Falkovsky, Irynei

Falkovsky, Irynei [Фальковський, Іриней; Fal'kovs'kyj, Irynej], b 28 May 1762 in Bilotserkivka, Pyriatyn company, Lubny regiment, d 29 April 1823 in Kyiv. Prominent educator, church leader, theologian, writer, and Orthodox bishop. Falkovsky studied at the Kyivan Mohyla Academy and at the university in Pest, Hungary (1775–82). From 1783 to 1804 he was a professor and rector at the Kyivan Mohyla Academy. In 1795 Falkovsky became archimandrite of the Hamaliivka Monastery, near Hlukhiv, and later of the Kyiv Epiphany Brotherhood Monastery. He was bishop of Chyhyryn and bishop co-adjutor of the Kyiv eparchy from 1807 to 1812 and of Smolensk in 1812–13. After that he was bishop co-adjutor of Kyiv once more and head of the Saint Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery of Kyiv. A multi-talented scholar and artist, Falkovsky was the author of numerous philosophical, scientific (in the fields of astronomy and mathematics), historical, theological, and poetic works, which were collected in 92 volumes of manuscript. He also composed choral music. His published works included the collection of historical essays entitled Kalendarii (Calendars, Kyiv 1797), Sokrashchenie tserkovnoi khronologii ... (A Synopsis of Church History ... , Kyiv 1797), and Christianae Orthodoxae Dogmatico-Polemicae Theologiae ... Compendium (Moscow 1802), as well as sermons and biographical notes on the Kyivan Mohyla Academy between the years 1762 and 1783.

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