Below is a long Russian Wikipedia article, translated into English using Folder Translation. The Wikipedia revision it was based on can be found here.
The Union of Brest (1596) was the decision by a group
of bishops of the Kiev Metropolis of the Constantinopolitan
Orthodox Church, led by Metropolitan Michael Rogoza, to accept Catholic doctrine and submit to the Roman Pope while retaining the Byzantine liturgical
tradition in Church Slavonic.
The act of union with the Roman Catholic Church was signed in Rome on December 23, 1595, and ratified on in the St. Nicholas Cathedral in the city of Brest. Simultaneously, a council of Orthodox clergy held in Brest, led by the patriarchal exarch Nicephorus, two bishops of the Kiev Metropolis, and Prince Konstantin Ostrogsky, refused to support the union, reaffirmed loyalty to the Constantinopolitan Patriarchate, and anathematized the apostates.
The Union of Brest led to the establishment of the Ruthenian Uniate Church within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1700, the Lviv Eparchy joined the Greek Catholic Church, followed by the Lutsk Eparchy in 1702, completing the transition of Orthodox eparchies in the Commonwealth to Greek Catholicism.
The union caused a schism within the Kiev Metropolis between Uniates (Greek Catholics) and opponents of unification with the Roman Catholic Church. The ruling elite and Catholic nobility of the Commonwealth, led by King Sigismund III, supported the Uniates, relegating traditional Orthodoxy to the status of an illegal and persecuted denomination and transferring its property to the Uniates. From the perspective of the Commonwealth authorities, the Union of Brest weakened the claims of the Moscow Patriarchate on the lands of Southwestern Rus' and the spiritual ties between Orthodox believers in the Commonwealth and the Russian state.
The signing of the Union of Brest led to a prolonged and sometimes bloody struggle between followers of the two denominations in the western Rus' lands. For a quarter of a century, Orthodox believers in the Commonwealth who rejected the union remained without a metropolitan. The Orthodox Kiev Metropolis was only restored in 1620, when Orthodox metropolitans of Kiev once again bore the title Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus'. In 1633, Metropolitan Petro Mohyla succeeded in securing state recognition for the Orthodox Church, but discrimination against Orthodoxy in the Commonwealth later intensified (the dissident question). Meanwhile, within the Russian Empire (including lands acquired from the Commonwealth), adherents of the union faced persecution.
The gradual dissolution of the Union of Brest began in the late 18th century with Russia's annexation of Right-Bank Ukraine and Belarus. On February 12, 1839, at the Polotsk Church Council, over 1,600 Ukrainian (Volhynia) and Belarusian parishes with a population of up to 1.6 million were reunited with the Russian Orthodox Church. On May 11, 1875, 236 parishes with up to 234,000 people in Chełm region were returned to Orthodoxy. This process continued in later years. In March 1946, at the Lviv Church-People's Council, the Union of Brest was abolished on the territory of the USSR, and the activities of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) were banned by Soviet authorities until 19901.
Today, Greek Catholicism is represented by the Ukrainian, Ruthenian, Belarusian, and Russian Greek Catholic Churches—local Catholic churches of the Eastern rite.
After the Mongol invasion, political life—though somewhat dependent on the Tatars—continued in the Galicia-Volhynia Principality for another century. Cut off from its natural center, Kiev, it gravitated toward the West, establishing diverse relations with Hungary, Austria, Poland, Germany, and Rome. Under the pressure of the Tatar yoke, the idea of closer ties with the West through union with the Rome emerged for the first time, and this idea persisted from the time of Daniel of Galicia onward.
In the 13th–15th centuries, the Ecumenical Patriarchate experienced a crisis, directly linked to the broader crisis in the Byzantine Empire. In 1204, during the Fourth Crusade, Constantinople was sacked by the Crusaders, leading to the establishment of the Latin Empire.
In 1274, the Second Council of Lyon saw a union between the Constantinopolitan Church and the papal throne, which was later rejected by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Among the main reasons prompting the senior hierarchs of the Kiev Metropolis to seek union with the Roman Catholic Church were, on one hand, the internal crisis of the West Russian Orthodox Church and growing tensions between bishops and laity in the second half of the 16th century, and on the other, the proselytizing efforts of Catholic clergy in Ukrainian-Belarusian lands. The union was not accidental; nor was it solely the result of personal ambitions or arbitrary actions by individual Orthodox hierarchs—it was shaped by the historical circumstances of the Russian Orthodox Church in Lithuania and was a direct consequence of its development.
While Orthodox Ruthenian populations in Galician Rus' faced significant pressure from the Polish Catholic majority, formal equality between churches and nationalities was maintained in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania until the first half of the 16th century. Nevertheless, given the primacy of the Polish Crown and the Catholic faith, the process of Polonization and conversion to Catholicism was inevitable. Before the Union of Kreva in 1385, inhabitants of the northwestern Grand Duchy adhered to traditional paganism, while the population of West Russian lands had been baptized into Orthodoxy during the Kievan Rus' period. However, with the Union of Kreva, Catholicism began spreading actively. In 1385, Grand Duke Jogaila himself converted to Catholicism, married the Polish heir Jadwiga, and became King of Poland. In 1387, Jogaila officially baptized Lithuania. Pagans were directly converted to Catholicism, while Orthodox believers were only required to acknowledge papal authority, without specifying the terms of their submission. Lithuanian and Russian nobles who adopted Catholicism were granted the privilege of unrestricted land ownership (nobility status modeled on Polish szlachta). Thus, the idea of union between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches was proposed in Lithuania long before the Union of Florence. The main obstacle was that the West Russian Church was subordinate to the Moscow Metropolitan, who was always a staunch opponent of rapprochement with the Catholic Church and the papacy.
