History of the formation of the clergy in the Church Kyiv tradition

Abstract

From the very beginning of its activity, the Ukrainian Church has had problems in preparing candidates for the priesthood at the appropriate spiritual and educational levels. This required appropriate resources and staffing issues. There was a need both for educators, including those with appropriate education and training, and for places where candidates would receive priestly training.

In this article we will try to get acquainted briefly with the development and formation of the practice of training priests in Ukraine. We will first investigate this question in the days of Kievan Rus, and later in the Lithuanian-Polish period. Later we will dwell in more detail on solving the problem of schooling and spiritual formation of future clergy after the legal unification of the Ukrainian Church with the Roman Apostolic See. Important and key here will be the study of the resolutions of the Ukrainian hierarchy at the Zamoysky and Lviv Cathedrals, which reformed the previous practice and made significant changes to it. The historical review will clarify the elucidation of seminary education and related aspects in the most recent period, ie in the twentieth century, the most progressive and diverse under the review of different historical conditions, the heyday of the UGCC in its first half.