121st Metropolitan of Kyiv: memory and legacy of His Beatitude Vladimir
Memories of the Primate who led the Ukrainian Orthodox Church during the most difficult times and guided it through trials for 22 years.
A little over a month ago, the Church celebrated the feast day of St Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles, the Baptizer of Rus’. The author of these lines had planned to write a short essay for the name day of the late Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan, †June 5, 2014), with whom I was connected for more than 20 years through journalistic work and obediences under His Beatitude. However, my health failed me, and the material was postponed for a time.
Nevertheless, I decided to make up for the delay and prepare a short publication. And it is not about attaching it to a specific date. Figures such as Metropolitan Vladimir live in the hearts of millions of believers, while younger generations may know little about him. Therefore, with a blessing, let us begin…
God’s Providence in the life of the future Primate
Believers know: God’s providence is always associated with miracle-working, or simply – with a miracle. When a person comes to the Church, it is a miracle, the Lord called. When a person takes monastic vows, it is a miracle. Ask any monk or nun: “Why did you come to the monastery?” They will answer: “God called me.”
Church life is filled with miracles. Soldiers, doctors, politicians, writers suddenly abandon their careers and take monastic vows. Why and how? In other words: "Where God wills, the order of nature is overcome…" (Canon of Andrew of Crete).
Sixty-three years ago, on August 26, 1962, the future Metropolitan Vladimir of Kyiv and All Ukraine took monastic vows with the name given in honor of St Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles and Baptizer of Rus’. For him, this was a miracle, an act of God’s Providence.
God’s Providence led Viktor Sabodan along spiritual paths: first to the Odessa Seminary, then to the Leningrad Theological Academy, followed by teaching at the Odessa Seminary, then to the sacred priesthood when he became a hieromonk with his new name, Volodymyr. Then, to the Ecclesiastical Mission in the Holy Land. And soon after, to the rank of bishop. God’s Providence placed him in 1992 on the ancient Kyivan See as the 121st Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine.
Ministry in the era of schism
It is remarkable that precisely during the deepest crisis in the spiritual life of the UOC, when a church schism arose under the leadership of the former Metropolitan Filaret (Denisenko) with total support from those in power, the holy Church overcame the crisis, with the conciliar wisdom of the Kharkiv Council (May 27, 1992), deprived the schismatic Filaret of the powers of the Primate, electing a new Primate – Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan), exarch of Western Europe of the ROC.
The multimillion flock of Ukraine did not yet know that in the person of Metropolitan Vladimir they would behold a man of prayer, a theologian, a preacher, a poet, and a philosopher, who would be tasked with reviving the Orthodox faith in Ukrainian lands after seventy years of militant atheism and consecrating hundreds of new churches and monasteries.
He would open new spiritual schools and establish new eparchies. In 1992, the UOC numbered 12 eparchies; by 2014, the year of the repose of His Beatitude Volodymyr, there were nearly 100. In Ukraine, there were 12,000 parishes, about 200 monasteries… With this spiritual legacy, the 121st Metropolitan of Kyiv, Volodymyr (Sabodan), stood before the Lord.
Brief Biography
Vladimir (in the world Viktor Markianovich Sabodan), Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, Primate of the UOC, was born on November 23, 1935, in the village of Markovtsy, Letychiv district, Khmelnytsky region. As a nine-year-old boy, he crossed the threshold of the Lord's altar and never left it until the end of his days.
He himself said that he dreamed of becoming a priest in his native village, praying, and in his free time fishing with a rod.
At home, in the village, in the Sabodan family, a lamp always burned before the ancient icon of the Tikhvin Mother of God. Interestingly, the Vladyka recalled, when he arrived in Odessa to enter the seminary, getting off the train at the station, he saw the silver domes of the cathedral and immediately headed there. And how surprised he was when he was met in the church by the very icon of the Tikhvin Mother of God. He fell before it in prayer. Suddenly someone touched him on the shoulder. A woman stood there and said: "I see you praying, son, and asking the Queen of Heaven for something. Here is Her icon for you." And she placed a golden icon of the Mother of God in the young man's palm and immediately left. "It is amazing, – the Metropolitan once recalled, – but my episcopal consecration took place on the very day of the celebration of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God."
