Maksymovych, Ioan

Maksymovych, Ioan [Maksymovyč, Joan], b 1651 in Nizhyn, d 10 July 1715 in Tobolsk, Siberia. Orthodox churchman, missionary, and writer. He graduated (1669) from and then taught at the Kyivan Mohyla Academy before entering the Kyivan Cave Monastery. A noted preacher, he became hegumen of the Yeletskyi Dormition Monastery in Chernihiv (1696) and then archbishop of Chernihiv (1697). In 1700 he founded Chernihiv College with the support of Ivan Mazepa. In 1711 Tsar Peter I named him metropolitan of Siberia, with his see in Tobolsk. From there he conducted missionary work among the various Siberian peoples. While in Chernihiv, he published sermons, epigrams, and poems, including Alfavit sobrannyi, rifmami slozhennyi ot sviatykh pisanii ... (An Alphabet Compiled and Rhymed from the Holy Scriptures ..., 1705) and Bogomyslie v pol’zu pravovernym (Pious Thoughts for the Benefit of True Believers 1710, 1711). His biography appeared in Kievskie eparkhialnye vedomosti in 1916.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]