KIEV METROPOLY OF THE UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

The spiritual power of the Kiev Metropolis extended to all dioceses formed on the lands of Kievan Rus. On the eve of the Mongol-Tatar invasion, there were 16 of them: Kiev (988), Chernigov (991), Belgorod (991), Vladimir (992), Novgorod (992), Rostov (992), Polotsk (992), Turov (1005), Peremyshl (1026), Pereyaslavskaya (1036), Yurievskaya (1036), Galitskaya (1134), Smolenskaya (1137), Ryazan (1198), Suzdal (1213).

The Metropolitanate of Kiev is an Eastern Orthodox metropolis centered in Kiev, which was part of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople after the formation in 988 as a result of the baptism of Rus by Vladimir Svyatoslavich until January 6, 2019, when it received the Tomos of autocephaly. She used the Byzantine rite, the Church Slavonic language and the Julian calendar in her liturgy.

Since its foundation, the Kiev Metropolis has served as the cradle of Ukrainian Christianity for Orthodox and Greek Catholics. The autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church of their right and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is self-governing with the rights of broad autonomy, as part of the Russian Orthodox Church, declare themselves the heirs of the Kiev Metropolis.