"Let Ruthenia Teach Ruthenians in Ruthenian" Education and "Ruthenian Language" in the Works "Desiderosus" (1625) and "Perspektiwa" (1642) by Cassian Sakovych

In: Ukrai͏̈noznavstvo, Heft 2(79), S. 101-109

Abstract

The article deals with the role of the Old Ukrainian (Ruthenian) language in the educational process in Ukraine in the 1st half of the 17th century. It is based on the works by the prominent polemicist, scholar, and religious actor Cassian Sakovych. The study is based on his works "Desiderosus" and "Perspektiwa", which reflected the author's approaches to the stated problem in different periods of his life. The relevance of the theme lies in its insufficient study, as well as in the special role of the development of education and language in nation-building.Relying on the analysis of these works, it is concluded that already in the mid-1620s Cassian Sakovich believed that an effective system of national education could be built primarily on the basis of the positive experience of the Roman Catholic Church. He defended this idea almost to the end of his life. In the early 1640s, Cassian Sakovych supplemented his views on education with a public statement in "Perspektiwa" about the priority of the vernacular (Ruthenian) language in the educational process of domestic schools ("Let Ruthenia teach Ruthenians in Ruthenian"). Such a position probably resulted from reconsideration of the 1620s' experience, when he emphasized the role of the vernacular (Ruthenian) language in the religious life of Ukrainians. It was concluded that Cassian Sakovych was the first Ukrainian nationalist of the Lithuanian-Polish era to raise the issue of the role of the vernacular in the cultural life of Ukrainians in his public debate.Priorities in the educational process give us the opportunity to imagine how exactly Cassian Sakovych saw representatives of the new generation of educated Ukrainians in the early 1640s. In his view, those were people who combined achievements of three cultures – their own national (Ukrainian), Polish, and Greek.