Arthur Fields, ‘The Man on the Bridge’, is a bridge between Dublin and Kyev, and with Jewish refugees from Ukraine

The photographer Arthur Fields (1901-1994), known affectionately to generations of Dubliners as the ‘Man on the Bridge’

Patrick Comerford

Tuesday next marks the fourth anniversary of the Russia’s launch of a large-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, expanding its war against Ukraine and creating Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.

Of course, the Russia-Ukraine War began eight years earlier, in February 2014, with Russia’s covert invasion and annexation of Crimea. The conflict escalated significantly with Russia’s full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, which expanded the existing conflict in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.

The life story of the photographer Arthur Fields (1901-1994), known affectionately to generations of Dubliners as the ‘Man on the Bridge’, provides a link between Ireland and Ukraine, a link between Dublin and Kyiv, and is a reminder of the sufferings of Jewish refugees who fled pogroms, antisemitism and oppression in the Russian Empire and of the positive contributions refugee families to countries that receive and welcome them.

Arthur Fields was born Abraham Feldman on 27 October 1901 in Dublin to Ukrainian Jewish parents Malka, also known as Molly or Mary (Sweed) and Simon Feldman, a draper, of 6 Raymond Street off the South Circular Road. He had four brothers: Oran, Jacob, David and Moses, and a sister who died in infancy.

Simon Feldman was originally from Kyiv, Ukraine, where his father had been a prosperous rabbi. Simon Feldman fled Ukraine with his wife and their two eldest sons, in 1891 or 1885, escaping the pogroms that spread across the Tsarist empire following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II of Russia. About two million Jews fled the Russian empire between 1881 and 1914, with around 3,500 arriving in Ireland, the majority settling in Dublin.

Feldman is family name found in a number of Jewish refugees who fled Ukraine at the time, and a number of Feldman families were living in Dublin by the end of the 19th and the early 20th century; the comedian Marty Feldman (1934-1982) was a son of Myer Feldman, an East End gown manufacturer who was a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant from Kyiv.

Simon Feldman left Kyiv in the middle of the night with his family in a horse-drawn carriage, taking whatever valuables they could manage. Like many of the new ‘foreign Jews’ who arrived in Dublin, they settled around the South Circular Road and Portobello area of Dublin, and lived at a number of addresses in the ‘Little Jerusalem’ area, including 20 Windsor Terrace (1897), 24 Saint Kevin’s Road (1899) and 6 Raymond Street (1901), when Arthur was born as Abraham Feldman on 27 October 1901.

The Feldman family later changed their name to Fields and the children took on English-sounding versions of their Hebrew-sounding names: Oran became Harry, Jacob became Jack, Moses became Morris, David remained David, and Abraham became Arthur, although continued to be known to his family as Abby.

Arthur Fields went to Saint Catherine’s School, Donore Avenue, and then to Wesley College on Saint Stephen’s Green, before going into the tailoring trade. As a young man, he visited his elder brother Jack who had a successful real estate business in the US and his brothers Harry, Morris and David in England.

For a time, he lived in Chalkwell in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, where he and his brother David Fields (1897-1956) bought a house. He met his wife-to-be, Doreen Cracknell (1917-1990) from the East End in London, at a dance in Southend in 1934. Doreen was 17 and Arthur was 33 when they married and moved to Dublin. They first lived Sandymount, but then lived for the rest of their married life at 602 Howth Road, Raheny. They were the parents of one daughter, Norma, and three sons, Bernard, Philip and David.

Doreen was an Anglican, and Arthur was largely non-observant as a Jew, but he retained a strong personal religious commitment and attended Adelaide Road Synagogue on high days and holy days.

Arhur Fields began working as a street photographer in the 1930s and worked on O’Connell Bridge for half a century

Arhur Fields left the tailoring business and moved into street photography in the 1930s. Alongside other street photographers jostling for customers, Arthur established his patch on O’Connell Bridge, but also worked on O’Connell Street, particularly at night to photograph young people visiting the street’s cafés, ballrooms and cinemas, at a time when the street was at the heart of bustling night life in Dublin

He would approach potential customers, take their photograph, ask whether they would like the picture, give them a ticket for a local studio, where they could pay for the photograph have it posted out to them. His wife Doreen developed the photographs – first in premises on Pearse Street, then in a darkroom at home – and posted the prints out to customers.

Arthur was a sturdy and committed man, and would walk from Raheny to the bridge each day and back home again, a 10-mile round trip. He was cautioned for peddling or selling with a licence on several occasions in the early days. But he persevered and was eventually tolerated by the gardai. He began using a Polaroid camera in the 1960s so he could give customers their photographs on the spot.

For almost half of his 50-year career on the bridge, Fields worked one side while his older brother David worked the other. The brothers shared a close bond, David lived with Arthur and his family in Raheny, and the two spoke Yiddish to each other at home. Their mother Molly died at Kilworth Road, Drimnagh, in 1940.

David died on 13 June 1956, leaving his younger brother bereft: Arthur had a breakdown and was given a course of electric shock treatment, before returning to work on the bridge. He travelled further afield at times, taking photographs in resorts like Bray, Co Wicklow, and Bundoran, Co Donegal, or at the Spring Show at the RDS, Ballsbridge, or at the Ploughing Championships.

The ‘Man on Bridge’ multimedia project was launched in 2014

Privately, Fields did not have good social skills, nor did he have close bonds with many other people outside his family circle, nor did he take part in family occasions or attend any of the weddings of his four children, choosing to work instead.

