Intro to the Eastern Catholic Churches Part VI: The Byzantine Rite and Its History

The Catholic Church is made up of many members, over an estimated 1 billion people. Therefore, it’s not surprising that many of these Catholic Christians worship in many different, appropriate ways through their liturgies and their traditions. In the previous four parts of this series, we looked at the traditions of those from the Armenian and Alexandrian Rites, as well as the East and West Syrian Rites. For a refresher on which particular sui iuris Churches belong to which liturgical tradition, check out the introduction piece to this series. To quickly recap, the Catholic Church is divided into six distinct rites, and within those six rites, there are 24 distinct and autonomous Churches. The 1990 Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches defines a rite as “the liturgical, theological, spiritual and disciplinary patrimony, culture and circumstances of history of a distinct people, by which its own manner of living the faith is manifested in each Church sui iuris.” Today, however, we cover an ancient liturgical tradition of the Church. In addition, it also happens to be the most populous next to the Latin (or Roman) Rite. This essay will cover the Churches of the Greek Fathers, which we call the Constantinopolitan (or more simply, Byzantine) Rite.

The Byzantine Rite is made up of 14 particular Churches, the most of any of the six distinct liturgical rites, with the Alexandrian and West Syrian Rites trailing far behind in numbers with three particular sui iuris Churches each. These 14 Churches are all joined together by a common liturgical tradition with roots stretching back to the time of St. John Chrysostom, whose Divine Liturgy is most often used in these particular Churches. Over time, many “Latinizations”, or Latin liturgical traditions crept into the life of Byzantine Catholics, but many popes in the last century have called for a return to the wonderful liturgical traditions of these Churches. St. John Paul II was probably foremost among these popes. In an Apostolic Letter to the faithful of the Ukrainian-Greek Catholic Church in 1995 on the fourth centenary of the Union of Brest, St. John Paul made clear how rich the traditions of Byzanine Catholics were and how they benefitted the universal Church:

“The Union of Brest opened a new page in the history of the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine. Today that Church wishes to sing with joy a hymn of thanksgiving and praise to the One who, once more, has brought it back from death to life, and it wishes to set forth with renewed enthusiasm on the path marked out by the Second Vatican Council. Joining the faithful of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in this thanksgiving and petition are the Greek Catholic Churches of the diaspora which date back to the Union of Brest, together with the other Eastern Catholic Churches and the entire Church.

“As the Bishop of Rome, I too wish to unite myself to the Catholics of the Byzantine tradition in those lands. For many years, during my pastoral ministry in Poland, I sensed a physical as well as a spiritual closeness with that Church, which was then undergoing such difficult trials. After my election to the See of Peter, I considered it a pressing duty, following the example of my Predecessors, to speak out in defense of its right to exist and freely to profess its faith, at a time when both these rights were being denied…

“Mary, who has inspired in their trials fathers and mothers, young people, the sick and the aged; Mary, the column of fire capable of guiding so many martyrs of the faith, is certainly at work in preparing the hoped-for union of all Christians: in the light of this, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church certainly has its own role to play.”

The role that the Ukrainian-Greek Catholic Church, and the other Churches of the Byzantine Rite, have to play cannot be understated, and the following will serve to give testament to how important these Churches and their faithful are to the life of the universal Church.

History of the Byzantine Rite

The 14 particular Churches of the Byzantine Rite have all followed a similar lineage from ancient times, before they start to diverge a bit with the creation of their particular Churches around the time of the Reformation. The Byzantine Rite, or the Rite of Constantinople, developed as a kind of amalgamation of the Alexandrian and Antiochene Rites. But by the fourth century, the Byzantine Rite had become a distinct liturgical expression which spread throughout the Eastern Roman Empire. As we’ll see in more detail in the section on “Liturgy and Traditions”, the Divine Liturgy used in the Byzantine Rite derives from the ancient Liturgy of St. James, thanks to reforms by both St. Basil the Great and St. John Chrysostom. Several contemporaries of St. Basil confirm the reforms that he had carried out during his time as Metropolitan Caesarea. St. Basil also reformed the lives of the clergy as he revitalized the Byzantine Church, and his reforms were continued on by St. John as patriarch of Constantinople.

Many Byzantine Christians also owe a great deal of gratitude to two saints from the 9^th century, Saints Cyril and Methodius, who had brought the Byzantine Rite to many Slavic people with their apostolic and missionary zeal. The two saintly brothers are responsible for creating the Glagolitic alphabet, the oldest known Slavic alphabet, in order to translate the Bible, the Divine Office, and other liturgical texts into the language of the Slavic people they were now ministering to. Saints Olga and Vladimir also were largely responsible for bringing Christianity to the various Eastern Slavic tribes during their reigns as regent and Grand Prince of Kiev, respectfully. Around the year 987, St. Vladimir (at the time, a pagan) sent various emissaries to study the various monotheistic religions in neighboring countries. This included Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, in both the Latin and Byzantine Rite. When St. Vladimir’s envoy returned from a Divine Liturgy at the famed Hagia Sophia, they marveled at what they had witnessed and remarked in a now famous quotation, “We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth for there is not upon earth such sight or beauty.” The following year, St. Vladimir was baptized immediately before his marriage, and soon afterword he commanded the residents of his city to be baptized in the Dnieper River. The destruction and burning of pagan statues soon followed as Kiev became overwhelmingly Christian. All four of these saints are typically referred to with the extra title “Equal-to-the-Apostles” in the Byzantine Rite, as these saints were responsible for a wide spreading and assertion of Christianity that is comparable to the work of the Twelve Apostles. However, despite all this great joy to be had at the conversion of many souls, the next century would see one of the most unfortunate divisions in all of Christian history.

