Catholic diocese in Kiev and Dominicans of Kiev in 14th and 15th

Abstract

The first permanent Catholic institution in Kiev was – from the 1380s – a Dominican monastery with a wooden church of St Nicholas. It was founded on the initiative of the missionary organization of the order (Societas Fratrum Peregrinantium propter Christum inter gentes, SFP) with the support of a small community of the faithful, mostly Polish and Genoese merchants, Lithuanian officials and soldiers, as well as the Armenians of that confession. Until 1456, it belonged to the Ruthenian Vicariate of the SFP, but the monks – as in other monasteries of this Vicariate – were recruited almost entirely from the environment of the Polish Dominicans. The stability of the monastery was guaranteed by the subsidy of Włodzimierz Olgierdowicz, the prince of Kiev district, half-brother and vassal of the Polish king Władysław II Jagiełło. That subsidy was given after he had assumed the throne in February 1386. The endowment included nearby landed estates and lucrative income from the grain trade in Kiev. The privilege of Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellończyk from 1495 increased the share of Dominicans in the income from trade in Kiev. From 1456, after the liquidation of the SFP, the monastery belonged to the Ruthenian contrata in the Polish province of the order. In the 15th century, it had neither novitiate nor conventual studies. The religious priests conducted missions among the local Orthodox Ruthenians and provided pastoral care for Catholic immigrants, mainly Poles and Armenians. The Catholic bishops, permanently or at least frequently residing in Kiev, appeared at the same time, for the Dominican monastery was their only support. Until 1430, they were appointed exclusively from the circle of the Polish Dominicans. The last time when a Polish Dominican (Michał of Lviv) sat on the bishop’s throne in Kiev was in the years 1486-1494. In 1412, the diocese of Kiev was incorporated into the ecclesiastical province of Lviv. This diocese formally encompassed the entire area of Kiev and Czernichów. In 1411, King Władysław II Jagiełło founded a separate cathedral (in a wooden building) on the Castle Hill in Kiev, near the seat of Lithuanian governors, and from 1471, Kiev voivodes. He also granted the diocese a sparsely populated land, bringing meagre income. Throughout the 15th century, the Kiev cathedral also served as a local parish. The clergy working there were few in number. From 1430, from the royal gifts, the bishop’s dignity was given to the Polish clergy from both ecclesiastical provinces, Gniezno and Lviv. Only in the years 1473-1474 a bishop was a Lithuanian priest from the diocese of Vilnius, Wojciech Narbut, who came from a noble family. Under the jurisdiction of bishop Klemens of Widawa (1451-1473), two city parishes were established, in Żytomierz and Cudnów. The first one existed until 1492, while the latter did not survive the Tatar invasion in 1482. During this invasion, the chapel in the Kiev castle, founded by voivode Marcin Gasztołd in 1471, also burned down.