But, while Arthur Fields may have been just one among the many street photographers in Dublin in his day, he was the most prominent and had the lengthiest career. He finally left his pitch on O’Connell Bridge in 1988 at the age of 87. Doreen died two years later on 2 April 1990. He continued to live alone at home in Raheny with the help of his neighbours and family. He died of heart failure in Beaumont Hospital on 11 April 1994 at the age of 92. At his funeral and cremation in Glasnevin Cemetery, many people brought photographs he had taken to share with his family.

The Irish Times described him as ‘one of Dublin’s best known characters’, while the Evening Herald called him a ‘Dublin institution for thousands of people visiting the city’. Declan Kiberd wrote in the Irish Press: ‘Those who mourned the Man on the Bridge … may have been lamenting not just their lost youth, but the lost innocence of an era which Arthur Fields in a way symbolised.’

The legacy of Arthur Fields is his archive of city life in Dublin. During his 50-year career from the 1930s to the 1980s, it is estimated, he took at least 182,500 photographs. These photographs chart the many changes in the city, from fashions in clothing and changes in hairstyles to the disappearance of Nelson’s Pillar. The many celebrities he photographed on O’Connell Bridge or on O’Connell Street include Noel Purcell, Gene Tierney, Bing Crosby, Margaret Rutherford, Brendan Behan, Jack Doyle and George Harrison.

Fields never kept any negatives or copies of his images. His archives survive primarily in homes across Ireland. To bring some of these images together, the ‘Man on Bridge’ multimedia project was launched on the Late Late Show on RTÉ in 2014, asking people to submit their photographs. This resulted in a book of 250 images and an exhibition of 3,400 photographs at the Gallery of Photography in Dublin later that year.

RTÉ broadcast a documentary, Man on Bridge on 28 December 2014. A further book, Man on the Bridge: more photos by Arthur Fields, was published in 2017, when the archive had reached 6,000 photographs.

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎

Praying in Ordinary Time with USPG: 7 February 2023

The Orthodox Church in both Russia and Ukraine honours the ‘New Martyrs and Confessors’ on the Sunday nearest 7 February

Patrick Comerford

Before today becomes a busy day I am taking some time for prayer and reflection early this morning.

These weeks, between the end of Epiphany and Ash Wednesday, are known as Ordinary Time. We are in a time of preparation for Lent, which in turn is a preparation for Holy Week and Easter.

In these days of Ordinary Time before Ash Wednesday later this month (22 February), I am reflecting in these ways each morning:

1, reflecting on a saint or interesting person in the life of the Church;

2, one of the lectionary readings of the day;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’

The New Martyrs and Confessors are remembered on the day Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev was murdered by Russians in 1918

The Orthodox Church in both Russia and Ukraine honours the ‘New Martyrs and Confessors’ on the Sunday nearest 7 February (or 25 January in the old calendar).

The martyrs are a group of saints in Russia and Ukraine who were martyred or persecuted after the October Revolution of 1917. Their memorial is marked on the Sunday nearest 7 February, a date chosen because, ironically, Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev was murdered by Russian authorities on this day in 1918.

Shortly after the October Revolution, a resolution was passed on 18 (5) April 1918, proclaiming: ‘Set across Russia in the annual memorial on 25 January or next Sunday as day of all confessors and martyrs who died in the current fierce years of persecution.’

After the ‘legalisation’ of the Provisional Patriarchal Holy Synod under Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), the Moscow Patriarchate issued official statements that denied the church had been persecuted by the Soviet authorities. Nevertheless, many church members honoured people who had been persecuted and martyred.

The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia officially recognised the New Martyrs and Confessors in 1981. Ten years later, on 25 March 1991, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church officially recognised the New Martyrs.

Immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Church under the leadership of Patriarch Alexis II began honouring some of the New Martyrs, beginning with the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev, and Metropolitan Benjamin of Petrograd in 1992. More names continues to be added to the list of New Martyrs, and the Orthodox Churches in Russia and Ukraine celebrate the feast of the New Martyrs and Confessors on the Sunday nearest 7 February (New Style) or 25 January (Old Style).

The date was chosen because 7 February was the date on which date Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev was martyred under Bolshevik rule following the October Revolution. He was the first bishop to be tortured and murdered by the Communists at the time of the Russian Revolution.

Metropolitan Vladimir was born Basil Nikephorovich Bogoyavlensky in Tambov on 1 January 1848, the son of a priest who was later murdered. The young Basil graduated from the Theological Academy in Kiev in 1874, and after his wife and child died in 1886, he entered Kozlov monastery in Tambov and was given the name Vladimir.

He was consecrated Bishop of Staraya Rus in 1888, became Bishop of Samara in 1891, and Archbishop of Kartalin and Kahetin. He became Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna in 1898, and held that post for 15 years, and was known for his compassion for the poor, for widows and for orphans, his interest in the education of children.

Metropolitan Vladimir was Metropolitan of Petrograd or St Petersburg, then the Russian capital, from 1912 to 1915. But, because he disapproved of Rasputin, Metropolitan Vladimir fell out of favour with the Tsar and was transferred to Kiev.

After the October Revolution at the end of 1917, the civil war reached Kiev in January 1918. Churches and monasteries were attacked and damaged, the Kiev Caves Lavra was seized, and monks were stripped and beaten. At 6:30 on the night of 25 January (7 February), five armed soldiers and a sailor came looking for Metropolitan Vladimir. The 70-year-old archbishop was tortured and choked in his bedroom with the chain of his cross.