When the Union of Florence was concluded in 1439, it was recognized in Lithuania, equalizing
the rights of Catholic and Orthodox clergy. Initially, this had little
impact, as the Moscow Metropolitan Isidore, who promoted the Union of Florence, was
defrocked and deposed upon his return to Moscow. However, in 1458, under Polish King and Lithuanian
Grand Duke Casimir
IV, a metropolis independent of the Moscow Metropolis was
established in Kiev—despite protests
from Moscow Prince Vasily
II and Moscow Metropolitan Jonah. By the second half of the 15th century, several Bernardine monasteries were
founded in West Russian lands to convert Orthodox believers to
Catholicism. Some Russian nobility converted to Catholicism through
marriages with Catholic families. Orthodox eparchial territories were
increasingly covered by Catholic noble estates, and the king accelerated
this process by transferring Orthodox eparchial lands with Catholic
populations to Catholic bishops. The metropolitans of Kiev, Galicia, and
All Rus' in the 16th century were nobles—wealthy, married men.
Yet, by this time, a significant portion of the West Russian nobility still belonged to the Orthodox Church. It had fifty monasteries, twenty churches in the capital Vilnius and its surroundings, twelve in Pinsk, eight in Ovruch, seven in Polotsk, not counting monastic churches. In Grodno, there were six Orthodox churches; in Lviv, nine.
During the reign of Sigismund II Augustus,
Protestantism began
spreading into Poland and later into Lithuania. The king favored
Protestants and, being generally tolerant in matters of faith, also
extended his protection to the Orthodox. Only toward the end of his
reign did he come under the influence of Catholics, particularly the papal nuncio Commendoni. In
1564, Bishop-Cardinal Stanislaus Hosius summoned
the Jesuits to Poland.
The Union of Lublin in 1569, which united Lithuania and Poland into a confederate state, accelerated the process of Polonization and Latinization of the Ruthenian nobility. This deprived the Orthodox Church of material support, as it was the princes and noble families who built churches and established schools alongside them. Orthodox Christians living within the Polish-Lithuanian state were promised freedom to practice their faith, the use of the Ruthenian language in official documents, and other rights equal to those of Catholics. However, subsequent events showed that Catholic authorities had no intention of upholding these guarantees of the Union of Lublin, instead restricting and oppressing the Orthodox in their rights.
At the same time, the Kingdom of Poland, riding the wave of the Counter-Reformation, experienced a religious revival. After the Council of Trent (1545–1563), the Roman Catholic Church began recovering from the blow dealt by the Reformation and reclaiming lost ground. The proselytizing activities of Catholics, which had declined with the onset of the Reformation, surged again in the 1570s. In 1569, the Jesuits were summoned to Vilnius by Vilnius Bishop Valerian Protasewicz. In both Poland and Lithuania, their goal was to combat Protestantism; but after swiftly dealing with it, they turned their attention to the Orthodox and largely paved the way for the union. Well-prepared and highly educated theologians generally prevailed in theological debates against the Orthodox. Backed by royal authority, Jesuit ideologues advanced eastward, where Orthodox polemicists and individual Ruthenian magnates struggled to resist their offensive. Only the burghers, who largely remained loyal to Orthodoxy, offered significant political resistance to the Jesuits by uniting in church brotherhoods.
The King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Stephen Báthory (1576–1586), who declared his personal allegiance to Catholicism, founded Jesuit collegia in Lublin, Polotsk, Riga, Kalisz, Nesvizh, Lviv, and Dorpat within five years. Aligning with his eastern-oriented foreign policy, Báthory sought to develop the infrastructure of state administration within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, planned to move the capital of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to Grodno, and supported the Jesuits in their efforts to establish a higher educational institution in Lithuania. On April 1, 1579, he issued a privilege transforming the Jesuit college founded in Vilnius in 1570 into the Academy and University of Vilnius of the Society of Jesus (Almae Academia et Universitas Vilnensis Societatis Jesu).
Favorable conditions for Jesuit activities also stemmed from the state of the Ruthenian Orthodox Church at the time. The Polish-Lithuanian kings had long held the right to confirm individuals elected by the hierarchy or the people to high ecclesiastical offices. Stephen Báthory interpreted this right so broadly that he personally selected and appointed high-ranking clergy. He often appointed laymen to ecclesiastical positions—sometimes individuals unworthy of the clerical rank—as rewards for services rendered. Hierarchs appointed in this manner, unprepared for their pastoral duties and primarily concerned with enriching themselves and their relatives while leading improper lifestyles, increasingly provoked hostility among their flocks.
A significant influence on the situation was the institution of patronage2 in Poland and Lithuania. On one hand, patronage enabled individuals like Prince K. K. Ostrogski to provide substantial support to the Orthodox Church in its struggle against Catholicism. On the other hand, patronage, by granting laymen the right to interfere in church affairs, opened the door to arbitrariness and coercion, as seen in Lithuania during the imposition of the union. Patronage in the Ruthenian Church developed uniquely and extensively. It belonged not only to individuals or families but also to urban communities, which organized into church brotherhoods. The most influential were the Lviv Brotherhood in Galicia, the Vilnius Brotherhood in Lithuania, and the Epiphany Brotherhood in Kiev. The brotherhoods participated in electing bishops and metropolitans, monitored church property management, protested against abuses by bishops and clergy, defended church interests before authorities, and so on. Bishops and clergy resented the brotherhoods' interference in church affairs. Some bishops sought to rid themselves of this unwanted oversight, leading to conflicts with the brotherhoods and, later, even prompting some to join the union.
Under these circumstances, a group of high-ranking Orthodox hierarchs began considering the feasibility of a union with the Catholic Church. These sentiments were driven by both personal interests of the clergy (desire to retain their landholdings and gain political rights equal to Catholic clergy) and the hierarchs' aspiration to lead the church out of crisis. Secret discussions of these plans continued for several years. When they became known to the Orthodox public, opposition arose—not only from Prince Ostrogski but also from minor Ruthenian nobility, mid-level Orthodox clergy, burghers, and the emerging Cossack class.
