Lutsk Brotherhood of the Elevation of the Cross School

Lutsk Brotherhood of the Elevation of the Cross School (Lutska bratska shkola). A brotherhood school founded by Volhynian noblemen and burghers who were members of the Lutsk Brotherhood of the Elevation of the Cross. The most prominent member of this group was the nobleman Lavrentii Drevynsky.

The Lutsk School was established between 1617 and 1620. Extant records of its statutes and regulations dating from 1624 testify to the fact that it was modeled on the Lviv Dormition Brotherhood School. From the beginning its educational program stressed philological training in Greek, Church Slavonic, and Latin within a liberal arts curriculum. Later the teaching of Greek was de-emphasized, and Polish was introduced as the language of instruction. The school attained considerable reputation for the teaching of polyphonic choral music.

In the tradition of brotherhood schools, the Lutsk School was open to male children of all estates and from various economic backgrounds. Among its teachers were Ye. Ilkovsky (school director in 1628), P. Bosynsky (1634), Hegumen A. Slavynsky (instructor in rhetoric, philosophy, and mathematics in the mid-17th century), Z. Sohnykevych, and the famous iconographer and painter Yov Kondzelevych. Between 1625 and 1628 the school benefited from the services of the peripatetic printing shop run by Pavlo Liutkovych-Telytsia.

The Lutsk School frequently suffered from repressive measures enforced by the Catholic opposition. Its actual decline began after Bohdan Khmelnytsky's wars (see Cossack-Polish War).

Natalia Pylypiuk