THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION IN THE LETTERS OF BISHOP GEORGE (KONISSKY)
/ЗНАЧЕНИЕ ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ В ПОСЛАНИЯХ ВЛАДЫКИ ГЕОРГИЯ (КОНИССКОГО)/

Anthony Vasilievich MIRONOVICH

lecturer, University of Bialystok, Świerkowa 20B, 15-328, Bialystok, Poland, amir@uwb.edu.pl

Abstract

Bishop George was active at a time when political-religious developments were also being developed in Central and Eastern Europe to unite Christians in the form of a union. This caused considerable tensions between the Christian East and the West. Especially when the rulers of the individual empires have entered the Christian question. The paper describes this tense situation during the introduction of the Union mainly from the historical point of view. It points to the bravery of Bishop George on this difficult Church question.

Keywords

Bishop, George Konissky, unionism, pope, monarch, history

SUMMARY

Bishop George arrived in the Belarusian diocese during an attempt to liquidate this latter in the territory of the Commonwealth of the Orthodox bishopric. After the death in 1755 of the Mogilev bishop Jerome Volchansky, the Uniate party attempted to seize the Mogilev diocese. The Uniate Metropolitan Florian Grebnitsky did not leave the Polotsk archbishopric and sought to subjugate the Orthodox diocese, referring to the allegedly existing privilege of Sigismund III Vasa of March 22, 1619, according to which the Mstislav diocese was subordinated to the Uniate Polotsk archbishopric did not correspond to real facts: the Belarusian diocese (Mstislavl-Orsha-Mogilev) was created fourteen years later, after the death of Sigismund III. Even though the document was not reliable, the Uniate Metropolitan filed a lawsuit recognizing his jurisdiction over the Orthodox diocese. Pope Benedict XIV also demanded that Augustus III of Saxony liquidate the Orthodox bishopric. In a log sent to crown chancellor Jan Malakhovsky, the Roman pontiff urged the Polish government to transfer the care of the Mstislav pulpit to the Polatsk Uniate archbishop in the absence of the Orthodox Primate in support of the Orthodox bishopric, the Empress Elizabeth protested against the attempts of the Uniates to extend the authority to the Orthodox Church. Under pressure from the Russian resident in Warsaw, Gross, the king reaffirmed the rights of the Orthodox Church to the Mogilev diocese, and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in Peterburg on May 23, 1755 elected Georgy Konisski, rector of the Kiev Theological Academy, who served in the Polish Orthodox Church in Rzecz Pospolita, May 17, 1755.

(Language: russian)

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