Volodymyr Romaniuk

Volodymyr I
Holiest Patriarch of Kyiv and all Ruthenia-Ukraine
Native name	Володимир І
Church	Ukrainian Orthodox Church
See	Kyivan Patriarchate
Elected	22 October 1993 (by All-Ukrainian Orthodox Assembly)
Installed	24 October 1993 (at Saint Sophia's Cathedral)
Term ended	14 July 1995
Predecessor	Mstyslav
Successor	Filaret
Other post(s)	Locum tenens of Patriarchal throne, Metropolitan (1993) Archbishop of Lviv and Sokal (Lviv diocese, 1993)
Orders
Consecration	29 April 1990 by Ioan (Bodnarchuk)
Personal details
Born	Vasyl Omelianovych Romanyuk (1925-12-10)10 December 1925 Khymchyn, Kosiv county, Stanisławów Voivodeship, Poland
Died	14 July 1995(1995-07-14) (aged 69) Botanic Garden, Kyiv, Ukraine
Buried	Sofia Square (Sofiyivska plochsha), Kyiv
Nationality	Ukrainian
Denomination	Eastern Orthodox
Spouse	Maria Antonyuk
Children	Taras Romaniuk
Alma mater	Moscow Theological Academy

Volodymyr (secular name Vasyl Omelianovych Romaniuk, Ukrainian: Василь Омелянович Романюк; December 10, 1925, Khymchyn – July 14, 1995, Kyiv) was the Patriarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate. Initially consecrated as a bishop of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church by bishop Ioan in 1990, Volodymyr became one of the founders of the united Ukrainian Orthodox Church in June 1992.

Biography

He was an ex-political (member of OUN) prisoner who was imprisoned by communist Soviets for 17 years (1944–1954, 1972–1979). In 1979 he became a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, was exiled from 1979 till 1982, and became a political emigrant at the end of the 1980s. On July 1, 1976 Volodymyr renounced his Soviet citizenship.

Between 1987–1990, Vasyl Romaniuk lived in Canada and was a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada. Also he served under the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, whose Metropolitan was Metropolitan Mstyslav (later Patriarch of Kyiv). In 1990 with the onset of Perestroyka he returned to Ukraine and became Bishop of Uzhgorod and Vynohradiv. For a short period, he was Archbishop of Lviv and Sokal. In 1993, by the decree of Patriarch Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) he was excommunicated for accepting ordination from Metropolitan Filaret (Denysenko).

On October 22, 1993 he was elected Patriarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate. On July 14, 1995 Patriarch Volodymyr (Romaniuk) suddenly died under somewhat mysterious circumstances, with the official diagnosis being causes related to a heart attack.

Volodymyr's burial, on July 18, 1995, turned into a riot. The government, which controlled Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, refused a request from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to bury him on the cathedral's grounds, so church officials, flanked by uniformed paramilitary guards of the UNA-UNSO nationalist movement, hammered through the sidewalk outside the cathedral gates and buried him there. Riot police attacked the assembly and fighting with Volodymyr's supporters left 70 people injured, and two people dead. Many religious and faithful later called the event Black Tuesday.

Patriarch Volodymyr (Romaniuk) was succeeded by Metropolitan Filaret (Denysenko) who was enthroned as Patriarch of Kyiv and All Rus’ - Ukraine on October 22, 1995.

External links

• Religious Information Service of Ukraine
• Joseph R. Gregory Ukraine: Christians in Conflict
• Video about Patriarch Volodymyr on YouTube (in Ukrainian)