Wybór przemyskiego biskupa unickiego Jerzego Winnickiego na metropolitę kijowskiego (1708-1713)

Abstract

When four Uniate bishops in succession, including the Metropolitan Leon Zalęski, had died in the Kiev metropolis in the years 1707-1708, most of the territory of the metropolis and most of its people were left without a pastor. It would only be possible to fill the vacant bishoprics after a metropolitan had been elected, as it was within his authority to approve and consecrate new bishops. The remaining four bishops, meeting at Vladimir in Volhynia in August 1708 for the funeral of the Metropolitan, chose the Bishop of Przemyśl, Jerzy Winnicki, to be his successor. The election was held without consultation with the Nuncio, in the absence of the Protoarchimandrite of the Basilian Order and, crucially as was to become evident soon, without nomination by king Augustus II, who was temporarily removed from power following his defeats at the hands of the Sweedes in the Great Northern War (1700-1721). Even before news of the election reached him, the Nuncio had appointed Winnicki as administrator of the metropolis, the Vladimir diocese, and then also the Lvov diocese. The Metropolitan-elect applied to Pope Clement XI for approbation. The Metropolitan's situation was complicated by the fact that king Stanislaw Leszczyński (1704-1709), who was not recognized by the Holy See, had nominated the Bishop of Pinsk, Porfiry Kulczycki, as the Metropolitan of Kiev (Kulczycki had in fact formally resigned). The Congregation de Propaganda Fide adopted a wait-and-see attitude in the matter of approving Winnicki's election. When the confused political situation in Poland was cleared up and Augustus II regained power in 1709, he requested the Pope (in 1710) to approve Bishop Winnicki as metropolitan; the Pope did so in May 1710. Minor informalities having to do with the oath of fidelity to the Holy See and the profession of faith were the reason that the Metropolitan did not assume full power until the following year.