ISIDORE OF KYIV AND THE UNION OF FLORENCE: AN ATTEMPT TO RESTORE THE STATUS OF THE KYIV METROPOLIS

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of one of the most painful problems of church and religious life – the union of the Catholic West and the Orthodox East, an attempt at which was made at the Ferrara-Florence Council of 1438-1439, and the role of Metropolitan Isidore of Kyiv in this process.
It has been established that the union from the very beginning was more political than ecclesiastical and dogmatic in nature. Both sides set their own goals: Byzantium sought to gain an ally in the fight against the Turks, and the Apostolic See sought to strengthen the position of the papacy after the Council of Basel by subjugating the Orthodox Church.
In the process of research, it was revealed that the appointment of Isidore of Thessalonica as Metropolitan of Kyiv, who played an important role in concluding the union, was aimed not only at spreading union ideas in the Orthodox East, but also at restoring the status of the Kyiv Metropolis.
The reasons for the union's failure include the ambiguous position of secular authorities (Poland, Muscovy) regarding these ideas, opposition from part of the Byzantine clergy, and rejection by other Eastern patriarchates. However, history shows that it is more possible to unite economic, political, and cultural interests than to overcome the Orthodox-Catholic misunderstanding that has troubled the Christian world for many centuries. And this is natural, because religion is once again becoming a moral imperative of society. It is this church-religious confrontation, generated by Latin hegemonism and Byzantine pretensions, that remains insurmountable to this day.