What are Rusyns

Rusyns (also referred to as Ruthenians, Ruthenes,Great Schism between the Orthodox and Catholic
Rusins, Carpatho-Rusyns, and Rusnaks) are achurches in 1054. Many Rusyn churches are
modern ethnic group that speaks the Rusynnamed after the Eastern Christian saints Cyril and
language and are descended from the minority ofMethodius, who are often referred to as the
Ruthenians who did not adopt a Ukrainian national"Apostles to the Slavs."
identity in the nineteenth and early twentiethHistorian Paul Robert Magocsi recorded that there
centuries. Because an overwhelming majority ofwere approximately 690,000 Carpatho-Rusyn
Ruthenians within Ukraine itself have adopted achurch members in the United States, with
Ukrainian identity, most modern self-declared320,000 in the largest Catholic affiliations, 270,000
Rusyns live outside Ukraine. Thus, of thein the largest Orthodox affiliations, and 100,000 in
approximately 2 million people claimed by Rusynvarious Protestant and other denominations.
organizations as being Rusyns, only 55,000 declareEastern Rite Catholics
themselves as having this nationality. The ethnicMany Rusyns are Eastern Catholics, who since the
identity of Rusyns is therefore highlyUnion of Brest in 1596 and the Uzhorod Union in
controversial, with some researchers claiming a1646, are united with other Catholics under the
separate East Slavic ethnicity distinct fromspiritual leadership of the Pope, but retain their Old
Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians, while othersSlavonic liturgy and most of the outward forms
considering Rusyns to be a subgroup of theof the Greek or Eastern Orthodox Church.
Ukrainian nation. Some parallels can be drawn withThe Rusyns of former Yugoslavia are organized
the relationship of Moldovans to Romanians.under the Eparchy of Krizevci.
LocationEastern Orthodox Church
Rusyns have traditionally inhabited the area of theAlthough originally associated with the Orthodox
Eastern Carpathian Mountains and still inhabit thoseChurch of Constantinople, the affiliation of the
areas. While their homeland is often referred to asRusyn Orthodox Church was adversely affected
Carpathian Ruthenia, that area no longer exactlyby the Communist revolution in Russia and the
corresponds with the places inhabited by Rusyns.subsequent Iron Curtain which split the Orthodox
There are also resettled Rusyn communitiesdiaspora from those living in the ancestral
located in the Pannonian plain, as well as in partshomelands. A number of emigre communities
of present day Serbia (especially in Vojvodinahave laid claim to continuing the Orthodox tradition
– see also Ethnic groups of Vojvodina),of the pre-revolution church, while either negating
as well as in present-day Croatia (in the region ofor minimizing the validity of the church
Slavonia). Still other Rusyns migrated to theorganization operating under Communist authority.
northern regions of present-day Bosnia andFor example, the Orthodox Church in America
Herzegovina.(OCA) was granted auto-cephalous
Many Rusyns also emigrated to the United States(self-governing) status by the Moscow
and Canada, and now are able to reconnect as aPatriarchate in 1970. Although approximately 25%
community with the advent of the internet,of the OCA was Rusyn (referred to as
voicing their concerns and trying to preserve their"Ruthenian") in the early 1980s, an influx of
separate ethnic and cultural identity.Orthodox emigres from other nations and new
Religionconverts wanting to connect with the "early"
When the Rusyns accepted Christianity (and whochurch have lessened the impact of a particular
or what they worshiped before) is a source ofRusyn emphasis in favor of a new American
some debate, but it clearly occurred prior to theOrthodoxy.