He was then driven from the monastery to a place of execution. After praying for a short time and asking forgiveness for his sins, Metropolitan Vladimir blessed his executioners, saying, ‘May God forgive you.’ Then several rifle shots were heard.

The All-Russian Church Council was meeting in Moscow when word came of Metropolitan Vladimir’s murder. The council decided that 25 January (7 February), the day of his death, would be set aside for the commemoration of all martyrs and confessors killed by the Soviet authorities as the New Martyrs and Confessors.

Priests and bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church have been preaching for decades about the sufferings of these new martyrs and confessors murdered by the Russian authorities, and churches have been named in their honour.

They are remembered for resisting totalitarian rule in Russia, although the Russian Orthodox Church seems to be unaware of the irony of this commemoration today or of the fact that the date was chosen because of the Russian murder of the Metropolitan of Kiev in Ukraine.

At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, a number of Russian theologians wrote a ‘Declaration on the “Russian World” Doctrine’, although they softened their wording at the last moment. They used the term ‘a kind of Orthodox ethno-phyletic fundamentalism,’ but avoided using the word heresy. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has criticised the Russian Orthodox Church in a similar way.

‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites’ (Mark 7: 6) … the Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah in a stained-glass window in Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 7: 1-13 (NRSVA):

1 Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) 5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ 6 He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

“This people honours me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.”

8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’

9 Then he said to them, ‘You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! 10 For Moses said, “Honour your father and your mother”; and, “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.” 11 But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban” (that is, an offering to God)— 12 then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.’

An icon of the ‘New Martyrs and Confessors’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

USPG Prayer Diary:

The theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week is ‘Christianity in Pakistan.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by Nathan Olsen.

The USPG Prayer Diary today invites us to pray in these words:

Let us pray for the people of Pakistan in the aftermath of devastating floods. May we show solidarity through our giving and stand alongside them in our thoughts and prayers.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna (fourth from left) The ten martyrs of the 20th century above the West Door of Westminster Abbey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

The Hotel Kyjev and modern, visionary street art in Bratislava

Street art on the façade of the Hotel Kyjev in Bratislava (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

Many years ago, on a working trip to Egypt, the hotel in Alexandria was such a standard example of Stalinist brutalism that some of us began referring to it as ‘Hotel Bratislava.’

I cannot remember the true name of the hotel, and I had not yet been to Bratislava. But every time I see brutal hotels that have survived in Mediterranean resorts since the days of the explosion in mass tourism in the 1970s and 1980s, I am reminded of this sad hotel that represented the worst in cheap and functional planning.

When I saw the Hotel Kyjev on Rajská Street near Kamenné námestie in central Bratislava last month, I realised it may well have been the very place that inspired some in our group to label that sad hotel in Alexandria.

The hotel has been closed for seven or eight years now and is deteriorating into a sad state of decay and neglect. But the Hotel Kyjev is one of the boldest architectural reminders of socialism in the centre of Bratislava. The hotel was designed by Ivan Matušík and built in 1973. It was named the Hotel Kyjev after the capital of Ukraine and was one of tallest buildings in the Slovak capital, at a height of 65 metres.

Throughout the communist era, the hotel had no serious competition in Bratislava. It was often reserved for the most important guests of the state and visiting dignitaries – even the President of Czechoslovakia had his own suite there.

After the fall of communism, the hotel remained open. Because the interior was never remodelled, the retro style of the lobby, the public rooms and the accommodation became an attraction for tourists. The view from the roof was said to be breath-taking.

But after the revolution, there was no money to keep up with other hotels on the market. The hotel changed ownership for the last time in 2007, when it was bought by the British developer Lordship. But it needed considerable investment. Lordship tried several times to change the look of the hotel and to redevelop the area along with the neighbouring Tesco department store in Stone Square.

The distinctive design of the Kyjev could not keep the hotel open, and it closed its doors in 2011. Initially, developers wanted to tear it down, but they changed their minds after public pressure, although the hotel has never been declared a monument.

Most people in Bratislava agree Stone Square needs revitalisation. The area lacks public green places, and open spaces, the buildings are seen as dirty buildings and the area has attracted homeless people in considerable numbers. But a large number of people want the hotel complex designated a national cultural monument.

Now, however, the entire façade of the Hotel Kyjev has been transformed in recent years by the photographer Lousy Auber into one of the biggest street art pieces in Central Europe.

As part of a recent street art festival in Bratislava, Auber was planning and designing the work for six months. The artists received permission from Lordship and then consulted City Hall and preservationists about their design. The optical illusion was created in only a few hours by 17 mountain climbers who used colourful sprays.

The façade has evoked strong reactions, both positive and negative. Some people wonder whether it is too much of an interference with the design of a building in the monument zone or ask if it is destroying the modernist architecture.

However, Tomáš Lukačka, organiser of the Bratislava Street Art Festival, has responded, ‘If anybody is concerned that we have destroyed something on the building, this is not true – the building has already been destroyed.’

The work, which has already prompted various responses, will probably remain on the building until the site is redeveloped.

Meanwhile, although the hotel remains closed, the popular nightclub in the Luna Bar underground, with its retro style, remains open.

Will the Hotel Kyjev and Lousy Auber’s work be there, in this city of street art, this time next year?

I don’t know. I don’t have 20/20 vision.