In 1054, what is known as the East-West (or Great) Schism occurred when the Latin Church and Constantinopolitan Church mutually excommunicated each other. At the time, not much was thought of this; there had always been disagreements between both the Western and Eastern Churches, and unity was eventually maintained. This schism proved to be different, as most of the Byzantine communities throughout the Empire broke with Rome. Disagreements revolving around the papacy, the use of unleavened or leavened bread in the Eucharist, and the Filioque (the Latin addition to the Nicene Creed which describes the double procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son), among other issues, kept the Eastern and Western lungs of the Church from reuniting completely. Attempts were made at the Second Council of Lyons (the Fourteenth Ecumenical Council) in 1272, and at the Council of Florence (the Seventeenth Ecumenical Council) in 1439 which were ultimately to no avail. The latter council produced the papal bull Laetentur Caeli, promulgated by Pope Eugene IV, and declared that the East-West Schism was over. It is true to say that the Schism was over at that point, but only for a short time.

Emperor John VIII Palaiologos (in a bid to receive help from the West in the face of the invading Ottoman Turks) and all the Eastern bishops present, save one, at the Council had signed Pope Eugene's Articles of Union. The lone dissenter was Mark of Ephesus, who still maintained that the Catholic Church continued in heresy and schism. The bishops returned back to their eparchies, while celebrations took place throughout Florence, rejoicing that the Schism was over. But when the Eastern bishops returned home to Constantinople in 1440, they were met with much resistance by the laity and monastic orders who had sided with Mark of Ephesus. To the dismay of several of the bishops who had signed the Articles of Union, they were forced to realize the reality of the situation and that unity between both lungs of the Church would not continue, remarking that “Having returned to Constantinople, Ephesus disturbed and confused the Eastern Church by his writings and addresses directed against the decrees of the Council of Florence.” Many of those who signed the Articles now rejected the reunion. The Russian patriarchs and bishops also repudiated the Council of Florence, leading a number of bishops who had signed Eugene IV’s reunion agreement, and still subscribed to it, fled to Rome. Various Italian states also refused to give substantial support to Constantinople as it attempted to fend of the Ottoman Turks, and by the 1450’s the attempt to reunite the Eastern and Western Churches had failed.

Thankfully, this was not the end of talks regarding reunion with Rome. In fact, one Byzantine community in Southern Italy never left union with Rome, and over the next couple centuries, several more, yet smaller, reunions took place. These smaller reunions resulted in the creation of virtually all of the sui iuris Churches listed above. How these reunions took place, is detailed below in chronological order.

Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church

One of the first groups of Byzantine Christians to seek full reunion with the Catholic Church were the Ukrainians. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was formed in 1569, and the Ukrainians living in the region, who were mostly Orthodox, were harassed and persecuted for their loyalty to Russian Orthodoxy and the Czar. But with the Reformation in full swing, many of the Latin Catholic clergy, specifically the Jesuits, realized that Catholics and Orthodox needed to be united in the region to combat the spread of Calvinist and Lutheran Protestants. The Jesuits assured the Byzantines that their rites, liturgical practices and customs (such as married priests) would be left intact if they would submit to the primacy of the Pope in Rome. In 1595, the Metropolitan of Kiev gathered his bishops in the city of Brest with the Orthodox Patriarchates in Constantinople and Moscow, affirmed the primacy of the Pope, and thus created the modern day Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. In the documents of the Union of Brest, it was affirmed that the Ukrainians did not have to insert the Filioque into the Nicene Creed, and the Latin understanding of purgatory did not have to be adapted by the Ukrainians either, as the two parties agreed, “We shall not debate about purgatory, but we entrust ourselves to the teaching of the Holy Church.”

The reunion led to many conversions to the Catholic faith, but there was also much resistance by a number of people in the Commonwealth. Those who wished to remain Orthodox rebelled and many skirmishes between Orthodox and Catholics took place. One such skirmish resulted in the martyrdom of St. Josaphat, Archbishop of Polotsk, who had helped spearhead the conversion of the region in an authentic Byzantine tradition. St. Josaphat is still commemorated in both the Roman and Byzantine Calendar to this day. Many such martyrdoms occurred on both sides, however. By the 18^th century, most of the population had become Ukrainian-Greek Catholic.

As time went on, the Russian state grew larger and larger and by 1839, following the partition of Poland, the Russian Orthodox Czar Nicholas I functionally dissolved the Ukrainian-Greek Catholic Church with the exception of the Eparchy of Kholm. All Church land was given to the Orthodox, and by 1875, Kholm was forcefully converted to Orthodoxy. The Church survived in Galicia, and was led into a period of renewal by Venerable Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. But immediately after his death in 1944, and the events surrounding World War II, virtually all of Galicia was no longer governed by Poland, but was now under Soviet control. A suppression of Catholicism would continue for years, and would leave Ukrainian-Greek Catholics fighting for their very survival.

Josef Stalin decided that the burgeoning Ukrainian independent movement had to be quashed, and since the Ukrainian Catholic Church was at the forefront of this movement, the entire Church must be wiped out. Again, all Church lands were liquidated and forcibly handed over to the Russian Orthodox, and in the spring of 1945, all Ukrainian-Greek Catholic bishops were arrested and sent to the Gulag. Several priests, nuns, and laymen and women were sent to prison camps as well. Many were martyred in the coming years. At this point, the Church went largely underground, with secret ordinations being carried out when possible. One bishop, Yosyf Slipyi, was freed after 18 years of imprisonment, and received the title of Major Archbishop and was named cardinal in 1965. Cardinal Slipyi led the underground Church from Rome, and visited with the diaspora in North America, South America, and Oceania where he urged the faithful to remain strong in the face of opposition their families were facing back in the homeland.

