150th Anniversary of the Birth of Metropolitan Polikarp Sikorskyi: Primate of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church during Its Second Resurrection in the 20th Century
Viktor Bed’
Bishop of Mukachevo and Carpathia of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine
Doctor of Law, Doctor of Theology, Professor, Academician
Uzhhorod, June 21, 2025
On June 20, 2025, we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Ukrainian ecclesiastical, national, and public figure — His Beatitude Metropolitan Polikarp Sikorskyi (secular name — Petro Dmytrovych Sikorskyi), Primate of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) during its Second Resurrection — in the years of World War II and postwar emigration (1942–1953).
- Origins and Formation
Petro Sikorskyi was born on June 20, 1875, in the village of Zelenky, Kaniv County, Kyiv Governorate — on Ukrainian lands under occupation by the Russian Empire (today — Myronivska community, Obukhiv district, Kyiv region, Ukraine), into the family of an Orthodox priest. He received his primary theological education at the Uman Theological School, after which he continued his studies at the Kyiv Theological Seminary, graduating in 1898. Between 1906 and 1910, he studied law at the Faculty of Law of St. Volodymyr University in Kyiv (now Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv), which greatly expanded his worldview and provided a solid foundation for deeper understanding of Church–state relations.
- Service to Ukraine
During the Ukrainian Revolution and Liberation Struggles of 1917–1921, Petro Sikorskyi actively participated in state-building processes of the Ukrainian People’s Republic (UNR), working at the Ministry of Confessions, notably as Deputy Director of the Department of General Affairs. After the occupation of Ukrainian lands by Bolshevik Russia and the defeat of the UNR in 1921, he was forced to emigrate to Poland.
In 1922, while in Poland, he received monastic tonsure with the name Polikarp and was ordained a hieromonk by Bishop Dionysius Valedynsky (later Metropolitan and Primate of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church; in 1919 — a member of the First Holy Synod of the UAOC in Ukraine). In subsequent years, Father Polikarp zealously served in several monasteries of the Orthodox Church in Poland — the Dermansk, Zahayevo, and Zhyrovichy Monasteries — as hegumen and later as archimandrite.
In 1932, he was consecrated Bishop of Lutsk, Vicar of the Volyn Eparchy. In Volyn, Bishop Polikarp actively implemented the Ukrainianization of church life: services were conducted in the Ukrainian language, liturgical books were translated, and national identity of the clergy and parishes was affirmed. His service extended beyond pastoral duties to active cultural and educational work.
- Head of the UAOC During the War
During World War II, particularly in the period of the German-Soviet war, on February 24, 1942, at the Pinsk Council, Archbishop Polikarp was elected Administrator of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church on the temporarily liberated territories of Ukraine. Under his spiritual leadership — with the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Dionysius Valedynsky, Primate of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church, and with the consent of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople — the episcopate of the UAOC was restored through canonically valid episcopal consecrations and the return of Ukrainian bishops to ecclesiastical ministry.
This became possible after the near-total annihilation of the episcopate of the UAOC’s First Resurrection (1917–1930): the hierarchs were arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and executed by the Moscow communist-Soviet occupation regime on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR within the USSR during the 1920s–1930s. The restoration of the episcopate was a defining moment in the history of the Ukrainian Church and the Ukrainian people during that tragic period.
It is important to emphasize that Bishop Polikarp clearly affirmed the Ukrainian Church’s non-involvement with the Nazi regime — this position was officially declared in a memorandum to the United Nations in 1946, in which the UAOC stood as a spiritual bulwark for the Ukrainian people amid dual occupation.
- Emigration and Spiritual Mission in the West
In 1944, as a result of the Soviet army’s advance, Metropolitan Polikarp was forced to leave Ukraine. His path of emigration led through Warsaw, Slovakia, and Austria to Germany. In the postwar years, he played a key role in consolidating Ukrainian church life in the diaspora.
In 1950, he temporarily headed the Ukrainian Greek-Orthodox Church in Canada, and later settled in France, where he completed his earthly journey on October 22, 1953, in the town of Aulnay-sous-Bois near Paris. He was buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery in the French capital.
- Life’s Sacrifice and Spiritual Legacy
Metropolitan Polikarp left behind a profound spiritual legacy, which remains a guiding light for Ukrainian Orthodoxy today. He embodied the harmonious union of faithfulness to canonical tradition with a commitment to national spiritual awakening. His life’s journey is a vivid example of sacrificial service to God, the Church, and the Ukrainian people amid upheavals, wars, persecution, and exile.
In light of today’s challenges — both external and internal — the figure of Metropolitan Polikarp Sikorskyi stands as a spiritual compass for all those who seek unity of faith, ecclesial responsibility, and love for the native land. In honoring his memory, we also affirm our Ukrainian national spiritual roots, which preserve the historical identity of the Ukrainian Church and its holy struggle for freedom and truth.
- Recommended Literature
- Polikarp Sikorskyi, Metropolitan. Memoirs and Documents. — Toronto: Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, 1956.
- Stankovych M. Metropolitan Polikarp Sikorskyi and the Resurrection of the UAOC During the Second World War. — Lviv: [publisher not indicated], 2001.
- Bachynskyi A. The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church: History, Documents, Figures. — Winnipeg: UAOC in the Diaspora, 1987.
- Doroshenko D. History of Ukraine. 1917–1953. — Munich: [publisher not indicated], 1954.
- Encyclopedia of Ukrainian Studies / Ed. by Volodymyr Kubiyovych. — Paris; New York: [publ. “Molode Zhyttia”], 1954–1989.
