Metropolitan Polikarp (Sikorski)

Metropolitan Polikarp (Sikorski) (1875-1953)

Piotr may be spelt Petr, Petro, Peter, Pierre, &c.

Polikarp may be spelt Policarp, Polycarp, Polykarp.

Early life of Piotr Sikorski

On 20 June, 1875, Piotr Sikorski was born into the family of a priest in the Kyiv Governorate of the Russian Empire. Part of this region is now the Kyiv Province of Ukraine.

Higher education

After his primary and secondary education, Piotr began his theological studies.

In 1898, Piotr Sikorski graduated from the Kyiv Theological Seminary.

Kyiv Theological Seminary and Academy

Piotr also studied in the Faculty of Law of the Kyiv University, from which he graduated in 1910.

Service as a layman

Without being ordained, Piotr Sikorski worked for some time as a clerk in various parishes and Orthodox Church administrations.

During the years 1908-1917, he served in the leadership of the Kyiv Conservatory of Music.

Kyiv Conservatory of Music

After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Piotr Sikorski worked at the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Ukrainian People’s Republic (1917-1919), as the director of the department.

He then served as deputy director of the Department of General Affairs in Tarnów, Poland (1919–1921).

In 1921, an All-Ukrainian Sobor (Synod) was called in Kyiv, the capital of the newly-independent Ukraine. Piotr was amongst the members of this sobor.

At that time also, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) was declared to be independent from the Moscow Patriarchate (MP). The Sobor delegates chose Metropolitan Vasyl Lypkivsky to be the head of the church. This 1921 Sobor has become known as the "first resurrection" of the UAOC.

In 1921, after the fall of the Ukrainian People's Republic, Piotr moved westwards, to the Polish Second Republic.

In 1922, he became a clerk in the Volyn Consistory in Krzemieniec (Kremenets).

Monastic tonsure, 1922

In July, 1922, Piotr Sikorski was tonsured to be a monk, and he was given the name Polikarp.

Ordinations, 1922

Later in 1922, Monk Polikarp (Sikorski) was ordained to the Holy Diaconate, and then to the Holy Priesthood by Archbishop Dionysius (Valedinski).

Pastoral service

Soon after the presbyteral ordination, Hieromonk Polikarp (Sikorsi) was elevated to the dignity of archimandrite.

Then Archimandrite Polikarp (Sikorski) was assigned to serve as the rector of the Holy Trinity, Dermansky, Saint Nicholas, Mielce, and Saint John the Merciful, Zagayevsky Monasteries in the Volyn Diocese (Vladimir-Volynsk).

Holy Trinity Monastery, Dermansky Saint Nicholas Monastery, Mielce

He was later assigned to be the superior of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius, Lithuania, which was associated with the Church of the Holy Spirit in the city.

Gate to Holy Spirit Monastery Holy Spirit Monastery Catholicon

From 1925 to 1927, Archimandrite Polikarp served as dean of the Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir-Volynsk.

Holy Dormition Cathedral, Vladimir-Volynsk

In 1927, Archimandrite Polikarp (Sikorski) was moved to the Holy Ascension Zhirovychsky Monastery (Zyrowicach) in the Grodno Oblast Byelorus.

Holy Ascension Zhyrovichsky Monastery

During this time, he was actively engaged in political and social activities.

Episcopal ordination, 1932

On 10 April, 1932, Archimandrite Polikarp (Sikorski) was ordained to the Holy Episcopate.

Episcopal service ; political instability

Bishop Polikarp (Sikorski) was assigned to be the Bishop of Lutsk, as a Vicar-Bishop of the Diocese of Volyn.

Bishop Polikarp was unable to function fully as Bishop of Lutsk because of Polish administrative sanctions.

Bishop Polikarp was associated with the demands made by the movement for the Ukrainianisation of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church. These included the demand that 2 bishops of Ukrainian nationality be ordained by Metropolitan Dionysius (Waledyński) (Polish spelling of Valedinski), who was the Metropolitan of Warsaw and All Poland from 1923-1948. Bishop Polikarp (Sikorski) was one of the activists of the movement, and he was openly sympathetic to the ideology of nationalism.

Timothy Snyder (Housum Professor of History at Yale University, author of “Bloodlands : Europe Between Hitler and Stalin”) says that Bishop Polikarp had publicly proclaimed views hostile to the Polish state.

A member of the Commission for the Translation of the Bible and Liturgical Books (1932–1939) of the Ukrainian Scientific Institute in Warsaw, Vladyka Polikarp organised and headed its section in Lutsk from 1937.

World War II, 1939

When the accession of Western Ukraine and Belarus to the Soviet Union took place in 1940, Bishop Polikarp was admitted to the Moscow Patriarchate and assigned to be the Bishop of Vladimir-Volyn. However, he refused to go to Moscow to undergo the procedure of official integration.

Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), Nazi-German occupation

In the course of World War II (1939-1945), during the “Great Patriotic War” (1941-1945) (called in the West the "Eastern Front" or the "Nazi German-Soviet War"), and once the German invasion of the Soviet Union had begun, Bishop Polikarp returned to the jurisdiction of the Polish Orthodox Church, which was led by the Metropolitan of Warsaw and All Poland, Dionysius (Valedinski). Already in the summer of 1941, Metropolitan Dionysius assigned Vladyka Policarp (Sikorski) to be Bishop of Lutsk and Kovel.

In the Ukraine Reichskommissariat (established on 20 August, 1941) on 24 December, 1941, Metropolitan Dionysius (Valedinski) was assigned to be the “Temporary Administrator of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church in the Liberated Lands of Ukraine”.

Then, under Metropolitan Dionysius (Valedinski), Bishop Polikarp was sent by him to the occupied eastern territories of the Second Polish Republic in the capacity of Administrator of the Diocese of Volyn, with the title “Bishop of Vladimir-Volynsk”, and acting as administrator in the name of Metropolitan Dionysius. This diocese had once been a part of the Diocese of Lublin-Chełm (which was now limited to Poland).

In August, 1941, Metropolitan Dionysius elevated Bishop Polikarp (Sikorski) to the dignity of archbishop.

Meanwhile, during 1941, under the conditions of the beginning of the German occupation, and simultaneously with the organisation of the schismatic “Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church”, Archbishop Alexy (Hromadskiy) of Volyn took measures to establish a canonically legitimate Orthodox Church government in Ukraine.

Exarchate of Ukraine (Moscow Patriarchate)

On 18 August, 1941, Archbishop Alexy (Hromadskiy) convened a meeting of bishops at the Pochaiv Lavra, which established the local autonomous Church administration which was in communion with the locum tenens of the Moscow patriarchal throne (Metropolitan Sergiy (Stragorodsky), but with whom it was impossible to maintain a living connexion because of the war. The meeting of the bishops granted Archbishop Alexy (Hromadskiy), as the senior bishop in Ukraine, the rights of the metropolitan of the region. In a message of 1 September, 1941, Archbishop Alexy rejected the jurisdiction of Warsaw on the Ukrainian territory.

At the next episcopal meeting in the Pochaiv Lavra on 25 November, 1941, Archbishop Alexy (Hromadskiy) was elected to be the Exarch of Ukraine. The Moscow hierarchy retained the title of “Exarch of All Ukraine” for Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) of Kiev and refrained from judging the activities of the “autonomists” who were led by Bishop Alexy. The Metropolitan of Kiev himself signed himself as the “former” Exarch, thus expressing the unspoken recognition of the title of Metropolitan Alexy. There is documentary evidence that by the end of 1942, Metropolitan Alexy had the intention to rename his Church from the “Autonomous Orthodox Ukrainian Church” to the “Exarchical Orthodox Ukrainian Church”.

Rebuilding the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC)

On 24 December, 1941, Metropolitan Dionysius assigned Archbishop Polikarp to serve as temporary administrator of the revived Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) in Reichskommissariat Ukraine.

Vladyka Polikarp, on his part, may have exceeded the responsibility that was given to him, depending upon perspective.

In Pinsk (which at that time was part of Reichskommissariat Ukraine), a synod was convened on 9-10 February, 1942, with the approval of Metropolitan Dionysius (Valedinski) of Warsaw. At this time, the revival of the "Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church" (UAOC), was proclaimed.

Vladyka Polikarp began to rebuild the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, and he proclaimed his superiority in the succession of bishops ordained for this structure.

In February, 1942, Archbishop Polikarp (Sikorski) ordained the first 2 bishops of the UAOC on Ukrainian territory (Nykanor (Abramovych) and Ihor (Huba).

In his activities, Archbishop Polikarp fought openly against the Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church. Because of this, and since he supported the activities of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), on 28 March, 1942, Archbishop Polikarp (Sikorski) was deposed from the functions of the Holy Episcopate by the Russian Orthodox Holy Synod. He was given a two-month term to submit his excuses to the Moscow Patriarchate. Following that, and in consideration of his response, he would be summoned to the court’s presence, and the Holy Synod would make a final decision on the case (Journal No. 12).

Sobor in Pinsk, 1942

Archbishop Polikarp was listed as an administrator of the Kyiv Diocese under the UAOC (with the title “Metropolitan of Lutsk and Kovel”), 1942-1944. He was suspected by some, probably mistakenly, of inspiring the death of Archbishop Alexy (Hromadskiy), who was killed in an ambush in Smydze (Smyha) by a branch of OUN-M (Melnyk).

Not accepting the court decision of the Russian Holy Synod, Metropolitan Polikarp continued both with the celebration of services and with the activities of the UAOC.

In the final condemnation by the Holy Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate (in which decree he was permanently deposed), the decree contained a formidable warning that should Metropolitan Polikarp ignore the prohibition to serve, then Archbishop Polikarp would thereby deprive himself of the dignity of a monk and of all religious titles.

