In particular, the influence of Athos hesychastic tradition during this period was important for further spiritual awakening and cultural development in the Ukrainian lands. Athos monks joined the restoration and spread of hesychasm traditions within the Kyiv metropolitanate, making a significant contribution to the formation of ancient Ukrainian culture, literature and art.
It was found that in the late XVI – early XVII centuries (after the events of the Brest Union in 1596) Ukrainian Athos monks took an active part in the revival of Orthodoxy in Ukraine, joined the restoration of the Orthodox hierarchy of the Kyiv metropolitanate, reforming Ukrainian Orthodox monasteries, cultural and educational, literary and polemical activities, as well as contributed to the involvement of the Ukrainian Cossacks in defending the rights and freedom of the Orthodox religion in the Commonwealth.
In particular, it was found out that the monastery "Black Whirlpool" was an important Ukrainian center on Mount Athos, and its founders were Ukrainian monks and representatives of the Cossack elders. The monks in this monastery were mostly natives of Ukrainian lands, in particular the former Zaporozhian Cossacks. The existence of close contacts of the Chorny Vyr hermitage with the Zaporozhian Sich and of the waterway from Zaporozhye to Mount Athos in the XVIII century is proved. The results of the study allow us to assert the importance of Ilyinsky monastery, which was also founded by Ukrainian elder Paisiy Velychkovsky, in the history of monasticism on Mount Athos. In that monastery he established his own seminary, and the monastery itself became a center of spirituality, education and literature on Mount Athos and beyond. Later, the Ilyinsky monastery became the spiritual and cultural center of the Ukrainian Cossack emigration, where former Zaporozhian Cossacks from the Transdanubian Sich and Kuban struggled. The decline and devastation of Ukrainian monastic centers on Mount Athos are consequences of the events of the Greek national liberation revolution of 1821–1829.
The thesis is original because it draws on little-known archival sources of the eighteenth to the first third of the nineteenth centuries. It establishes the defining role of the Ukrainian Athonite cloisters – especially of Cherny Vir and the Prophet Elijah Skete – in the history, culture and heritage of Ukrainian monasticism on Athos; and it demonstrates the strong links between the Zaporozh´ya and Zadunayskaya Sech´ with the Holy Mountain. The presence of Ukrainian and Cossack monks has left significant cultural and architectural traces on Mount Athos. Further study of the Ukrainian Athonite presence is an avenue to be explored by Ukrainian scholars.
Key words: the history of Ukrainian culture, international spiritual and cultural ties, Athos, the Cossack Hetmanate, the Zaporoz`ka Sich, monasticism.
