Gedeon Balaban

Bishop Gedeon of Lwów

Gedeon Balaban (secular name Georg / Grigori ; * around 1530 , Lwów , Kingdom of Poland ; † February 10, 1607 , Uniów, Przemyśler Land , Kingdom of Poland-Lithuania ) was Orthodox Bishop of Lwów (1569-1607).

Life

Grigori came from an influential noble family in Halitsch-Volhynia . His father Mark later became Bishop of Lwów . In 1566 he renounced the office in favor of his son. In 1569 Gedeon was officially ordained Bishop of Galicia and Lwów. Until 1576 he had to assert himself against another candidate for the bishopric.

Gedeon led a long struggle against the Orthodox Dormition Brotherhood in Lwów for powers over monasteries and rights. Several synods as well as the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Polish king decided in favor of the independence of the brotherhood. In 1582 Gedeon fought against the introduction of the Gregorian calendar for his eparchy by the Catholic Archbishop Jan Solikowski von Lwów.

Bishop Gedeon was involved in most of the resolutions of the Ruthenian Orthodox bishops for a union with the Roman Catholic Church in the Kingdom of Poland-Lithuania from 1590 to 1595. In October 1596, however, he refused to consent to the Brest Union . The new United Church and King Sigismund III. formally removed him from office.

He continued to be the Orthodox Bishop of Lwów. 1597 appointed him Patriarch Meletios I. to Exarch of the Patriarchate of Constantinople Opel .

Gedeon founded two printing works that produced liturgical and theological books in Church Slavonic and Greek .

Web links

• Balaban, Hedein University of Klagenfurt
• Balaban, Hedeon Encyclopedia of Ukraine , Vol. 1, 1984 (English)
• Балабан Гедеоп Енциклопедія історії України. Інститут історії України НАН України, 2003 (Ukrainian)
• Гедеон (Балабан) Православная энциклопедия, 2010 (Russian)
• Гедеон (Балабан) Русский биографический словарь, 1896–1918 (Russian)

predecessor	Office	successor
Arsenios Balaban	Orthodox bishop of Galicia and Lwów 1569–1607	Jeremiah Tissarowski