Chronology of Catholic Dioceses:Ukraine - first draft
See a list of abbreviations used in this list. See also our listing of current ecclesial jurisdictions.
This is just a working draft, only posted to make it easier for collaborators to assist in perfecting the list. The draft ought not be trusted completely at this stage. Claes.Tande@katolsk.no
The church reached the Ukrainians in 988, when Prince Volodymyr the Great established Christianity in its Byzantine-Slavic rite as the national religion of his country, Kyivan-Rus. This happened before the Great Church Schism of 1054 divided Christian East from West. The Kyivan Church inherited the traditions of the Byzantine East and was part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Yet this Church also remained in full communion with the Latin West and its patriarch, the Pope of Rome. Though Constantinople and Rome had their disputes, the Kyivan hierarchy tried to work for Christian unity. Representatives from Rus participated in the Western Councils of Lyon (1245) and Constance (1418). Isidore, the Metropolitan of Kyiv, was himself one of the creators of the Union of Florence (1439). While the Kyivan metropolia was working towards reunion, a new metropolia arose north of Kyiv, in Moscow. The Church of Moscow refused to accept the Union of Florence and separated from the ancient metropolia in Kyiv, announcing its autocephaly (self-governing status) in 1448.
This survey does not list the jurisdictions erected between 988 and the Great Schism, which started to take hold in this area some time after 1054.
- 1009
- Eger / Erlau (Lat: Agria) - Hungary
- 1772
- White Russia / Mohilev (erected by the Russian tsarina, later sanctioned by the Holy See, erected from territories of .... ??) - (Russia) Belarus
- 1783
- Mohilev (AD) - (Russia) Belarus
- 1798
- Mohilev (Metr., previously AD) - (Russia) Belarus
- 1804
- Szatmar / Satu Mare (detached from Eger) - (Hungary) Romania
- 1321
- Kijów / Kyiv [Lat.] (detached from ....) - (Poland) Ukraine
- 1321
- Zytomierz / Zhytomyr (detached from ....) [Lat.] - (Poland) Ukraine
- 1358
- Wlodzimierz / Vladimir (detached from ....) [Lat.] - (Poland) Ukraine
- 1361
- Halicz / Galyc [Lat.] - (Poland) Ukraine
- 1365
- Lwow / Lviv [Arm.] (AEp) - (Grand Duchy of Lithuania) Ukraine
- 1373~
- Kamieniec / Kamyanets-Podilskyi [Lat.] (detached from ....) - (Poland) Ukraine
- 1375
- Halicz / Galyc (Metr.) [Lat.] - (Poland) Ukraine
- 1404~
- Luck / Lutsk [Lat.] (detached from ....) - (Poland) Ukraine
- 1414
- Lwow / Lviv [Lat.] (Metr., new name, transfer of See from Halicz / Galyc) - (Poland) Ukraine
- 1425
- Luck and Wlodzimierz / Lutsk and Vladimir [Lat.] (united) - (Poland) Ukraine
- 1439
- Kyiv [Ukr./Russ.-Byz.] (Metr., failed attempt at union with Rome, failure evident already 1441) - Ukraine/Russia
- 1492
- Lwow / Lviv [Arm.] (AEp, vacant, later, from 1516, schismatic) - (Grand Duchy of Lithuania) Ukraine
- 1516
- Lwow / Lviv [Arm.] (AEp, schismatic) - (Grand Duchy of Lithuania) Ukraine
1596 - The Kyivan Church was challenged by the Protestant Reformation and the renewed Catholicism of that period and was also suffering a serious internal crisis. The Synod decided to pass under the jurisdiction of the see of Rome. The traditional Eastern rite of the Kyivan Church was preserved and its ethnic, cultural and ecclesial existence was guaranteed. This was confirmed at the Council of Brest in 1596, which is the beginning of the Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic Church as an institution. Some hierarchs and faithful of the Kyivan Church, however, insisted on remaining under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Torn by internal division, the Central and Eastern sections of Ukraine passed under the control of the ruler of Moscow in 1654. Soon the Orthodox Kyivan Metropolia was under the authority of the Moscow Patriarchate (1686). As the Tsarist Empire grew, it repressed the Greek Catholics and forced "conversions" to Russian Orthodoxy (1772, 1795, 1839, 1876).
