Ruthenian Catholic Archeparchy of Polotsk–Vitebsk
The Archeparchy of Polotsk was an eparchy of the Ruthenian Uniate Church in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1596 to 1839.
in 1772. The most northerly one, in brown, is the Archeparchy of Polotsk
The cathedral of the archeparchy was Saint Sophia Cathedral in the city of Polotsk.History
Previously an Eastern Orthodox eparchy headed by a suffragan bishop of the Kiev Metropolitan in Vilnius, in 1596 the eparchy of Polotsk, entered in full communion with the Catholic Church as a Greek Catholic Church through the Union of Brest. The eparchy was among the first that joined the union in 1596 along with eparchies of Kiev, Pinsk, Lutsk, Volodymyr and Kholm. Due to the Union of Brest, Belarus, the former Orthodox Church became known as the Ruthenian Uniate Church.
To the archeparchy of Polotsk were later added the territories of the eparchy of Mstislav and the 10th-century eparchies of Orsha and Vitebsk.
Due to its proximity to Vilnius, the eparchy played a key role in the church life and many of its bishops later became the Metropolitan bishops of Kiev, a hierarch of the Ruthenian Uniate Church. Those include Havryil Kolenda, Kyprian Zochovskyj, Lev Zalenskyj and many others.
In the 1800s, the archeparchy was classified by the Catholic Church as a Ruthenian jurisdiction.
The Russian imperial government suppressed the archeparchy on 25 March 1839 at the Council of Polotsk, which has no Catholic successor.Episcopal ordinaries
;''Non-metropolitan Ruthenian Catholic Archeparchs of Polotsk :
- Herman Zahorskyj
- Gedeon Brolnitskyj
- Saint Josaphat Kuntsevych, Order of Saint Basil the Great ; previously Founder of Basilian Order of Saint Josaphat, Coadjutor Archbishop of Polatsk–Vitebsk of the Ruthenians
- Antin Sielava
- Havryil Kolenda, succeeding as former Coadjutor Archbishop of Polatsk–Vitebsk of the Ruthenians
- Kyprian Zochovskyj
- Lev Zalenskyj
- Markian Bilozor ; previously Coadjutor Bishop of Pinsk–Turaŭ of the Ruthenians , succeeding as Eparch of Pinsk–Turaŭ of the Ruthenians
- Sylvester Peshkevych
- Florian Hrebnitskyj
- Jason Smogorevskyj, succeeding as former Coadjutor Archbishop of Polatsk–Vitebsk of the Ruthenians ; later Metropolitan Archbishop of Kyiv–Halyč of the Ukrainians
- Heraklius Lisovskyj
- Jan Krasovskyj ; next transferred Archbishop-Bishop of Lutsk–Ostroh of the Ukrainians
- Jakub Martusevych, previously Eparch of Lutsk–Ostroh of the Ukrainians
- Josaphat Bulhak ; previously Bishop of Pinsk–Turaŭ of the Ruthenians , Eparch of Volodymyr–Brėst of the Ukrainians , Apostolic Administrator of Vilnius of the Ukrainians , Apostolic Administrator of Kyiv–Halyč of the Ukrainians , Eparch of Vilnius of the Ukrainians , Metropolitan Archeparch of Kyiv–Halyč of the Ukrainians , Eparch of Žyrovyci of the Ukrainians .
