Soltan, Yosyf II (Йосиф ІІ Солтан), b ca 1450 in Lahoisk region, Belarus, d 1522 in Smolensk. Orthodox metropolitan of Kyiv. A Belarusian noble, he took monastic vows and served as an archimandrite in Slutsk and as bishop of Smolensk (1498–1507) before his elevation to the office of metropolitan of Kyiv in 1507. Soltan rejected the Church Union of Florence. He assiduously defended the rights of the Orthodox church in Ukraine and Belarus, rid it of administrative faults and abuses, and improved discipline within it. He convoked three sobors, of which the first, in Vilnius in January 1509, was the most important, and he was the author of the regulations adopted at the sobor. In 1511 King Sigismund I the Old granted Soltan a royal privilege reaffirming the authority of Soltan and his bishops over all the Orthodox faithful and churches in the Polish Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and forbade individuals of the Catholic faith to interfere in matters of the Eastern church. Soltan traveled throughout the Orthodox East and maintained good relations with the Patriarch of Constantinople. His description of the Slutsk monastery was published in Akty, otnosiashchiesia k istorii Zapadnoi Rossii (vol 1).

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