- 1596
- Kijow / Kyiv [Ukr.] (Metr., united with Rome 1596) - (Polish Ukraine) Ukraine
- 1596
- Luck / Lutsk [Ukr.] (Eparchy united with Rome 1596) - (Polish Ukraine) Ukraine
- 1597
- Lwow / Lviv [Ukr.] (failed union. Ep. founded 1540, Catholic 1597 and some few years only) - (Polish Ukraine) Ukraine
- 1630
- Lwow / Lviv [Arm.] (AEp, reunited with Rome) - (Polish Ukraine) Ukraine
- 1638
- Kijów and Czernihow / Kyiv and Chernihiv [Lat.] - (Poland) Ukraine
- 1641
- Munkacs / Mukacheve [Ruth./Byz.] (united with Rome, but the union was impeded by George Rikoczi I of Transylvania, Lord of Munkacs) - (Hungary) Ukraine
- 1649/1689
- Munkacs / Mukacheve [Ruth./Byz.] (reunited with Rome, union gradually realized until it was firm in 1689) - (Hungary) Ukraine
- 1667
- Kijow / Kyiv [Ukr.] (Metr., made into an Orthodoc see after Russian annexation) - (Russia) Ukraine
- 1677/1700
- Lwow / Lviv [Ukr.] (Catholic bishops since 1677 [secretly, openly only from1700]) - (Polish Ukraine) Ukraine
- 1771
- Munkacs / Mukacheve [Ruth./Byz.] (this de facto already existing diocese was canonically erected 1771) - (Hungary) Ukraine
- 1778
- Kijów and Czernihow / Kyiv and Chernihiv [Lat.] (abandoned, suppressed by the Tsar) - (Russia) Ukraine
- 1778
- Zytomierz / Zytomyr [Lat.] (abandoned, suppressed by the Tsar) - (Russia) Ukraine
- 1792
- Luck / Lutsk [Lat.] (abandoned, suppressed by the Russian Tsar) - (Russia) Ukraine
- 1798
- Kamieniec / Kamyanets-Podilskyi [Lat.] (reestablished) - (Russia) Ukraine
- 1798
- Luck / Lutsk [Lat.] (reestablished) - (Russia) Ukraine
- 1798
- Zytomir / Zhytomyr [Lat.] (this is really the Diocese of Kiev / Kyiv reestablished by papal decree 1798, but immediately transferred to Zytomir / Zhytomyr upon Russian request) - (Russia) Ukraine
- 1798
- Luck and Zytomierz / Lutsk and Zhytomyr [Lat.] (united) - (Russia) Ukraine
- 1807
- Lwow / Lviv [Ukr.] (AEp., had previously been part of the Metr. Province of Kyiv, but by now Kyiv was Orthodoc) - (...) Ukraine
- 1808
- Lwow / Lviv [Ukr.] (Metr.) - (...) Ukraine
- 1815
- Kamieniec / Kamyanets-Podilskyi [Lat.] (placed under the jurisdiction of Luck and Zytomierz) - (Russia) Ukraine
- 1839
- Luck / Lutsk [Ukr.] (suppressed, forcibly made into an Orthodox see) - (Russia) Ukraine
- 1848
- Cherson [Lat.] (detached from Mohilev) - (Russia) Ukraine
- 1852
- Tiraspol (new name, previously Cherson) - Russia
- 1866
- Luck, Zytomierz and Kamienec / Lutsk, Zhytomyr and Kamyanets-Podilskyi [Lat.] (union as Kamieniec / Kamyanets-Podilskyi was suppressed, administered from Zytomierz / Zytomyr) - (Russian Poland) Ukraine
- 1885
- Stanislawow / Stanislaviv [Ukr.] (detached from Lwow / Lviv) - (Poland) Ukraine
- 1918
- Kamienec / Kamyanets-Podilskyi [Lat.] (reestablished, detached from Luck etc. / Lutsk etc.) - (Poland) Ukraine
