Slavynetsky, Yepifanii

Slavynetsky, Yepifanii [Славинецький, Епіфаній; Slavynec'kyj, Jepifanij], b ?, d 19 November 1675 in Moscow. Churchman, theologian, philologist, and translator. He studied Greek, Latin, Polish, and theology at the Kyiv Epiphany Brotherhood School (until 1632) and then at various European academies. Upon his return to Kyiv he took monastic vows and became a hieromonk of the Kyivan Cave Monastery (1642–9) and a professor at the Kyivan Mohyla College. In 1649 he was summoned by Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich to Moscow to teach at a monastery school and translate and prepare liturgical books, including a translation of the Bible. While still in Kyiv, he compiled a Latin-Slavonic (Ukrainian) lexicon (1642) based on the Polish-Latin lexicons of A. Calepino and G. Knapski. He revised this dictionary with Arsenii Koretsky-Satanovsky in Moscow (1650). He also prepared a Greek-Slavonic-Latin lexicon (before 1675) and compiled a dictionary of religious terms for use in translating church books, and authored over 50 sermons. Although none of these works were published in his lifetime, they circulated widely throughout Muscovy, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe and greatly influenced early Slavic philology. In Moscow, Slavynetsky supported the church reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon; he drafted many reforms himself and revised numerous church books to bring them into line with the new policies.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rotar, Ivan. Epifanii Slavinetskii, literaturnyi deiatel’ XVII veka (Kyiv 1901)

Arkadii Zhukovsky

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]