Horlenko, Yoasaf

Horlenko, Yoasaf [Горленко, Йоасаф] (secular name: Yakym), b 19 September 1705 in Pryluky, Poltava region, d 21 December 1754 in Hraivoron, Slobidska Ukraine. Church leader and writer. He was a grandson of a Pryluky colonel and on his mother's side a grandson of Hetman Danylo Apostol. During his studies at the Kyivan Mohyla Academy he took his monastic vows, and after graduating lectured at the academy (1729–31). In 1737 he became hegumen of the Mhar Transfiguration Monastery, and in 1748 bishop of Belgorod and Oboian (which included the later eparchies of Kharkiv [see Kharkiv eparchy], Kursk, and a part of Chernihiv [see Chernihiv eparchy]). Horlenko rebuilt churches, raised the moral and educational level of the clergy, and supported Kharkiv College. He wrote a brief autobiography, several sermons, and a poem or play, Bran' chesnykh sedmi dobrodetelei z sedmi grekhami smertnimi (The Struggle of the Seven Cardinal Virtues with the Seven Deadly Sins, 1737). His works were written in Old Church Slavonic, but they contained many Ukrainianisms. He was venerated by the common people and in 1911 was canonized by the Orthodox church.

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