The Kiev Theological Academy (1819—1919) was one of the oldest higher educational institution of the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

, situated in

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, then in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

(now

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

). It was considered as the most senior one among similar academies in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, and

Kazan Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...

. It was located at the Kiev Podol within the Kiev Epiphany Monastery. In the Russian historiography, the Academy′s predecessor was the Academia Mohileana that was founded earlier in the 17th century.

History

Predecessor Collegium Mohileanum in Kiev

The Kiev Theological Academy traces its history back to 1615, when Yelisey Pletenetsky founded a school at the Brotherhood Monastery in Kiev.400-летие киевских духовных школ – история и современность
/ref> Several decades later, Peter Mohyla, from 1632 an Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev under the

Patriarchate of Constantinople The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (, ; ; , "Roman Orthodox Patriarchate, Ecumenical Patriarchate of Istanbul") is one of the fifteen to seventeen autocephalous churches that together compose the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is headed ...

, merged it with a newly established

Lavra A lavra or laura (; Cyrillic: Ла́вра) is a type of monastery consisting of a cluster of cells or caves for hermits, with a church and sometimes a refectory at the center. Lavra monasteries operate within the Orthodox and other Eastern Chri ...

school into the Mohyla Collegium (Latin: Collegium Kijovense Mohileanum). The Collegium alumni include Innokentiy Gizel, Lazar Baranovych, Dmitry Tuptalo, Stephen Yavorsky, Feofan Prokopovich and many other state activists and Orthodox clerics who helped reform the

under the auspices of

Patriarch Nikon Nikon (, ), born Nikita Minin (; 7 May 1605 – 17 August 1681) was the seventh Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' of the Russian Orthodox Church, serving officially from 1652 to 1666. He was renowned for his eloquence, energy, piety and close t ...

and

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

. In 1658 under the terms of the

Treaty of Hadiach The Treaty of Hadiach (; ) was a treaty signed on 16 September 1658 in Hadiach (present-day Ukraine) between representatives of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ( representing Poland and representing Lithuania) and Zaporozhian Cossacks (repr ...

the Collegium obtained the status of an Academy, similar to Kraków Academy. This was recognized in 1694 by the Russian

tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

Ivan V, then reaffirmed by Peter I in 1701, when it became the Mohyla Academy.

Establishment of the Theological Academy

The Mohyla Academy was closed in 1817 by the decree of

Alexander I of Russia Alexander I (, ; – ), nicknamed "the Blessed", was Emperor of Russia from 1801, the first king of Congress Poland from 1815, and the grand duke of Finland from 1809 to his death in 1825. He ruled Russian Empire, Russia during the chaotic perio ...

. In 1819, the Kiev Theological Academy, an ecclesiastical educational institution, was opened in the Brotherhood Monastery. In contrast to its predecessor, the Mohyla Academy, like all similar establishments in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

at the time the Kiev Theological Academy admitted sons of clergy only. The Kiev Theological Academy continued under this name until its closure by the Soviets in 1919. Some unofficial courses were held even at a later period. An attempt to open the Kiev Orthodox Theological Academy within the walls of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra was made after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in 1947. The academy was revived in 1992 and is based on the grounds of the

Kiev Pechersk Lavra The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra or Kyievo-Pecherska Lavra (), also known as the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves, is a historic lavra or large monastery of Eastern Christianity that gave its name to the Pecherskyi District where it is located in Kyiv. Sinc ...

. (The main cathedral of the Brotherhood Monastery was destroyed in 1935 by the Soviet authorities). Upon the closure of the Kiev Theological Academy, its quarters were passed to the Soviet's

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

Dnieper Flotilla staff headquarters. After the Second World War the Kiev Theological Seminary was opened in 1947. It situated in the Kiev Golden-Domed Monastery (1947 - 1949) and in the stylobate of St Andrew's Church in Kiev (1949 - 1960).

Current successors

Since the 1990s, there are three educational establishments in

that claim to be successors to the Kiev Mohyla Academy. The Ukrainian branch of the

operates the Kiev Theological Academy in the

. The

Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate The Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP; (UPTs-KP)) was an Orthodox church in Ukraine, in existence from 1992 to 2018. Its patriarchal cathedral was St Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kyiv. After its unilateral declaration ...

has the in the Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv. The

National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy The National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy ( NaUKMA, ), colloquially known as Mohylianka (), is a highly ranked national state-sponsored research university located in a historic section of Kyiv, Ukraine. The university is bilingual in U ...

is a secular educational institution. in

References

Sourses

Mitrophan Bozhko. The Kyiv Theological Seminary in 1947–1960: A Brief Introduction to Further Study
// Теолошки погледи. — Т. LIII. — №3. — Београд: Свети Архиереjски Синод Српске Православне Цркве, 2020. — С.723–742.
Митрофан (Божко), ієром. Спроба відкриття Київської православної духовної академії в стінах Києво-Печерської Лаври у 1947 р.
// Могилянські читання 2021. Вивчення та збереження культурного надбання: до 95-річчя заснування Національного заповідник «Києво-Печерська лавра». Зб. наук. праць. — К.: Національний заповідник «Києво-Печерська лавра», Видавництво «Фенікс», 2021. — С.60–66 n Ukrainian
Митрофан (Божко), ієром. Київська духовна семінарія 1946–1947 рр.: обставини відкриття та перший навчальний рік
// Труди Київської Духовної Академії. — №33. — К.: Київська духовна академія і семінарія, 2020. — С.186–196 n Ukrainian *Митрофан (Божко), архім
Участь викладачів Київської духовної семінарії 1947–1960 рр. у Другій світовій війні
// Київ і кияни : матеріали щорічної науково-практичної конференції, м. Київ, 11–12 листопада 2024 р. / відп. ред. А. Сушко; редкол. Т. Водотика, О. Друг, В. Івакін, В. Нахманович, С. Панькова, А. Турчанінов. Київ : Видавничий дім «АДЕФ-Україна», 2024. Вип. 16. С.276–279 n Ukrainian *Митрофан (Божко О.), архім
Особливості структурно-функційної організації духовних семінарій за радянських часів (на прикладі Київської духовної семінарії)
// Київські історичні студії. — 2024. — №2 (19). — С.55–63 n Ukrainian *Митрофан (Божко), архім
Викладання богословських дисциплін у Київській духовній семінарії радянської доби (1947–1960 рр.)
// Труди Київської Духовної Академії. — №41. — К.: Київська духовна академія і семінарія, 2024. — С.128–159 n Ukrainian *Митрофан (Божко), архім
Навчальний план духовних семінарій з 1946 по 1960 рр.: дореволюційна модель у радянському впровадженні
// Церковно-історичний збірник Волинської духовної семінарії. — Випуск 5. — Луцьк: ФОП Мажула Ю. М., 2024. — С.49–56 n Ukrainian

External links

Website of Kyivan Theological Academy of the Moscow Patriarchate

Website of Kyivan Orthodox Theological Academy of the Kyivan Patriarchate
{{authority control * Eastern Orthodox schools Eastern Orthodox seminaries Universities and colleges in Kyiv Universities and colleges affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church Universities and colleges in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Education in the Russian Empire 1615 establishments in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Educational institutions established in the 1610s 1615 establishments in Ukraine Educational institutions established in 1819 1819 establishments in the Russian Empire 1819 establishments in Ukraine Educational institutions disestablished in 1919 1919 disestablishments in Ukraine 1919 disestablishments in Russia