Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski (2 February 1526 – 13 (23) February 1608, ) was a Lithuanian

Grand Duchy of Lithuania

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 12th /13th century until 1569 and then as a constituent part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1791 when Constitution of May 3, 1791 abolished it in favor of unitary state. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic...

 prince, starost of Volodymyr-Volynskyi

Volodymyr-Volynskyi

Volodymyr-Volynsky is a city located in Volyn Oblast, in north-western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative centre of the Volodymyr-Volynsky District, the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast...

, marshal of Volhynia

Volhynia

Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come...

 and voivode of the Kiev Voivodeship, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He got married on January 1553 in Tarnów

Tarnów

Tarnów is a city in southeastern Poland with 115,341 inhabitants as of June 2009. The city has been situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999, but from 1975 to 1998 it was the capital of the Tarnów Voivodeship. It is a major rail junction, located on the strategic east-west connection...

. Ostrogski refused to help False Dmitriy I

False Dmitriy I

False Dmitriy I was the Tsar of Russia from 21 July 1605 until his death on 17 May 1606 under the name of Dimitriy Ioannovich . He is sometimes referred to under the usurped title of Dmitriy II...

 and supported Jan Zamoyski

Jan Zamoyski

Jan Zamoyski , was a Polish-Lithuanian nobleman, magnate, 1st duke/ordynat of Zamość. Royal Secretary since 1566, Lesser Kanclerz ) of the Crown since 1576, Lord Grand-Chancellor of the Crown since 1578, and Grand Hetman of the Crown since 1581...

.

In 1570s he waged a war against another magnate

Magnate

Magnate, from the Late Latin magnas, a great man, itself from Latin magnus 'great', designates a noble or other man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or other qualities...

, Stanisław Tarnowski, about disputed possession of estates in the area of Tarnów. Among Ostrogski's private army were units of the Tatars.

Prince Ostrogski was of Eastern Orthodox faith and he was active in protecting the rights of the Orthodox Church (see Union of Brest

Union of Brest

Union of Brest or Union of Brześć refers to the 1595-1596 decision of the Church of Rus', the "Metropolia of Kiev-Halych and all Rus'", to break relations with the Patriarch of Constantinople and place themselves under the Pope of Rome. At the time, this church included most Ukrainians and...

) and promoting the culture of the Christian Orthodox religion in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1576 he established the Ostroh Academy

Ostroh Academy

National University "Ostroh Academy" is a Ukrainian self-governed research university that was re-opened in 1994 by the Presidential Decree of April 12, 1994...

, a highly-regarded humanist

Renaissance humanism

Renaissance humanism was an activity of cultural and educational reform engaged by scholars, writers, and civic leaders who are today known as Renaissance humanists. It developed during the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries, and was a response to the challenge of Mediæval...

 educational and scholarship institution, with the instruction in Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

, Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 and Old Church Slavonic

Old Church Slavonic

Old Church Slavonic or Old Church Slavic was the first literary Slavic language, first developed by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius who were credited with standardizing the language and using it for translating the Bible and other Ancient Greek...

 languages. In 1581 the Academy produced and published the Ostrog Bible

Ostrog Bible

The Ostrog Bible was one of the earliest East Slavic translations of the Bible and the first complete printed edition of the Bible in Old Church Slavonic, published in Ostroh, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth , by the printer Ivan Fyodorov in 1581 with the assistance of the Ruthenian Prince...

, the fundamental Orthodox Bible.

Ostrogski's huge latifundium, or landed estate in the eastern Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, consisted of 100 towns and 1300 villages. It was Ostrogski who built Starokostiantyniv Castle

Starokostiantyniv Castle

The Old Constantine Castle is a Volhynian castle built at the confluence of the Sluch and Ikopot' rivers by Prince Constantine Ostrogski in the 1560s....

.

While Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski was the guardian of the Eastern Orthodox religion, ironically, both of his sons, Janusz-Ivan

Janusz Ostrogski

Prince Janusz Ostrogski was a Polish-Lithuanian noble.Janusz Ostrog - statesman of the Commonwealth...

 and Aleksander

Aleksander Ostrogski

Prince Aleksander Ostrogski was a nobleman of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.He was voivode of the Wolhynian Voivodship since 1593. Married to Anna Kostka since 1592.-See also:* Lithuanian nobility* House of Ostrogski...

, converted to Catholicism.

External links

• family Ostrozki
• a chapter of the "History of Russia" by Nikolay Kostomarov
  Nikolay Kostomarov
  Nikolay Ivanovich Kostomarov , of mixed Russian and Ukrainian origin, is one of the most distinguished Russian and Ukrainian historians, a Professor of History at the Kiev University and later at the St...
  
   devoted to "Knyaz Konstantin Konstantinovich Ostrozhskiy"