Brotherhoods ( Ukrainian: братство; literally, "

fraternities A fraternity (; whence, " brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club or fraternal order traditionally of men but also women associated together for various religious or secular aims. Fraternity in the Western conce ...

") were non-monastic organisations of

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...

and

Greek Catholic Greek Catholic Church or Byzantine-Catholic Church may refer to: * The Catholic Church in Greece * The Eastern Catholic Churches The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also known as the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Ea ...

citizens or

lay brother Lay brother is a largely extinct term referring to religious brothers, particularly in the Catholic Church, who focused upon manual service and secular matters, and were distinguished from choir monks or friars in that they did not pray in choi ...

s affiliated with individual autocephalous churches. Some of their focus was of an

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

theological Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of an ...

character, but much of their activities were in fact secular. Their structure resembled that of medieval

confraternities A confraternity (; ) is generally a Christian voluntary association of laypeople created for the purpose of promoting special works of Christian charity or piety, and approved by the Church hierarchy. They are most common among Catholics, L ...

and

trade guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular territory. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradespeople belonging to a professional association. They so ...

s, and can be characterized as the Orthodox equivalent of

Catholic religious orders In the Catholic Church, a religious order is a community of consecrated life with members that profess solemn vows. They are classed as a type of religious institute. Subcategories of religious orders are: * canons regular (canons and canon ...

."Brotherhoods"
at the ''

Encyclopedia of Ukraine The ''Encyclopedia of Ukraine'' (), published from 1984 to 2001, is a fundamental work of Ukrainian Studies. Development The work was created under the auspices of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Europe (Sarcelles, near Paris). As the ...

''. Beginning in the western Ukrainian lands, they became common in the cities throughout the Ruthenian part of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

such as

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

Lutsk Lutsk (, ; see #Names and etymology, below for other names) is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Volyn Oblast and the administrative center of Lutsk Raion within the oblast. Lutsk has a populati ...

Vitebsk Vitebsk or Vitsyebsk (, ; , ; ) is a city in northern Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Vitebsk Region and Vitebsk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it has 358,927 inhabitants, m ...

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

, and

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

In Slavonic churches

The first documented Orthodox brotherhood was that of

, in 1463. They were consolidated in the aftermath of the

Union of Brest The Union of Brest took place in 1595–1596 and represented an agreement by Eastern Orthodox Churches in the Ruthenian portions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to accept the Pope's authority while maintaining Eastern Orthodox liturgical ...

(1596) in order to oppose the conversion of Orthodox Christians to the

Uniate church The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also known as the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous (''sui iuris'') particular churches of ...

, the

Counter-Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also sometimes called the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to, and as an alternative to or from similar insights as, the Protestant Reformations at the time. It w ...

, and

Polonization Polonization or Polonisation ()In Polish historiography, particularly pre-WWII (e.g., L. Wasilewski. As noted in Смалянчук А. Ф. (Smalyanchuk 2001) Паміж краёвасцю і нацыянальнай ідэяй. Польскі ...

. The brotherhoods attempted to resist state-supported Catholic missionary activity by publishing books in the

Cyrillic script The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, Mongolic, Uralic languages, Uralic, C ...

and by financing a network of Orthodox schools which offered education in both

Old Church Slavonic Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic ( ) is the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language and the oldest extant written Slavonic language attested in literary sources. It belongs to the South Slavic languages, South Slavic subgroup of the ...

and the vernacular

Ruthenian language Ruthenian (see also #Nomenclature, other names) is an exonymic linguonym for a closely related group of East Slavic languages, East Slavic linguistic Variety (linguistics), varieties, particularly those spoken from the 15th to 18th centuries in ...