By the 1980’s, and after years of torture for many Catholics in Ukraine, the government permitted Ukrainian-Greek Catholics to function publically once again. Mikhail Gorbachev allowed these Catholic communities to function again on December 1, 1989, and the Ukrainian Catholics seized control of their parish churches once again in many parts of the region. The Ukrainian state gained independence in 1991, and the Ukrainian-Greek Catholic Church has been flourishing ever since.

Belarusian Catholic Church

Belarusian Catholics, like their Ukrainian Catholic counterparts, reunited with the Pope in Rome in 1595 following the Union of Brest. However, the Ukrainians and Belarusians would take two different paths; the former, as seen above, flourished after the Russian and Soviet empires tried to destroy it. The latter, however, barely survived the persecution of the Russian and Soviet empires, leaving very few members of this sui iuris Church left today. To see where the paths of these two Churches divided, we should first look to the Synod of Polatsk in 1839. There, three Belarusian bishops and at least 20 priests decided to join the Russian Orthodox Church, following the partition of Poland some years earlier. This decision affected over 1 million Catholics. The Russian state liquidated all the Catholic Church’s properties and handed them over to the Orthodox, just as was seen in the case of the Ukrainians, but there were several Belarusian Catholics over the next few decades who refused to convert and did not follow the lead of their pastors into Orthodoxy. Several fled to Austria where they could worship freely according to their Byzantine Catholic heritage.

By 1905, Czar Nicholas II granted freedom of religion, leading many to clamor for reunion with Rome. However, this freedom only went so far, as the Russian state still banned Catholicism according to the Byzantine Rite. Many converted to the Latin Rite, which the majority of Catholics in Belarus still remain today, but a small contingent remained underground that was committed to their Byzantine heritage. Luckily, following World War I much of western Belarus was absorbed into the new Polish state. The descendants of those who had been forced into Orthodoxy had finally returned to the Belarusian Catholic Church with their Byzantine heritage intact. The Holy See even sent them an Apostolic Visitor in 1931 to help get things off the ground in fully restoring the community there. Unfortunately, the growth would stop there. In 1942, shortly after his installation, Exarch Antoni Niemancewicz, SJ was captured by the Gestapo and was martyred in the concentration camps the following year. Belarus was largely absorbed into the Soviet Union, the Iron Curtain appeared, and the Belarusian Catholic Church was now left without a leader, making contact with the faithful there very rare.

The refugees who fled the oppressive government which again outlawed Catholicism made homes in places like London, France, and America, specifically in Chicago. This remnant of the faithful kept their faith and traditions alive, and in 1960, after nearly two decades with no leadership, the first Belarusian Catholic bishop since the Synod of Polatsk was appointed Apostolic Visitor to the Belarusian diaspora. Bishop Cheslau Sipovich led the widely scattered Church for over 20 years, as the Byzantine liturgical texts were translated for the first time, on a wide scale, into Belarusian. These translations helped get the Church back on its feet in Belarus when the Iron Curtain was lifted in the early 1990’s. Belarus gained independence in 1991, but only two or three priests were available at the time to serve the faithful. The Belarusian Catholic Church was nearly wiped out, but by God’s grace a remnant survived the turbulence generated by two World Wars.

Byzantine Catholic Church of Croatia, Slovenia (or Križevci Catholic Church)

This sui iuris Church resumed communion with Rome in 1611 through the Union of Marca. This occurred when the Serbian Orthodox bishop, Simeon Vratanja, of the Eparchy of Marca (located in modern day Croatia) journeyed to Rome at the urging of several members of the clergy, asking for Rome’s jurisdiction to be recognized in the eparchy. Bishop Vratanja petitioned Pope Paul V for reunion, and after a confession of faith, Paul V appointed Vratanja as bishop of Marca and all Croatia. Upon returning home, Vratanja never severed ties with the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate, and only some of the local laity under his care followed him into Catholicism. Once the Orthodox Patriarch heard of Vratanja’s conversion, he cut ties with him in 1628.

After Vratanja’s death in 1630, the newly restored communion between the Križevci Catholic Church and Rome met with some instability as the native Byzantines clashed with the new Latin hierarchy. It wasn’t until 1777 that some stability returned following Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa’s plea to Pope Pius VI that the Byzantine Catholics in Croatia be given greater independence. Pius VI granted her request and created the Byzantine Rite Eparchy of Križevci, superseding the previous Eparchy of Marca.

The Eparchy of Križevci was later expanded to cover all of Yugoslavia following World War I. After the country became Communist in 1946, the Catholic Church (both Latin and Byzantine Rites) came under severe persecution. When Yugoslavia was disbanded in 1991, more changes were made within the Križevci Catholic Church’s juridical structure. The Apostolic Exarchate of Serbia (Novi Sad) was created in 2003, and the Macedonian Catholic Church, which had been absorbed by the Križevci Catholic Church following WWI, was reformed.

Albanian Catholic Church

This Church (not to be confused with the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church) is a very small sui iuris Church which exists basically only in the country that bears its name, Albania. The Byzantines in Southern Albania resumed communion with Rome back in 1660 when the Orthodox archbishop of the region requested reunion with the Pope. The northern part of Albania had long been Latin Catholic, but with the conversion of those in the southern parts of Albania, the country could be called predominately Catholic. However, the Ottoman Turks made the new arrangements difficult, and after about a century, the reunion was all but dissolved, with some returning to Orthodoxy and others switching to the Latin Rite.

