Maximilian Ryllo

Maximilian Ryllo

Maximilian Ryllo (Pol. Maksymilian Ryłło , Rylo , Rylo ; 21st September 1719 or 1715 at Gut Ryliwka in Vilnius or in Baryssauschtschyna - 22. November 1793 in Przemyśl ), a friar who was Basilian of Sts. Josaphat , from 1759 Greek Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Cholm and from 1785 of the Diocese of Przemyśl . He worked as an author, translator and editor of various writings.

Life

There is no precise information about the date and place of birth of Maximilian Ryllo. There are two theories in literature. It is said that he was born on September 21, 1719 on the Ryliwka family estate near Vilnius. More convincing and more often represented by historians is the opinion that he was born in 1715 in the village of Baryssushschyna (today Belarus ). However, there are clear indications that the future Greek Catholic bishop came from a noble family and his parents Hieronymus Ryllo and Anna Metschnykovska were believers in the Latin rite .

After joining the Basilian monastery of the Holy Trinity in Vilnius, Maximilian Ryllo studied at the College of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in Rome and obtained a doctorate in theology. He was ordained a priest on September 22, 1742 and returned to Vitebsk a year later . After returning home, he was appointed vicar in the Holy Trinity Parish in Vitebsk. From 1747 he became procurator and later secretary of the Lithuanian order province of the Basilians in Warsaw. Ryllo took part in the diocesan synod in Białopole (German name: Sommerau) in 1749 , during which disputes and disputes between the world priests and the regular clergy were examined. As abbot , Maximilian Ryllo headed the Basilian monastery in Dubno , the Trinity monastery in Derman and from 1748 the monastery in Cholm until he was received by King August III on November 15, 1756, most likely thanks to the support and commitment of Franciszek Salezy Potocki . was appointed Bishop of Cholm. Only three years after his appointment, in 1759, he was appointed by Archbishop Florian Hrebnicki in Polotsk ordained a bishop Kholm. Ryllo won the village of Parypsy for the Basilian monastery in Cholm, three villages in Podolia and the village of Okunien in Cholm area for their own use.

Maximilian Ryllo was actively involved in diocesan business. Just one year after his appointment in 1760, he called a diocesan synod. Between 1759 and 1762 the newly ordained bishop visited every parish in his diocese. As early as 1762 the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in Rome gave Bishop Ryllo the authority to found new parishes in Ukraine. On behalf of the Apostolic Nuncio in Poland Antonio Eugenio Visconti , Bishop Ryllo carried out visitations on the property of the Potocki family in 1764 and 1765.

Maximilian Ryllo also took care of the training of future priests. Immediately after his inauguration as bishop, he founded the seminary in Cholm in 1759. For his maintenance, Ryllo donated 5% of his own private income from the village of Chylin and convinced Franciszek Salezy Potocki, Jan Zamoyski and Lukas Węglińskie to help finance this seminary. Initially, the leadership of the seminary was entrusted to the diocesan clergy, until the Basilian Order took over in 1769. In 1771 he introduced a fee that the diocesan priests had to pay for the upkeep of the seminary. During his tenure as Cholmer Bishop (1759-1785) Ryllo looked after the Greek Catholic believers in the right bank of Ukraine, which he visited from 1763 to 1766 and 1773 and 1774. On behalf of the Apostolic Nuncio Giuseppe Garampi , he visited in 1773, among others, the Greek Catholic parishes in the Bracław Voivodeship . His commitment and his pastoral work did not correspond to the ideas of the leadership of the Russian Empire. Bishop Ryllo was accused of allegedly persecuting the Orthodox and was arrested by Russian troops in Berdychiv for a few months in 1774 . Only after the intervention of the Viennese court and the Holy See, who applied to Tsarina Catherine II for a pardon , was Ryllo acquitted.

