Public practices of the Christian saints in the Eastern Mediterranean during the IV – V centuries

  This article examines public practices of the Christian saints in the Eastern Mediterranean during the IV – V centuries, and leans on studying the hagiographic works. The traditional Roman public events in the period of Late Antiquity with the advent of Christianity gradually ceased their popularity, particularly die to the state and church policy. Along with church liturgies, festivities, and sermons, Christianity offered a new type of public events – ascetic pageantry. Publicity as an important aspect of ascetic practices practically is outside the scope of attention of the modern historians. The author reviews public practices as an informal act of impacting viewers with a profound cultural meanings. The conclusion is made that holy ascetics represented a new Christian pageantry that contributed to dynamic Christianization of the empire and fulfillment of important social functions. Public actions of the ascetic resembled the true faith, such as of the martyrs. The first crucial function carried out by the ascetic in performing public asceticism is the concentration of sizeable Christian population that had a need for such event. The second one consisted in teaching to discern who is a real Christian and how to become one.  

Russia and the Melkites of Syria: Attempts at Reconverting into Orthodoxy in the 1850-s and 1860-s

Having entered into union with Rome in the 18th century, the Melkite Arab community of Syria preserved their Eastern rites and traditions. The attempts at Latinization in the mid-19th century brought a split in the community and provoked a diplomatic effort by Russia to bring the Melkites back to Eastern Orthodoxy. The raise of Arab nationalism in the 1850-s and traditions of church independence created a fertile soil for separatism. The relative weakness and inconsistency of Russian support, and especially a lack of material resources and strong diplomatic pressure from France, resulted in most of the newly converted Melkites returning to Rome by the early 1860-s. The article argues that Russian church policy in 19th century Middle East, strongly bounded by the limits of Orthodox canon law was largely ineffective. The Melkite affair was the last attempt to integrate the Arab Christians in the traditional system of the “Greek” Patriarchates. Thereafter Russian diplomacy took the course of Arabizing the Patriarchate of Antioch. The episode did, however, contribute to the elaboration of a new Vatican policy towards the Eastern Catholics: respect for their rites and traditions.

Power and the Church during the period of collectivization in the Moscow region

The article highlights the relationships between the Soviet state and the Russian Orthodox Church (hereinafter referred to as the «Russian Orthodox Church») in the late 1920s and early 1930s, during the period of collectivization of the villages, which was accompanied by the destruction of traditional life, a dramatic violation of the usual way of life. The focus is on the policy of attacking the Russian Orthodox Church, expressed in the closure of churches and monasteries, militant atheism and repressive measures against priests. The examples from the Ryazan and Tula districts of the Moscow Region analyze the protest movement of peasants against the anti-religious policies of the authorities, active and passive forms of resistance. At the end of the article, the author concludes that the resistance of the peasants to the anti-church policy of the authorities was fatally doomed to be defeated.

The Greek Monasteries of the Pontus and Russia in Modern Times

The article concentrates on one of the aspects of the Eastern question, the Russian struggle for penetration in the Eastern part of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th and early 20th century. This region of Turkey was an object of special attention for the Russian foreign policy. The ecclesiastical aspect of the Russian influence was of special importance: the preservation of Orthodoxy was an important task of the Russian representatives. The traditional method of material aid for the Orthodox monasteries and churches was widely used. They regularly received permissions for gathering donations in Russia. Another method used in the 19th century was the open support of the Orthodox population by the Russian consuls. During the reforms (Tanzimat) in the Ottoman Empire many secret Christians from the eastern regions proclaimed themselves Orthodox. The Russian diplomats after the Crimean war intermediated the conversion of the Crypto-Christians into Orthodoxy. The study of Trapezund and its monasteries by the Russian Byzantologists at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century also contributed to the penetration into the region. In addition to the explicit scholarly results, their research helped to strengthen the Russian authority among the local population. The relationship and cooperation between the Russian commandment and the local clergy during the Russian occupation in 1916–1917 and the scientific expedition of Feodor Uspenskii were the last page of this history. Based on previously unknown archive sources, the article traces how different means of church policy served to strengthen the Russian influence in Eastern Turkey.