Catholic
Church leaders of the time commonly believed that the "Ruthenians"
(Eastern Slavs) had entered the "schism" not out of conviction but under the
influence of the Constantinople Patriarchate, and that they adhered
to these "errors" merely out of habit—thus, they could easily be brought
into union with the Roman Catholic Church.
Proposals detailing the benefits such a union could bring to the "Ruthenian" Church and society were outlined in Jesuit Piotr Skarga's 1577 work On the Unity of God's Church Under One Shepherd. Skarga urged Polish Catholics to negotiate with Orthodox bishops and nobles within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to establish a local union, disregarding the position of the Constantinople Patriarch, to whom the Kiev Metropolis was subordinate. Skarga argued that Orthodox Christians could retain their rites while recognizing papal authority and accepting Catholic dogmas.
In the 1580s, papal legate Antonio Possevino promoted the idea in his writings that the clergy of the Kiev Metropolis could submit to the pope under terms established at the Council of Florence. In 1581, he traveled to Moscow, where he secured an audience with Tsar Ivan the Terrible, engaged in a theological debate, and presented him with a treatise On the Differences Between Roman and Greek Confessions. Upon returning to Rome, Possevino reported to the pope. After explaining the insurmountable difficulties of introducing Catholicism in Russia, he drew the pope's attention to the Ruthenian Church in Polish-Lithuanian territories, suggesting intensified Catholic influence there. In 1590, Skarga's book was republished—well-known among Orthodox circles, as evidenced by Orthodox polemical responses to it. These proposals attracted the attention of several Orthodox bishops of the Kiev Metropolis in the early 1590s.
In 1589, the establishment of the Moscow Patriarchate legitimized the de facto autocephalous governance of the dioceses of the Moscow Metropolis. Patriarch Jeremiah II, returning from Moscow after the patriarchate's establishment, spent several months in the Polish-Lithuanian state. There, at the request of Prince K. K. Ostrogski to restore order in the Ruthenian Church, he agreed to depose Kiev Metropolitan Onesiphorus Devochka, replacing him with Michael (Rohoza), archimandrite of the Minsk Ascension Monastery, whom he immediately elevated to metropolitan. Simultaneously, distrusting the new metropolitan, the patriarch appointed Cyril (Terletsky), Bishop of Lutsk, as his exarch, granting him oversight and judicial authority over Ruthenian priests, and named Bishop Meletius Khrebtovych of Vladimir as his protothronos. The patriarch also deposed bishops accused of bigamy or trigamy, established future procedures for filling sees with monks, and expanded the rights of church brotherhoods over bishops. He threatened to defrock Bishop Leonty Pelchynsky of Turov-Pinsk for shielding bigamous priests. In a dispute between Lviv Bishop Gedeon (Balaban) and the Lviv Brotherhood over the Onuphrius and Univ Monasteries, the patriarch sided with the brotherhood, affirming their patronage rights. Just before departing Western Rus', on November 13, 1589, the patriarch granted a new charter to the Lviv Brotherhood, safeguarding its privileges with an anathema clearly directed against Bishop Gedeon (Balaban).
The patriarch's actions provoked sharp discontent among disgraced hierarchs of the Ruthenian Church. The Jesuits exploited this, stoking resentment by highlighting the patriarch's arbitrariness and contradictory decrees. New persecutions of Orthodox Christians by authorities compounded dissatisfaction with the patriarch's measures. Among bishops and nobles, thoughts turned to union with Rome as a way out of the Ruthenian Church's dire situation. The first to express intent to join the union was Lviv Bishop Gedeon (Balaban). He drew fellow conspirator Cyril (Terletsky) to his side, despite their prior enmity.
The intervention of Patriarch Jeremiah in the affairs of the Western Russian Church forced the local episcopate to independently seek ways out of the crisis—particularly by reviving and revitalizing the practice of holding local councils, which had been abandoned since the early 16th century. The first council was scheduled for June 1590, after Trinity Sunday. Following the example of earlier Russian councils, not only bishops but also monastery superiors, representatives of parish clergy, envoys from brotherhoods, and Orthodox nobility were invited. Bishops Cyril (Terletsky), Gedeon (Balaban), Leonty (Pelchynsky), and Kholm's Dionysius (Zbyruysky) attempted to persuade the metropolitan to convene a council to discuss church troubles without lay participation. Failing to obtain the metropolitan’s consent, they met somewhat earlier and agreed to accept the union. However, they kept their intentions secret, and at the Brest Council of 1590, they only proposed submitting complaints to the king about the oppression of the Orthodox Church.
Acknowledging that the Church faced persecution from Catholics and Protestants, suffered from the arbitrariness of secular patrons and internal discord, the council participants resolved to convene councils annually, with failure to attend without valid reason punishable by defrocking. Among specific issues, the council addressed the dispute between Bishop Gedeon (Balaban) and the Lviv Brotherhood. The bishop was condemned for attempting to subordinate the brotherhood in violation of privileges granted by the Patriarch of Constantinople.
On June 24, 1590, the bishops of Lutsk, Kholm, Turov-Pinsk, and Lviv addressed Polish King Sigismund III with a message expressing their desire to submit to the authority of the pope as the "sole supreme pastor and true successor of St. Peter," provided the king and pope approved the "articles" presented by the bishops. The message said nothing about doctrine or dogma; the bishops were solely concerned with guarantees of safety. Sigismund’s reply came only in March 1592. Approving the bishops' intentions, the king assured them they would retain their sees regardless of sanctions imposed by the patriarch or metropolitan.