Towards the end of the 19^th century, some Orthodox laymen and clergy wished to revive the Albanian Catholic Church. Two separate groups, one headed by a Fr. George Germanos, expressed strong wishes to be reconciled once again with the Catholic Church, while keeping their Byzantine heritage. The Italo-Albanian Catholic Church had sent some missionaries to help the small gathering of converts, but within a few decades their numbers had risen to a level that led the Holy See to act. In 1939, Rome sent an Apostolic Administrator, Archbishop Leone Giovanni Nigris, to be the leader of the Albanian Catholic Church. Unfortunately, World War II was just getting underway, and after Italy invaded the country, several upheavals in the region led to Albania becoming a Communist state. Archbishop Nigris was expelled from the country just seven years after starting his ministry to the Albanian Catholics, and the small Catholic community there dwindled even more, with contact between them and Rome virtually non-existent. It wasn’t until 1992, following the downfall of the Communist government, that the new Republic of Albania made it easier for the Church to tend to its sheep. The Catholics of the Byzantine tradition were all but gone, but finally, restoration could begin.

Ruthenian (or Byzantine) Catholic Church

As we saw with the Union of Brest, the Protestant Reformation led to a more urgent need for unity between Catholics and Orthodox. What began with the Council of Florence found permanence with the Union of Brest for the Ukrainians, and with the Union of Užhorod on April 24, 1646. However, this reconciliation that took place in 1646 saw the birth of three sui iuris Churches, the largest of which is the Ruthenian Catholic Church (also known as simply the “Byzantine Catholic Church” in North America). St. John Paul gives a pretty concise history of the events leading to the creation of the Ruthenian Catholic Church in his Apostolic Letter on the 350^th anniversary of the Union or Užhorod, quoted at length:

“The joyful occasion of the 350th anniversary of the Union of Užhorod constitutes an important moment in the history of a Church which by that act reestablished full union with the Bishop of Rome. It is therefore very understandable that I too join in the thanksgiving to God of all those who rejoice in the memory of that significant event. The facts themselves are well known: on 24 April 1646, in the church of the Castle of Užhorod, 63 Byzantine-rite priests of the Eparchy of Mukacheve, led by the Basilian monk Parthenius Petrovyc and in the presence of the Bishop of Eger, George Jakusics, were received into full communion with the See of Peter…

“In 1595, the representatives of the Metropolitan See of Kyiv Met Pope Clement VIII; and in the following year, 1596, that union was proclaimed at Brest with the intention of implementing the agreement reached at Florence. Very soon the impulse coming from the Ecumenical Council of Florence reached the Carpathians and, after certain initial difficulties had been overcome, became a practical reality in the Union of Užhorod. Sown in the fertile soil of Mukacheve, it was the mustard seed of the Gospel which grew with time into a tree under the shade of which a vast group of faithful of the Byzantine tradition gathered. Taking note of this reality, on 10 September 1771, with the Apostolic Constitution Eximia Regalium Principum, Pope Clement XIV established the Greek-Catholic Eparchy of Mukacheve, the seat of which would be transferred a few years later to nearby Užhorod …

“While the Union of Užhorod came about as a result of the deliberations of the Council of Florence, it is certainly not out of place to highlight its close spiritual connection with the background of the mission of the Apostles of the Slavs, Cyril and Methodius, whose preaching extended from Greater Moravia to the Carpathian Mountains. Rightly therefore the faithful of the Churches linked to the Union of Užhorod are proud to be sharers in the heritage of Cyril and Methodius.”

As St. John Paul mentioned, it wasn’t until 1771 that the first Ruthenian Catholic eparchy was established. Prior to that, Ruthenian Catholic bishops served as vicars of the Hungarian Roman Catholic bishops of Eger. There was at time, tension between the different ethnic groups before the eparchy was established.

As for the ethnicity of Ruthenian Catholics themselves, they can sometimes be confused with their neighbors. The Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA) elaborates on how these peoples are regarded:

“Although the ecclesiastical term ‘Ruthenian’ was formerly used more broadly to include Ukrainians, Belarusians and Slovaks as well, it is now used by church authorities in a narrower sense to denote this specific [Byzantine Rite] Catholic Church. In terms of ethnicity, Ruthenian Catholics prefer to be called Rusyns. They are closely related to the Ukrainians and speak a dialect of the same language. The traditional Rusyn homeland extends beyond Transcarpathia into northeast Slovakia and the Lemko region of extreme southeast Poland.”

Through the 19^th century, the Ruthenian Catholic Church experienced a steady growth, and many Rusyns immigrated to the United States bringing their Byzantine heritage with them. Unfortunately, some bishops of the Latin Rite clashed with not just the Ruthenian Catholics, but also with the various different Byzantine Rite Churches that had come to America around the turn of the 20^th century. Misunderstandings regarding the practices and legitimate traditions of the Byzantines, namely that of the married priesthood, was met with opposition by many confused Latin bishops. This led one Ruthenian Catholic priest, Alexis Toth, to convert his family and his entire parish to Russian Orthodoxy following Archbishop John Ireland’s decision to not grant Fr. Toth priestly faculties in Minnesota. Similar measures were taken on the matter of married priests by other Latin bishops, and eventually the ordination of married priests in the entire diaspora was banned. This restriction was not lifted until Pope Francis’ pontificate. However, the effects of this unfortunate decision are still felt today. Many Byzantine Catholics followed Fr. Toth’s lead; by the time he died in 1920, several parishes and at least 20,000 people left the Catholic Church for the Orthodox Church. Fr. Toth has since been recognized as a saint in the Orthodox Church.

