www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Removal of Anathema Against Mazepa requested in Lviv

People�s Party Asks Russian Orthodox to Remove Historic Anathema of Mazepa
21.03.2007, [11:13] // Foreign relations //

Lviv � The Lviv regional organization of the Ukrainian People�s Party has called the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) to cancel the anathema of Hetman Ivan Mazepa, a Ukrainian leader of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. mediaua.com.ua posted the news on 19 March 2007.

On 20 March in western Ukrainian Lviv, the 375th anniversary of Mazepa�s birth will be celebrated, including a solemn gathering and the presentation of the Cossack society Kish. The organizers consider that the time has come to look at the history of Ukraine with �Ukrainian eyes.� And they say that the Ukrainian political elite should take a clear position on the matter.

Historical note: Ivan Mazepa (1639-1709) was the hetman (military leader) of eastern Ukraine, on the left bank of the Dnipro, from 1687. He struggled for Ukraine�s liberation from Russian rule. At the request of Russian Tsar Peter I, the ROC anathematized Mazepa.

�Anathema� means the complete separation of the subject from the church.

Sources:


� http://mediaua.com.ua/detail/5409

� http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anathema

I've never, ever, anywhere, heard the anathema against Mazeppa used liturgically - and I would be shocked if anyone used it. For curiosity's sake, has anyone else heard it used in the service? If so, where, when, and by whom?

There is no reason to think that Ivan Mazeppa was a heretic or a schismatic. On the other hand, the abuse of ecclesiastical sanctions for purposes of secular politics often raises its ugly head.

Maybe the Lutherans had something to do with it - after all, Charles XII of Sweden was allied with Mazaeppa, and Poltava is the only battle Charles XII of Sweden ever lost!

My only published source for the anathema against Mazeppa is a book called The Rites of the Greek Church in Russia, written by a low-church Anglican in the eighteenth century and bedecked with an image of Catherine II of Russia, of all people - since she was an atheist and really didn't much care who knew it, this seems a trifle ironic (to say nothing of her particular "life-style").

Eighty or a hundred years ago, russophiles in Galicia used to call the conscious Ukrainians "Mazeppines". However, russophiles in Galicia have been an endangered species ever since the end of world war II, so the term is probably no longer in use.

If all else fails, go to the Old-Ritualists. I promise that they don't sing an anathema against Mazeppa!

Fr. Serge

If I remember correctly from my 4th year Russian History class. The anathma was only used once and in Kyiv, when Tsar Peter 1st was then some time after the Battle of Poltava. Peter, I guess could not get over the loss of Mazeppa to the Swedish side and felt betrayed. The anathema has 2 purposes to humiliate both Mazepa himself and Ukrainians who fought with Mazepa. I also seem to remember that Theofan Prokopovich was the only Ukrainian cleric who took part in the service and that also a picture of Mazepa was dragged around the city on a rope behind horses.

Sorry, I have lost the reference to the primary source somewhere in my boxes of university materials in my parent's basement.

The presence of the Anathema against Mazeppa in John Glen King argues that it was used more than once, and in more than one place. But I very much doubt that anyone is using it now. Someone should do a serious study on the shifting lists of this service, to determine who was in and who was out at various times and in various places - not unlike the diptychs.

Fr. Serge

Yes, you have a very good point.
John Glen King's book:Rites and Ceremonies of the Greek Church in Russia was published in 1772, during the reign of Catherine the Great.
That is roughly only 50 odd years after the Battle of Poltava.
Perhaps by the following century, the service fell out of use.

Dear Friends,

In fact, the liturgical service of the anathema against Mazeppa was quite common in some Russian Orthodox churches in the U.S. and there was a published booklet in Ukrainian that had the Slavonic translation of it in full and chided Ukrainian Orthodox for attending those ROC parishes that used it (and it assured the readers that it was used). I had a copy of it and perhaps still do somewhere. If I uncover it, I will give the particulars here.

By a strange error (and we know it was an error of ignorance, nothing more) a 1950's Melkite prayerbook actually contained Tropar taken from the service of the "Victory of Peter the Great." That was unfortunate, but the Melkites have since dropped it.

Also, it was traditional for Ukrainian Orthodox to ask UGCC priests to serve panakhydas for the soul of Hetman Mazeppa on Sept. 21.

I don't wait for those Orthodox - I usually offer a stipend for a Divine Liturgy for that intention every September.

But the original post here shows what the agenda is - various Orthodox groups are vying for ascendancy in Ukraine based on "how Ukrainian are you?"

Before this, it was how much attention was paid to Taras Shevchenko etc.

Now it is the slight against Hetman Mazeppa by Imperial Russia and the ROC.

Whoever succeeds in getting the anathema rescinded will then proclaim themselves as "true Ukrainians" (whether they really are or not . . .).

I don't know this group ("People's Party" usually means a party that is pro-Russian and pro-communist) and for all we know, they could be Russians masquerading as zealots for Ukrainian Kozakdom.

Alex

That's a very interest fact, Fr and thank for bringing it to our attention. It many partly explain by this is coming from a group In Galicia rather than Uktrainians in Poltova, Kharkiv for example. Thanks for sharing the knoldwedge.

Dear Orest,

Actually, "Mazepites" was a term that all Russians used to call ALL Ukrainians by after the battle of Poltava in 1709.

Russians had a catalogue of names for Ukrainians including:

Little Russians/Malorosy

Mazepites (after 1709) (the triangular cap worn by Ukrainian freedom-fighters is called the "Mazepynka" after the style worn by the excommunicated Hetman)

Khakholy (a Mongolian word meaning "Blue and Yellow" - Khakh - Blue and "Ulo" - yellow)

Cherkassy

Later - Bendyerovtsi or Banderites or "Bandits."

The last term was popular in World War II and actually much more popular than any other term among Russophiles.

Russophile Greek-Catholic clergy were actually more predominant in Halychyna than Orthodox, believe it or not, and Russian accents and other influences on UGCC liturgical texts can be seen to this day, according to Met. Ilarion Ohienko for one.

The movement for the exoneration of Mazeppa i.e. dropping of his excommunication (and who really cares about that silly episode in Imperial Russian history touching a Ukrainian Hetman?) is being done by a Russophile, communist group that wants to legitimate itself by appearing to be associated with Ukrainian symbols like the figure of Hetman Mazepa.

Mazepa became a great symbol of national self-determination in western Ukraine (and not so much in eastern Ukraine where his memory was excised due to the excommunication pronounced against him).

Alex

Well he did align himself with Catholics, Lutherans and Moslems.

"Well he did align himself with Catholics, Lutherans and Moslems."

With all this talk these days of Globalization, maybe Mazepa was ahead of his times? A man for the third millenium? Confident about his own culture but willing to forge new relationships across cultural, ethnic and religious borders.

Guess what, there is a town in Saskchewan called Mazeppa and there is a Ukrainian Orthodox Church there.

Holy Ghost Ukrainian Orthodox Church,
Box 894
Mazeppa SK S0A 0L0 (306) 563-6676

Probably founded by Galicians 100 years ago.