In the autumn of 1592, the Lviv Brotherhood petitioned the Patriarch to convene a council with a patriarchal exarch to adjudicate unworthy bishops. Summoned to the 1593 council, Gedeon (Balaban)—previously suspended by the metropolitan and defying the decision—refused to appear and was excommunicated.
Meanwhile, internal agitation continued among the bishops. By late 1594, they persuaded Przemyśl Bishop Michael (Kopystensky) and even Metropolitan Michael (Rogoza) to join the conspiracy. Only Polotsk Bishop Nathanael remained, but he was elderly and died in early 1595. By late 1594, the plot thus encompassed nearly all senior hierarchs. A further step toward union was the meeting of four bishops—Cyril (Terletsky), Gedeon (Balaban), Michael (Kopystensky), and Dionysius (Zbyruysky)—held in late 1594 in Sokal.
Preceding the meeting was a church council where brotherhoods and Orthodox nobility again criticized the bishops' actions. Tensions between bishops and laity had grown so acute that most bishops skipped the council convened by Metropolitan Michael (Rogoza). At the Sokal meeting, "articles" were drafted and signed—conditions addressed to Pope Clement VIII and King Sigismund III, under which the episcopate of the Kiev Metropolia would accept papal jurisdiction. Cyril then persuaded Metropolitan Michael to sign the text. Meanwhile, Hypatius Potiy (Potsiy), newly appointed Bishop of Vladimir, corresponded with the metropolitan, quickly aligning with Cyril (Terletsky) and Gedeon (Balaban) to become a chief union advocate.
The metropolitan wavered, still posing as an Orthodox zealot to the nobility. Meanwhile, Cyril (Terletsky), authorized by the bishops, secretly negotiated terms with Latin hierarchs. In early 1595, he traveled to Kraków, meeting the papal nuncio and other Catholic bishops.
By March 1595, the plan could no longer be concealed. Prince K. K. Ostrozky, a powerful Orthodox magnate, exposed the bishops' intentions, sparking protests. Metropolitan Michael sought royal protection to seize the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, which he obtained via a royal decree placing the Lavra under his direct control—later reinforced by a papal decree contingent on union acceptance.
The "articles" were finalized in a collective act signed by the metropolitan, bishops Cyril and Leonty, and Kobryn Archimandrite Jonah Gogol, dated June 1, 1595. Key terms included: - Preservation of Orthodox dogma and rites. - Subordination to the pope. - Protection of hierarchs from noble and brotherhood interference. - Retention of church properties. - Senatorial ranks for senior clergy. - Shielding the Church from Greek influence.
The Kiev Metropolitan retained the right to ordain bishops without Roman interference, while the king pledged to enforce episcopal authority over parishes, schools, printing houses, and brotherhoods. However, no parity between Catholic and Uniate clergy was established.
A June 12, 1595 "Conciliar Epistle to Pope Clement VIII" bore signatures from Metropolitan Michael, bishops Cyril (Terletsky), Hypatius (Potiy), Michael (Kopystensky), Gedeon (Balaban), Dionysius (Zbyruysky), Leonty (Pelchytsky), and Jonah Gogol. As historian A. V. Kartashev notes, "Uniate writers invented a supposed Brest council for this act, but it cannot be confirmed. Signatures were collected separately. Thus, the episcopate, steeped in Latin clericalism, deceived the flock and secured union through state power."
On June 25, 1595, Prince Ostrozky urged Orthodox faithful to reject unionist bishops. Brotherhoods, much of the nobility, and clergy opposed the union. Bishops Gedeon and Michael recanted, but King Sigismund rejected Ostrozky’s plea for a council (July 28), ordering obedience to bishops while promising royal protection.
In July–August 1595 decrees, Sigismund pledged to strengthen Uniate bishops' authority but avoided equalizing Uniate and Catholic clergy rights. The Polish Catholic Church, uninvolved in negotiations, later resisted concessions, preferring direct Orthodox conversions.
In August 1595, Constantinople’s exarch Nikephoros in Iași urged bishops to repent or face rejection by the Orthodox. Pressured, the bishops hastened to finalize union.
In November 1595, Cyril (Terletsky) and Hypatius (Potiy) traveled to Rome. The pope exploited their desperation: the "articles" were ignored, and the Kiev Metropolia was treated as schismatic petitioners. On December 23, 1595, the bishops kissed the pontiff’s foot and swore obedience "in the form prescribed for Greeks returning to Roman unity," fully accepting Catholicism—including Trentine dogma—without Orthodox concessions.
On January 21, 1596, the Pope approved the apostolic constitution "Magnus Dominus," which outlined the entire process of the envoys' arrival and the procedure for concluding the union. The act concluded with the words: "We, by this our decree, receive the venerable brothers, Michael the Archbishop—Metropolitan and other Russian bishops, together with all their clergy and the Russian people living under the rule of the Polish king, into the bosom of the Catholic Church as our members in Christ. And as a testament of such love for them, by apostolic favor, we permit and allow all sacred rites and ceremonies which they use in performing divine services and the most holy liturgy, as well as in administering other sacraments and sacred rites, provided these rites do not contradict the truth and teaching of the Catholic faith and do not hinder communion with the Roman Church—we permit and allow this, notwithstanding any other contrary decrees and ordinances of the Apostolic See.". To commemorate this significant event, commemorative medals were struck in gold and silver with the inscription "Ruthenis receptis."
The papal bull "Decet Romanum Pontificem," issued on February 23, 1596, addressed to Metropolitan of Kyiv, Halych, and All Rus' Michael (Rohoza), did not provide autonomy for the Kyiv Metropolia but guaranteed non-interference by secular authorities in episcopal appointments and respect for Eastern liturgical traditions. Clement VIII granted permission to ordain bishops and the metropolitan locally, though each new metropolitan was required to seek confirmation of his rank from Rome.