Despite the seemingly massive loss of people, the Ruthenian Catholic Church continued to thrive in the first half of the 20^th century, both at home in Europe and in the United States. Vocations were still strong, and in the U.S., the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh was created in 1924, with two more eparchies created in the 1960’s, and another in Phoenix in 1981. In Europe, the Church there was stable before World War II’s end; Transcarpathia became part of the new republic of Czechoslovakia following World War I. But in 1945, the region was annexed by the Soviet Union. As was seen with Ukrainian Catholic Church, the Ruthenian Catholics were heavily persecuted. Forced conversions to Orthodoxy was constant, the executions of bishops, priests, and laity went nearly unchecked for years, and the attempt to wipe out Rusyn national identity pushed Ruthenian Catholics underground. Details of some these martyrs can be found in the “Great Saints” section below.

After the fall of Communism, the Church slowly started to rise from the ashes. In 1991, the Vatican confirmed that three bishops had been working underground to serve the faithful in the Eparchy of Mukacevo. In 1996, St. John Paul erected a new Apostolic Exarchate in Prague as normalcy slowly returned. By 2006, the Eparchy of Mukacevo had recovered fully, boasting a total of 370 parishes.

Hungarian Catholic Church

This sui iuris Church also has its roots in the Union of Užhorod, resuming communion with Rome in 1646. There have been both Latin and Byzantine Christians in Hungary since at least the 11^th century, but those of the Byzantine Rite were mainly found in what is now the northwestern region of Hungary. The region was invaded several times by such peoples as the Mongols and Ottoman Turks throughout the next few centuries, leading to widespread displacement of the Byzantines. It wasn’t until 1686 that some stability started to exist once the Turks were expelled from Buda, at that time the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary. Many Ruthenian and Slovaks moved to the area, and with the Hungarians that had stayed in the region, these Catholics, who had only resumed reunion with Rome a generation earlier, could finally allow their communities to grow. The Byzantine Catholics there were placed under the spiritual care of the bishop of Mukacevo, and were helped greatly by the Jesuits, as they had assisted the Ukrainian-Greek Catholic Church when they resumed communion with Rome.

Orthodox clergy were assured by these Jesuits they would keep their Byzantine heritage and customs if they converted and recognized the primacy of the Pope. The Jesuits also worked with many Protestants in this region of Hungary, and many of the converts opted to convert to the Byzantine Rite as opposed to the Latin Rite, thus leading to a very sizable increase in the number of Byzantine Catholics. Due in part to the influx of Protestant converts, many in the Hungarian Catholic Church began to petition that the Divine Liturgy be said in Hungarian. This was resisted for the most part by the hierarchy, but nonetheless, 1795 saw the first private translation of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom into Hungarian. Over the next century, there were other publications put out that had Hungarian translations, but none received Church approval.

This push for Hungarian in the liturgy reached a fever pitch in 1900, when on the occasion of the 900^th anniversary of St. Stephen of Hungary’s coronation, thousands of Hungarian pilgrims made a pilgrimage to Rome. It was there that they petitioned Pope Leo XIII that they be allowed to use Hungarian in the Divine Liturgy, and that the lone vicariate of the Hungarian Catholic Church be raised to that of an eparchy. Change did not happen until 1912 during Pope St. Pius X’s pontificate, and he did raise Hajdúdorog to an eparchy. The new Eparchy of Hajdúdorog included around 160 Hungarian Catholic parishes of the Byzantine Rite. However, St. Pius X stressed that Hungarian was not to be used officially in the liturgy. However, with the start of World War I, this directive was not enforced and Hungarian continued to be used in the liturgy in many places. The Church flourished over the next several decades, even with the advent of Communism. Unlike many of the other Byzantine Churches during this time, Hungarian Catholics did not experience the same level of persecution as was seen, in the Ukrainian Church, for example. Once the Iron Curtain fell, Hungarian Catholics had nothing holding them back anymore, and worked together with the other Byzantine sui iuris Churches. In 1990 the eparchial seminary of St. Athanasius was opened to Ukrainian, Slovak, Ruthenian and Romanian Catholics who wished to study for the priesthood, in order to strengthen the Byzantine heritage of the Churches that had been suppressed for so long under Communism. The Hungarian Catholic Church from this point continued to grow substantially.

Slovak Catholic Church

The Union of Užhorod saw three distinct groups come back into communion with Rome in 1646, and the Slovak Catholic Church is the third and final covered here. As with the Ruthenian and Hungarian catholic Churches, its members are comprised of a mix of Rusyns, Roma, Ukrainians, and of course, Slovaks. The history of Slovak and Ruthenian Catholics is basically shared up until 1818 when the Eparchy of Prešov was erected by Servant of God, Pope Pius VII from territory within the Ruthenian Eparchy of Mukacheve.

Following World War II, the Eparchy of Prešov found itself within the boundaries of Czechoslovakia while their Ruthenian brothers and sisters found themselves annexed by the Soviet Union. Czechoslovakia also fell under Communist rule in 1950, and it was then that a mock synod was held by a few dissident priests (with the backing of the new Communist government) where it was declared that the Slovak Catholic Church’s union with Rome was withdrawn, and all the faithful were to embrace Orthodoxy, under the authority of the Moscow Patriarchate. Bishops and priests were imprisoned shortly after this declaration, including the bishop of Prešov, Blessed Pavel Peter Gojdic, who was martyred for the Catholic faith, dying in the prison hospital in 1960 from the harsh conditions he suffered. All Slovak Catholic parishes were turned over to the Orthodox Church.

Things started to get better much sooner for Slovak Catholics in comparison to their other Byzantine brethren. In 1968, during the “Prague Spring”, Byzantine Catholic parishes were allowed to resume communion with Rome, with some limitations. Most of those parishes that had forcibly been handed over to the Orthodox elected to return home to Rome. When communism was overthrown in 1989, all restrictions on the Slovak Catholic Church were lifted and Church property was returned on a wide scale. In 1997, St. John Paul II created the Apostolic Exarchate of Košice in Slovakia due to the Church’s resurgence, and a new theological college was created in Prešov for the formation of those entering the priesthood. Those who had immigrated to North America were not forgotten either. In 1980, St. John Paul II also erected an eparchy for Slovak Catholics, the Eparchy of Saints Cyril and Methodius, in Toronto.

