Joseph Semashko
Metropolitan Joseph | |
|---|---|
Митрополит Иосиф | |
Semashko Yosyf | |
| Title | Metropolitan Bishop |
| Personal life | |
| Born | Yosyf Yosyfovich Semashko 25 December 1798 |
| Died | 23 November 1868 (aged 69) |
| Known for | Synod of Polotsk |
| Religious life | |
| Church | Russian Orthodox Church, Ruthenian Uniate Church |
Joseph Semashko (Ukrainian: Йосиф Семашко; Polish: Józef Siemaszko; Russian: Иосиф Семашко; 25 December 1798 – 23 November 1868) was a Ukrainian Eastern Catholic priest and bishop who played a central role in the highly-controversial conversion of the Ruthenian Uniate Church of the western provinces of the Russian Empire to Russian Orthodoxy between 1837 and 1839. Subsequently, he became an archbishop in the Russian Orthodox hierarchy, elevated to the Metropolitan bishop of Vilnius and Lithuania in 1852.