Kyiv

Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Rus' · 988 (the baptism of Rus under Vladimir; metropolitans sent from Constantinople)

Olga believed first; her grandson Vladimir led Rus into the font in 988, and Constantinople sent Michael as first metropolitan of Kyiv. Hilarion (1051), the first native metropolitan, wrote the Sermon on Law and Grace — the first monument of Rus letters. The line was young when the schism fell; its loyalty to Constantinople shaped the Slavic east for a millennium.

The succession is claimed today by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church — and, through the metropolitans' later move north, by the Patriarchate of Moscow; it remains contested.

The bishops

6 holders in the record.

Of the 5 links in this chain, 1 are inferred from the numbering — the register numbers the two holders consecutively and no source says one followed the other; 4 are named by no register at all: nothing joins those two rows. Each holder below says which it is.

• Michael I of Kyiv #1 · c. 988–c. 992 · № Michel Le Quien, Oriens Christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Oriens Christianus I, coll. 1261-1262 — IX. Provincia Russiae, Ecclesia Kioviae, Metropolis; EPISCOPI, no. I. MICHAEL
• Leontius of Kyiv #2 · c. 992–c. 1008 · link unrecorded · № Michel Le Quien, Oriens Christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Oriens Christianus I, coll. 1261-1262 — IX. Provincia Russiae, Ecclesia Kioviae, Metropolis; EPISCOPI, no. II. LEO
• John I of Kyiv #3 · c. 1008–c. 1035 · link unrecorded · № Michel Le Quien, Oriens Christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Oriens Christianus I, coll. 1261-1262 — IX. Provincia Russiae, Ecclesia Kioviae, Metropolis; EPISCOPI, no. III. JOANNES I · dates here from Project curation; Michel Le Quien, Oriens Christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus reads 1008–1038
• Theopemptus of Kyiv #4 · c. 1039–c. 1049 · link inferred · № Michel Le Quien, Oriens Christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Oriens Christianus I, coll. 1261-1262 — IX. Provincia Russiae, Ecclesia Kioviae, Metropolis; EPISCOPI, no. IV. THEOPEMPTUS
• Hilarion of Kyiv #5 · c. 1051–c. 1054 · link unrecorded · № Michel Le Quien, Oriens Christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Oriens Christianus I, coll. 1261-1262 — IX. Provincia Russiae, Ecclesia Kioviae, Metropolis; EPISCOPI, no. V. HILARION · the numbering ends here; what follows holds no place in the list
• Theophylact of Sebaste c. 988–c. 997 · link unrecorded · № named by no register

the communion today