Heraclius Lisovsky

Lisovsky joined the Order of Saint Basil the Great already after finishing his elementary education.

It was at this position when Lisovsky became acquainted with the Russian Empress Catherine the Great who in 1784 appointed him as the archbishop of Polotsk.

Following the 1795 final (third) partition of Poland and detention of the metropolitan bishop Theodosius Rostocki in Saint Petersburg, Lisovsky was appointed as an administrator of the Uniate Church by the Russian Empress.

Yet after the death of Catherine in 1796 his influence in the church was paralyzed as uniate affairs were transferred to the Russian Roman Catholic metropolitan Archbishop of Mohilev Stanisław Bohusz Siestrzeńcewicz.

After the death of Theodosius in 1805 and during the ongoing Napoleonic Wars, the Russian Emperor Alexander I created a special department for Uniate affairs within the Roman Catholic Collegium and appointed Lisovsky as the Metropolitan of Uniate Church in Russia.