Thus, the bishops failed to secure any special autonomy for their Church. The decisions made in Rome initiated a steady process of limiting the autonomy of the Uniate Church and aligning its internal life with the practices of other parts of the Catholic world. Meanwhile, the Roman Curia made no effort to persuade the Polish Church to grant equal rights to Catholic and Uniate clergy.
At the same time, the growing conflict with their flock made it impossible to abandon the union with Rome, though it also forced some of its supporters to join the opposition. The results of the bishops' stay in Rome ensured full support for the union from Polish King Sigismund III, who ordered local authorities to suppress opposition to the union.
Protests by Orthodox Christians against the organizers of the union continued. At the Warsaw Sejm (March–May 1596), Prince K. K. Ostrozky, speaking on behalf of Orthodox nobles from several voivodeships of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, demanded that the bishoprics of those who had abandoned Orthodoxy be taken away and handed over to Orthodox candidates in accordance with traditional legal norms. When the king refused, Orthodox nobles opposing the union declared that they did not recognize the union's organizers as their bishops and would not allow them to exercise authority over their lands. Brotherhoods and many clergy also continued to oppose the union. However, the freedom of public and religious self-determination was coming to an end. The union became a state program, and resistance to it was treated as political rebellion. The first to be punished was the Vilnius Brotherhood—by a royal universal of May 22, 1596, the metropolitan was ordered to try the Vilnius brotherhood members as rebels and expel them from the Trinity Monastery.
On June 14, 1596, a royal universal was published: "Considering the ancient union of the Eastern and Western Churches, which has always contributed to the elevation and prosperity of the state, and following the example of great sovereigns… among our other state concerns, we have turned our attention to bringing people of the Greek religion in our state back to their former unity with the Roman Catholic Church under the authority of one supreme shepherd. For this purpose… the bishops of Volodymyr and Lutsk were sent as envoys to the Pope. Having visited the Holy Father, they have already returned and brought back nothing new or contrary to your salvation, nothing differing from your usual church ceremonies. On the contrary, in accordance with the ancient teaching of the Greek Holy Fathers and Holy Councils, they have preserved everything intact, about which they will give you a detailed account. And since many noble people of the Greek faith, desiring holy union, have asked us to convene a council to conclude this matter, we have permitted your Metropolitan Michael Rohoza to summon a council in Brest, whenever he and your other senior clergy deem it most convenient. We are confident that you yourselves, upon careful consideration, will find nothing more beneficial, important, or comforting than holy union with the Catholic Church, which fosters and multiplies harmony and mutual love among peoples, safeguards the integrity of the state union, and secures other earthly and heavenly blessings." The council was to include "Catholics of the Roman Church and the Greek Church who belong to this unity." Orthodox participation was limited as follows: "Any Orthodox may freely attend the council, but only with modesty and without bringing a crowd." The possibility of Protestant representatives participating in the council's work, with whom Prince Ostrozky had established contacts by this time based on joint opposition to Catholicism, was thus excluded.
On August 21, 1596, Metropolitan of Kyiv, Halych, and All Rus' Michael (Rohoza) scheduled the opening of the Council for October 6. The king sent his representatives to Brest, led by Troki Voivode N. K. Radziwiłł, accompanied by a military detachment. At the council, in addition to papal legates and royal commissioners, Metropolitan Michael (Rohoza) and five bishops—those of Lutsk, Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Polotsk, Pinsk, and Kholm—were present. Two of the seven bishops, Gedeon (Balaban) and Michael (Kopystensky), remained on the Orthodox side. However, their signatures, given in advance, were already present on nearly all documents predetermining the union. Thus, formally, the entire West Russian episcopate endorsed the council's program.
The patriarchs of the Eastern Church sent their envoys to the council: the Alexandrian patriarch was represented by protosyncellus Cyril Lucaris, who had taught at the Ostroh School since 1594, while the Ecumenical patriarch was represented by Protosyncellus Nikephoros, who had served as patriarchal exarch in Moldavia and Poland since 1592. Upon arriving in Poland, Nikephoros was arrested at the border town of Khotyn but was released at the request of Orthodox Christians. The Orthodox side, apart from the two bishops who refused to support the union, was represented by abbots of the most revered Orthodox monasteries: Kyiv-Pechersk, Supraśl, Zhydychyn, Derman, envoys of the "entire Vilnius clergy," many archpriests—representatives of clergy from their districts—Orthodox nobles led by Prince Ostrozky, and brotherhood delegates. The Russian Orthodox community sought to ensure canonically impeccable and maximally solid representation from both the nobility and magistrates. In violation of the royal decree, local Brest Protestants sympathetic to their cause were mobilized. Prince Ostrozky himself arrived in Brest under armed guard, accompanied by a detachment of Tatars and hajduks with cannons.
On the appointed day, Metropolitan Michael (Rohoza), without inviting or even informing the Orthodox side, gathered the bishops in the Church of St. Nicholas—Brest's cathedral—and officially opened the council after liturgy and prayers. All other churches in Brest were closed to Orthodox Christians by order of Hypatius (Potiy), forcing them to find refuge in the private home of Protestant nobleman Pan Rajski. On October 6, the Orthodox gathered there, awaiting an invitation from the metropolitan, but after waiting all day without receiving one, they opened their own council, presided over by Exarch Nikephoros, who held written authority from the Ecumenical Patriarch. Seeking formal communication with Metropolitan Michael, the patriarchal exarchs Nikephoros and Cyril Lucaris sent him greetings and an invitation to meet and discuss organizing conciliar sessions. However, the metropolitan refused to receive either the delegation of clergy or Prince Ostrozky. It became clear that the government-backed council had decided to ignore the Orthodox.
