Abramovych, Nykanor

Abramovych, Nykanor [Абрамович, Никанор; Abramovyč], b 27 July 1883 in Mizovo in the Kovel area, Volhynia, d 21 March 1969 in Karlsruhe, Germany. A prominent figure and metropolitan of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church. He studied at the Volhynian Theological Seminary and at the Kyiv Theological Academy and, following his ordination in 1910, served as a priest in Volhynia. During the struggle for Ukrainian independence he was inspector of schools for the Zhytomyr region and Volhynia. Under Polish rule between 1920 and 1930 Abramovych was active in the Ukrainianization of the Orthodox church in Volhynia, served as president of the Brotherhood of the Holy Savior, and was active in the Volodymyr church administration. In 1942–3 he was archbishop of Kyiv and Chyhyryn and participated in organizing the restored Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church. In 1947 he became Vice-metropolitan under Metropolitan Polikarp Sikorsky, and after the latter's death in 1953 he was made metropolitan. From 1946 he lived in Karlsruhe, Germany. Abramovych was the author of various articles and books, including Dohmatychno-kanonichnyi ustrii Vselens’koï Pravoslavnoï Tserkvy (Dogmatic and Canonical System of the Ecumenical Orthodox Church, 1948), Istoriia Dermans’koho manastyria (History of the Derman Monastery), and Stari tserkovni zvychaï na Volyni (Old Church Customs in Volhynia). He was editor of the journal Bohoslovs’kyi Visnyk and of the texts of Sluzhebnyk (Missal, 1949) and Chasoslov (Breviary, 1950). Abramovych also served as president of the Theological Academy of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church from 1948.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dublians’kyi, A. Ternystym shliakhom: Zhyttia Mytropolyta Nykanora Abramovycha (London 1962)

Arkadii Zhukovsky

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]