Rewriting history: How Prince Volodymyr became a “Uniate”
The head of the UGCC brought the relics of Prince Volodymyr into a Uniate cathedral in Rome and declared that Volodymyr had been “stolen” from the Uniates by “Muscovite occupiers.”
On July 6, 2025, the head of Ukrainian Greek Catholics of the Byzantine Rite, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, solemnly carried the relics of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Volodymyr into the Holy Sophia Cathedral in Rome.
Here a natural question arises: how did the relics of an Orthodox saint suddenly end up with the Uniate primate? The answer is surprising: they were handed over to the “fullness of the UGCC” on January 23, 2025, by former Metropolitan Oleksandr Drabynko. Accepting the relics, Shevchuk once again proclaimed the “unity of Orthodoxy and Catholicism.”
“Holding in our hands the relics of St. Volodymyr, we see that in his time Christianity was united, there was no division between Constantinople and Rome, between Catholics and Orthodox. Christ’s Church was one. He stands for us as a witness to that undivided, united Church,” the Uniate head declared.
But the division did exist, and we’ll talk about that below.
While transferring the relics to the Roman Uniate church, Shevchuk proclaimed: “Today, in the context of our Synod of Bishops here in Rome, we have solemnly brought into this holy temple the relics of the Equal-to-the-Apostles Great Prince Volodymyr. The very Volodymyr whom the ‘Muscovite occupiers’ stole from Ukraine is returning today to his Church.”
“To his Church” – meaning where, exactly? To Rome? To the UGCC? And who exactly are these “Muscovite occupiers”?
This is particularly striking given that Drabynko once proudly claimed back in 2010 that he was the author of the “Russian World” ideology.
Shevchuk’s bold statements did not end there that day. He noted that the UGCC cathedral in Rome was built by their “patriarch” (although the heads of the UGCC have no canonical right to that title) Josyf Slipyj, and added: “At that time he wished to be buried in the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. Our patriarch rests in St. George’s Cathedral in Lviv. But the day will come when he will solemnly be laid to rest in our mother cathedral with the golden domes of Kyiv.”
A very clear claim, then, to the triumph of the Union in contemporary Ukraine.
Shevchuk also proclaimed: “Today Prince Volodymyr himself tells us that the Church which was born in the waters of the Dnipro in that baptism he gave our people is here. We are the heirs of this Kyivan Christianity.”
Incidentally, Shevchuk often likes to claim the dead speak through him. For example, on September 10, 2023, marking the 400th anniversary of the “martyrdom” of Josaphat Kuntsevych, he said something similar: “Today Josaphat is telling us: children of Ukraine, never listen to those who tell you to renounce that unity. For our Church has survived all historical epochs, has withstood those who wanted to destroy it, because it was in unity with the great universal family of the Catholic Church...”
This is the very same Kuntsevych who seized Orthodox churches and forced Orthodox people into union with such violence that even the then-Chancellor of Poland, Lew Sapieha – a Catholic himself and a committed supporter of the Union – wrote of him:
“Not only I, but others too severely condemn that the Reverend Bishop of Polotsk began to act with too much cruelty in matters of faith and has greatly annoyed and disgusted the people in Polotsk and everywhere.”
More on Kuntsevych can be found in the article “On the Stone, Unity, and Josaphat Kuntsevych.” One can only imagine what would happen if Kuntsevych’s admirers and successors seized that “mother cathedral with the golden domes of Kyiv.”
The truth about the “unity” of Orthodoxy and Catholicism in Prince Volodymyr’s time
Now let’s address the claim that there was no division between Orthodoxy and Catholicism in Prince Volodymyr’s day—and that he supposedly sought unity with the Vatican.
The primary historical source for those times is The Tale of Bygone Years by the Venerable Nestor the Chronicler, written in Kyiv in the 1110s. It describes how envoys came to Prince Volodymyr to persuade him to adopt their faith – including Muslims, Jews from Khazaria, and Catholics from Rome. Here’s Nestor’s account of the Catholics’ visit:
“Then came foreigners from Rome and said: ‘We were sent by the Pope,’ and they said to Volodymyr: ‘Thus says the Pope to you: Your land is like ours, but your faith is not like ours, for ours is the true light; we worship God who made heaven and earth, the stars and moon, and all that breathes, while your gods are just wood.’ Volodymyr asked them: ‘What is your commandment?’ And they replied: ‘Fasting as one is able; if one eats or drinks, it is all for the glory of God, as our teacher Paul said.’ Then Volodymyr said to the Germans: ‘Go back where you came from, for our fathers did not accept this.’”
Then came the envoys from Constantinople, and Rus’ accepted Orthodoxy. The Tale of Bygone Years makes it perfectly clear that by Volodymyr’s time there was already a stark distinction between Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Even though the formal schism traditionally dated to 1054 had not yet occurred, it was fully understood that they were not the same faith.
But why did St. Volodymyr say “our fathers did not accept” Catholicism? Who were these “fathers,” and why did they reject Rome? This refers back to events during the reign of his grandmother, St. Princess Olga (baptized Helena).
A Western 10th-century chronicle known as The Continuation of Regino recounts how in 961 a certain Adalbert was sent to Rus’ to convert it and place it under the Pope. But instead of success, he was expelled in disgrace. The chronicle describes: “In this year Adalbert, who had been consecrated bishop for the Rugi, returned because he achieved nothing of what he had been sent for, and he saw all his efforts had been in vain. On the way back, some of his companions were killed. He himself barely escaped with great difficulty.”
