Isidore, Metropolitan

Isidore, Metropolitan, b ca 1380–90, d 27 April 1463 in Rome. Metropolitan of Kyiv. A Greek by birth, in 1436 he was consecrated metropolitan of Rus’ by the Patriarch of Constantinople, Joseph II. He favored a church union with Rome and in 1439, at the Council of Ferrara-Florence, he signed the union of the Greek and Latin rite churches (see Church Union of Florence). In 1440, as legate of Pope Eugenius IV, he traveled throughout Ukraine proclaiming the union. In 1441 he went to Moscow, the seat of Kyiv metropoly. There, however, his proclamation of the union was opposed by the prince and the church hierarchy. He was briefly imprisoned but escaped and fled to Ukraine, where, having lost most of his support, he remained for only a short time before returning to Rome. In Rome he was appointed a cardinal and became known as Cardinalis Rutheni. He abandoned the title of metropolitan of Rus’ in ca 1445–8, but he continued his efforts on behalf of the Ukrainian church, making several trips to Constantinople and even to Rus’. He died in Rome and was buried in the Vatican Basilica. His sermons were published by the Pontifical Institute of Oriental Studies in Rome in 1971.