Anthony Selyava

Metropolitan Anthony ( Anton , in the world Anastasius Selyava , Polish. Anastazy Sielawa ; 1583 - October 5, 1655, Tykocin ) - Bishop of the Russian Uniate Church ; from March 18, 1641 - its leader with the title of Metropolitan of Kiev, Galicia and All Russia , a polemicist.

Anthony (Selyava)
Metropolitan of Kiev, Galitsky and All Russia
March 18, 1641 - October 5, 1655
Church	Russian Uniate Church
Community	Kiev Metropolis
Predecessor	Rafail (Korsak)
Successor	Gabriel (Kolenda)
Birth
Death

Hailing from the Polotsk Orthodox gentry own coat of arms. From 1612 he was a member of the Basilian Order, in 1617 he was ordained a Presbyter. A disciple of St. Josaphat Kuntsevich , with whom he lived for some time in the same cell. In 1622 he graduated from the Greek College of St. Athanasius in Rome . Archimandrite Uniate Holy Trinity Monastery in Vilnius , (from 1622), in Novogrudok and Zhidychine, after the martyrdom of Jehoshaphat Kuntsevych nominated (1623), and in 1624 and was ordained by Metropolitan Joseph Velyaminom Rutsky at Polotsk archbishop from 1639 - General Vicar of the Kyiv the metropolis. The successor to Metropolitan Raphael (Korsak) at the Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia Department (from 1641) with a residence in Vilna, retaining the Polotsk Department. Simultaneously, from 1652, the proto-archimandrite (general) of the Basilian Order in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Conflicted with Orthodox hierarchs, especially on the territory of the Polotsk archdiocese - Joseph Bobrikovich , Sylvester Kossov .

In 1645, Selyava began negotiations with the Orthodox about the church unification of all Ukraine and Belarus and the creation of a joint patriarchate, but the death of Metropolitan Peter Mohyla (in 1647) ceased negotiations.

Being sick, in 1648 handed over the management of the Order of Fr. Simon Yatskevich-Stavrovetsky, the General Counsel of the Order and the Bitensky Abbot, however, due to the hostilities, it was not possible to convene a chapter for the election of a new protoarchimandrite and until his death, Metropolitan Anton Selyava remained the head of the Order. He became the founder of the female Basilian monastery in Minsk, whose nuns were engaged in the care of poor girls. In 1652 he opened a seminary at this monastery. After the years of the Khmelnytsky uprising (1648-1554), which were difficult for the Uniate Church and during the Polish-Moscow war, Selyava was forced to leave Belarus for Podlasie. By the end of his life he was already very sick and almost completely blind. In January 1655, he entrusted the management of the metropolis to Gavriil Kolende, and he himself was forced to live in the Basilian monastery in Suprasl. Leaving Polotsk in 1655, he took with him to the Supraльl the greatest treasure of the Uniate Church - the coffin with the relics of St.. Yosaphat Kuntsevich, rescuing him from the Moscow troops. He died in exile in Tykocin on Podlasie. He wrote works: “Anthelenhus” (1622) (against “Helenhus” by Melety Smotrytsky ) and “The Life of the Servant of God Jehoshaphat” (1625).