Balaban, Hedeon

Balaban, Hedeon (Hryhorii) [Балабан, Гедеон (Григорій)], b 1530, d 10 February 1607 in Lviv. Son of Arsenii Balaban and bishop of Lviv (1569–1607). He was a defender of the Orthodox church from the Polish Catholics, particularly from the Roman Catholic archbishop of Lviv. Balaban resisted introduction of the Gregorian calendar (1582) and struggled against the Lviv Dormition Brotherhood on behalf of episcopal authority. From 1590 he participated in negotiations over the union with the Catholic church, but at the Council of Berestia in 1596 he joined Prince Kostiantyn Vasyl Ostrozky in opposing the union. He held fast to this decision until his death. Balaban became the exarch of the Patriarch of Alexandria. In 1599 he established a Greco-Slavic printing press with his nephew Fedir Balaban, first in Striatyn (see Striatyn Press), then in Krylos. Church books such as #Sluzhebnyk (Liturgicon, 1604), Uchytel'noie ievanheliie (Didactic gospel, 1604), and Trebnyk (Euchologion, 1606) were published there. Balaban also supported brotherhood schools.

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