Olshavsky, Mykhailo

Olshavsky, Mykhailo [Ольшавський, Михайло; Ol'šavs’kyj, Myxajlo; monastic name: Мануїл; Manuil], b ca 1700 in Olshavytsia, Szepes komitat, Transcarpathia, d 5 November 1767 in Mukachevo, Transcarpathia. Uniate bishop. He studied philosophy at Levice and completed a D TH in Turnov, Bohemia, before being ordained in 1725. In 1743 he was named apostolic vicar of Mukachevo and consecrated a bishop of Mukachevo eparchy. Following in the footsteps of Joseph de Camelis, Olshavsky organized elementary schools in Transcarpathia and founded a theological seminary in Mukachevo in 1744. In 1756 he oversaw the completion of the church in Máriapócs and the establishment of the Máriapócs Monastery of the Basilian monastic order and a school there. He also had a new episcopal residence built in Mukachevo. In 1769 he published in the Pochaiv Monastery Press Slovo o sviatom mezhdu vostochnoi i zapadnoi Tserkvi soiedinenii (A Word on the Holy Union of the Eastern and Western Church), a polemical brochure on the Church Union of Berestia. Written in Latin and Church Slavonic, it was later published in several other languages. He also published a textbook on teaching Latin (1746). Selections of Olshavsky’s correspondence were published by Antonii Hodinka (in Zapysky Chyna sv. Vasyliia Velykoho, vol 6, 1935), and documents concerning his activities were published by M. Lacko (in Extracta ex Orientalia Christiana Periodica, vol 25). A monograph on him by B. Boysak appeared in English in 1967.

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