Galiatovskyi Ioanykiy (b. 1630, place of birth unknown – 12.01.1688, Chernihiv) – a scientist, writer, preacher, teacher, church activist; a graduate, professor, and Rector of Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium. He was presumably born in Volyn. In the 1640’s he studied at the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium. After his studies, having accepted monasticism, he served in the Kupyatytsia Monastery near Pinsk. In 1655, on the invitation of his teacher, Lazar Baranovych, he returned to Kyiv and taught a course of rhetoric at the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium. In 1658 he became Rector of the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium and Hegumen of Kyiv Epiphany Monastery. In 1658-1662, he rebuilt the monastery and the collegium which were severely destroyed by fire. In the years of 1665-1668 he travelled to Podillia, Volyn, Galicia, Lithuania. From 1669 he was Hegumen, later Archimandrite of Chernihiv Yelets Assumption Monastery. He died and was buried in Chernihiv.

While working at the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium, he prepared and published a collection of sermons The Key to Understanding, in which he included the first national homily course, “Science, or the way of composing a homily,” outlining the theoretical foundations of the Ukrainian church sermon and making recommendations for composing their genres. During the life of Ioanykiy Galiatovskyi the book was published four times in Kyiv (1659, 1660) and Lviv (1663, 1665). Ioanykiy Galyatovskyi is the author of 20 sermons, polemical and theological treatises, and collections of short stories in Ukrainian and Polish.

Source: Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Reflected in Names: XVII-XVIII, 2001.