2. The Kyiv Metropolitans

Nicholas Zharkikh

After the patriarchs of Constantinople, one reads in VS the title: "From the baptism of the Russian people under the Grand Duke Vladimir the Tsar, the Russian Most Reverend Metropolitans of Kiev" and then a list of metropolitans (in press pp. 14-15).

Conclusions

The list of metropolitans in the VS consists of 5 blocks, for which various sources are used.

The first block covers the period from the end of the 10th to the end of the 13th century. For its compilation, probably, was used "Paterikon" by Sylvester Kosov, printed in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in 1635.

The second block covers the 14th century. This list depends on the list of metropolitans in the Pechersky synodikon of the late 15th century, but to its confusion in the VS added new names unknown from other sources.

The third block contains the names of the all-Russian and further – the Moscow metropolitans of the 15th century. Its source can not be established with certainty.

The fourth block contains the names of Kyiv’s metropolitans of the 15th and 16th centuries, possibly also borrowed from the Kosov’s Paterikon.

The fifth block contains the names of the Kiev Metropolitans of 1620 – 1657. He most likely did not have written sources.

The list of metropolitans from the VS influenced such lists in later Kiev synodikons. This connection must be investigated separately.

It is important that the VS do not at all contain a list of Moscow patriarchs, which in 1654 were not perceived as church leaders.