RECOGNITION OF THE MUKACHEVO DIOCESE BY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OF THE GREEK RITE BY THE ROMAN THRONE (1655) AND THE KING OF HUNGARY (1659)

In this research, the author tries to prove what at the time of the formation of the Uzhhorod Union in 1646, the Mukachevo Diocese had all the basic elements of the church sui iuris, which today determine the main constitutional collection – Codex of Canons of Eastern Churches: 1) community of formed believers; 2) an established hierarchy that united this community in a visible unity of faith thanks to the service of the word of God, St. Sacraments and church’s government; 3) particular norm of traditional customary law (ius) and after the return of 63 priests with their faithful to unity with the Catholic Church and the Roman throne, received 4) recognition by the highest authorities of the Church and the State. If the first three conditions existed already before 1646, then the realization of the fourth condition came after the Uzhhorod Union in 1648-1659. During this time, the Mukachevo Diocese was recognized by the local Catholic Church of the Greek rite by the highest authorities of the Church (by the Roman throne in 1655) and the State (by the king of Hungary in 1659). The difficulty of becoming recognized by the supreme government of the Church (by the Pope) and the State (by the Hungarian king) of the Mukachevo Union Diocese as an independent canonical substance explained by several circumstances: 1) the lack of a foundational royal charter on the foundation of the diocese (only the charter on the appointment of the Mukachevo bishop of Ruthenians Ioann from 1491 has been preserved); 2) by the sanctification in August 1651 as the Bishop of the uniate Basilian monk Parthenii (Peter Petrovych), elected by the majority of the priests of the Diocese, by the Transylvanian Orthodox Archbishop of Alba-Julia Stefan Simonovych; 3) due to the lack of an authentic document on the conclusion of the Uzhhorod Union on April 24, 1646 (has survived only the request letter of six archdeacons to the Pope from January 1652 about the appointment of Parthenii as bishop of Mukachevo Diocese and the act of oath of 63 priests on loyalty to Eger’s Latin bishop Georgiy Yakushych and his successors found only in 2015 in Preshov by historian Fr. Juraj Gradosh). This article states that among some part of Christians of the North-Eastern committees of Royal Hungary, between which Carpathian Ruthenians predominated, to a lesser extent – Serbs and Slovaks, who lived in the northwestern part of the Mukachevo Diocese (Ung, Zemplin, Sharish, and Spish committees) under the Habsburgs rule, as a result of the Uzhhorod Union, appeared an independent Ecclesia localis et particularis graeci ritus uniti.