Romanian Catholic Church

This sui iuris Church (also called the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic) traces its roots to shortly after the Union of Užhorod, following an Act of Union in 1698. About a decade earlier, Hapsburg Austrian Emperor Leopold I drove the Ottoman Turks out of Transylvania, and annexed the region into his empire. He encouraged the Orthodox living there to embrace Catholicism, and Jesuits were sent to help streamline the process, encouraging both clergy and laity their sacred rites and traditions would be kept intact after recognizing the authority of the Pope. Metropolitan Atanasie Anghel, bishop of Alba Iulia, was the first prelate to accept those terms for reunion with Rome, and a synod he convoked in 1700 affirmed the agreement for reunion that he had pledged two years prior. It is noteworthy to mention that the Romanian Catholic Church did not use Old Church Slavonic in the Divine Liturgy as other Byzantine Churches did, but immediately began using the vernacular following the reunion with Rome. Many of the Orthodox laity and clergy accepted the reunion, and Pope Innocent XIII quickly erected the Eparchy of Fagara? and Alba Iulia in 1721. Unfortunately, the 1740’s and 1750’s saw a movement by some to return back to orthodoxy. This culminated when Empress Maria Theresa acquiesced to the demands of the uprisers and allowed for the Romanian Orthodox to appoint a bishop for those that wished to return to orthodoxy in Transylvania.

Despite the schism the newly reunited Church continued to grow and in 1853, Blessed Pope Pius IX, raised the Romanian Catholic Church to the level of Metropolitanate, with the Eparchy of Fagara? and Alba Iulia named the metropolitan see. Following World War I, Transylvania reunited with Romania, where the Romanian Orthodox Church was recognized as the dominant Church. Still, Romanian Catholics were regarded well by the government and several Catholic clergymen were even able to work in the political life of the country. By the time World War II rolled around, the Romanian Catholic Church was comprised of over 1.5 million members. Unfortunately, persecution reared its ugly head when Communism entered the country in 1948. On October 21^st of that year, on the 250^th anniversary of the Romanian Greek-Catholic union with Rome, the Communist government dissolved the union in a forced “synod” where over 30 priests repudiated the union, and immediately the 12 bishops of the Romanian Catholic Church were deposed and imprisoned. Servant of God Iuliu Hossu was one of these bishops, and is considered to have died in hatred of the faith, along with several other martyrs whose cause for canonization is ongoing.

The Church went mostly underground, and it wasn’t until Communism fell that the Church re-emerged in 1989. However, the Church continued to grow in the United States in Canada, albeit slowly at first. In 1982, St. John Paul II erected the Apostolic Exarchate of St. George’s in Canton, Ohio in order to organize the various Romanian Catholic parishes throughout North America that had been under the care of Latin bishops. It was upgraded to an Eparchy in 1987.

Back in Romania, the declaration which was made at the mock synod was declared null on January 2, 1990, and the Church was able to operate publicly again. Three bishops who had been consecrated in secret emerged, and St. John Paul II restored the hierarchy of the Romanian Catholic Church by appointing bishops to each of its five eparchies. Unfortunately, controversy bubbled up when the Catholic Church asked for its property to be returned, which had been given to the Orthodox Church after 1948. The Orthodox were unwilling to relinquish the properties in most cases, citing that there were currently more Orthodox than Catholics living in these regions. Some Romanian Catholics are still worshipping in public places as they await for their parishes to be returned to them. The Communists may have sought to wipe out Catholicism in the region, but following the government’s downfall, Catholicism continues to thrive to this day.

Melkite Catholic Church

This next particular Church is unique for a few reasons. First, it’s one of the few Byzantine Churches that never really used Old Slavonic; instead Arabic is the main language used with Greek and the vernacular interspersed throughout the liturgy. Second, this is the only Byzantine Church which traces its lineage back to the patriarchate of Antioch instead of Constantinople. The Melkites initially took no sides during the Great Schism of 1054, as they appealed for union between Rome and Constantinople. However, the Great Schism did not resolve itself, and the Melkites eventually sided with Constantinople, and in 1098, the Melkite Patriarch of Antioch was exiled to Constantinople during the Crusades. Prior to this exile, the Melkites followed the Antiochene liturgical tradition, has is still used today by the Syro-Malankara, Maronite, and Syriac Catholic Churches. At the beginning of the 12^th century, the Melkites embraced the Byzantine liturgical tradition, and the Antiochene traditions largely faded away.

It wasn’t until 1724 that the Melkite Catholic Church came back into communion with Rome. As happened with several other Byzantine Catholic Churches, the Jesuits helped lay the groundwork for reconciliation, as they set up missions throughout Melkite territory in the years leading up to the reunion. A few patriarchs prior to 1724 had made Catholic professions of faith, and it seemed as if the Melkite Church was being divided in to Catholic and Orthodox camps Upon the death of Patriarch Athanasios III, this division reached its culmination, as the Melkite bishops elected Cyril VI as his successor. This was apparently against the wishes of the late patriarch who had planned for a deacon named Sylvester to be elected. While Cyril VI was validly elected, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Jeremias III, did not appreciate the fact that Cyril had Catholic sympathies. He swiftly declared Cyril’s election invalid, excommunicated him, and then ordained Sylvester a priest and bishop, and named him Patriarch of Antioch. Most Melkites resisted this deposition and went to seek recognition from the Pope of Cyril’s valid election. In 1730, Pope Benedict XIII recognized Cyril as the legitimate patriarch of Antioch, and received him and all those that accepted him as patriarch into full communion with the Catholic Church.

