Holy crap there are a lot of churches here. Gold domes everywhere you look. There is a legend that back in the early days of the Rus (10th century), Prince Volodomyr I (Vladimir I if you're reading Russian history) was deciding whether the Rusyns were going to be Catholic, Byzantine (Orthodox), Jewish, or Muslim. He sent out fact-finding missions and allegedly immediately rejected Islam because of the no-alcohol rule. Whether or not that little detail is true, the Rus became Orthodox and about fifty years later Prince Yaroslav built the Santa Sofia Cathedral in Kiev and now it's one of the places you must see if you come here. Yaroslav is buried there, along with some other dead princes and important religious people from a long time ago, and there are 12th century frescoes. Some of them are even pretty interesting -- more fierce creatures and little devils. There's also a typical Mary and Jesus icon-style scene (not from the 12th century), only made mosaic-style out of Ukrainian Easter eggs by a Ukrainian artist named Olga-something with crazy hair. I don't think you're supposed to take photos, but I did anyway.
Religion in Ukraine is confusing. I guess almost everyone is basically Orthodox. (Seems like everyone who's not a tourist crosses himself three times when walking past a church.) But one kind of Ukrainian Orthodox has a patriarch in Moscow and another kind has a patriarch in Kiev. And in the (formerly Catholic-Polish-controlled) west there is also the Uniate (aka Greek Catholic aka Ukrainian Greek Catholic) Church, which looks and mostly acts Orthodox but also recognizes the Pope. Talk about covering your bases. I also can't get a straight answer on how religious the people here really are. I've heard several people say that almost no one goes to church, and I've heard others say that communist repression made people even more religious and so now lots of people go to church. They've got plenty of options, anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment