POTIJ, IPATIJ. - Bishop of Volodymyr-Berest and later metropolitan of Kiev, b. in 1541 and d. at Vilna in 1613. He was a state official at Berest and, in that capacity, worked, this time unsuccessfully, for ecclesiastical union between the Byzantine-Slav Church of Poland-Lithuania and the Holy See. Appointed bishop of Volodymyr-Berest (1593), he was one of the leading figures in that union. He signed it at Rome on 23 Dec. 1595 and later again at Berest on 6 Oct. 1596. Succeeding Michele Rahoza in the dignity of metropolitan of Kiev, with residence at Vilna, he staunchly defended, against a very considerable opposition and by means of many historical and polemical books, the union of Berest as the legitimate continuation of that of Florence (1439).
P. founded at Vilna a new Catholic monastery, together with s. Giosafat Kunciewicz, its first monk; the monastery became the cradle of the Ukrainian Catholic Basilians. P. was an upright and very energetic man, and knew how to employ every power in defense of the flock entrusted to him. Before his death he fortunately escaped an attempt on his life plotted against him.