The Melkite Catholic Church was centered in Lebanon and Syria, but soon after the reunion was complete, the seat of the patriarchate was moved from Lebanon to Damascus, where it is still located today. The Church has struggled with “Latinizations” throughout its history, but following Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Orientalium dignitas, Melkite Catholics felt much more comfortable in remaining true to their liturgical patrimony. They were also spared most of the persecution that most of the other Churches of the Byzantine rite had to face. Throughout the second half of the 20^th century, the Melkite Catholic Church was heavily involved in ecumenism with their separated brethren in the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch. These movements towards reconciliation still continue.

Greek Catholic Church

If things already haven’t been complicated and complex enough with the histories of these Churches, the chance for confusion is even higher when dealing with this particular Church. Many of the sui iuris Churches of the Byzantine Rite are commonly referred to as “Greek Catholic Churches”, such as the Ukrainians. However, when we talk of the specific Greek Catholic Church, we are referring to the sui iuris Church that is based in Greece and resumed union with Rome in 1829 following Greece’s war from independence under the Ottoman Turks. This fight for independence led to prior restrictions on Catholicism in the region to be relaxed, and this allowed for a Catholic community to be formed in Turkey and in Athens. These efforts were started by a Latin Rite priest, Fr. John Marangos, and later by two Orthodox bishops who had converted to Catholicism. When Fr. Marangos died at Athens in 1885, the French Augustinians of the Assumption (more commonly known as the Assumptionists) carried on his work by founding a seminary and creating a few parishes which exclusively utilized the Byzantine rite. They were encouraged by Pope Leo XIII who had noticed the good job the Assumptionists had done in laying the groundwork for the Bulgarian Catholic Church for those who followed the Byzantine liturgical traditions in that region.

In 1911, the burgeoning Church had grown enough that Pope St. Pius X created the Apostolic Exarchate of Athens, and named Isaias Papadopoulos the first bishop of the Greek Catholic Church. Bishop Papadopoulos was succeeded by Bishop George Calavassy, and had a lot on his plate to take care of when Russian refugees fleeing the Bolsheviks, as well as Armenian and Assyrian refugees, descended upon Constantinople in the early 1920’s. Bishop Calavassy ministered to the needs of the refugees by collecting donations that went to build and repair schools, orphanages, and churches for the displaced to worship in. Pope Pius split the Apostolic Exarchate of Athens in two, with the new jurisdiction centered in Istanbul to help minister to the many refugees. The tiny Church continued to exist in the region, much to the chagrin of the Greek Orthodox Church who had a strong foothold in the region for centuries, and see the Greek Catholic Church as encroaching on its territory. However, Orthodoxy is by far the largest religion in the region, and the growth of Catholicism there has been slow ever since Greek Catholics resumed union with Rome.

Bulgarian Catholic Church

Christianity was first brought to Bulgaria in the 8^th century thanks to the missionary work of such saints as St. Clement of Ohrid, St. Naum of Preslav and St. Angelarius. These men were disciples of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, and are recognized as three of the so-called “Seven Apostles of the Bulgarian Empire”. St. Clement and St. Naum were especially responsible for bringing Czar Boris I of Bulgaria, and all under his rule, to the Church. The two saints, under the direction of Boris I, endeavored to keep Old Church Slavonic in the Divine Liturgy, and realizing a common Slavic alphabet was needed, the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets were created the literary school in Preslav.

Unfortunately, the Great Schism occurred not too long after all this, and the Church in Bulgaria sided with Constantinople. Various attempts with reunion between Rome and Bulgaria occurred before the 19^th century, but there was never any lasting reconciliation. It wasn’t until 1861 when several Orthodox bishops and clergymen in Bulgaria wished to gain more independence from the ecumenical patriarch in Constantinople in church affairs. These bishops felt that reunion with the Pope in Rome, in a similar way that the Ruthenians had secured a few centuries earlier, would better allow them to keep their national liturgical traditions in comparison to how they had been denied by Constantinople. The Bulgarian Orthodox became more Hellenized over time, and Greek was used more in the liturgy as opposed to Old Church Slavonic.

A delegation was sent to Rome, led by Archimandrite Joseph Sokolsky, and asked Bl. Pope Pius IX for reunion. Bl. Pius quickly accepted the delegations proclamation of faith, and he ordained Sokolsky a bishop on April 8, 1861. Bl. Pius also named Bishop Sokolsky head of the Bulgarian Catholic Church. The Church gained many members in the beginning, but by 1870, a separate Bulgarian Orthodox exarchate was created, and many of those that had converted to the Catholicism returned to Orthodoxy. For those that remained Catholic, two Apostolic Vicariates were created in 1883; one in Thrace and another in Macedonia. The next few decades were tumultuous for this small Church, as leaders wavered between Orthodoxy and Catholicism which led to much confusion among the laity. The Balkan Wars in 1912 didn’t help matters either, with many people fleeing their villages for safety. Following these wars, the Holy See reorganized the entire Bulgarian Catholic Church into one Apostolic Exarchate in the town of Sofia in 1926. Archbishop Angelo Roncalli, the future Pope St. John XXIII, was instrumental in leading this renewal for Bulgarian Catholics as Apostolic Delegate to Bulgaria.

Towards the end of World War II, Bulgaria was taken over by the Soviet Union, and with Communism in place, the Bulgarian Catholic Church had severe restrictions placed on it, and early on many clergy and laity were martyred. However, the persecution of the Catholic Church that took place in Bulgaria was much less severe than what took place in other countries controlled by the Communists, and the restrictions which were placed on the Church were eased when St. John XXIII became pope. Following the downfall of Communism in the early 1990’s the Bulgarian Catholic Church was able to reclaim its land and churches which were taken and have been able to operate without the restrictions seen immediately following World War II.

