Dionysius Balaban

Dionysius Balaban (monastic name – Hilarion; Ukrainian: Діонісій Балабан; ? – 10 May 1663, Chyhyryn) was a Ruthenian Orthodox metropolitan (official title – Metropolitan of Kiev, Galicia and All-Ruthenia) of an old noble family from Volhynia and Galicia.

He was known religious and political leader, defender of the Ruthenian Orthodox Church against the attempts of its liquidation by the Moscow Patriarchate

Balaban studied at the Kiev Mohyla College. He was a bishop of Kholm (1650–52), Lutsk (1655) and later the metropolitan of Kiev (1657–63).

In 1658 Balaban was forced to relocate his see to Chyhyryn due to occupation of Kiev by the Muscovite troops. At the same time his place in Kiev was kept (locum tenens) by the bishop of Chernihiv Lazar Baranovych.

Metropolitan Balaban supported policies of Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky and was an co-author of the 1658 Treaty of Hadiach. In 1663 he accepted monastic vows of Yuriy Khmelnytskyi to the Kaniv Monastery.

References

• Dionysius Balaban at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
• Dionysius Balaban at Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine