Sylvester Kossov

Sylvester Kosov
Native name	Silvester Kosaw
Church	Ruthenian Orthodox
Metropolis	Kiev Metropolis
See	Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
Elected	1647
In office	1647–1657
Predecessor	Peter Mogila
Successor	Dionysius Balaban
Other posts	Bishop of Belarus (1635-1647)
Personal details
Birth name	Stefan-Adam Kosaw
Born	Zharobychi, Vitebsk Voivodeship, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Died	Kiev, Cossack Hetmanate
Buried	Dormition Cathedral (Kiev Pechersk Lavra)
Nationality	Belarusian
Denomination	Ruthenian Orthodox
Alma mater	Zamość Academy

Sylvester Kosiv (secular name Stefan-Adam Kosaw, Russian: Сильвестр Коссов, Ukrainian: Сильвестр Косів, Belarusian: Сільвестр Косаў; born Zharobychi, Vitebsk Voivodeship, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, died 13 April 1657) was a Ruthenian Orthodox metropolitan and Polish-Ruthenian writer. He served as metropolitan of Kiev, Galicia and all Ruthenia (1647–1657) during the Khmelnytsky uprising. His official title was Metropolitan of Kiev, Galicia and All-Ruthenia.

Kosiv was a descendant of a noble Belarusian family. He studied at the Kiev and Vilnius Brotherhood schools and at the Lublin Jesuit Collegium and Zamość Academy before beginning to teach at the Vilno and Lviv Dormition brotherhood schools. After finishing his education, Kosov accepted monastic vows at the in Vilnius. With the opening of the Kiev Lavra School in 1631, Kosov be its lecturer on the request of Metropolitan Petro Mohyla becaming its prefect. In 1632-1635 he was the first prefect at the Kiev Collegium teaching courses on rhetoric and philosophy. At the same time in 1632 Kosov joined the Kiev Epiphany Brotherhood.

In 1635 he became bishop of Belarus (eparchy of Mstsislaw, Orsha, and Mahiliow). Following the Union of Brest, the eparchy of Mstislaw, Orsha, and Mahiliow became the only Eastern Orthodox eparchy within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Belarus). In 1647 he became the metropolitan of Kiev. It happened just before the Khmelnytsky Uprising, a time of uncertainty in Ukraine and in the Ruthenian church. Kosov himself was strongly opposed to union with Tsardom of Russia, and also against unreserved alliance with Poland. He condemned the 1654 treaty of Pereyaslav between the Cossack Hetmanate and the Tsardom of Muscovy. Despite being critical of some of the policies of the Cossacks, he attempted to rectify the situation and along with the Patriarch of Jerusalem gave Bohdan Khmelnytsky a hero's welcome when he entered Kiev in 2 January 1649 (Old Style 23 December 1648). Kosiv strived for an independent Ruthenian Orthodox Church that would be only under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and he fought against the subjugation of the Kiev metropolate to Moscow.

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