Twigi … a shop window and façade in Bratislava inspired by the city’s street art (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

A small church in Georgioupoli is a reminder of Saint Barbara

The small, traditional Church dedicated to Saint Barbara close to the harbour in Georgioupoli (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

The two main churches in Georgioupoli are the large parish church dedicated to the Ascension (Analipsi), with its splendid flurry of frescoes filling the walls, the ceilings and the dome, and the tiny white-wash chapel of Aghios Nikolaos, at the end of small, rocky breakwater between the harbour and the beach and a must-visit place for every tourist in this resort town.

There are other churches and chapels here, including the archaeological site at Aghios Georgios (Saint George), and some tiny private chapels.

Tucked into a small corner near the harbour is the older, small, traditional Church dedicated to Saint Barbara (Αγία Βαρβάρα).

Few tourists notice this church. Perhaps they think it is closed, but a gentle push on the church door leads into a peaceful and calming space for prayer and reflection.

Inside the Church of Saint Barbara in Georgioupoli (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

The walls and the iconostasis or icon-screen of this small are covered with a large number of icons of Saint Barbara, and a lamp with incense is kept burning before her shrine.

Saint Barbara was martyred in the Syrian city of Heliopolis during the reign of the Emperor Maximian (305-311).

She is a popular saint in Crete, and for 30 years I have been familiar with Saint Barbara’s Church in Rethymnon, close to the cathedral in the old town.

The saint’s shrine in the Church of Saint Barbara in Georgioupoli (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Her relics were moved to Constantinople in the sixth century, and 600 years later they were moved to Kiev by Princess Barbara, daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenos and wife of the Russian Prince Michael Izyaslavich.

Her relics now kept in Saint Vladimir’s Cathedral in Kiev, where he is commemorated each Tuesday.

An icon of Saint Barbara in the church in Georgioupoli (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Saint Barbara is commemorated in the Church Calendar on 4 December. She is the patron saint of armourers, artillery troops, military engineers, miners and others who work with explosives because of her old legend’s association with lightning, and also of mathematicians.

As thunder rolled across Georgioupoli briefly this afternoon, I wondered whether these association also explained some of the paraphernalia in the gardens of Aghia Varvara.

In the gardens of Saint Barbara’s Church in Georgioupoli (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Does anyone understand why so many priests are to the forefront of the protests in Ukraine?

Praying priests standing between protesters and police in central Kiev (Photograph: AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Patrick Comerford

Patrick Comerford tries to answer some questions about the role of priests and churches in the rapidly-changing and turbulent events unfolding in Ukraine

Priests have been very visible on the streets of Kiev, praying over the bodies of dead protesters, setting up prayer tents and leading prayers at protests in Independence Square in Kiev, standing on the front line between police and protesters. Is this a Christian country?

Ukraine, with a land area of 603,628 sq km, is the largest country in Europe. Kiev is the capital, and the country has a population of about 46 million people.

A survey eight years ago showed 62 per cent of people are atheist or do not go to any church. But among Ukrainians with religious affiliations, the most common religion is Orthodox Christianity.

Well, is the Orthodox Church playing a role in bringing the people together?

Well, not really, because it’s deeply split itself into four different groupings: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kiev Patriarchate (38.9 per cent of Christians), the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate (29.4 per cent), the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (2.9 per cent) and the Old Believers’ Church. Indeed, five if you count the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (14.7 per cent), which sounds, looks and smells like an Orthodox Church, but is in full communion with the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church.

It all sounds very Byzantine …

To compound matters, there are at least three Ukrainian denominations in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church: alongside the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church there is the Ruthenian Catholic Church, which also has Byzantine liturgies and customs, and the Latin-rite Roman Catholic dioceses.

Does that create a crisis of identity?

Of course. Over the course of history, these Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches have been closely identified with the struggles for Ukrainian national self-identity and Ukraine’s turbulent relations with its neighbouring states. It is impossible to explain the divisions between these Eastern Orthodox Churches and different Catholic Churches without discussing the tense relations and territorial wars Ukraine has had over the centuries with its neighbours, especially Russia but also Poland, Austria, the former Czechoslovakia, Germany, Lithuania and Romania.

Has Christianity been in Ukraine for a long time?

Christianity in Ukraine dates back to the earliest centuries, and became a dominant presence since its acceptance in 988 by Prince Vladimir the Great (Volodymyr the Great), who established Orthodox Christianity as the state religion of Kievan Rus.

So how far back can you go?

Ukrainian tradition says Saint Andrew the Apostle travelled along the western shores of the Black Sea, to the area that is present-day south Ukraine, and arrived on the site of Kiev in 55 AD. There, legend says, he erected a cross and prophesied the foundation of a great Christian city. Both the 18th century Church of Saint Andrew in Kiev and an earlier church dating from 1086 are said to have been built on the site where he planted his cross before continuing his journey as far north as Novgorod.

So Ukrainian Christianity had no links with the Pope and Rome?

Well, another ninth century tradition says Clement of Rome, known as the fourth Pope, did not die in Rome but was exiled to Chersonesos on the Crimean peninsula in 102.

But what about actual historical evidence?

Bishops from Scythia on the shores of the Black Sea attended both the First Council of Nicaea in 325 and the First Council of Constantinople in 381. Christianity may have been introduced into what is now Ukraine by the invading Goths, and some Ostrogoths who remained in the region after the invasion of the Huns established a Diocese in Dorus in northern Crimea under the Patriarch of Constantinople, around the year 400.

And in the following centuries?

