Tarasovych, Vasyl

Tarasovych, Vasyl [Тарасович, Василь; Tarasovyč, Vasyl'], b ?, d 1651. Bishop of Mukachevo eparchy. Originally from Galicia, he came to Transcarpathia in the 1620s as an assistant to Bishop I. Hryhorovych. He succeeded Hryhorovych in 1633 and started planning for a union of the traditionally Orthodox eparchy with Rome. This plan brought him into direct conflict with the secular ruler of the region, Prince György I Rákóczi, who suspected that a Catholic presence in his domain would weaken his control over the church. Accordingly, Tarasovych was arrested in 1640 and banished from the region in 1642. Tarasovych then formally adopted the Catholic faith and established himself in the western region of his eparchy. He was returned to his traditional see in Mukachevo in 1644 as part of a diplomatic settlement following a military setback for Rákóczi, but he subsequently renounced his Catholicism, returned to Orthodoxy, and refrained from taking part in the Uzhhorod Union of 1646, which established a formal Catholic presence in Mukachevo eparchy.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]