Kokhanovych, Hryhorii Onufrii

Kokhanovych, Hryhorii Onufrii [Коханович, Григорій Онуфрій; Koxanovyč, Hryhorij Onufrij], b before 1750 in Belarus, d 1814 in Zhydychyn, Lutsk county, Volhynia gubernia. Uniate Kyivan metropolitan. He probably studied theology in Vilnius before being ordained and posted to Polatsk eparchy, where he soon became the delegate of Kyivan metropolitan Heraklii Lisovsky. In 1807 he was appointed bishop of Lutske eparchy. Before his death Metropolitan Lisovsky named Kokhanovych as his successor, and he was granted the title ‘metropolitan of the Uniate churches in Russia’ by Tsar Alexander I in 1809. However, because of the Napoleonic wars and the transfer of Pope Pius VII to France, Kokhanovych was unable to correspond with the pope and his nomination as Kyivan metropolitan was not officially recognized by the Vatican. Throughout his tenure as metropolitan he waged a campaign to limit the powers of the Basilian monastic order and to stop the acceptance of Roman Catholic nobility into the order.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]