When Pope Martin I was deposed by the Byzantine Emperor he was exiled to the Crimean peninsula and died in Chersonesos in 655. His relics are said to have been retrieved by the brothers Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, who passed through present-day Ukraine on their way to the Khazars.

By the ninth century, the Slavic population of west Ukraine had accepted Christianity. The East Slavs came to dominate most of the present-day Ukraine, beginning with the rule of the Rus. The Eparchy or Metropolis of Kiev is mentioned as early as 891. By 900, Saint Elijah’s Church had been built in Kiev, modelled on a church of the same name in Constantinople.

Christianity gained a vital supporter when Princess Olga of Kiev was baptised with the name Helen in 955. She and her grandson, Vladimir the Great, are venerated as saints in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

So did Christianity become the state religion?

Yes, when Prince Vladimir ordered the mass Baptism of Kiev in the Dnieper River in 988. That year marks the establishment of the Kiev Metropolis under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The first cathedral was built in 996.

Is that the beginning of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine?

After the Great Schism in 1054, most of what is present-day Ukraine ended up on the Eastern Orthodox or Byzantine side of the division. The metropolitans had their seat in Pereyaslav, and later in Kiev, but their seat moved during the centuries that followed, until the 15th century, when the primacy was restored to Kiev with the title Metropolitan of Kiev, Halych and All Rus.

So how did some Orthodox-looking churches end up with Rome?

In the late 16th century, the Bishop of Lviv, Hedeon Balaban, became exasperated by his struggles with the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople, believing he was under the thumb of the Ottoman Sultan and his court. In 1589, he asked the Pope to take him under his protection. He was soon followed by the bishops of Lutsk, Cholm, and Turov in 1590, and then by the Bishops of Volodymyr-Volynskyy and Przemyśl and the Metropolitan of Kiev. In 1595, their representatives arrived to Rome and asked Pope Clement VIII to take them under his jurisdiction.

Under the terms Union of Brest-Lviv in 1596, this part of the Ukrainian Church was accepted under the jurisdiction of the Pope in Rome and become a Byzantine-Rite Catholic or Uniate Church, known today as the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The new church gained many followers among the Ukrainians in Galicia.

Did all Ukrainians follow these Bishops and cross the Tiber?

No, the majority of Ukrainians remained within Eastern Orthodoxy under Metropolitan Peter Mogila (Petro Mohyla) of Kiev, who set about recovering many churches and buildings, including Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev. But the Orthodox Church was made illegal, its property confiscated, with persecution and discrimination, and large numbers of Ukrainians migrated to Tsarist Russia.

So, did they look to Constantinople or to Moscow?

In 1686, the Ottomans put pressure on the Patriarch of Constantinople to transfer the Orthodox Church of Kiev from the jurisdiction of Constantinople to the Patriarch of Moscow. And this transfer initially gave Ukrainians a major role for in the Russian Orthodox Church that they held well into the 18th century.

What happened to the Uniates who became loyal to Rome?

Well, the Uniate church meanwhile became so dominant among Ukrainian people that few of them remained Orthodox and most church property remained in Catholic and Uniate hands.

That must have been good news for the Papacy?

Actually, Rome started behaving badly. The Latin Catholic authorities began actively converting the Uniates to Latin-rite Catholicism. One Uniate leader, Bishop Joseph Semashko, was so angry he began to argue for the eventual return of all Uniates to Orthodoxy. He won the support of a growing number of the local priests, but the ruling synod rejected all his proposals.

The Uniate Church supported a revolt by Poles against Russian rule in 1831. However, the November Uprising failed, and in their response the Russian authorities removed the members of the Uniate synod and took away most of the privileges of the Polish magnates. The Uniate Church soon began to disintegrate.

The final blow came at the Synod of Polotsk in 1839, convened by Bishop Joseph Semashko, when the Union of Brest-Lviv was rescinded. All remaining Uniate Church churches in Belarus and Right Bank Ukraine within the Russian Empire transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church. The Uniate clergy who refused to join the Russian Orthodox Church – almost 600 out of almost 1,900 – were sent into internal exile or to Siberia. With mass deportations, persecution and even executions, the Uniates were practically wiped out in the Russian Empire.

How did the Uniate Church survive?

A small number of “Greek Catholics” survived and the Uniate Church continued to function within the Russian Empire until the Eparchy of Chelm was abolished in 1875. In Chelm, the conversion to Orthodoxy met strong resistance from local ethnic Ukrainian priests and parishioners, who were confronted by Russian police, Cossacks, and an influx of Russian-speaking priests from east Galicia. The resistance was so strong that in 1905 up to half of the formally Orthodox people of Chelm were allowed to return to Catholicism ... but only to Latin-Rite Catholicism.

Meanwhile, the south-west region of Galicia, including present-day Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and parts of Ternopil, had come under the control of the Hapsburg Empire. The Austrians granted equal legal privileges to the Uniate Ruthenian (Ukrainian) Church, removed Polish influence, and provided for Uniate seminary education.

A large educated class developed among the Ukrainian people in Galicia and the Uniate Church became an important primary cultural force among the Ukrainian people in what is today western Ukraine.

So the Uniates were happy once again?

Not for long. In the 19th century a struggle developed within the Uniate Church between those who looked towards Russia and those who saw the Galician Ruthenians as Ukrainians, not Russians. The pro-Russian people were mostly led by older and more conservative priests, while the west-looking people found leadership among the younger priests.

