Popel, Markel

Popel, Markel [Попель, Маркель; Popel'], b 31 December 1825 in Medukha, Berezhany circle, Galicia, d 29 September 1903 in Saint Petersburg. Russophile church figure. As a Greek Catholic priest in Galicia, he published religious textbooks, edited the newspaper Nedilia (Lviv), and taught catechism in Ternopil and Lviv. In 1867 he arrived in Kholm with other Russophile clergymen from Galicia. There he lectured in liturgics and served as pastor of the Kholm cathedral. In 1871 he became administrator of the Kholm eparchy. Popel favored the conversion of the Uniates to Orthodoxy. In May 1875 he headed a delegation to the tsar that petitioned for the transfer of 120 parishes in the eparchy to the Orthodox church. For this he was consecrated bishop of Lublin; later he served as bishop of Podilia and then of Polatsk and Vitsebsk. From 1889 he was also a member of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox church.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]