in the campaign “Mazepa's Defection to Sweden and the Baturyn Massacre (1708)”
The anathema against Mazepa was proclaimed by the tsar's direct order - "be pleased to have him, for such a deed of his, publicly cursed in the cathedral church..."[1]. Part of the Ukrainian clergy refused to accept the rite: a former Lokhvytsia archpriest said during the proclamation of the anathema, "Our Mazepa is holy and will be in heaven, and your sovereign will not"[1]. The Ecumenical Patriarchate never recognized it: "the anathema was laid on Ivan Mazepa for political reasons and had no theological or canonical justification"[2].