Renaming Family Church

Do you know how creative was the reaction of Lavra’s Ecclesiastical Council to the will of Eugene (Bolkhovitinov), Metropolitan of Kyiv and Halych, to rename the Family Church of St. Serapion at Lavra Metropolitan Rooms and give it the name of St. Michael, the 1st Metropolitan of Kyiv?

The brick Church of St. Serapion was built in 1809 by Serapion (Alexandrovsky), Metropolitan of Kyiv and Halych, the predecessor of Metropolitan Eugene.

The Ecclesiastical Council of Lavra expressed its “full readines” to rename the church in its report to Kyiv Metropolitan Eugene (of November 15, 1826). The document noted that the renaming of the Church of St. Serapion into the Church of St. Michael, the 1st Metropolitan of Kyiv, would not cause any difficulties. The only thing that had to be done was to change the inscription on the Church’s icon.

How Metropolitan reacted to that proposal is still unknown. You have to think and look into the eyes of the iconographic face of Saint Serapion marked by the signature “Saint Michael”, His Eminence “was not pleased to”.

Natalia Lytvyn

Captions to the illustrations:

1. Interior of the Church of St. Michael at the Metropolitan Rooms of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Early 20^th century. (from the Fund collection of the National Preserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra”, inv. № KPL-F-5852)