On October 7, a delegation of clergy secured a meeting with the metropolitan, who received them "with fury and contempt" and stated that no answer to their question would be given. On October 8, a third delegation approached the metropolitan but soon returned with a response from the bishops: "What we have done is done. We cannot undo it. Whether good or bad, we have already united with the Western Church." The path to opening an Orthodox council was thus cleared. Exarch Nikephoros, after his address, invited delegations to present Orthodox opinions "from the ground." The main theses were as follows: - The Russian bishops who supported the union were apostates subject to defrocking. - Without the consent of the Eastern patriarchs, a single local council in Brest had no authority to decide on the union; such a decision was unlawful, uncanonical, and non-binding.
The session was interrupted by the arrival of royal envoys, including Piotr Skarga himself. They were received in a separate room by Prince Ostrozky, Bishops Gedeon (Balaban) and Michael (Kopystensky), and representatives of the clergy and laity attending the Orthodox council. The royal envoys accused the Orthodox of disloyalty, bringing armed guards, associating with Protestant heretics and Exarch Nikephoros—whom they labeled an ally of the Turks and an enemy of Poland. The lay Russian nobles were urged, in the name of God and the fatherland, not to take the path of treason and patriotically accept the union. The Orthodox delegates patiently listened to the reproaches and accusations and promised to relay them to the council. That same day, the council sent a response to the royal envoys: "…We declare that we will gladly join the Roman Church when the entire Eastern Church, especially the patriarchs, agrees to it, when lawful paths are chosen and proper measures taken, when all differences in dogma and rites between the Eastern and Western Churches are thoroughly reconciled, and when, thus, a path to their firm and indissoluble union is laid."
October 9 was the final, decisive day of the council for both the Uniate and Orthodox sides. The royal envoys informed the Uniate council that negotiations with the Orthodox had led to nothing. The bishops and archimandrites donned their liturgical vestments and proceeded in a religious procession to the Church of St. Nicholas. There, Herman, Bishop of Polotsk, read aloud a pre-prepared declaration of union "for eternal memory to all." The declaration stated that the Russian bishops recognized the supremacy of the pope, that they had sent their brethren to Rome, and that those brethren had sworn an oath of loyalty to the Roman throne on their behalf. Now, they personally and under their own seals reaffirmed this commitment and submitted their will to the papal legates. After this, the Catholic and Uniate bishops went together to a Catholic church to sing the Te Deum. Following the service, an excommunication was pronounced against Gideon (Balaban), Bishop of Lviv; Michael (Kopystensky), Bishop of Przemyśl; and Kyivan Cave Archimandrite Nykyfor Tur, as well as nine archimandrites and sixteen protopopes by name, and in general terms against all clergy who had not accepted the union. The next day, this excommunication was publicly announced, and a request was sent to the king to replace the excommunicated individuals with those who had accepted the union.
At the Orthodox council on October 9, presided over by Nykyfor, a trial was held against the metropolitan and the apostate bishops for violating their episcopal oath of loyalty to the patriarch and the Orthodox faith, disregarding the rights of the Patriarch of Constantinople within his jurisdiction as decreed by ancient councils, daring to resolve the issue of church union unilaterally without the patriarch or an ecumenical council, and finally, ignoring the threefold summons to explain themselves before the patriarchal exarchs and the council. After recognizing all charges as proven, Exarch Nykyfor, on behalf of the council, declared the apostate bishops deprived of their holy orders. Lay participants of the council solemnly vowed not to obey the Uniate bishops.
The decisions of the Uniate council were ratified at the state level by a royal universal decree on October 15, 1596, which excommunicated the two remaining Orthodox bishops—Gideon of Lviv and Michael of Przemyśl. In response, the Orthodox, electing delegates to the 1597 Warsaw Sejm, instructed them to demand, with Protestant support, the removal of the Uniate bishops from their positions. This marked the beginning of a two-century struggle by the Orthodox, in alliance with other dissidents of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, for the freedom of their faith. The struggle was arduous and not expected to succeed, as Sejm decisions, according to constitutional law, required unanimous approval by the entire 300-member deputy corps. In matters of faith, such unanimity was unattainable, so things remained unchanged—though this also allowed dissidents to block Catholic proposals.
At the time, the opponents of union with Rome constituted the clear majority among both clergy and laity. However, the state authorities took the initiators of the union under their protection and later played a key role in escalating the conflict surrounding the union, which initially had only an intra-communal character and concerned solely the religious life of the Orthodox within the Kyiv Metropolis. In December 1596, King Sigismund III demanded that his subjects no longer recognize Gideon (Balaban) and Michael (Kopystensky) as bishops and avoid communion with them, while local officials were ordered to persecute those opposing the union. In early 1597, Exarch Nykyfor, who had presided over the Orthodox council, was accused of spying for Turkey and Moscow, convicted, and imprisoned in Marienburg Castle, where he soon died of starvation. The second patriarchal exarch, Cyril Lucaris, who had participated in the Orthodox council, fortunately managed to escape.
Subsequently, the state authorities consistently maintained that the only lawful Church for the Orthodox population of the Commonwealth was the Uniate Church, and to achieve this goal, they employed any means of pressure and coercion: churches served by non-Uniate priests were closed, the priests themselves were deprived of their parishes, and services were permitted only for Uniate priests. Orthodox burghers were barred from city councils, and craftsmen were expelled from guilds. The Uniate clergy actively encouraged such policies, and the Catholic Church supported them with its spiritual authority.
State intervention transformed the religious conflict into a political clash between the government and the Orthodox population of the Commonwealth, who perceived these actions as an assault on their traditional right to freely practice their faith. Orthodox clergy and nobility attempted to persuade the Commonwealth’s ruling circles to abandon this policy, but to no avail—the authorities increasingly resorted to coercion and faced armed resistance from the Orthodox, particularly the Cossacks.
