This word, union, is unfamiliar to an Orthodox Russian living within the boundaries of Great Russia. But how many sorrowful historical memories it evokes in the soul of a Little Russian, a Belarusian, a resident of Lithuania, Podolia and Volhynia! What a heavy burden the Unia still lies upon our poor brethren who live in Galicia, this ancient Russian land, which by the fate of God is still under the rule of the Latins, the Germans and the Hungarians! Here is a brief account of what the so-called union was, where it came from, and how it came about.

Even at a time when Russia did not know the true God, when our Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir was choosing a new faith for himself, ambassadors from the German papists came to him with an offer of their faith. But the wise Vladimir knew the lust for power of the Roman popes and coldly received these ambassadors: "Go home, our fathers did not accept the faith from the Roman pope." And then our ancestors received the holy Orthodox faith from the Greeks, and sacredly preserved it without any changes. Even the Tatars themselves, who filled Russia with terror and devastation, did not shake the holy faith of our pious ancestors. Suffering under the yoke of the Tatars, they had complete freedom to listen to divine services and pray in their native language in churches that shone with ancient splendor, according to rites unanimously preserved in all corners of Orthodox Russia. God apparently blessed the Russian land for its Orthodoxy: everywhere holy churches of God were built and holy monasteries flourished, strong ascetics came out of all classes, who remained steadfast in their faith in the midst of the most torments and worked miracles both during their lifetime and after death; God glorified their very bodies with incorruptibility and miracles. Our ancestors saw all this and glorified God, and more and more they were imbued with love and respect for their Orthodox homeland and began to call their land Holy Russia.

But in the fourteenth century it pleased God to subject the Russian land to a new test. Kiev with the southern regions from under the rule of the Tatars falls under the authority of Lithuania; the metropolitans of Kiev transferred their cathedra first to Vladimir, then to Moscow, and the Lithuanian prince (in the fifteenth century) established a special metropolis in Kiev, separate from the Moscow one. Then Poland, fearing this union of Lithuania with Southern Russia and the strengthening of the Orthodox faith, offered its crown to the Lithuanian princes: it hoped through this to subjugate both Lithuania and Russia and spread the Latin faith there. In 1569, Lithuania really united with Poland, and the Lithuanian kings became Polish kings. So Southern Rus fell under the rule of Poland. And Poland has always been the obedient daughter of the Roman popes, who in every possible way sought worldly power and especially spiritual domination over the entire Christian world.

Even before that, the popes of Rome had more than once sent their ambassadors to our great princes, persuading them to recognize the supremacy of the pope over themselves and promising them both earthly and heavenly rewards for this. But our princes understood well what a great treasure our holy Orthodox faith is, for in it is the pure holy truth of Christ without the admixture of human inventions; in it is the pledge of our national happiness, our freedom and the integrity of the state. The Popes of Rome imposed Latin rites and the Latin language in worship on all peoples who accepted the Latin faith, and demanded unquestioning obedience from everyone. Our princes saw that other Slavic tribes, which had submitted to the Pope of Rome, were gradually deprived of the opportunity to listen to divine services in their native language, were gradually imbued with disdain for everything native, lost their customs, even their language, and either merged into one with those peoples who were stronger than themselves, or became sworn enemies of their own brothers who did not submit to the Pope of Rome. There were once Slavs even in Italy, in Prussia, along the rivers of the Oder, the Labe, in Pomorie or Pomerania; but they accepted the Roman faith and merged with the peoples there, and there was no trace of them left. And Poland! How much evil it brought to its blood brothers - Russians! Even then our ancient princes understood this great evil, and therefore they answered all the flattering speeches and promises of the papal ambassadors with a resolute refusal.

But when Southern Russia fell under the rule of Poland, the Orthodox faith there began to be threatened by a great danger. The Poles, especially the Jesuits (this is the name given to the Latin monks, who all their lives promise to serve the Pope of Rome unquestioningly in order to spread his power, without considering any means), began to humiliate the pastors of the Orthodox Church in every possible way, tried to make Russian bishops such people who were secretly friends with the Poles, deceived other bishops and nobles with cunning caresses, did not give the Orthodox nobles any rights. and the common people were oppressed in every possible way, and all this in order to introduce into Russia their own customs, their own language and their own Latin faith. Many of our nobles, even from the descendants of Grand Duke Vladimir, then converted to Latinism, betrayed the Orthodox faith and their native people, if only to preserve their rights. But the common people did not succumb to such a complete apostasy, they ardently loved their Orthodox faith and treasured its rites.

