An overview of "The Carpatho-Rusyn Greek Catholic Churches"

This new article from One Magazine is written from a Catholic point of view, but it provides a balanced primer on how the Carpatho-Rusyns moved from Orthodoxy to the Greek Catholic/Byzantine Catholic church, starting with the Union of Užhorod in the 17th Century.


Author Michael J.L La Civita notes that differences between the Ukrainians and Rusyns were apparent even before the Union:


"Though they shared the same customs and rites as their northeastern neighbors (modern Ukrainians), Rusyns adapted these rites, making them their own. Fortified by the monks of St. Nicholas Monastery, an ancient foundation located near Mukačevo (a town in modern Ukraine), Rusyns built their unique wooden churches, wrote their icons and sang their plainchant, or prostopinije, all contributing to the creation of a distinctive Subcarpathian Rusyn Orthodox church.