All this developed as Austria become entangled with Russia in a power struggle in the Balkans and as the influence of the Ottoman Empire declined in the region at the same time. When World War I, broke out, the Russian Army quickly overran Galicia.

The Uniate Church had become closely linked with the Ukrainian national movement. The majority of its members were so loyal to the Habsburgs they were known as the “Tyroleans of the East” and resisted reunion with the Orthodox Church. A minority, though, welcomed the Russians and returned to Orthodoxy.

The Austrians counter-attacked and regained lost territories. Reprisals followed, and several thousand Orthodox and pro-Russian people died in concentration camps.

So did the Russian Revolution bring more changes?

After the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Russian Orthodox Church became the victim of repressive actions. In the new Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, the head of the Ukrainian Exarchate, the Metropolitan of Kiev and Halych, was executed in 1918. Churches were closed and pillaged, and many priests were executed.

Paradoxically, however, the Bolsheviks saw the national churches as a tool in their battle with the Russian Orthodox Church.

So more divisions followed?

Indeed. On 11 November 1921, an unrecognised Church Council met in Kiev and proclaimed the formation of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC). The Russian Orthodox Church strongly opposed this new church and no bishop would consecrate bishops for the new Church. The priests then ordained their own bishops. In contravention of canon law, they invoked the traditions of Alexandria, and laid their hands on the two senior candidates, consecrating them as Metropolitan Vasy (Lypkivsky) and Archbishop Nestor (Sharayivsky).

That was a break with tradition?

Yes, but they tried to show their desire to continue with tradition, and during the ceremony they used the relics of Saint Clement of Rome – the early Pope who was said to have who died in exile in Ukraine in the first century. Despite the canonical controversy this created, the new church was recognised in 1924 by the Ecumenical Patriarch Gregory VII.

Under Soviet rule in Ukraine, many Orthodox priests joined the new Church to escape the persecution suffered by those who remained in the Russian Orthodox Church. The UAOC gained popular following too.

Did that save their church?

Sadly, no. The Soviet government abruptly reversed these policies. The mass arrests of UAOC bishops and priests ended almost in the liquidation of the church in 1930. Churches that were not closed or destroyed were transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church. On the eve of World War II, only 3% of the pre-revolutionary parishes in Ukraine were still open, and these were mainly in remote rural areas.

Meanwhile, what happed to the remnants of the Uniate Churches?

The Peace of Riga Treaty had carved up the map of the region in 1921. Some ethnically Ukrainian and Belarusian territories were given to the new Polish state. Some areas, such as Polesie and Volhynia, had people who were mainly Orthodox, while the former Austrian Galicia had a mainly Uniate population.

But the Poles regarded the Greek Catholic Ukrainians from Galicia as even less reliable and loyal that the Orthodox Ukrainians. After a visit to Ukrainian Catholics in the US in 1924, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky, was denied re-entry to Lviv, Polish priests began missionary work among Eastern Rite Catholics, and many churches were confiscated and turned into Roman Catholic churches.

And what happened to Orthodox Ukrainians in Poland?

The Ukrainian Orthodox priests and parishes who found themselves in Poland were now isolated from the Russian Orthodox Church. The Ecumenical Patriarchate intervened and took responsibility, and in 1923 the Polish Orthodox Church was formed.

Other Ruthenian people found themselves in the new states of Czechoslovakia and Hungary after the borders were redrawn following World War I, and this has compounded difficulties in disentangling the layers of confusion around religious and ethnic identities in the region.

Did World War II change all that?

When the Red Army attacked Poland in 1939, many of the Orthodox priests in Poland who were ethnically Ukrainian welcomed the Soviet troops and took advantage of the opportunity to restore links with the Moscow Patriarchate.

Under the occupation of Ukraine by Nazi Germany, yet another Orthodox Church emerged during World War II, calling itself the Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church. In addition, the Polish Orthodox Church continued to claim parishes within Ukraine.

After World War II and another redrawing of the maps, the Russian Orthodox Church regained its general monopoly in Soviet Ukraine. The Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church collapsed, while the leadership of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church feared they would be forced to accept the Moscow Patriarchate. In addition, those fears within the UGCC were compounded because many of its members were suspected of collaborating with Nazi Germany.

How did the churches survive?

A small group of Uniate priests began to proclaim reunion with Orthodoxy, and in 1948 at a synod in Lviv, the 1596 Union of Brest was annulled. The ties with Rome were broken, and the links were transferred to the Moscow Patriarchate.

Many of the priests and laity accepted the Russian Orthodox Church, but others adamantly refused, and the Patriarchate of Moscow began to use force to take their churches. For almost 40 years, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church continued to exist in West Ukraine as an underground minority, threatened with prosecution. Many priests emigrated to Germany, the US or Canada, others were sent to Siberia, and some were martyred.

Did things change with the fall of the Iron Curtain?

The millennium of the baptism of Rus in 1988 was celebrated as the millennium of the Russian Orthodox Church, and the celebrations were organised by Metropolitan Filaret of Kiev. Meanwhile, perestroika and glasnost brought a softening of attitudes to religion.

The Soviet Government publicly apologised for the oppression of religion and promised to return all church property to the rightful owners. The Ukrainian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church recovered several churches in central, east and south Ukraine.

In those parts of west Ukraine where the Uniate Church once had a strong presence, things were more turbulent. The underground Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church resurfaced as Ukrainian national movements came to the fore.

