Our History

Beginnings

The origins of the Russian Catholic can be traced to the philosopher and theologian Vladimir Soloviev, who was born in 1853. A friend of the great novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Soloviev is considered one of the seminal influences to the religious-philosophic thought of his country. He favoured the healing of the schism between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches.

The Church proper began in 1917 with Metropolitan Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky, based in Lviv in what we now call Ukraine. Operating under the authority of Pope Pius 11th Sheptytsky convened a council of priests who considered themselves to be Russian Catholics in St Petersburg. It was approved by the Holy See and constructed into an exarchate.

Father Leonid Feodorov was appointed the first exarch, or head of the community. Feodorov was not a bishop, as is the usual practice. The community, under great political pressure, was formed in a fragmented way.

Communism

Feodorov opened discussions with the newly elected 11th patriarch of Moscow St Tikhon Bellevin. The two were ahead of their time in addressing ecumenical questions about the nature and mission of the church. But all the while the noose of Soviet dominance was tightening around them. Bellevin eventually went to prison, where he was murdered and Feodorov was imprisoned for 10 years in Solovski, a monastery in Myrmansk converted into a penal institution. He was released after his 10 year sentence and died in internal exile in a town called Vyatka in the Kyrov region (which the Soviets renamed Petrov). He is buried there.

Feodorov was succeeded by Archbisoph Sheptytsky’s brother, Clement who was martyred by the communists, dying in a Soviet prison in 1951. He was highly regarded by Jews. With his brother Andrey, he protected hundreds of Jewish kids in World War II. In 1995 he was posthumously declared Righteous amongst Gentiles by Israel for the lives he saved in Ukraine.

Under the Soviet yoke all operations of the Church were stamped out and communities were shut down. A particular hero in those dark times was the indomitable Mother Catherine Abrikosova, whose husband took religious vows and went into the priesthood. Due to her work with the Papal Aid Mission during the Russian famine of 1921-22, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison. She was then rearrested and eventually died in prison in 1936.

Vladimir was expelled from Soviet Union, put on a passenger ship full of philosophers who Lenin had rounded up because he considered them to be subversive. Ending up in Western Europe, he became an advocate in Rome for the Russian Catholic mission, although he was ultimately undermined by his political masters in the Vatican.

Rome

Bishop Michel D’Herbigny took over the Russian Mission in Rome in the 1920s and unsuccessfully attempted to organise the Latin church in Russia by means of clandestine appointments. Roman Catholics at that time considered the Russian Orthodox Church to be weak and thought it was a good moment to expand by sending in Roman Catholic missionaries to proselytize.

It was a disaster, with nearly all the Russians who became involved killed. D’Herbigny ended in disgrace and was sent to a monastery with strict orders from Pope Pius 11 never to contact him.

After World War II a significant Russian diaspora began to develop as migration intensified. This included Russian Catholics, including a clergy in Habin in China, mostly Orthodox who had converted.

Fall of the Soviet Union

When the USSR fell, there were very few Russian Catholic priests in Russia. In 2004-5 there were only six priests operating in Russia who identifed as Russian Catholics. They came together in the town of Sargatskoe, near Omsk, and declared a synod of Russian Catholic clergy. They elected one of the members, a married priest from Omsk Sergei Golyvanov, as pro temper exarch (waiting upon confirmation Holy See).

Rome, at that point led by Cardinal Walter Kasper, offered no assistance however. The intention was to replace Russian Catholics with the Latin rite bishop of Novi Sibersk, Jesuit Joseph Werth. This move was conceived as a way to head off a problematic Orthodox reaction, should there be any.

That problematic situation has remained ever since. Canon law indicates that the synod at Sargatskoe was entirely legal and should have been supported. The road for Russian Catholics in Russia continues to be extremely difficult. There is a small group in St Petersburg and in Moscow, but they are treated with great suspicion.

The diaspora

Since World War II Russian Catholic Churches have been established around the world: North and South America, Asia, Europe, South East Asia and Australasia. In 2017, a global conference was organised in St Felice del Benaco on the shores of Lake Garda in Italy. This coming together of the scattered communities was a great success and will be a regular event.

For the first time Russian Catholics, of their own initiative, were able to have a powerful experience of mutual identity as a church and to share a common purpose independent of any other influences. It was a transformative experience and there is no going back. The institutional neglect of the last 80 years will be reversed.