Russian Catholic Church

This particular Church is different from most of the other Eastern Catholic Churches in that it has no real hierarchy and is scattered throughout the world with almost no real presence in Russia itself. The stage was set for the Russian Catholic Church immediately after the Great Schism. The Latin Catholic Church and the Church in Russia never exactly severed communion, but over time, those in Russia tended to side with Constantinople. However, there have long been stories of those who continued to recognize the Pope’s authority. These legends are hard to substantiate. Some Russian bishops did come back into full and visible communion with Rome following the Council of Florence, but this reunion was short-lived. As for the modern day Russian Catholic Church, it has its origin in Czar Nicholas II’s decree of religious toleration in 1905. Up until that point, Byzantine Catholicism had been illegal, and following the legalization of Catholicism, several Byzantine Rite communities started popping up.

Fr. Aleksei Zerchaninov led the charge for the Russian Catholics of the Byzantine Rite, after converting from Orthodoxy himself a few years earlier. He met with Pope St. Pius X in 1907 and commanded that the liturgy of the Russian Catholics be exactly like that of the Russian Orthodox, a principle that continues today through the Pope’s words “not more, not less, not other.” Fr. Zerchaninov returned to Russia where he built up the Catholic community in St. Petersburg, and was appointed head of mission for the Russian Catholics of the Byzantine Rite in 1908. In due time, the nascent Russian Catholic Church had its first Apostolic Exarchate established for them in 1917. Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky of the Ukrainian Catholic Church appointed Blessed Leonid Feodorov as the first Exarch, and some believe Bl. Leonid was also secretly ordained Blessed Leonid as bishop. Unfortunately, the events of the October Revolution and a subsequent religious persecution in 1922 sent the small community into hiding, with some ending up as refugees in Harbin, China. A second Apostolic Exarchate was set up in 1928 for those Russian Catholics in Harbin.

In the years leading up to World War II, the Soviets continued to suppress the Russian Catholic Church, but for those that were left and in hiding, Metropolitan Sheptytsky appointed his brother, Blessed Clement as the next Exarch of Russia. Like Bl. Leonid, Bl. Clement was eventually captured by the Communists, and Russian Catholics could not safely worship in public until the Soviet Union ultimately fell. Since then, Russian Catholics have slowly emerged, but no real numbers on the faithful are available. It’s thought that most Russian Catholics are scattered in countries such as the United States and Australia than in Russia itself.

Macedonian Catholic Church

The Macedonian Catholic Church is another extremely small sui iuris Church and was effectively created in 1918 with the creation of the Yugoslavian state. This Church’s roots come from the Bulgarian Catholic Church, which in the 19^th century had an Apostolic Exarchate in Macedonia, populated by mostly Bulgarians at the time. World War I changed things a bit, leading to the formation of a particular Church for the Macedonians in 1918, but it was quickly absorbed into the Križevci Catholic Church in 1924. The Apostolic Exarchate of Macedonia was reformed in 2001, and since 2008, it has been completely independent of the Križevci Catholic Church.

Italo-Albanian Catholic Church

This particular Church is the true oddball of the group. It could’ve gone either first or last in our list of each sui iuris Church in the Byzantine Rite. The Italo-Albanian Catholic Church is interesting for two reasons. First, most people that belong to this Church live in Italy, yet are not of the Latin Rite. Second, this Church has never broken communion with the Pope and Rome, and is one of only two Eastern Catholic Churches to have never done so (the other being the Maronite Catholic Church. It’s also worthy to note, that this particular Church has always remained on good terms with the larger bodies of autocephalous Orthodox Churches. The Italo-Albanian Catholic Church has never risen to the Metropolitanate, and has been throughout most of history under the jurisdiction of the Holy See.

Following the Great Schism of 1054, the Byzantines of Italy seemed to be touch and go at several points over the next few centuries. Many of the laity were eventually drawn to the Latin Rite, and it wasn’t until the mid-15^th century that this Church was revitalized following an influx of southern Albanian refugees into places like Calabria and Abruzzo. This was also just a couple decades after the Council of Florence, where the Orthodox and Catholic Churches temporarily reunited. Pope Julius III had appointed a bishop to care for the Italo-Albanian community in Southern Italy, and this appointment had even received confirmation by the Orthodox ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. The Italo-Albanian Catholic Church became one of the only communities to see East and West truly unified following the dissolution of the Council of Florence’s reunion. In the coming years, various Popes (such as Pope Leo X in 1521) confirmed that the Byzantine community in Italy would and should continue to exercise their liturgical traditions.

Following the Council of Trent, some aspects of this Church’s autonomy changed, and eventually all Italo-Albanian Catholic clergy and faithful were immediately subject to the Latin ordinary of their specific region. Despite the foundation of the Pontifical Greek College of St. Athanasius for the education of Italo-Byzantine Catholic clergy by Pope Gregory XIII, the Church declined over the next three centuries as many more families left for the Latin Rite. It wasn’t until 1919 that the faithful of this particular Church saw some headway happen when Pope Benedict XV established the Eparchy of Lungro. A second eparchy, the Eparchy of Piana degli Albanesi, was created in 1937 by Pope Pius XI. As the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church was always in close proximity to the Pope in Rome, the Byzantine Catholics here were never affected by the persecution that many of their other Slavic Byzantine brothers and sisters suffered during the 20^th century.

In the next essay, we'll look more into the liturgy and traditions of the Byzantine Rite, as well as what's happening in the various particular Churches today.