Uzhhorod Union of 1646

Uzhhorod Union of 1646. An act under which 63 Transcarpathian Orthodox priests joined the Catholic church on the model of the Church Union of Berestia. It was signed in Uzhhorod by the Roman Catholic bishop of Eger, and was initiated on the Ukrainian side by the Basilian monastic order under the leadership of P. Partenii. Its main provisions were that the Eastern or Byzantine church rite would be preserved; that Mukachevo eparchy would reserve the right to choose bishops, and Rome would have only the right of confirmation; and that the Uniate priests would be equal in status to the Roman Catholic priests. The Union was confirmed by a synod of Hungarian bishops in 1648, but the Vatican withheld ratification because Partenii had been consecrated by an Orthodox metropolitan in 1651. After Rome finally confirmed Partenii as the bishop of Mukachevo in 1655, the union was extended to the eastern part of the eparchy; it was not until 1721, however, that all Transcarpathian Ukrainians in Mukachevo eparchy accepted it. In 1949 the Soviet authorities had the Union revoked, and created the Orthodox Mukachevo-Uzhhorod eparchy, under the patriarch of Moscow. In the late 1980s the Uniate church was re-established in Transcarpathia, following the easing of Soviet religious persecution.

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