.Russian Humanitarian Encyclopaedia
/ref> The brotherhoods were also simultaneously engaged in defending the rights and liberties of the Orthodox burghers, particularly of those Ukrainian craftsmen and merchants from the arbitrary oppression of the Polish Catholic authorities. The famous

Kyiv Mohyla Academy The National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy ( NaUKMA, ), colloquially known as Mohylianka (), is a highly ranked national state-sponsored research university located in a historic section of Kyiv, Ukraine. The university is bilingual in Uk ...

grew out of one such school under the umbrella of the

Brotherhood Monastery The Epiphany or Theophany Monastery (better known as ''Bratsky'', or ''Brotherhood Monastery'') is a former Orthodox monastery in Podil, Kyiv, Ukraine, in the vicinity of Kontraktova Square. Its history has been interwoven with that of Mohyla ...

. The

Dormition Church, Lviv The Dormition or Assumption Church (, ''Uspenska tserkva''; historically known as the " Wallachian Church") is a Ukrainian Orthodox church in the city of Lviv, Ukraine. At present it belongs to the Lviv Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. ...

was financed by the brotherhood of the same name; its members also supported the Cossack risings in the east of Ukraine. The powerful

Ostrogski The House of Ostrogski (; ; ) was one of the more prominent families in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The family spanned from the 14th century Rut ...

family provided political support for their activities. The activity of the Orthodox fraternities helped preserve the national culture of

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

and

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

throughout the

era. Most were closed in the course of the 18th century when Greek-Catholic proselytism had been forbidden by the

House of Romanov The House of Romanov (also transliterated as Romanoff; , ) was the reigning dynasty, imperial house of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They achieved prominence after Anastasia Romanovna married Ivan the Terrible, the first crowned tsar of all Russi ...

. Some were revived in the late 19th century in order to stem "atheist propaganda" of the

nihilists Nihilism () encompasses various views that reject certain aspects of existence. There have been different nihilist positions, including the views that life is meaningless, that moral values are baseless, and that knowledge is impossible. Thes ...

. The 19th century

Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius The Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius (; ) was a short-lived secret political society that existed in Kiev (now Kyiv, Ukraine), at the time a part of the Russian Empire. The organization predated the Spring of Nations in Eastern Europe j ...

, formed in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, was barely religious at all in character, and instead promoted Ukrainian national awareness. The

Ostroh Ostroh ( , ) is a city in Rivne Oblast, western Ukraine. It is situated on the Horyn River. Ostroh was the administrative center of Ostroh Raion until 2020, but as a city of oblast significance did not belong to the raion. Currently the city is ...

bratstvo was reinstituted by Countess Bludova (1813–1891), an ardent admirer of the Ostrogski family. Orthodox immigrants to the U.S. formed brotherhoods to support church activities.

Notable Orthodox Brotherhoods

Army of the Lord The Army of the Lord (), also known as The Lord's Army, is an evangelical " renewal movement within the Romanian Orthodox Church". The founder of the Army of the Lord, Father Iosif Trifa, as well as consequent leaders, Ioan Marini and Traian Dorz ...

* God-Prayer Congregation * Brotherhood of Theologians for life (also known as "Zoe") * The Soter brotherhood * Brotherhood of

St. Symeon the New Theologian Saint Symeon the New Theologian (; 949–1022) was an Eastern Orthodox monk and poet who was one of the four saints canonized by the Eastern Orthodox Church and given the title of "Theologian" (along with John the Apostle, Gregory of Nazianzus, ...

Saint Paisios Saint Paisios of Mount Athos (, ; secular name: Arsenios Eznepidis (); 1924–1994), was a Greek Eastern Orthodox ascetic from Mount Athos, originally from Pharasa, Cappadocia. Today, he is widely venerated by Eastern Orthodox Christians, part ...

Brotherhood * Nour al-Masih society

References

External links

Brotherhoods
at the

Anti-Catholicism in Eastern Orthodoxy Eastern Orthodoxy in Ukraine Eastern Orthodoxy in Belarus 16th-century Eastern Orthodoxy Ruthenians in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth History of Christianity in Ukraine Confraternities Eastern Orthodox lay societies Brotherhood (Orthodox lay societies) {{orthodoxy-stub

In Slavonic churches

Notable Orthodox Brotherhoods

See also

References

External links