Life of the Mukachevo Bishop Stefan (Simeon) Olsavsky and Metropolitan’s Athanasius Szeptycki charter on his consecration in 1735 (publication of the act)

The paper is devoted to investigating the life and documental heritage of the Mukachevo bishop Stefan (Simeon) Olsavsky (c. 1695 – 1737), especially to publication a charter of his bishopric consecration by the Kyivan Metropolitan Athanasius Szeptycki (1686 – 1746) in Lviv St. Jorge Cathedral on 7 December 1735. The author analyses documental acts regarding the history of publishing separate documents and analyses a set of unpublished sources. On this basis, the historian reconstructs the bishop’s biography, his relations with contemporaries, and his position on eparchial development and administration questions. This research eliminates a lack of information about details of Stefan (Simeon) Olsavsky’s bishopric consecration. Moreover, the paper opposes a tendency to construe his period as some insignificant and undistinguished phase of the local eparchial history. Volodymyr Moroz explains terminological differences in interpreting the Mukachevo eparchy as the real autonomous “diocese” and a “district”, i. e., ritual vicariate of the Roman-Catholic Diocese of Eger in the time of Stefan (Simeon) Olsavsky. The researcher demonstrates that bishop Olsavsky’s decision to receive consecration from the Kyivan Metropolitan was not an accident but a result of his (and his predecessors) aspiring to avoid intrusive domination of the Eger bishops over the Eparchy of Mukachevo. This consecration was the following example of the Mukachevo eparchy’s gravity to union with the Kyivan Metropolitanate in a set of similar events. Significantly, the Metropolitan Athanasius Szeptycki fixed in the charter that Stefan (Simeon) Olsavsky promised his submission to the Holy See, the Pope personally, and the “Our humility” – the Metropolitan of Kyiv. Undoubtedly, the publication of this charter helps to reveal and explain new pages of the Church’s history. It could strengthen interest in studying relations between the Eparchy of Mukachevo and the Kyivan Metropolitanate.