Ecumenical Patriarch Niphon’s fake letter to Kiev Metropolitan Joseph

Up to very recently it was a generally accepted fact, that in the 15th century, the Ecumenical Patriarch Niphon B’, in a letter replying to a query by the Metropolitan of Kiev Joseph, urged his correspondent to accept the Union of the Churches. The text of the letter in question, first appeared in a book published by the Smolensk archbishop Leo Kreuza in Polish in 1617 in Vilna. This letter, published in Polish, could have easily remained unknown to the public in general had it not been rendered in Latin ten years later and published in the “Annalii Ecclesiasticorum” of the Vatican. Apart from a number of other clues, sound proof of the letter’s fakeness is provided by its dating, (Anno septem millesimo mensis aprilis V. undecima currente indictione), that is 5 April 1493. It should be noted that by this date, neither Niphon was a Patriarch yet, nor was Joseph elected to the Metropoly of Kiev. Let us therefore add this letter to the numbers of forged documents fabricated to prove predefined events and conclusions. For the instigators of the documents in question where only seeking to legalise historically and provide the benefit of dating to their project: the subjecting the District’s Orthodox populace to the Latin Church.