Lisovsky, Heraklii

Lisovsky, Heraklii [Лісовський, Гераклій; Lisovs'kyi, Heraklij] (secular name: Йосиф Одровуж-Лісовський; Yosyf Odrovuzh-Lisovsky), b 1734 in Usachy, Belarus, d 30 August 1809 in Polatsk. Ukrainian-Belarusian Catholic metropolitan in 1806–9. Although born into a Latinized noble family, Lisovsky found the Eastern church rite appealing and entered the Basilian monastic order after studying philosophy and theology in Polatsk. In 1778 he became archimandrite of the Saint Onuphrius Monastery in Orsha, and in 1784, archbishop of Polatsk. In 1806, after the death of Metropolitan Teodosii Rostotsky, Tsar Alexander II appointed him de facto metropolitan of Kyiv, although under the altered title ‘Metropolitan of the Uniate Church in Russia.’ During his lifetime Lisovsky faced numerous problems in trying to re-establish the jurisdictional and administrative structure of the Greek Catholic church after the successive partitions of Poland had transferred much of the territory in which the church was based to Russian control.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]