Russia Bronze Medal 1839 - Reunion of the Uniates with the Orthodox Church, 25 March 1839 - Nicholas I (1825–1855)

106.25g. 62mm. AU/AU. 

St. Petersburg mint. 

Medalier: P. Utkin (РѢЗ . П . УТКИНЪ . on obverse).

Diakov 550.1. 

Obv.: The Image of Christ Not-Made-by-Hands; below, the engraver’s signature.

Inscription around:

ТАКОВА IMАМЫ ПEРВОСВѦЩЕNNИКА. EBP . VIII , 1 .

(Such a High Priest have we. Hebrews VIII, 1).

Under the truncation line:

ОТТОРГНУТЫЕ НАСИЛIЕМЪ | (1596) ВОЗСОЕДИНЕ = | НЫ ЛЮБОВIЮ | (1839)

(Torn away by force in 1596, reunited by love in 1839).

Rev.: Eight-pointed cross in radiance; below, the date.

Inscription around:

ТОРЖЕСТВО ПРАВОСЛАВİЯ

(Triumph of Orthodoxy).

In exergue:

25 МАРТА 1839

(25 March 1839).

The medal commemorates the reunion of a large part of the Uniates of the western provinces of the Russian Empire with the Orthodox Church in 1839. The event, formalised at the Council of Polotsk, marked the end of the ecclesiastical union established in 1596 at Brest, in what are now Belarus and Ukraine, when a number of Orthodox hierarchs had entered communion with Rome while preserving the Eastern rite. In the official ideology of Nicholas I’s reign, the act was presented as the restoration of religious unity and a triumph of Orthodoxy, while in historical perspective it also reflected the confessional and political pressures characteristic of imperial rule in the region.