Bolharyn, Hryhorii II

Bolharyn, Hryhorii II [Григорій ІІ Болгарин], b ca. 1400, d 1474 in Zviahel, Volhynia. Metropolitan of Kyiv; student of Metropolitan Isidore, with whom he lived in Rome for a period. In 1458 he was appointed by Pope Callistus III and consecrated metropolitan of Kyiv; by the patriarch of Constantinople, Gregory IV Mammas, who supported the union with Rome. The metropolitan had authority over ten Ukrainian and Belarusian eparchies. Bolharyn’s appointment was related to the separation of Moscow metropoly and Kyiv metropoly (the latter was under Lithuanian rule). His appointment was confirmed in 1460 by the diet in Berestia. In 1470 Bolharyn successfully petitioned Dionysios, the patriarch of Constantinople, to recognize him as the metropolitan of Kyiv;.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]