From 1597, a fierce religious polemic unfolded, initiated by Jesuit Piotr Skarga, who published the book Synod Brzeski i jego obrona (The Synod of Brest and Its Defense) in both Ruthenian and Polish.
Finding no government support, the Orthodox formed an alliance with Protestants in 1599 to oppose Catholics and Uniates. Many Orthodox, such as Prince Kurbsky, strongly opposed this alliance, deeming it religiously inappropriate. That same year, the first Uniate metropolitan, Michael (Rahoza)—a weak, evasive, and indecisive man—died. His successor, Hypatius (Pociej), was Rahoza’s polar opposite. He energetically promoted the union, especially since secular authorities fully supported him.
Hypatius fought against Orthodox bishops and monasteries, confiscating their estates, removing clergy, and replacing them with Uniates. He repeatedly attempted to seize the Kyivan Cave Lavra but failed due to the fierce resistance of Archimandrite Nykyfor Tur. The Orthodox also fiercely contested Uniate control over the Kyivan Saint Sophia Cathedral. Hypatius was more successful in Vilnius, where the Trinity Brotherhood was the Uniates’ main adversary. He expelled them from the Trinity Monastery and established a Uniate brotherhood, placing his active assistant, Archimandrite Joseph Veliamin Rutsky—a Jesuit-educated man—at its head. The Orthodox Trinity Brotherhood relocated to the Holy Spirit Monastery. By 1609, all churches in Vilnius except the Church of the Holy Spirit had been seized for the union. Resentment against Hypatius grew, and one Vilnius resident attempted to assassinate him. The metropolitan survived, losing only two fingers.
An intelligent and deliberate architect and leader of the union, Metropolitan Hypatius fully shared the government’s view that the achieved church union was merely a transitional stage for Poland. The ideal was not preserving the Eastern rite of the union but rapid Latinization, so that the "peasant faith" would quickly transform into the "lordly faith," resembling Catholicism and dissolving into it. To this end, Hypatius aimed to create and organize a powerful institution to re-educate the old clergy. Emulating methods that had proven successful against the Reformation (such as the creation of the Jesuit Order), he established a special order within the Uniate Church, entrusting it with training a new Uniate priesthood. The Basilian Order’s main monastery became the Vilnius Trinity Monastery, to which all other seized Russian monasteries were subordinated. The order was led by Proto-Archimandrite Joseph Veliamin Rutsky. The Basilians reported directly to a special procurator in Rome, part of the Roman Curia. To strengthen the Basilian Order, Catholics—even Jesuits—were sent to join it.
After Hypatius Pociej’s death (1613), the Uniate Church was led for a quarter-century by Metropolitan Joseph Veliamin Rutsky. Hypatius and Joseph spiritually shaped and strengthened the Uniate Church. Joseph Rutsky materially enriched the Basilians with lands confiscated from Orthodox monasteries and churches. Under him, iconostases were removed from churches, and organs were introduced. In 1617, Metropolitan Joseph Rutsky convened a congregation of Uniate monasticism. The Basilians’ primary task was declared to be the educational upbringing of the Uniate flock, starting with raising the educational level of the Basilians themselves. By agreement with the papal center, scholarships were allocated for Catholic seminaries in Vilnius, Prague, Vienna, and Rome. Another congregation decree effectively transferred supreme authority from the Ruthenian Uniate bishops to the order. Henceforth, the metropolitan could not appoint a successor without the order’s consent. Under Joseph Rutsky, many Catholics joined the Basilian Order, engaging in the education of numerous Uniate youths.
After the union, the Orthodox Church in the Commonwealth was left with only two bishops: Gideon (Balaban) of Lviv and Michael (Kopystensky) of Przemyśl. The former lived until 1607, the latter until 1612. They had to ordain priests semi-secretly, trying to retain churches not yet seized by Uniates. With their deaths, the Orthodox lacked a lawful means of appointing new bishops from Eastern Church hierarchs for a long time. The number of Orthodox priests steadily declined. Orthodox believers found it safer to turn to Uniate priests for sacraments, while those wishing to become Orthodox priests often left the country, seeking positions in Wallachia and Moldavia. The dire state of the Orthodox Church in Lithuania was depicted by Meletius Smotrytsky, a teacher at the Vilnius Brotherhood School, in his work Threnos, or the Lament of the Eastern Church, printed in 1610. Afterward, Sigismund III banned the printing of books inciting rebellion in Vilnius, and copies of Threnos were confiscated and burned.
With the death of Prince Constantine Ostrozky (1608), Orthodoxy lost its strongest defenders in the Commonwealth until the Cossacks gradually assumed this role. Hetman Konashevych-Sahaidachny restrained Catholic fanaticism until his death (1622), especially since the government relied on his help to maintain control over the southeastern Dnipro borderlands, defend against Turkey, and wage war with Muscovy—plans the Poles entertained even after the accession of Michael Romanov. Hetman Konashevych-Sahaidachny guaranteed the government the loyalty of Cossack service on the condition of religious freedom for Orthodoxy within his jurisdiction—in the Kyiv region.
In October 1620, Jerusalem Patriarch Theophanes III, who arrived in Kyiv with the support of Hetman Konashevych-Sahaidachny and the Zaporozhian Host, who guaranteed him protection and freedom, ordained Iov Boretsky, the abbot of the St. Michael's Monastery, as Metropolitan of Kyiv and appointed six bishops to all vacant sees of the Orthodox Kyiv Metropolis3. In particular, Meletius Smotrytsky became Archbishop of Polotsk, Isaiah Kopynsky—Bishop of Peremyshl, and bishops were appointed to Volodymyr, Lutsk, Peremyshl, and Kholm. The Lviv see was left to Ieremia Tysarovsky as a secretly Orthodox bishop. Thus, the Orthodox hierarchy was restored in Ukraine, though it took considerable time before the Orthodox episcopate was recognized by the Polish authorities.