During World War II, Metropolitan Polikarp openly supported Naziism. On 10 April, 1942, Metropolitan Polikarp recommended that, in the parishes under his authority, a service of thanksgiving be offered on 20 April, in which he ordered that a homily be preached about the importance of “the genius of Adolf Hitler” for Ukrainians. In March, 1943, he wrote an open letter about the war between the nations of “Christian Europe” and the “Jewish-Communists”, and he called the young people voluntarily to depart to work in the German Reich.

Postwar exile, 1944

In July, 1944, as the borders were moving with the retreat of the German Army and the advance of the Soviet Army, Bishop Polikarp (Sikorski) was evacuated first to Slovakia and then to Germany.

In 1946, the bishops affiliated with the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church proclaimed him to be the Metropolitan.

Hierarchs of the UAOC, late 1940s

In 1950, he settled in Paris, France.

Brief sojourn in Canada, 1950

However, in that same year, 1950, Metropolitan Polikarp (Sikorski) travelled to Canada to lead the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada. His sojourn in Canada was brief, however.

Because of some misunderstandings between him and the Canadian Ukrainian Consistory, Archbishop Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) had been forced to resign from office in 1950, at the Tenth Sobor. Therefore, the UGOCC was bereft of a ruling bishop. Then the Consistory asked Metropolitan Polikarp (Sikorski) for assistance in finding bishops for the UGOCC. At that time, Metropolitan Polikarp presided over the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Bishops of the UOAC in Europe. All the bishops were ordained by the administration of the Warsaw Metropolitanate on the freed Ukrainian lands, (and in the aftermath of the war found themselves in the emigration). He agreed then himself to look after the UGOCC.

By the time another special sobor was called in 1951, 4 potential bishops (all ordained in German-occupied Ukraine during World War II) had been found. One, Metropolitan Ilarion (Ohienko) of Kholm, had been resident in Winnipeg since 1947. Two others, Archbishop Michael (Khoroshy) and Bishop Platon (Artemiuk), came to Canada at the invitation of the Consistory and with the blessing of Metropolitan Polikarp.

On 8 August, 1951, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Metropolitan Ilarion (Ohienko) was chosen to become the Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada.

Return to France, 1951

Thus, in 1951, Metropolitan Polikarp (Sikorski) returned to France, and he again resided in the French capital, Paris.

Repose, 1953

On 26 July, 1953, Metropolitan Polikarp (Sikorski) reposed in Aulnay-sous-Bois, a north-eastern suburb of Paris.

After the Services for the Burial of a Hierarch, his body was interred in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Grave and grave-marker of Metropolitan Polikarp

— Bishop of Lutsk (UAOC) 1932-1939. Preceded by : ____. Succeeded by : ____.

— Vicar-Bishop of the Volyn Diocese.

— Bishop of Vladimir-Volynsk (UAOC) 1939-1941. Preceded by : ____.

— Archbishop of Vladimir-Volynsk (UAOC) 1941. Succeeded by : ____.

— Metropolitan of Lutsk and Kovel (UAOC) 1942-1944. Preceded by : ____. Succeeded by : ____.

— Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (in exile) 1946-1953.

— Metropolitan of Winnipeg and Canada (UGOCC) 1950. Preceded by : Metropolitan Mstyslav (Skrypnyk). Succeeded by : Metropolitan Ilarion (Ohienko).

Reflections

Metropolitan Polikarp (Sikorski) was a Ukrainian Orthodox bishop ; a nationalist activist ; a leader of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.

References

Ukrainian Wikipedia biography

Ukrainian Wikipedia biography (in Ukrainian)

Polish Wikipedia biography

Polish Wikipedia biography (in Polish)

Russian Wikipedia biography

Encyclopedia of Ukraine biography

Drevo (Tree) Open Orthodox Encyclopaedia biography

Academic Dictionary biography

Additional information :

Snyder, Timothy, “The Reconstruction of Nations : Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999” (New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, 2003). ISBN 10 : 030010586X ; ISBN 13 : 978-0300105865.

…… “Bloodlands : Europe Between Hitler and Stalin” (New York : Basic Books, 2012). ISBN 10 : 0465031471 ; ISBN 13 : 978-0465031474.

Vlasovsky, Ivan, “Essay on the History of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church”, 4 vols. (Kyiv, 1998)

……“His Eminence Metropolitan Polycarp 1932-1952” (London : 1952) (in Ukrainian)

Article on the site "Russian figures abroad"

‘Polycarp (in the world – Sikorsky Petro Dmitrovych)’ in “Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine”

Encyclopedia of Ukraine : “History of Ukraine”

Orthodoxwiki article about Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada

Wikipedia article about Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada

Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada (UOCC) web-site

Orthodoxwiki article about Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA

Orthodoxwiki article about the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church

Orthodoxwiki article about the Orthodox Church of Poland