The purpose of the article is to study the role of the Orthodox and Greek Catholic clergy in the formation of the Ukrainian national movement at the end of the 19th – in the fi rst decades of the 20th century and determine the infl uence of religious factors on the development of Ukrainian national identity. Th e scientifi c novelty of this topic lies in an attempt to compare the infl uence of the leading Eastern Christian faiths on the formation of Ukrainian national identity at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. Th is topic focuses on the importance of the religious sphere in forming the Ukrainian people’s national consciousness and political activity during the period of politicization of its national movement. Th e methodologi- cal principles. Based on the analysis of rich literature on the history of religion, the author of the article used the methods of historical analysis and synthesis, as well as the comparative method and the method of systemic analysis, to consider the interaction of Eastern Christian denomina- tions and determine their infl uence on the national movement in Ukraine. Conclusions. Th e author analyzed the cultural, social, and political traditions that infl uenced the formation of the Ukrainian national movement and the specifi cs of the impact of the clergy of the mentioned denominations on this process. Th e article draws attention to the fact that the infl uence on the development of the Ukrainian national movement depended on local conditions caused by the political, cultural, and social features of certain territories of Ukraine. An important factor in the success of nation-building processes was the support of the Ukrainian national project by the clergy of the dominant faiths. On the territory of Halychyna, the support of the Greek- Catholic clergy was of great importance for the crystallization of Ukrainian self-awareness among the population. In turn, in Dnipro Ukraine, the Orthodox Church remained a bastion of Slavophilism and Russian nationalism for a long time, and only at the beginning of the 20th century did autocephalous ideas, supported by a small group of the clergy, begin to appear in its midst. Although the Orthodox clergy only partially supported the Ukrainian cultural and later political movement, the very fact of the participation of some of its fi gures in Ukrainophilism strengthened the Ukrainian identity among the parishioners. Th e importance of both confessions for developing the Ukrainian national movement determines the particular importance of their dialogue in modern Ukraine based on partnership relations and ecumenism.