To the great misfortune for Southern Russia, there was then in Lutsk Bishop Kirill (by the name of Terletsky), who disgraced himself with the most outrageous vices: he was accused of bigamy, murder, counterfeiting, patronage of thieves... He was put on trial by the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople. The impious bishop, seeing no salvation for himself, decided to give himself over to the protection of the pope; moreover, he began to incite other bishops to his side, and among them there were those for whom worldly gains turned out to be dearer than the purity and holiness of the Orthodox faith. And so these bishops, who had betrayed Orthodoxy, began to convene councils (in 1594-1596) in Brest, Lvov, Kiev, again in Brest, and finally decided: to recognize the Pope of Rome as the head of the Christian Church, but in order to leave the church rites as before and to perform divine services in the Slavonic language. By this they hoped to attract the common people to the side of the Latin faith. Other Orthodox bishops and Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich of Ostrog rebelled against this decision. At the same time (1596), in the same Brest, they formed a great Council of the Orthodox, rejected union with the pope and made a vow: to stand firmly for Orthodoxy unto death. But all their efforts were in vain, the patronage of the Polish king did not prevail, and the union with Rome took place. It is this union with the Roman pope that is called the Unia in Latin, and those who are united from the Orthodox are called Uniates.

As you see, all this was the work of deception, the work of our enemies, the Poles and the Jesuits, and because of this much evil happened for Southern Russia. The Kiev Metropolia, through the intrigues of the Jesuits, remained without an archpastor for 25 years; St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev fell into the hands of the Uniates, the Pechersk Lavra barely escaped from them; a multitude of Russian people were drawn into the Unia and thus torn away from their brothers, family, Fatherland, faith and Divine services... True, at first the Roman clergy recognized the rites of the Uniates as sacred, but then little by little they began to change these rites, to introduce short read (without singing) masses instead of the ancient liturgy, to replace vocal singing with the sounds of organs, to rebuild churches according to the Latin model, to introduce Polish and Latin instead of the Slavonic language. And what oppression the Orthodox were subjected to is hard to believe in our time... No one was spared, the clergy, the people, adults, children, men and women were equally persecuted... The Russian people were declared apostates, serfs; Russian cities and villages were occupied by Polish troops; Poles sat in all government places and did whatever they wanted, Russian churches were forcibly converted into Uniate ones, the Latin clergy traveled everywhere for supervision and forced people to carry themselves from church to church, harnessing them to carts of 12 people or more. And the churches of those who did not join the union were at the mercy of the Jews. The Jews, these implacable enemies of Christianity, these universal vagabonds, took church keys and bell ropes to their taverns and charged money for every church service, especially for baptisms, weddings, funerals, and on every occasion they brazenly laughed at our holy divine services. The apostate bishops themselves, Kirill Terletsky and Inatius Potsey, raided the Orthodox, carried out robberies, murders, and violence of all kinds. Potsey and his gang invaded holy churches, stripped altars with his own hands, robbed church utensils, beat and imprisoned Orthodox priests...

The people endured and endured, and finally took up arms. The well-known Cossack wars began. But the Polish force suppressed the Cossacks, and those unfortunates who were captured were burned on coals, tormented with iron claws, put on sharp knitting needles, laid alive in stone pillars... Little Russia, mercilessly exterminated and burned, seemed destined to perish, but God had mercy on it: the famous hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky appeared, and according to his idea, the people of Southern Russia were forever detached from Poland and united with the people of Great Russia. This happened in 1654, 58 years after the beginning of the union. And Western Rus – Podolia, Volhynia, Byelorussia, Lithuania – could not yet separate from Poland and remained in the same position for more than 100 years. Moreover, here the union itself was persecuted by the Latins. The Latins forced the Uniates to convert to the Latin faith, took away their churches, monasteries, and church revenues. That's what the union was! Such is how much evil it brought to our poor brethren, who succumbed to this Roman flattery! Thank God, this intricate Jesuit snare is now broken! Even under Empress Catherine II, up to three million Russian Uniates returned to the bosom of the Orthodox Church. In 1839, more than one and a half million more were reunited; In 1875-1876, the rest of the Uniates, up to half a million, were also reunited. Thus, rejected by violence, they were reunited by love. Apparently, the Russian soul is Orthodox by nature, and the Russian person can be torn away from his native Orthodox Church only by violence or by his own proud ignorance!

