Eparchy of Kiev (Moscow Patriarchate)

Eparchy of Kiev (Russian: Киевская епархия) is central eparchy of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) under the supreme ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The seat of Eparchy is in Kiev. Eparchy is primatial, its head being the Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine. Since 2014, office is held by Metropolitan Onufriy (Berezovsky).

The history of the Eparchy of Kiev dates back to the establishment of the Metropolitanate of Kiev under the jurisdiction of Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Russian Kiev diocese (or archdiocese) is first mentioned in 891, as the 60th by ranks of honor in the list of departments subordinate to the Patriarch of Constantinople, and 61th in the charter of Emperor Leo (886-911). From its beginnings, Eparchy of Kiev was central or primatial diocese of the Metropolitanate, which also included a number of other dioceses, created after the baptism of Kievan Rus during the rule of Great Prince Vladimir in 988.

After the defeat of the Tatars, residence of the Metropolitan of all Russia was moved in 1299 from Kiev to Vladimir-on-Kliazma, and in 1325 in Moscow. The heads of Metropolitanate continued to title themselves as Metropolitans of Kiev and all Rus, while Kiev remained a suffragan bishopric.

Since the first half of the 14th century, due to political changes the desire of Lithuanian princes to have their own metropolitans in Kiev, a separate line was started, as opposed to those that were in Moscow. Creation of a separate Metropolitan office was also associated with the renewed efforts of Roman Catholic Church to convert Southern Russians from Eastern Orthodoxy to Catholicism, through the creation of alternative Uniate hierarchy. In 1458, Metropolitanate finally split in two: Kiev-Moscow in the northeast of the Russia and the Kiev-Lithuania in the south-west.

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