin Ostrozky. With the purpose of such a combination, a meeting in Krakow was held in 1583, in which it was discussed mainly the question of the creation of a Catholic patriarchate in Ukraine. We learn about this in particular from the report of the Apostolic Nuncio in Poland, Albert Bolognetti, who in May 1584 offered the Polish Queen Stefan Batory to create a patriarchate for the Ukrainians and Belarussians in Vyli or in the city of Lvov with the help of the princes of Ostrozky. This patriarchy should have been the basis for the combination of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with the Roman Apostolic See.