478. The Triumph of Orthodoxy over the Unia

"I thank God and accept" Nicholas I

How good, how much these words speak to the heart! Do you not feel, brethren, my readers, that in these words one hears both joy and reverence? They will become clearer when we remember that they were written by the Emperor Nicholas Pavlovich of blessed memory in 1839, on March 25, at the report of the Holy Synod on the desire of more than one and a half million Uniates to return to their ancient Mother, the Orthodox Church. With these words, the most pious Tsar opened his paternal embraces to the children who had lost their way and returned. The day of March 25 then fell on Holy Saturday, and, therefore, the royal annunciation was distributed on the feast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos and on the eve of the Bright Resurrection of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ. And so, in 1889, 50 years have passed since this joyous event for the Church and the state. Let's say a friend, and now we thank God and take this event to heart! And since not many of us know it properly, let us now remember how it happened.

Much evil was brought by the union of South-Western Russia. At first, after the former Orthodox joined the Roman Church, the popes of Rome were ready to make all concessions, if only those who joined recognized the pope as the head of the universal Church, the vicar of Jesus Christ Himself on earth. But this was only a clever bait in order to later, imperceptibly and gradually, completely convert them to the Latin faith. According to the teaching of the Latins, the pope is infallible in matters of faith; How can you disobey him unquestioningly? Whoever does not obey the Pope does not obey Christ Himself. This is how the Latins taught and teach. And the pope, meanwhile, could dispose of the Uniates as he pleased. Who among the Uniates would dare to argue with the infallible vicar of Christ, as they recognized him? And so it happened to our unfortunate brothers, who in 1596 accepted the union with Rome. They were cruelly deceived in their hopes.

As soon as the Unia became somewhat stronger, as soon as those who joined the Latin Church became accustomed to their position, the zealous servants of the Pope of Rome, the Jesuits and the Polish government, began to press the Uniates, to introduce Latin rites among them, to demand that divine services be performed either in Latin or in Polish. The Latins forced the Uniates to insert into the Symbol of Faith their false teaching about the procession of the Holy Spirit and from the Son, introduced into the divine services organs, Roman rites during the celebration of the Sacraments, communion of the laity under one guise (one Body of Christ), destroyed Orthodox iconostases in churches, and began to educate future pastors for the Uniates in Latin schools. The Unia itself began to be contemptuously called the faith of serfs, churches, monasteries, church revenues were taken away from the Uniates, and all this was transferred to the Latins; the Uniates began to be openly forced to convert to Latinism. The unfortunate Uniates soon saw themselves in the position of defenseless orphans and with sorrow began to remember their former Mother, the Orthodox Church, which they had so thoughtlessly left. However, it must be said that they were not so much separated from it in spirit as by sad circumstances and by the fact that they languished under the rule of Poland, which so zealously served the Pope of Rome.

For almost two hundred years this difficult situation of the Uniates continued. All the measures of the Polish government, all the intrigues of the Latin clergy, all kinds of violence, all the tricks of treachery — everything was put into action to Polonize the Russian people, to deprive them of the faith of their fathers, the Orthodox faith, and to force them to forget them. But, thank God, this did not happen. The Russian people endured both violence and suffering with firmness, more than once shed streams of blood and defended the holy cause. There were not many traitors to this cause, and then only from those for whom worldly gains were dearer than the holy Orthodox faith. Under Empress Catherine II, some regions of the Western Territory, which constituted the ancient heritage of Russia, began to secede from Poland and join Russia. In these regions the Uniates were declared complete freedom to return to the ancestral Church, and since many of them still vividly remembered that their fathers were Orthodox, three million Uniates returned to the faith of their ancestors within two years. And those who remained in the union found protection in the Russian government and, at least, rested from the persecution of the Latins.