Participation of Athonite Monks in church and cultural processes in the 17th century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth territorie

Abstract

The article studies the participation of Athonite monks in the church and cultural life of the Ukrainian-Belarusian lands in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the end of the 16th century onwards into and during the 17th centuries. Attention is drawn to the participation of Athonite clergy in literacy, educational and other activities after the tragic events of the Union of Brest. Evidence for the stay of the Ukrainian monk and polemicist Ivan Vyshenskyi in the Zograf Monastery on Mount Athos is an early printed book issued in 1595 kept at the monastery library, which contains a gift inscription by Vasyl Surozhskyi to Ivan Vyshenskyi. The presence of archimandrite Leontii, the abbot of the Peresopnytsia Monastery, who also spent some time there, is confirmed by remarks in several early printed books from the Zograf library. A considerable number of Ukrainian-Belarusian early printed books from the 16th and 17th centuries, preserved in the libraries of Zograf, Hilandar and other Athonite monasteries, attest to their close contacts with the clergy and monks of the Kyiv Metropolis during this period. The tradition of Athonite participation in the spiritual, cultural, and political life of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Cossacks gradually became a well-established practice from the 17th century onwards. This, in turn, contributed to the intensification of spiritual and cultural life in the Ukrainian-Belarusian lands, the revival of Orthodoxy and monasticism, and the restoration of ties between the Orthodox of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Holy Mount Athos and the Orthodox world.