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Document Details : Title: The Religiosity of the Zaporozhian Cossacks in the Eyes of Uniates and Foreigners Author(s): DROZDOWSKI, Mariusz Robert , WALCZAK, Wojciech Journal: Orientalia Christiana Periodica Volume: 91 Issue: 1 Date: 2025 Pages: 183-202 DOI: 10.2143/OCP.91.1.3294863 Abstract : The article examines the religiosity of the Zaporozhian Cossacks as reflected in the writings of Uniate polemicists, papal nuncios, and foreign travelers to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We analyze how Uniate authors, such as Anastazy Sielawa, Joseph Velamin-Rutski, and Rafał Korsak, portrayed the Cossacks as instruments of Orthodox agitation, accusing them of religious ignorance and indifference, and attributing their anti-Uniate stance to manipulation by the Orthodox clergy. By contrast, the correspondence of papal nuncios reveals both the political dimension of the Cossacks’ involvement in defense of Orthodoxy and their ambivalent perception in Rome as both schismatics and a significant force in the Commonwealth’s confessional landscape. We also consider the accounts of Wilhelm Beauplan, Alberto Vimina, and Paul of Aleppo, whose testimonies depict a community deeply attached to Orthodox ritual and piety. Confronting these divergent perspectives, we argue that while the Uniates and papal nuncios reduced Cossack religiosity to a political problem, the evidence from contemporary observers demonstrates that the Cossacks’ Orthodox identity was genuine and culturally integral. Our findings thus nuance the prevailing view of the Cossacks as merely political defenders of Orthodoxy, revealing instead a complex and variegated religious consciousness shaped by both faith and military tradition. |
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