Kremianetsky, Havryil

Kremianetsky, Havryil [Кремянецький, Гавриїл; Kremjanec'kyj, Havryjil; secular name: Григорій; Hryhorii], b ca 1715 in Nosivka, Kyiv regiment, d 9 August 1783 in Kyiv. Orthodox church figure and metropolitan of Kyiv. After studying at the Kyivan Mohyla Academy, Kharkiv College, and the Moscow Greek-Slavonic-Latin Academy, he was a professor and rector of the Aleksandro-Nevskii Seminary in Saint Petersburg (1743–8) and then archimandrite of the Novospasskii Monastery in Moscow (1748–9). A member of the Holy Synod from 1748, Kremianetsky was bishop of Kolomna (1749–55) and Kazan (1755–62) and archbishop of Saint Petersburg (1762–70) before being appointed metropolitan of Kyiv, a post he held until his death. He wilfully implemented the government’s and Holy Synod’s Russification policy and tried to destroy the individuality of the Ukrainian Orthodox church and its traditions. He is the author of Pouchenie o obriadakh khrystianskikh ... ili Slovo k narodu kafolicheskomu (A Sermon on Christian Rites ... or A Word to the Catholic People, 1779).

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