King Sigismund III declared Patriarch Theophanes an impostor and a Turkish spy, while the Orthodox hierarchs he ordained were deemed illegitimate and subject to arrest and trial. For his part, the Uniate Metropolitan I. Rutsky anathematized the newly ordained Orthodox hierarchs as false bishops. Uniate bishops occupying their sees declared they would not allow them into their cities. The Pope himself sent instructions to the king to "subject the Russian false bishops, who incite rebellions, to deserved punishment." In this situation, only Metropolitan Iov (1620–1631) could openly reside in Kyiv under the protection of the Cossacks. In 1621, he even convened a council there to devise measures to strengthen the vitality of Orthodoxy. Other bishops were forced to live secretly in various monasteries and govern their dioceses from afar. In support of the council's decisions, the Cossacks refused to fight against Turkey unless the government recognized the Orthodox hierarchy. By 1623, at the next General Sejm, the Orthodox secured an end to open persecution of Orthodoxy and the formal repeal of anti-Orthodox decrees, exiles, and property seizures. However, the improvement of the Orthodox position was hindered by tragic events in Vitebsk—the murder of the Uniate Bishop of Polotsk, Josaphat Kuntsevych.
Josaphat was bishop in the same Polotsk where the Orthodox bishop Meletius Smotrytsky had been appointed in 1620. Many parishes in Polotsk declared themselves Orthodox and recognized Meletius as their hierarch. Josaphat and his followers organized pogroms against Orthodox households. The Uniate Metropolitan Joseph Rutsky and the royal chancellor Lew Sapieha tried to reason with him, but to no avail. In the autumn of 1623, during a visit to Vitebsk, Josaphat expelled the Orthodox from all churches and even destroyed temporary sites for Orthodox worship outside the city. These actions provoked a furious backlash—a mob attacked Josaphat, who personally led the pogrom, tore him apart, and threw his corpse into the Dvina River. Pope Urban VIII issued a special message calling for vengeance. About ten townspeople were executed, Vitebsk was stripped of its Magdeburg rights, and it was forbidden everywhere not only to build new Orthodox churches but also to repair existing ones. Meletius Smotrytsky fled to Kyiv and then abroad. Although the Cossack army declared it would not allow the announced closure of all Orthodox churches, hopes for the legalization of Orthodoxy were dashed. In this atmosphere of despair, Metropolitan Iov in 1625 sent a proposal to Moscow—to annex Little Russia to the Muscovite state. However, the weak post-Time of Troubles government of Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich Romanov did not dare take this step, which clearly risked a new war with Poland.
Under the influence of persecution, the idea of reconciliation between Orthodoxy and Uniatism resurfaced; some even proposed creating a shared patriarch. Metropolitan Iov and other bishops allowed for the possibility of such an agreement only if the integrity of the Orthodox Church remained intact. For more pragmatic individuals, such an agreement seemed unthinkable, and they, weighing their interests, converted from Orthodoxy to Uniatism. The most striking example was Meletius Smotrytsky’s adoption of the Uniate faith.
Only on March 14, 1633, did King Władysław IV, elected in 1632 after Sigismund’s death, recognize the legal existence of the Kyiv Orthodox Metropolis and four dioceses that had existed de facto until then (Lviv, Lutsk, Peremyshl, and Mstislavl). They were granted full religious freedom; the rights of brotherhoods, schools, and printing houses were confirmed, and some churches and monasteries were returned. However, these decisions faced fierce opposition from Catholics and Uniates, making their implementation extremely difficult. Uniates refused to return the best churches and monasteries; Uniate bishops would not yield their sees to the Orthodox. The government could neither restrain attacks by Catholics and Uniates on Orthodox monasteries nor prevent daily violence against Orthodox believers. Particularly common were abuses of patronage rights, to the extent that churches were leased to Jews, who demanded payment for every service.
The center of the struggle for Orthodoxy and against Uniatism became Little Russia. The elderly Metropolitan Isaiya was replaced on the Kyiv see by a new metropolitan appointed by the king—Petro Mohyla.
Meanwhile, persecution of the Orthodox in Southwestern Rus' continued. As the Western Russian Orthodox nobility converted to Catholicism for career and prosperity, and some of their lands passed into the hands of Polish Catholic magnates, the religious-political conflict merged with a national one, culminating in Khmelnytsky’s uprising, which cost Poland Left-Bank Ukraine. However, in territories remaining in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth—Right-Bank Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania—pressure and legal discrimination against Orthodox believers (the so-called Dissenters' Question) persisted even a century later. By the time the weakened Commonwealth was partitioned, Russia acquired entirely Uniate territories.
In some regions, primarily Podolia, thanks to the so-called "Sadkovsky
Mission," over 2,300 churches returned to Orthodoxy. However, in other
areas, especially Belarus and Volhynia, Uniatism took deep root, and
after Catherine II’s decree on religious freedom—as well as due to the
fact that Ukrainians and Belarusians were mostly serfs of Polish
magnates—there was no question of returning to Orthodoxy. 
In
1833, the Pochayiv Lavra
converted to Orthodoxy, and in February 1839, under the leadership of Joseph Semashko, the Polotsk Sobor4 was
held, which decided on the reunification of Uniates with the Russian Orthodox
Church567.
After the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1863, Greek Catholic parishes in Kholm region were liquidated, and resistance attempts were met with repression. Some Greek Catholics martyred for refusing to convert to Orthodoxy were later canonized by the Catholic Church (Pratulin Martyrs).
In the USSR, Uniates were persecuted: their church was banned in the spring of 1946 following the decisions of the Lviv Sobor, which declared the annulment of the Union of Brest8. Their churches were transferred to dioceses of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Since 1990, a revival of the Greek Catholic Church began in western Ukraine, along with the return of churches seized from Greek Catholics in 1946.