METROPOLITAN NYKANOR ABRAMOVYCH
Metropolitan Nykanor Abramovych was a prominent leader of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church in Ukraine and western Europe. Born in Mizovo, near Kovel
(about 70 miles northwest of Lutsk) in Volhynia, he studied at the Volhynian
Theological Seminary, then the Kyiv Theological Academy.
Ordained as a priest in 1910, Abramovych served as a priest in his native
region. In 1917-1920, he served as inspector of schools for the Zhytomyr
region and Volhynia under the various Ukrainian administrations set up during
that period.
In the 1920s and 1930s the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC)
in Soviet Ukraine was physically liquidated by the Stalinist regime, which
had the entire Church hierarchy and most of its clergy shot. In areas that
remained under Polish control, such as Volhynia where Abramovych remained,
Ukrainian Orthodoxy survived within the Polish-state controlled entity called
the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church (PAOC), formed in January 1922.
In 1924, the PAOC was officially granted autocephaly by the Patriarch
of Constantinople. From that time it was independent of the Moscow Patriarchate
and administered its own internal affairs. However, the Church was by no
means a peaceful haven. On one hand, Polish authorities sanctioned a wave
of destruction of Ukrainian churches in the Kholm region and supported efforts
mounted by the Roman Catholic Church to convert believers from Orthodoxy.
On the other, Russophile elements within the PAOC pulled believers in the
opposite direction, towards Moscow, and did their best to Russify the predominantly
Ukrainian and Belarusian laity.
Running counter to both currents, Abramovych played an active role in
the Ukrainization of the Orthodox Church in Volhynia. At this stage, Abramovych
served as president of the Brotherhood of the Holy Savior, and was active
in the Volodymyr Volynskyi Church administration.
From the summer of 1941, the vacuum caused by the German invasion of
Ukraine allowed the Orthodox hierarchy to begin efforts to revive the UAOC.
A leader in this movement, Abramovych was consecrated in February 1942 as
archbishop of Kyiv and Chyhyryn. He and Ihor Huba, who became bishop of
Uman, were the first two hierarchs elevated by Metropolitan Polikarp Sikorsky,
the fiercely independent and patriotic Orthodox leader. (Mstyslav Skrypnyk,
who was to become patriarch of the UAOC and UOC, was made archbishop in
May 1942).
In the face of the Soviet advance in 1944, Abramovych fled westward along
with most of the UAOC's hierarchy and clergy, eventually settling in Karlsruhe,
Germany, in 1946. The following year he was designated Metropolitan Sikorsky's
deputy metropolitan and, upon the latter's death in 1953, was elected metropolitan.
Remaining in Europe as most of the UAOC's hierarchy and clergy continued
on to North America, Metropolitan Abramovych served as president of the
UAOC's Theological Institute from 1948, edited the journal Bohoslovskyi
Visnyk, and wrote articles and monographs about the history and traditions
of the Ukrainian Orthodox.
Metropolitan Nykanor Abramovych died in Karlsruhe on March 21, 1969.
Sources: "Abramovych, Nykanor," "Polish Autocephalous
Orthodox Church," "Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church,"
Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Vols. 1, 4, 5 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1984, 1993).
The Ukrainian Weekly, July
25, 1999, No. 30, Vol. LXVII
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF UKRAINE
ARTICLE/ENTRY BY A. ZHUKOVSKY
Abramovych, Nykanor [Abramovyč], b 27 July 1883 in Mizovo in the Kovel area, Volhynia, d 21 March 1969 in Karlsruhe, Germany. A prominent figure and metropolitan of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church. He studied at the Volhynian Theological Seminary and at the Kyiv Theological Academy
and, following his ordination in 1910, served as a priest in Volhynia. During
the struggle for Ukrainian independence he was inspector of schools for the
Zhytomyr region and Volhynia. Under Polish rule between 1920 and 1930 Abramovych
was active in the Ukrainianization of the Orthodox church in Volhynia, served
as president of the Brotherhood of the Holy Savior, and was active in the
Volodymyr church administration. In 1942–3 he was archbishop of Kyiv and Chyhyryn and participated in organizing the restored Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church. In 1947 he became Vice-metropolitan under METROPOLITAN POLIKARP SIKORSKY,
and after the latter's death in 1953 he was made metropolitan. From 1946
he lived in Karlsruhe, Germany. Abramovych was the author of various articles
and books, including Dohmatychno-kanonichnyi ustrii Vselens’koï Pravoslavnoï Tserkvy (Dogmatic and Canonical System of the Ecumenical Orthodox Church, 1948), Istoriia Dermans’koho manastyria (History of the Derman Monastery), and Stari tserkovni zvychaï na Volyni (Old Church Customs in Volhynia). He was editor of the journal Bohoslovs’kyi Visnyk and of the texts of Sluzhebnyk (Missal, 1949) and Chasoslov (Horologion, 1950). Abramovych also served as president of the Theological Institute of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church from 1948.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dublians’kyi, A. Ternystym shliakhom: Zhyttia Mytropolyta Nykanora AbramovychaLondon 1962.
