www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Ruthenians?

I've been wondering for a loooooong time:

Who the heck are the Ruthenians?

I may have finally figured it out. Is "Ruthenian" just another name for "Ukranian"? Are they synonomous?

Waiting to learn more. May Christ bless us all.

ignorant Westerner,
Marshall

Hi:

The nationals of Ruthenia, of course.

Unfortunately the Ruthenian ethnic group do not have a distinct country of their own.

Rithenia, also know as Carpatho-Russia is the region that includes West Ukraine and East Slovakia.

Liturgically, Ruthenians and Ukrainians are both Byzantine, but each Church follow their own usage.

Ukrainians celebrate the Liturgy in Ukrainian and in the local vernacular if outside Ukraine.

Most Ruthenians live in the diaspora, mostly in the United States. Here the Ruthenian Church (Metropolia of Pittsburgh) celebrates the Liturgy in English with some Church Slavonic, but not Ukrainian.

The Eparchy of Mukachevo in Ukraine is Ruthenian and directly subject to the Holy See of Rome, not to the Major Archbishop of Lviv of the Ukrainians, although the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church includes the Bishop of Mukachevo in her clergy directory.

I hope this gets you started.

Shalom,
Memo.

"Ruthenians" are not a people, they are a religious group known commonly in the USA as Byzantine Catholics.

In centuries past, Ruthenians were the people known today as Ukrainians.

However, there is a people called Carpatho-Rusyns or just Rusyns, who are the overwhelming component of the Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic Church in the USA and Europe.

Carpatho-Rusyn Knowledge Base [carpatho-rusyn.org]
Carpatho-Rusyn Society (largest secular org. of Rusyns in the USA) [carpathorusynsociety.org]
Lemkos (Carpatho-Rusyns in Poland) [lemko.org]

Memo, since you were equating Ruthenians with a people (who, according to your reference to them as Byzantine Ruthenian Catholics, are the people called Carpatho-Rusyns), this is not correct.

In the USA there are about 700,000 Americans with at least one Carpatho-Rusyn immigrant ancestor (or who are themselves Rusyn immigrants). In the European homeland (Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary, Romania), there are about 1 million Rusyns. So the majority remain at least in their traditional area.

Some live in "diaspora" elsewhere in Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, etc. along with a large group (25,000) in Yugoslavia. But the majority are in Europe, not the USA.

Dear Lemko Rusyn:

Thanks for the much needed clarification.

Also, I have read elsewhere that your Byzantine tradition uses the "Ruthenian Rescension."

And, contrary to some, the Ruthenians are not at all ruthless!

AmdG

Hello Amado,
That's true, but the Ruthenian Recension is also used by the Ukrainian Church (who were historically known by Rome as the Ruthenian Church as well...).

And then there is the element Ruthenium, which has nothing to do with Rusyns either...

Just for craziness!
Ruthenium:

http://www.scescape.net/~woods/elements/ruthenium.html
(L. Ruthenia, Russia) Berzelius and Osann in 1827 examined the residues left after dissolving crude platinum from the Ural mountains in aqua regia. While Berzelius found no unusual metals, Osann thought he found three new metals, one of which he named ruthenium. In 1844 Klaus, generally recognized as the discoverer, showed that Osann's ruthenium oxide was very impure and that it contained a new metal. Klaus obtained 6 g of ruthenium from the portion of crude platinum that is insoluble in aqua regia.

http://www.chemsoc.org/viselements/pages/ruthenium.html
Discovered : by J.A. Sniadecki in Vilno, Poland in 1808, and then rediscovered by G.W. Osann in Tartu, Russia in 1828
Origin : The name is derived from 'Ruthenia', the Latin name for Russia.

Even in the simplest things, history can often get a little murky. I wonder: what the nationality of the discoverer of Ruthenium?

Dear djs,

In my experience, I've learned to leave "Ruthenium" alone.

It can be dangerous to one's health to jerk it around too much . . .

Alex

I stand corrected.

Shalom,
Memo.

Dear Friends,

Yes, "Ruthenian" is Latin for "Rus" and St Vladimir the Great is referred to in Vatican documents as the "King of the Ruthenians" or "Rex ruthenorum."

The Popes have called the Ukrainians nothing else but "Ruthenians" historically.

Patriarch Josef brought back the term "Rus'" and referred to himself as "Patriarch of Kyiv-Halych and all Rus'-Ukraine."

The full title of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, under his leadership, was always: "The Particular Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Byzantine-Ukrainian Rite (Greco-Ruthenian).

Some have argued that "Byzantine-Ukrainian" should be "Byzantine-Kyivan" since the Rite is associated with the liturgical usage of a Metropolitanical or Patriarchal See, not a nationality or national culture.

But we've turned into "Greeks" since then . . .

Alex

And the ship that rescued the survivors of the Titanic was called the Carpathian.

Yosko Prokopchak
archsinner

Hey Joe, that's the steam ship my Dido came to America on from Transcarpathia in 1908. Who knew
that in four years it would become famous. Found a great picture and bio of the ship on the Ellis Island website! Just alittle "Rusyn" trivia.

Ung-Certez

So Alex, do the Ukies like the Ruthenians have a Greek tendency in their usage or are they more of the "purist" Slav type? For example the vestments of the Ruthenians are reflective of Constantanipolitan vestments rather than the high backed Slavic ones. Our hats are Greek too and our orarions for sub-deacons are long. Not like those lame shrimpy-dimpy silly slav ones. Please comment. Thanks.

The high-backed Slavic vestments have only been standard in Russia since the Nikonian reforms. Before that the phelon was not so high, as can be seen from the 'before and after' pictures printed by the Old Believers.

Spasi Khristos -
Mark, monk and sinner.

Don't forget the Bielorussians. They were Ruthenians ("Rutheni" in Latin, "Rusini" in
Polish) along with US.

Sincerely,
subdeacon Peter