In his youth, under the influence of Prince Radziwill, Adam converted to Calvinism, but about 1574, scared about the extremes of that denomination he returned to the Orthodox Church.[2] In the same year he married Anna, of the dukes of Hołowniów-Ostrożeckich, with whom he had six children.
Bishop
After the death of his wife in 1592, he chose to become a monk, taking the religious name of Ipati (Hypatius). In 1593, thanks to the support of Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski (a Prince of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) who was his close friend, he was appointed as the Bishop of Volodymyr-Brest. He was consecrated bishop on 6 June 1593[3] by the hands of Mykhajlo Rohoza.[4]
Hypatius played a crucial role in establishing of the Union of Brest by which the Ruthenian Church moved from the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to the jurisdiction of the Pope, thus forming the Ruthenian Uniate Church. He traveled to Rome, along with the Bishop of LutzkCyril Terlecki, to carry the petition to Pope Clement VIII which had been signed by the bishops in Brest on 12 June 1595. They arrived in Rome on 25 November 1595 and obtained the approval of the Pope on the conditions that Byzantine rite, liturgical practices and the not-use of the filioque would be preserved. They were back in Lutzk in March 1596.[5]
On 11 July 1609 some Orthodox, who opposed the Union of Brest, attempted to his life, but without success.[6] In 1611 he succeeded to appoint also a bishop favorable to the Union of Brest in the Eparchy of Przemyśl. He also worked on the restructuring of the Order of Saint Basil the Great. Potii died on 8 July 1613 in Volodymyr and was buried in the cathedral of that town.
Works
Hypatius Pociej was also a writer, polemist and theologian. Among his works we have: "The Union, or an Exposition of the Articles" (1595), "Antirysis" (Anti-Discourse, 1599), "A Defense of the Council of Florence" (1603), and "Harmony, or the Agreement of Faiths" (1608).[1] He wrote numerous letters, also to Lew Sapieha and Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski.
Notes
^The title is also known as the Metropolis of Kiev, Halych and all Rus' or Metropolis of Kyiv, Halychyna, and All-Rus'. The name "Galicia" is a Latinized form of Halych, one of several regional principalities of the medieval state of Kievan Rus'.
References
^ ab"Potii, Ipatii". Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Retrieved 26 April 2011.
^Borys, Gudziak (1998). "The Kyivan Hierarchy". In Bert Groen (ed.). Four hundred years Union of Brest (1596-1996) : a critical re-evaluation : acta of the congress held at Hernen Castle, the Netherlands, in March 1996. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters. pp. 29–32. ISBN978-90-429-0670-9.
^A. Пекар (1996). "Іпатій Потій - провісник з'єднання". Analecta Ordinis S. Basilii Magni (Sectio II, vol XV (XXI), Fasc 1-4). Rome: sumptibus PP. Basilianorum: 151–152.