The Russian Orthodox Church was now seen negatively by some as yet another arm of Soviet domination. Bitter, violent clashes followed, with the Russian Orthodox Church slowly losing some parishes to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church also re-emerged from its existence as an underground Church.

So things became difficult for the Russian Orthodox Church?

In an effort to counter a growing schism in the former Uniate territories, the Russian Orthodox Church gave its Ukrainian Exarchate the status of an autonomous church in 1990. The Soviet Union broke up in 1991. But once Ukraine became an independent state, the question of an independent, self-governing or autocephalous Orthodox Church arose again.

Seeing the storms ahead, the leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Filaret of Kiev and all Ukraine, decided to seek full independent or autocephalous status for his church – with or without the approval of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1966, he was the first ethnic Ukrainian in 150 years to become Metropolitan of Kiev, and he was identified with efforts to suppress both the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.

Critics were quick to point out, however, that Metropolitan Filaret’s determination came on the heels of his unsuccessful attempt to be elected Patriarch of Moscow in 1990.

In November 1991, he asked the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church to grant autocephalous status to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Meanwhile, he convinced Ukraine’s newly-elected President, Leonid Kravchuk, the new independent state should have its own independent church.

At the same time – in case the Moscow Patriarchate refused his demands – he also entered a secret agreement with the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC), which had no significant following outside Galicia.

Did he get his way?

Most of the bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church initially supported Metropolitan Filaret. However, at a synod in March-April 1992 they openly criticised his plans. He was accused of disregarding monastic vows and of improper financial dealings, and they called on Metropolitan Filaret to retire.

Did he quit?

Of course not, and President Kravchuk gave him his support. But another synod was called in the eastern city of Kharkiv in May 1992. At that meeting, Metropolitan Filaret was suspended, and Metropolitan Volodymyr (Viktor Sabodan), a former Patriarchal Exarch to Western Europe, was named to replace him.

What did he do?

Patriarch Filaret of Kiev ... once hoped to be the Russian Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow

Metropolitan Filaret now had the support of only three bishops. But he went ahead with his plans for unification with the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. In June 1992, a new church was formed as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP) with the 94-year-old Patriarch Mstyslav as its leader, and Metropolitan Filaret as his assistant.

Patriarch Mstyslav died a year later and the new Church was divided by yet another schism, with the former UAOC parishes separating in July 1993. Metropolitan Filaret continued to rely on President Kravchurch and state paramilitaries in the battle for the control of church buildings, parishes and property. Finally, he was excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1997.

Has he any friends outside Ukraine?

Patriarch Filaret’s Church is not recognised canonically by any other mainstream Eastern Orthodox Church.

The UOC-KP is in communion with the Macedonian Orthodox Church, the Orthodox Church of Italy, and the Alternative Bulgarian Synod. They all were apparently in communion with the Orthodox Church of Montenegro until recently, when communion was broken due to certain allegedly uncanonical acts … by the Orthodox Church of Montenegro.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), sometimes abbreviated as UOC (MP), is still the only Orthodox Church in Ukraine in full communion with other Orthodox Churches around the world. The head of the church is Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), who was enthroned in spring 1992 as the Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine.

Priests from different churches and traditions pray during clashes with police in central Kiev (Photograph: Sergei Chuzavkov/AP)

So, who supports whom?

The claims and legitimacy of the rival Churches is a factor in the present conflict.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate says the other Orthodox Churches in Ukraine have “uncanonical organisations.” To generalise, the UOC (MP) has tended to support President Viktor Yanukovich, who seems to have fled Kiev today, while members of the UOC-KP, the UAOC, and the UGCC tend to support the opposition.

To continue that generalisation, Ukrainians in Kiev and the West who support the opposition and are seen as being pro-European tend to support the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kiev Patriarchate, while those in the East who back President Yanukovich and are seen as pro-Russian tend to support the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate.

The cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP) is the Golden-Domed Church of Saint Michael’s Monastery, which has been restored recently. In the past few days, Saint Michael’s has been used to lay out the bodies of many of the dead protesters from Independence Square.

The main stronghold of the UOC-KP is in Kiev and in the Volhynian provinces, with moderate support in the central and Galician provinces. The church also has several parishes in the West, including the US and Australia, and even in Russia itself.

The UOC (MP), under Metropolitan Volodymyr, has its heartland in Russian-speaking south and east Ukraine, but its main base is in central and north-west Ukraine, and it claims to be the largest Church in Ukraine.

The toughest Orthodox rivalry is played out in the streets of Kiev, where the UOC (MP) claims about half the Orthodox parishes. The only places where the UOC (MP) is a true minority are in the former Galician provinces of Western Ukraine. The UOC (MP) does not have any parishes outside Ukraine.

What about the smaller Churches?

The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) uses Bartolomeo Rastrelli’s Saint Andrew’s Church in Kiev as its Mother Church. When Patriarch Mstyslav died in 1993, the UAOC separated again from Patriarch Filaret’s Church and reorganised as an independent church. Since that break with the UOC-KP, it has had talks with the UOC (MP).

The UAOC is found almost exclusively in west Ukraine. Its former diaspora communities in Canada and in the US have since formed separate churches that are now under the protection of the Ecumenical Patriarch.

In addition, there is a community of Orthodox Old Believers in Ukraine. This community has exploited the politicised schism in Ukrainian Orthodoxy and, has over 50 communities scattered throughout Ukraine.

And where are the Ukrainian Uniates today?