In 1779 Maximilian Ryllo was promised the chair of the Przemyśler bishop and shortly afterwards, on October 30th, after the death of the then Przemyśler bishop Athanasius Szeptycki , he was appointed administrator of this diocese. Between 1780 and 1784 Bishop Ryllo headed both dioceses, the Cholmer and the Przemyśler, but still resided in Cholm. His appointment as a bishop triggered considerable resistance from the diocesan clergy, who feared the suppression and neglect of Byzantine church traditions with the subsequent Latinization of the Greek Catholic Church. In order to prevent the threatening conflict, Bishop Ryllo tried to get permission from the Viennese court to confirm the Basilian monk Julian Sponring as administrator of the Przemyśler diocese and to keep his own seat in Cholm. Joseph II not only refused his request, but asked Ryllo to decide to head one of the two dioceses. If Bishop Ryllo did not want to move his residence to Przemyśl, he would have had to resign from his office as bishop in the Przemyśl diocese. In 1784 he made a decision and moved from Cholm to Przemyśl. As early as 1785 the Holy See confirmed him as bishop of the Przemyśler diocese.

In Przemyśl, too, Bishop Ryllo founded a seminary for candidates from the Przemyśl diocese. Since his initiative to build a cathedral failed because of the high costs, the Carmelite monastery church was redesigned for the Greek Catholic cathedral.

In 1787 Maximilian Ryllo and the Lviv Greek Catholic Bishop Peter Bielanski spoke out in favor of maintaining the taxes that the diocesan clergy had to pay in favor of the consistory. Since this fee had already been abolished by law by the Viennese court, the position of the two bishops sparked considerable opposition from the secular clergy in both dioceses.

Bishop Ryllo campaigned for the elevation of the diocese in Lviv to become an archbishopric. The churches in Walawa and Straszewice were built on his initiative . Thanks to his efforts, the Basilian Province , which had been divided up by the First Partition of Poland-Lithuania , was reunited.

After his death on November 22, 1793, Lviv Bishop Peter Bielanski was confirmed as administrator of the Przemyśler diocese for the time of the Sedis vacancy.

Works

Among the writings of Maximilian Ryllo, his historical work Antiquitates Ecclesiae Ruthenicae (Supraśl 1760) should be mentioned. He has also expanded and supplemented the work Phoenix testiato redivivus… by the Chelm bishop Jakub Jan Susza . It was published in 1780 under the title Koronacja cudownego obrazu NMP w chełmskiej katedrze obrządku greckiego . The treatise Medytacje dla oczyszczenia i poprawienia życia kapłańskiego by Nicola Ruggiereg, published in 1759 and 1763 , also appeared in the translation and with the comments of Bishop Ryllo. Ryllo edited the treatise of TF Rotarius Apparatus universae theologiae moralis , which was published in Wilno in 1771.

Ryllo's diary (Diarium quotidianum) , which he kept from 1742 to 1793, is important for research . The diary was in the holdings of the archives of the Greek Catholic cathedral chapter in Lviv. Part of this diary was found by Antin Petrušević and published in 1866.

literature

• Antonij Michajlovič Dobryansky : Istorija jepiskopov trech sojedinennych jeparchij peremysl'skoj zamborskoj i sanockoj ot najdavnejsich vremen do 1794g . Stavropigia, Lemberg 1893, pp. 55-66.
• Maria Pidłypczak-Majerowicz: Maximilian Ryllo . In: Polski Słovnik Biograficzny , Tom XXXIII / 4 Zeszyt 139, Wrocław-Warszawa-Kraków 1992, pp. 502-504 ( online ).
• Wąsowicz M. Bielański Piotr († 1798): Polski Słownik Biograficzny . Polska Akademia Umiejętności, Skład Główny w Księgarniach Gebethner i Wolff Gebethnera i Wolffa, Cracow 1936. - T. II / 1: Beyzym Jan - Brownsford Marja, zeszyt 1. pp. 34–35; Reprint. Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, Krakau 1989, p. 35.