Michael Rohoza
Metropolitan of Kiev who, with most of his bishops, asked for union with Rome in 1595 and ratified it at the synod of Brest in 1596.
Michael’s name stands first under the thirty-three articles of 1 June 1595, as “Metropolitan of Kiev and Halych and all Rus’” (Articles of the Union of Brest article 33 and signatures). The pope’s bull of December 1595 names him as the archbishop and metropolitan in whose name, and that of his fellow bishops, the envoys Hypatius and Cyril sought communion with Rome, and it empowers them to absolve him on their return (Clement VIII, Magnus Dominus in Theiner, vol. 3, pp. 241, 244).
Clement VIII wrote in January 1597 that Michael had called and held a provincial synod of the Ruthenian bishops, as the pope had instructed, and that he and the bishops with him had there ratified what was done in Rome and made their own profession of faith and obedience (Clement VIII, letters, in Theiner, Vetera monumenta Poloniae, vol. 3, no. 198 (18 January 1597), pp. 269–270). See the Union of Brest.
In the timeline
- October 1596, firm dateThe Union of Brest
In 1595 the metropolitan of Kiev and most of his bishops, Orthodox subjects of the Polish king, offer union with Rome on thirty-three conditions. Clement VIII receives them, and the union is proclaimed at Brest in 1596. Other bishops and Prince Ostrogski stay outside it.