St. Olga had rejected baptism from Rome, and this is what her grandson St. Volodymyr was referencing.
Why did Olga refuse to convert Rus’ to Catholicism and expel Adalbert? One reason is that at precisely this time (904–963), the Vatican was mired in one of its most shameful periods, known as the Pornocracy.
For sixty years the papacy was dominated by depravity, incest, intrigue, murder, corruption, and drunkenness. This is how contemporary chronicler Liutprand of Cremona described Pope John XII, who sat on the papal throne during Olga’s reign: “He fornicated with the widow of Rainer, with his father’s concubine Stephana, with the widow Anna, and with his own niece. He turned the sacred palace into a brothel... he blinded his confessor Benedict, who then died; he killed John, a cardinal subdeacon, after having him castrated... All clergy and laymen said he drank wine with the devil. They said he called upon Jupiter and Venus and other demons while gambling. They said he did not celebrate matins nor make the sign of the cross.”
More on this can be found in the article “What Princess Olga Did for Rus’.”
Even if only part of this is true (and it is corroborated by other sources), it is horrifying enough to show what was happening on Rome’s so-called “Holy See” at the time. Could St. Olga – or later St. Volodymyr – really have subordinated Rus’ to such a Pope? Could they truly have embraced “unity with the Vatican,” as Shevchuk wants us to believe?
Here is further proof that Rus’ never considered the Latin faith its own, nor was it ever in union with Catholic Rome. In the 12th century, the great saint of our land, Venerable Theodosius of the Caves, wrote this testament to Prince Iziaslav of Kyiv: “I, Theodosius, humble servant of the Holy Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – was born and raised in pure and righteous faith, taught well by Orthodox father and mother. Do not embrace the Latin faith, do not follow their customs, flee their communion, avoid all their teaching and reject their ways. Beware, children, of heretics and all their words, for our land has already been filled with them.”
As we see, Venerable Theodosius held exactly the same view of Catholicism as St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Olga and Volodymyr did.
Testimony of T. Shevchenko
In the 16th–17th centuries, our ancestors did not heed the testament of Venerable Theodosius. They let Catholicism into our land, signed the Union with Rome, and began to impose it here through violence and deceit. And Ukraine entered one of the most tragic periods in its history, so aptly named the “Ruin.”
The much-revered Taras Shevchenko vividly depicted the consequences of the Union in his poem To the Poles. Every Ukrainian would do well to know it by heart so as not to step on the same historical rake again:
When we were still Cossacks,
And the Union was unheard of,
Then life was joyful!
We made brothers of free Poles,
We boasted of our free steppes,
Courted and loved in blooming orchards,
The girls shone like lilies.
Mothers were proud of their sons,
Their freeborn sons… They grew,
They grew and cheered
The sorrowful old age…
Until, in the name of Christ,
The priests came and set ablaze
Our quiet paradise. They spilled
A wide sea of tears and blood,
And orphans, in the name of Christ,
Were tortured and crucified.
Cossack heads bowed low,
Like trampled grass.
Ukraine weeps, moans and cries!
Head after head
Falls to the ground. The executioner rages,
While the priest with frenzied tongue
Cries: “Te Deum! Alleluia!”
Why the canonization of Sheptytsky is needed
This is exactly where Sviatoslav Shevchuk is trying to lead us today. And not only him, but also the Ukrainian authorities. Notice how synchronously the head of the UGCC brought the relics of St. Volodymyr to Rome while the President of Ukraine went to meet the Pope.
On July 9, 2025, Volodymyr Zelensky held talks with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican and, among other things, lobbied for the canonization of another Uniate figure, Andriy Sheptytsky. “I told His Holiness about the respect Ukrainian society has for Andrey Sheptytsky, his deeds, including saving Jews during World War II and defending the Christian faith,” the President reported.
But did Zelensky also tell Pope Leo how Andrey Sheptytsky greeted the “victorious German army” in 1941? How in 1942 he urged Ukrainians to go work in Germany, where hundreds of thousands died from hunger and brutal labor conditions? Or how in 1944 he wrote a letter to Stalin thanking him for annexing Ukrainian lands to the USSR? More on Sheptytsky can be found in the article “Why Are Ukrainians Being Lied to Again About Sheptytsky’s ‘Heroism’?”
Now let’s ask ourselves: why is the canonization of Sheptytsky so important to the Ukrainian authorities? Could it be because they want to ensure the triumph of the Union in Ukraine – one of the main goals of his entire life?
As Pope Pius XII put it: “Through you, Ukrainians, I want to reunite the East, and the road to that union was shown by Sheptytsky.”
Just imagine the scale of the PR campaign if Pope Leo were to approve Sheptytsky’s canonization.
What should be done to prevent another ruin? What must we do to ensure Ukraine doesn’t once again descend into disaster, doesn’t see yet another attempt to Catholicize our country?
First and foremost, we must remain faithful to Orthodoxy, to our Church. We must not be seduced by the sweet, Jesuitical words of the Uniates, nor believe the fairy tale that St. Prince Volodymyr was ever in union with the Vatican.
Let us remember and uphold the testament of our venerable father Theodosius. And let us not forget what Taras Shevchenko wrote.
