«Справжній лідер, людина з великим характером…»: перипетії долі буковинського священника архіпресвітера-ставрофора д-ра Кассіяна Богатирця (1868-1960) на тлі трьох історичних епох

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the personality of the prominent church and public figure of Bukovina, archpriest - stavrophore, PHD in Theology, Casian Dmitrievich Bogatyrets (1868-1960). This priest left a noticeable mark in the history of both the Bukovina Metropolis of the final period of Austrian rule and the era of Greater Romania, and the initial stage of the formation of the diocese of the post-war period, in which he was the oldest cleric at the time of consecration in the archpriest rank. Belonging to yeomanry, a graduate of the Cernăuţi gymnasium and the theological faculty of the University of Cernăuţi, who received a doctorate in theology, he performed church service with worthy zeal in various parishes of the region. Engaged in parallel social and political activities, before the outbreak of the First World War, he had led the radical wing of the russophile movement. In the interwar period, he was the head of the archpriestship and a member of the Diocesan Assembly of the Bukovinian Metropolis. In May 1938 he accompanied Patriarch Miron (Cristea) of Romania and Metropolitan Visarion (Puiu) of Bukovina on a trip to Poland. Having left the region after the occupation of the northern part of Bukovina by Soviet troops in 1940, he returned to Cernăuţi during the war and was engaged in the missionary work in the Bukovina metropolis. Having remained in Cernăuţi in 1944, during the second coming of Soviet power, he stood at the origins of the creation of the Cernăuţi diocese of the Ukrainian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church. He is the author of the handwritten History of the Cernăuţi Diocese, published in 2015.