«RUS’ IS BONE OF OUR BONES AND FLASH OF OUR FLASHE»: DID THE MUKACHEVO BISHOP PARTENII PETROVYCH WAS A SERBIAN?

Abstract

This research aims to ascertain the origin of the Mukachevo Uniate bishop Partenii Petrovych (1651 – 1665), who was elected by the clergy after a testament of the previous bishop Vasyl Tarasovych. The complex studying of documental sources and hypotheses concerning the bishop’s national background and territorial affiliation, as well as applying results of content analysis of his legacy, is the method we used in this work. A methodological approach that considers strong relations between the Mukachevo eparchy and the Kyivan Metropolitanate became a framework base for this exploration. This base allowed us to arrange data from sources, including genealogical and topographical, and generate a scholarly novelty of the inquiry. Our study enabled us to disclaim theses about Petrovych’s Serbian origin. The investigation ascertained the bishop’s Ukrainian origin from the village Synevyrska Poliana in the Zakarpattia region of Ukraine. We discovered the hierarch was a Petrovychi branch of the Kulczycki noble family member from the Peremyshl Land of Ruthenian Voivodeship in the Polish Crown. Moreover, Partenii Petrovych was a relative of Vasyl Tarasovych, because Tarasovychi is the other branch of the Kulczycki family. While revealing Petrovych’s origins, we explain his installation on the Episcopal see and his positioning as a native, not an immigrant. In common, the legacy of bishops Tarasovych and Petrovych from the Kulczycki family induced the third member of the same family, hieromonk Porphyrii, to become a candidate for the Mukachevo Episcopal see in the 1680th. The Polish king John III Sobieski and possibly the hero of the Battle of Vienna in 1683, Yurii-Frants Kulczycki, supported him in these attempts. Nevertheless, Porphyrii became not the bishop of Mukachevo but Pinsk and Turov.