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Church Union in Medieval Crimea

Attempts to unite the Orthodox and Armenian churches with the Apostolic See in Rome in the 12th–18th centuries (in particular following the confirmation of the Florentine Union of 1439) and the functioning of Eastern-rite Catholic dioceses on the Crimean peninsula.

Overview

The existence of a church union in medieval Crimea refutes the widespread claim that Eastern-rite Catholicism (Uniatism) appeared on the peninsula only in the late 1980s with the emergence of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church communities. Already in the 12th–15th centuries, a multi-confessional environment had formed in the Genoese possessions of Crimea — above all in Caffa (modern-day Feodosia) — where local Greeks and Armenians coexisted for a long time with the Italian Catholic administration.

After the proclamation of the Florentine Union (6 June 1439) and its solemn confirmation in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (12 December 1452), Cardinal Bessarion, the initiator of the union, with the support of the Pope, arranged for the appointment of Eastern-rite bishops for the Orthodox Greeks in Genoese Caffa. In addition, elements of the union were recorded in the Cherson-Fula diocese and among the peninsula's Armenian community.

Key Details / Subtopics

  • Genoese context and preconditions of the union:
  • The population of the Genoese settlements of the 12th–15th centuries (especially Caffa) was predominantly Armenian and Greek. Seeking economic stability, the Genoese authorities showed religious leniency toward the local Orthodox and Armenians.
  • A significant part of Crimea's Armenians recognised the primacy of the Pope (outside Caffa, the Armenian patriarch acknowledged this as early as 1141).

  • The confirmation of the Florentine Union in 1452, against the backdrop of the impending Ottoman threat, gave the Genoese grounds to strengthen the ties of the local Orthodox population with Rome.

  • The Uniate see of Caffa and the Uniate bishops:

  • The appointment of Eastern-rite hierarchs was initiated through the mediation of Cardinal Bessarion (a former Orthodox archbishop of Nicaea).
  • The first, unnamed Uniate bishop of Caffa is mentioned in 1464–1465.
  • In 1468, Pope Paul II appointed Pachomius (a former archbishop of Amasea) as bishop of Caffa; he was killed by robbers on the road from Rome.

  • On 6 July 1472, Pope Sixtus IV appointed the local priest Nicholas as bishop of Caffa; he arrived in the city in late 1474.

  • The Uniate dioceses of Cherson and Fula:

  • The works of the historian Alexander Bertier-Delagarde note that in the mid-15th — early 16th centuries, the declining Cherson diocese was headed by a Uniate metropolitan who resided in the surrounding Genoese villages.

  • The last Uniate bishop of Caffa (after the Ottoman conquest of 1475) bore the title of Bishop of Fula to avoid being confused with the Roman Catholic bishop of Caffa and Soldaia (Sudak). This title is attested in the documents of the Council of Constantinople of 1484.

  • The period of the 16th–18th centuries and the legacy in the early 20th century:

  • Under Ottoman rule, the functioning of Catholic and Armenian communities in Caffa was restricted, although between 1493 and 1664 the Vatican appointed eight titular bishops of Caffa.
  • The Polish researcher Stanisław Bendliewicz, in his work "From a Journey Through Crimea and Ukraine," recorded the existence of a Greek Catholic church in Yevpatoria in the early 20th century, on the site of which the St. Nicholas Cathedral was later built.