When he studied at the academy and later became a lecturer at the Odesa Seminary, his mother, his devout mother Feodosia Ivanovna, prayed to God that he would be ordained a priest. Once, hurrying to the service, she heard a woman's voice: "Already a priest." This happened on June 14, 1962: he was ordained a priest by Metropolitan Boris (Vik) of Kherson and Odessa. In 1965, he was appointed rector of the Odessa Theological Seminary, and a year later, he was appointed deputy head of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem.
On June 23, 1966, the 30-year-old Archimandrite Vladimir was appointed Bishop of Zvenigorod with the assignment of performing the duties of a ROC representative at the World Council of Churches. From March 20, 1969, he was Bishop of Chernihiv and Nizhyn. From July 16, 1982, after being elevated to the rank of metropolitan, he headed the ancient Rostov See of the ROC.
In 1992, on May 27, by the Council of Bishops of the UOC in Kharkiv, by a majority vote (16 out of 18), he was elected Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine. And for 22 years, until his death, he carried this high obedience.
"I came to serve God, people, and independent Ukraine"
During the election at the Kharkiv Council, Metropolitan Vladimir, knowing nothing about the Council, was at a theological conference in Finland. On June 20, 1992, Metropolitan Vladimir arrived in Kyiv. He began his first sermon with the words: "I came to my native land to serve God, people, and independent Ukraine."
A few years later, he would say: "Time is given by God for spiritual growth and formation. Earthly life is the beginning of Eternity. Therefore, we must cherish every hour of it." And he cherished every hour.
He began the day with morning prayer in his residence at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. After a modest breakfast, he went to his office, and the reception of visitors began. Often it lasted until lunch, and sometimes until evening. How he managed to find time to review documents, sign various papers is unknown. The author of these lines happened to be his press secretary and editor of the "Church Orthodox Newspaper".
Interestingly, His Beatitude managed to review the pages of the future issue of the publication and, with a fine handwriting of a black ink pen, make the necessary corrections.
Sometimes he would take from his desk handwritten poems by his spiritual children or some elderly ladies and ask for them to be published in the newspaper under the column “The Works of Our Readers”. At that time, I did not know that he was friends with a European queen, the presidents of some countries, not to mention the Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches of the world and religious leaders of other denominations. I knew he wrote poetry, but when offered to publish his own, he would refuse, saying it was not the right time. And indeed, those were difficult years - the 1990s…
After his election as Primate of the UOC in 1992, he could not secure an audience with the President of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk. The President simply ignored him and openly supported the schismatic Filaret (Denisenko). In time, however, Leonid Kravchuk acknowledged his mistake. Subsequently, all later candidates for the Presidency of Ukraine sought an audience with him at the Lavra…
A heavy cross and prayer at God's Throne
Interference in Church-state relations began back in 1992. Each president of the country gradually made their “contribution”, violating the Constitution of Ukraine, which clearly states that the Church is separate from the state (Article 35). The line was crossed by the penultimate president, Petro Poroshenko, who received (or bought in Istanbul) a Tomos for the newly created OCU. Today’s authorities actively promote the schismatics and attach all kinds of labels to the canonical Church under the leadership of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry.
In essence, this period can be called a new persecution of Orthodoxy in the country.
Some of the clergy, including bishops, are “under investigation”, and some are imprisoned, like Metropolitan Arseniy, while the global community of democratic Europe and the United States simply turns a blind eye to the raider takeovers of churches and monasteries, to the beatings of believers and clergy, and to the authorities’ support of this lawlessness and arbitrariness at all levels, including the Verkhovna Rada.
Such a heavy Cross was entrusted to his successor, Metropolitan Onuphry, by His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir, who devoted his entire life to the unity of the Church and the overcoming of schism. His Beatitude Onuphry carries this Cross of trials with dignity, prayer, and deep faith in God. And we believe that His Beatitude Vladimir, the 121st Metropolitan of Kyiv, prays before the Throne of God for all of us, for the overcoming of the schism, for the triumph of truth and justice, for peace in Ukraine, and for its prosperity. May it be so through his holy prayers.
