Kharkiv eparchy

Kharkiv eparchy [Харківська епархія; Kharkivska eparkhiia]. An Orthodox eparchy founded in 1799 and comprising the territory of Slobidska Ukraine gubernia (later Kharkiv gubernia). Until 1836 the bishops were officially titled Bishop of Slobidska Ukraine and Kharkiv, later Bishop of Kharkiv and Okhtyrka. Now the eparchy comprises only Kharkiv oblast, and the bishop is titled Bishop of Kharkiv and Bohodukhiv. The eparchy published a semi monthly newsletter, Khar’kovskie eparkhial’nye vedomosti (1867-83) (see Eparkhial’nye vedomosti), succeeded by Listok Khar’kovskoi Eparkhii (1884-1917), and the religious journal Vera i Razum, which all contained important material on the history of the Ukrainian church. Before the Revolution of 1917 there were six men's and six women's monasteries in the eparchy and 1009 priests (1913). In the 1920s a ‘regional church’ or eparchy of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church was established in Kharkiv, and the church's monthly journal, Tserkva i zhyttia (Kharkiv), was published there. A representation of the All-Ukrainian Orthodox Church Council was also established. The more renowned hierarchs of the eparchy were Archbishops Inokentii Borisov, Filaret Gumilevsky, and Makarii Bulgakov.

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