Yasynsky, Varlaam
.jpg&page=pages%5CY%5CA%5CYasynskyVarlaam.htm&id=18772&pid=7656&tyt=Yasynsky,%20Varlaam&key=Yasynsky%2C+Varlaam%2C+%D0%AF%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9%2C+%D0%92%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B0%D0%BC%3B+Jasyns%E2%80%99kyj "Ivan Shchyrsky: Portrait of Metropolitan Varlaam Yasynsky (copper plate, 1707).")
.jpg&page=pages%5CY%5CA%5CYasynskyVarlaam.htm&id=18772&pid=7655&tyt=Yasynsky,%20Varlaam&key=Yasynsky%2C+Varlaam%2C+%D0%AF%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9%2C+%D0%92%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B0%D0%BC%3B+Jasyns%E2%80%99kyj "Varlaam Yasynsky (1680s portrait).")
Yasynsky, Varlaam [Ясинський, Варлаам; Jasyns’kyj], b ca 1627 in Right-Bank Ukraine, d 22 August 1707 in Kyiv. Orthodox churchman and Kyivan metropolitan. He was rector of the Kyivan Mohyla College (1665–73) and hegumen of the Kyiv Epiphany Brotherhood (1665–73) and Saint Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery (1673–7) and Saint Nicholas's Monastery (1680–4). As hegumen of the Kyivan Cave Monastery (1684–90) he defended the independence of the monastery from the Kyivan metropolitan and accepted stauropegion from the Moscow patriarch. During his tenure as Kyivan metropolitan (1690–1707) he did much to raise the level of education among the clergy in his see. With the support of Hetman Ivan Mazepa he also was able to defend many rights and privileges for the Kyiv metropoly vis-à-vis Moscow, and to improve the teaching and the level of students at the Kyivan Mohyla College, which was given the status of an academy in 1694 (see Kyivan Mohyla Academy). But he was not able to prevent the spread of the Church Union of Berestia to the remaining three Orthodox eparchies in Right-Bank Ukraine, or to stem the influence of the Moscow patriarchate in Chernihiv eparchy.
[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]