Although the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was outlawed in 1948, it continued as an underground church and among the Ukrainian diaspora. It was officially re-established in Ukraine in 1989, and in 1991 Cardinal Lubachivsky returned to Lviv from exile.

The UGCC is centred mainly in West Ukraine. It is led by Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk and is now the third largest Church in Ukraine. Last week, he said it is the role of the clergy to be at the forefront of the demonstrations in order to serve people who have historically faced religious persecution.

However, Saint George’s Cathedral in Lviv is no longer the mother church of the UGCC. The church controversially moved its administrative centre from Lviv to Kiev and built a new cathedral. The move was criticised not only by all the Orthodox churches in Ukraine in a rare show unity.

The UGCC parishes were once confined to the provinces of Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk in West Ukraine. In recent times, parishes have been established in East Ukraine, mainly for people who have moved from West Ukraine. The UGCC also has parishes in Poland, North America, South America, and Australia.

The Ruthenian Catholic Church, another Byzantine-rite Catholic Church in Transcarpathia, re-emerged from the underground after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was restored as a Church with separate structures from the UGCC despite opposition from other bishops in communion with Rome, including the Bishop of Khust, who demanded its integration into the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Despite this revival, the Byzantine-rite Ruthenian Catholic Church has not regained its pre-war position as the dominant Church in Transcarpathia, where it has its traditional base.

In 1991, Pope John Paul II officially restored the activities of Roman Catholic dioceses in Ukraine and appointed bishops. Latin-rite Roman Catholicism is practiced mainly by non-Ukrainian minorities, including Poles and Hungarians.

A man kneels before an Orthodox priest in an area separating police and protesters near Dynamo Stadium in Kiev last month (Rob Stothard/Getty Images)

Are there any Protestants in Ukraine?

A number of Protestant minority churches are found in Ukraine also. In the 16th century, small groups of Anabaptists formed in Volodymyr-Volynskyi, but the influence of the Reformation in Ukraine remained marginal for another three centuries. Protestant churches arrived to Ukraine with German migrants in the 18th and 19th centuries. They initially enjoyed religious freedom under the Russian Empire. They were mainly Lutherans, with smaller groups of Mennonites.

German Lutheran numbers fell rapidly with the emigration of most German-speakers during the World Wars. But there are still small remnants in the areas around Odessa and Kiev.

Other groups include Baptists (the All-Ukrainian Union of the Association of Evangelical Baptists), Pentecostals (All-Ukrainian Union of Christians of the Evangelical Faith-Pentecostals), Seventh-Day Adventists (Ukrainian Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists) and a growing number of charismatic churches. A Baptist pastor, the Revd Oleksandr Turchynov, is a former head of the SBU, Ukraine’s successor to the KGB, and a former acting Prime Minister.

However, despite recent rapid growth, Protestants in Ukraine remain a small minority in a largely Orthodox Christian country.

On the barricades: a priest stands at Independence Square, on Friday morning, as the Ukrainian presidency said that it has negotiated a deal between police and protesters (Photograph: Church Times/PA)

What about Anglicans?

Christ Church, Kiev, opened on Easter Day 1999 to provide an English speaking Anglican community in Kiev. From a small beginning, it has grown into a welcoming and thriving church, with members from the US, Great Britain, Ukraine, Canada, India and around the world.

Although the church currently does not have a Priest-in-Charge they hold regular services and welcome visiting clergy from time to time. The church meets at 3 p.m. on Sundays in a Lutheran Church and is supported by the Intercontinental Church Society, an evangelical mission agency. Christ Church Kiev also belongs to the Diocese in Europe, within the Church of England. The Mission to Seafarers also has a chaplain working in Odessa.

How do Anglicans feel about the present crisis?

For the past 80 days, the first floor of their church building has been used as a First Aid post both for the police and for protesters.

Alla Gedz, a member of Christ Church in Kiev, told the Anglican Communion News Service this week she has seen horrific scenes. “I am not shocked any more when I see dead people, but can cry any time without any reason. Today, we saw how the dead were pulled out of Saint Michael’s Cathedral and piled near those who died during the night.”

She added: “We are very grateful for your prayers, because being in the midst of the revolution we do have supernatural peace in our hearts.”

The Churchwardens, Thamarai and Anita, say they are saddened by the latest developments in Kiev. They plan to continue Sunday worship this weekend and ask for prayers that good sense may prevail between the Government and Protesters.

They say that it seems unfortunately that the opposition has little control over protesters which is why matters have escalated. They add: “Only prayers all over the world can save the country from further bloodshed.”

The Venerable Patrick Curran, Archdeacon of the East (Diocese of Europe), says he is keeping in regular contact with the church leaders in Kiev and reaffirms the appeal for prayer this weekend.

As for all those divisions and those confusing initials ...

... could make a Monty Python movie ...

... if was not all so sad. Does anyone truly understand the Churches in Ukraine?

“There are more than enough smart-alecs offering dubious expertise from a safe distance,” a writer in the Economist said yesterday, admitting “Ukraine’s religious scene is a hard one to grasp.

The writer concludes: “It is a pretty hard situation to understand unless you have a passion for ecclesiology. In any case, the details probably don’t matter to a wounded or dying protester who is receiving the solace and sacraments of his religion.”

And the last word?

Perhaps the last word should go to Alla Gedz in the Anglican Church in Kiev. The leadership of Christ Church has remained neutral about the political position in Ukraine, and she says: “To understand Ukrainians, people either have to be born with a Ukrainian heart and know the history or to serve this nation.”