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.
6 holders in the record.
List of metropolitans and patriarchs of Kyiv · the communion today