Job Boretsky

Saint Job Boretsky, in the world Ivan Matveyevich Boretsky, was metropolitan of Kiev, Halych and all Rus' from 1620 to 1631, in the Patriarchate of Constantinople, with the title of exarch of the see of Constantinople. He was born around 1560 at Bircza, in the Przemyśl region, in the family of a petty nobleman, and fell asleep at Kiev in 1631. A scholar, teacher, translator and defender of Orthodoxy against the union with Rome, he restored the Orthodox hierarchy in Kiev. He was numbered among the saints in 2008 by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate.

Youth and school

His family came from Bircza in Galicia. He knew the ancient languages and the writings of the Holy Fathers well. It was thought that he studied at the brotherhood school in Lviv, but given that he knew Latin brilliantly, while Latin was not taught in that school before 1604 (he himself was its first teacher), most probably he studied at the Ostrog Academy and then at the University of Kraków. From 1604 he taught Latin and Greek at the Lviv brotherhood school, and in 1604 to 1605 he was its rector. Between 1610 and 1615 he was priest at the church of the Resurrection in Podil, Kiev, where he founded a parish school, and he owned a house on Podil. He belonged to the circle of scholars of Archimandrite Yelisei Pletenetsky of the Kyiv Caves Lavra.

He was one of the founders of the Kyiv brotherhood and its school, professor and its first rector (1615 to 1618). He taught Greek and Latin, probably philosophy, and cared for the school and the pupils: he supplied textbooks at his own cost, began a library, and kept the poor and orphans at his own expense. The people of Kiev honoured him and called him "a second John the Almsgiver". He also looked to the correct learning of church singing, striving to drive out "khomonia", the stretching of words by adding vowels at the expense of the melody. In the brotherhood schools he supported the idea of education open to all, regardless of rank: in the statute of the Lutsk brotherhood school, approved by him, it is written that the rich in school are to have nothing more than the poor, except learning itself.

Monastic tonsure and metropolitan

In December 1619 he and his wife, Nikifora Fyodorovna Chekhovych, received monastic tonsure. He became hegumen of the Saint Michael Golden-⁠Domed monastery in Kiev, and Nikifora, by tradition, abbess of the convent of Saint John the Theologian, within its precinct. On 9 October 1620 (in English sources, in August) Patriarch Theophanes III of Jerusalem, with the blessing of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, appointed him metropolitan of Kiev. The restoration of Orthodoxy in ancient Kiev was possible through the armed support of the Cossacks of Hetman Petro Sahaidachny. After the Union of Brest (1596) the Orthodox hierarchy had been replaced by the Greek-⁠Catholic one; now it was restored, and Job was its first metropolitan after the restoration and remained so until his death. He was called "exarch of the see of Constantinople".

His work met difficulties. On 22 March 1621 the royal authorities declared him a spy. On 25 May 1621 he protested against the Uniate metropolitan, who spread false rumours about him. In November 1621 Hetman Sahaidachny, who had fought against the Turks and been gravely wounded in the battle of Khotyn, hearing of the Uniates' arbitrary acts, came again to Kiev. The hetman and the whole Zaporozhian army enrolled in the Epiphany brotherhood of Kiev and so made an open promise to be protectors and defenders of Orthodoxy in the Kiev voivodeship. On 15 December 1621 Job issued the letter "Counsel in Piety", in which he urged the Orthodox to hold fast to the lawfully restored hierarchy. With two other bishops he wrote the "Protestation" (1621), a memorandum in defence of the restored hierarchy, which says that Ukrainians are citizens of their land and have the right to live in their native land and keep the faith of their fathers. He also wrote the "Justification" (1622). At the same time he sought understanding between Orthodox Ukrainians and Catholic and Greek-⁠Catholic ones, together with the Uniate metropolitan Josyf Veliamyn Rutsky, but did not manage to win the Cossacks' support for this plan. He also spoke for closer ties between Ukraine, Belarus and Moscow; in 1624 he asked the Muscovite government for help for the Orthodox of Ukraine, but the tsar rejected the request, for the state was weakened by the war with Poland.

Writings and support of the printers

He translated and edited the "Anthologion" (Kiev, 1619), a selected Menaion for a year, translated from Greek and supplemented with services of Russian saints and short lives. Attributed to him are the "Dialogue on the Orthodox Faith" (Ostrog, 1606), the "Limonar" (Kiev, 1628), a translation with additions of the Sinai Paterikon, "Apolleia, that is, the Destruction of the Apology of Meletius Smotrytsky" (Kiev, 1628, written with others), "Lament for Piety", with guidance for the Orthodox in time of persecution, and, in the view of some scholars, the "Perestoroha" ("Warning", Lviv, 1605 to 1606), one of the most important works of Ukrainian polemic, against Catholicism and the union. He supported the Kiev printers Tymofiy Verbytsky and Spiridon Sobol: he lent money to Verbytsky and owned the building on Podil in which Sobol's press worked; in Verbytsky's Horologion (1625) there is a dedication to him. The people of Kiev called him "the Cossacks' metropolitan". He is said to have been spiritual and political mentor of Peter Mohyla.

Repose and veneration

He died at Kiev in 1631. The sources do not agree on the day: some give 2 March 1631, others 2 (12) October. He was buried in the Saint Michael monastery in Kiev. From his marriage to Nikifora he had a son, Andrei Boretsky, a steward and voivode at Yelets in 1652 to 1653 (died 1656). In 2008, at a local council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, he was numbered among the saints as a hierarch.