Klymentii, Zynovii's son

Klymentii, Zynovii's son [Klymentij, Zynovijiv syn], b mid-17th century, d after 1712. Monk, poet, and ethnographer. He traveled throughout Ukraine and visited Muscovy and Poland while collecting donations for his monastery. Between 1700 and 1709 he wrote about 400 poems (published in their entirety by Volodymyr Peretts, 1912) depicting the life of Cossacks, artisans, and migrant workers and satirizing the behavior of the clergy, merchants, and functionaries. His poetry is rich in social and ethnographic detail. About 2,000 proverbs collected by Klymentii were published in 1971. A study of him by V. Kolosova appeared in 1964.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1989).]