Bachynsky, Andrii

Bachynsky, Andrii [Бачинський, Андрій; Bačyns'kyj, Andrij], b 14 November 1732 in the village of Beniatyna, Transcarpathia, d 19 December 1809 in Uzhhorod. Church and cultural leader in Transcarpathia. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1756 and served in the parish of Hajdudorog, Hungary. In 1769 he became the vicar general to the bishop in Mukachevo and the bishop’s deputy to the royal court in Vienna. His efforts to gain canonical recognition for the Mukachevo eparchy succeeded in 1771. In 1773 he became the bishop of Mukachevo and organized an eparchial chapter. He established an eparchial seminary (1778), archive, and library and developed the Ruthenian church-school system, which embraced over 300 parish schools. Bachynsky took great interest in the cultural growth of Transcarpathia’s Ukrainians. From 1789 he was a member of the upper chamber of the Hungarian parliament and from 1780 an imperial privy counsellor. Bachynsky planned to incorporate the Mukachevo eparchy in the Halych metropoly and was a candidate for the office of metropolitan.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]