The Orthodox Church finally emerged from the catacombs with all its achievements, weaknesses and strengths.
Today, leaving aside painful problems, we have good reason speak of the outstanding people of the Church.
Recently, the International School of Church Architecture in Lviv published the book, Church Construction in Western Ukraine on the history and geography of Ukrainian cathedral building. Numerous pictures represent the unique beauty of Ukrainian churches built of wood or stone. The author spent over fifty years researching Ukrainian church-building styles. He also compiled a huge specialized library with books in various languages, established contacts with scholars in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Russia. He visited dozens of towns and villages at his own expense to view old churches, or, unfortunately, their ruins. And finally he published a book. His name is Volodymyr Yarema, Patriarch Dymytriy of Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.
According to the book’s editor and publisher Yuri Kryvoruchko, docent and head of the International School of Church Construction, “The Patriarch’s book offers a fine basis for modern church builders.” The book includes pictures of 250 different types of churches and traces their origin and evolution with the time. In particular, the author proves that there are connections between early Western Ukrainian architectural style and Greek and Moravian styles of the time of St. Methodius.
As we can see, Patriarch Dymytriy is not only a priest. He is a scholar actively working in the sphere of church art. He is also a leading expert in old Ukrainian church music, architecture, and icons. He has compiled scholarly catalogues of icons upon request of a number of museums, scholarly papers, and participates in international conferences. The Patriarch is also an honorary professor of the Kharkiv Institute of Applied Art. Moreover, he works with the Lviv International School of Church Architecture. The Day interviewed Patriarch Dymytriy.
“Your Beautitude, would you please tell a few things about your education and your life?”
“I was born in Halychyna, into a poor peasant family. I did not have an opportunity to go to school, but books, art, and the church captured my attention from an early age. I worked in with a group of iconographers when a young boy. Metropolitans Sheptytsky and Slipy supported me in studying theology. I became a priest after World War II when the Greek Catholic Church was “dissolved” and banned.”
“Please say a few words about your research?”
“I prepared the book on historical iconography in two volumes. I spent much time working on it. I researched frescos on the walls of several hundred churches and monasteries in Ukraine and made over 600 different illustrations. The book proves that an original medieval iconography school really did exist in Kyiv, despite all doubts. I have also contributed much time to researching Ukrainian cave-monasteries. I traveled the whole country on my motorcycle or by foot. I am sure that many churches are much older than scholarship tells us.” (Unfortunately, a number of books on the history of iconography written by Patriarch Dymytriy have not yet been published due to lack of funds.)
“How do you as a scholar view the present status of the Orthodox clergy, its educational level, ability to work with people, and influence them?”
“Now this is a problem. Clerical education in the Soviet Union was organized so that future priests did not have a chance to learn enough psychology, philosophy, literature, art, or even theology. The government did this consciously in order to ruin what was left of respect for churchmen. Unfortunately, things now have not changed much; stress is put on the ritual side of church life. A part of the clergy suspects heresy in almost any attempt to change things.”
“Do you have close relatives? Family? As far as I know only a monk can become Patriarch.”
“I am a happy man, because I have a big family: 2 sons, 5 daughters, 13 grandchildren, and 4 great grandchildren. The thing is that I became a monk only recently and I was married formerly.”
Patriarch Dymytriy is very fond of church art, but he thinks his vocation lies in serving the Lord. The split in the Orthodox Church causes much pain to him. He said only one person should lead the church and not three. However, he keeps hope alive. He is ready to retire, if that will help bring both wings of the church together. He said: “Two weeks before his death, Patriarch Volodymyr (Romaniuk) visited me, and we discussed the problems of unification. In particular, we agreed, that we both should retire, so that a new Patriarch could be elected at the general meeting of Ukrainian Autocephalous Church and Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Kyiv Patriarchate.”
Dymytriy confirmed his readiness to retire from the post after Volodymyr’s death. As The Day recently reported, he signed the memorandum on the possible unification of both church wings. Patriarch Filaret also signed this document.
People who know him and especially those who work with him admire his energy, his readiness to work and suffer for the Church. He actively participates in all events in Kyiv, though he does not reside in Kyiv but in Lviv. Actually, he is always traveling somewhere. Archbishop of Kharkiv and Poltava Ihor (Isychenko) said that not all younger clerics work as hard. Dymytriy will soon celebrate his 83rd birthday. Although it is a little late, The Day would like to congratulate him for Victory Day. During World War II Dymytriy fought against the Germans in the Polish army.