- 1918
- Luck and Zytomierz / Lutsk and Zhytomyr [Lat.] (new name, previously Luck, Zytomierz and Kamienec / Lutsk, Zhytomyr and Kamyanets-Podilskyi) - (Poland, Russia) Ukraine
- 1925
- Luck / Lutsk [Lat.] (detached from Luck and Zytomierz / Lutsk and Zhytomyr) - (Poland) Ukraine
- 1925
- Zytomierz / Zhytomyr [Lat.] (new name) - (Poland) Ukraine
Erections of Apostolic Administrations without the formal abolition of the dioceses they supplant:
- Within Mohilev:
1926Kharkov (AA) - (Soviet Union) Ukraine- Within Tiraspol:
1926Odessa (AA, for the southwestern part of the Diocese of Tiraspol) - (Soviet Union) Ukraine - 1963
- Lwow / Lviv [Ukr.] (Major Archeparchy) - (Soviet Union) Ukraine
1991 - last year the Apostolic Administrations of 1926 are mentioned in the Annuario Pontificio
1991 - As the Latin dioceses of Kamyanets-Podilskyi and of Zhytomyr were revived after the Soviet era, their territories were extended eastwards beyond the old eastern borders of Poland all the way to the eastern borders of the Ukraine with Russia, thus including the territories formally part of the old Tiraspol diocese and the old Mohilev archdiocese [areas which were covered de jure by the AAs of Odessa and of Kharkov respectively from 1926 until 1991]. Thus, there are no theoretically "Tiraspol" or "Mohilev" territories in the Ukraine after this time.) - 1993
- Ivano-Frankivsk or Stanislaviv [Ukr.] (new name added, previously Stanislaviv) - Ukraine
- 1993
- Kolomyia-Chernivtsi [Ukr.] (detached from Stanislaviv) - Ukraine
- 1993
- Sambir-Drohobych [Ukr.] (detached from Lviv) - Ukraine
- 1993
- Ternopil [Ukr.] (detached from Lviv) - Ukraine
- 1993
- Zboriv [Ukr.] (detached from Lviv) - Ukraine
- 1993
- Zakarpattia [Lat.] (AA, erected from the part of D Satu Mare now within Ukraine) - Ukraine
- 1995
- Kyiv-Vyshhorod [Ukr.] (Archieparchial Exarchate, established from Lviv) - Ukraine
- >1998
- Kyiv-Zhytomyr [Lat.] (new name, previously Zhytomyr) - Ukraine
- 2000
- Bucac [Ukr.] (detached from Ternopil) - Ukraine
- 2000
- Sokal [Ukr.] (detached from Lviv, and from Ternopil) - Ukraine
- 2000
- Stryj [Ukr.] (detached from Lviv) - Ukraine
- 2000
- Ternopil-Zboriv [Ukr.] (united) - Ukraine
- 2002
- Donets'k-Kharkiv [Ukr.] (Archieparchial Exarchate, detached from Kyiv-Vyshhorod) - Ukraine
- 2002
- Mukacheve [Lat.] (D restored, and new name, previously AA Zakarpattia) - Ukraine
- 2002
- Kharkiv-Zaporizhia [Lat.] (detached from Kyiv-Zhytomir, and from Kamyanets-Podilskyi) - Ukraine
- 2002
- Odessa-Simferopol [Lat.] (detached from Kamyanets-Podilskyi) - Ukraine
- 2003
- Odessa-Krym [Ukr.] (Archieparchial Exarchate, detached from Kyiv-Vyshhorod) - Ukraine
- 2015
- Kamyanets-Podilskyi [Ukr.] (detached from Ternopil-Zboriv) - Ukraine