Katholische und protestantische Lebenswelten. Religiöser Alltag, kirchliche Formung, politischer Aufbruch

Catholic and Protestant lifeworlds. Religious Life, Ecclesiastical Formation, Political Mobilization. Ecclesiastically-organized religion has always been a complex phenomenon: highly intimate and regulated, marked by persistence and change, a pillar and cauldron of the political system, a player and an object of ideological discourses. In manifold ways, Lower Austria was typical of religious developments in the 19th century. Enlighted Church policy was executed rigorously here and created structures that proved beneficial for the churches in the long term, supported by a permanent influx of personnel from German-speaking regions in Bohemia and Moravia. Conflicts and stimulus were also triggered by the contrast between traditional rural regions and the metropolis of Vienna and the industrialized zones to its south. The eminent social transformation inspired male and female activists and office-holders in the Catholic and Protestant Churches to find a new solution to old concerns that led to a partial religious revival and the re-confessionalization of society.

Thirst for Miracle: Rural Intelligentsia in the Years of Ordeals

The article is devoted to the historical reconstruction of the spiritual experience of the priest Feodor Alexandrovich Yegorov. The materials of archival-investigative case № 21183, stored in the fund 643/2 of Perm State Archive of Social and Political History have been the resource of the article. The complexity of the subject and the scattered nature of the documentary evidence suggest the use of the phenomenological instruments and K. Ginzburg's evidence paradigm. The formation of A.F. Yegorov's personality began against the background of the "era of wars and revolutions", and ended approximately in the "year of the great turning point", which determines the chronological framework of the study. Prior to the revolution of 1917 being the son of a simple craftsman he was able to make a career and became a teacher in a parochial school. F.A. Yegorov became a typical representative of the rural intelligentsia. During the Civil War he found himself in Irkutsk "retreating with the Whites." There he managed to enter the university. Surviving testimonies of that time characterize F.A. Yegorov as a man indifferent to religion or even an atheist. In 1926 he survived his conversion to the Orthodox faith and became a sacristan in one of the churches in Kungur area. From that moment a distinctly mystical component was fixed in his spiritual experience. His new-found faith allowed him to see miracles everywhere,and his contemplation of the miracle strengthened his faith. After becoming a priest, F.A. Yegorov (together with his confessor, N. I. Krylov) took an irreconcilable stand against the church policy of Metropolitan Sergius Stragorodsky. His ecclesiastical dissidence and inner experience of contemplating miracles eventually led him to division of the clergy into "graceful" and "unblessed”. In the article it is drawn a parallel between the fate of Priest F. Yegorov and Archpriest I. Kotelnikov, who was written about by the author earlier.

Russian Church Policy in Syria in the 19th Century: Main Tendencies and Dynamics of Its Development

The article is focused on the main tendencies of Russian policy in the Patriarchate of Antioch during the 19th century. Following the traditional support of Orthodoxy, in the situation of concurrence of the Great Powers in the Middle East Russia had to make a revision of the old methods of policy. The journey of Archimandrite Porfirii Uspenskii in 1843 and the foundation of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem in 1847 were aimed at strengthening of Russian positions in the region. The conflicts between the nations in the end of the 1850s and he struggle of the Arabs for church and national independence forced he Russian diplomacy to support them against the Greeks. The struggle ended in the election of an Arab Patriarch at the Antiochian see. The activities of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society for foundation of schools for the Orthodox Arabs as well as financing of the schools of the Patriarchate created a strong base for national education. The peak of Russian influence in Syria is in the beginning of the 20s century: at that time the sums for material support increase enormously. As a whole it was in Syria during the 19th century that Russian policy in the Christian East was most efficient.