Catacomb Church

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The Catacomb Church (

ROCOR popularized the term in the latter sense, first within the Russian diaspora, and then in the USSR by sending illegal literature there.[1] The expression "True Orthodox church" (Russian: истинно-православная церковь, tr. istinno-pravoslavnaya tserkov) is synonym for this latter, narrower sense of "catacomb church".[2]

The historian Mikhail Shkarovsky [ru] argues that "the catacombness of the Church does not necessarily mean its intransigence. This term covers all unofficial and therefore not state-controlled church activities".[3]

Organizationally, the Catacomb Church communities were usually not interconnected.[4]

Origin

The death of

Soviet government. The declaration sparked division among the hierarchy, clergy, and laity, which led to the formation of the Russian True Orthodox Church, or Catacomb Church, a group of which was the Josephite movement.[citation needed
]

Opposition to Sergius' declaration was based not only on his political concessions, but also on canonical and theological disagreements.[citation needed]

Terminology

The earliest documented use of the word "catacombs" to describe the Russian realities of the 20th century is found in the letters of abbess Athanasia (Gromeko) to Metropolitan

Renovationists, the community did not disband, but continued its existence as a convent in a private home. In two of the four surviving letters, abbess Athanasia uses the expressions "my catacombs" and "my secret catacomb church" several times. It can be seen from the context that this is how she designates her house church, contrasting her "catacombs" with the officially functioning church of the Renovationists.[1]

The use of the expressions "

Petrograd/Leningrad neologism, where there were many active church intellectuals who could appreciate the diversity of meanings associated with this word.[1]

Meanwhile, in the 1920s and 1930s, the term "catacomb church" was not widely used; other expressions were used more often. In letters sent during 1923 to the Commission for Religious Cults under the

Living Church".[1] In addition, opponents of the Renovationists used the self-designation "Tikhonites".[5]

The term "Catacomb Church" began to be actively used in the works of Ivan Andreyev [ru], a figure of the Josephite movement who fled to Western Europe in 1944, under the influence of whose works this term became widespread in emigrant periodicals. Other emigrants of the second wave of Russian emigration noted the purely foreign nature of the expression "catacomb church".[1] Since its resumption in 1947, the magazine Orthodox Russia had been running the column "And the Light Shines in Darkness" with the subtitle "Soviet Catacombs of the Spirit", in which everything related to the everyday side of the underground Soviet church life was published. The catacomb church was described as the only force opposing the godless regime.[6] In the works of Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) authors, the typical image of the catacomb church was formed: ecclesiastical and political opposition to the leadership of the Moscow Patriarchate, illegality from the point of view of Soviet legislation, and consistent anti-Soviet sentiments of its members. Such "catacombists" were perceived as a staunch fighter against the regime. In this form, the expression "catacomb church" became an instrument of ideological polemics used by the ROCOR. According to the ideologists of the ROCOR, the powerful underground church in the USSR which was in opposition to the Moscow Patriarchate proved the illegitimacy of the official hierarchy.[1]

In journalism, this term has passed into the official documents of the ROCOR. The ROCOR

Orthodox brotherhoods in Leningrad until 1941, complained to Metropolitan Anastasius that Orthodox Russia was distorting her articles about ascetics and martyrs among the clergy of the Moscow Patriarchate. She said that Orthodox Russia changed her articles to state that those member of the Moscow Patriarchate were catacombists rejecting the Moscow Patriarchate. In response to her protests, the editorial board of Orthodox Russia replied: "The truth is extremely harmful for the cause of the church in America."[9]

In 1974,

Philaret (Voznesensky) wrote to Solzhenitsyn that not only priests, but also bishops were part of the Catacomb Church.[13]

In the 1960s and 1970s, through illegal literature published abroad, and then through samizdat, the concepts of "catacombs" and "catacomb church" returned to the USSR. After that, some authors in the USSR used the word "catacomb" to designate ecclesiastical opposition to the Moscow Patriarchate, while others used it as a technical term as a synonym for the epithet "illegal" from the point of view of Soviet legislation. Since the second half of the 1980s, in connection with the policy of glasnost, the concept of "catacombs" has returned to journalism.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Беглов А. Л. Понятие «катакомбная церковь»: мифы и реальность // Меневские чтения. 2006. Научная конференция «Церковная жизнь XX века: протоиерей Александр Мень и его духовные наставники». — Сергиев Посад, 2007. — С. 51-59.
  2. .
  3. ^ Шкаровский 1999, p. 247.
  4. ^ В. Г. Пидгайко. ИСТИННО ПРАВОСЛАВНЫЕ ХРИСТИАНЕ // Православная энциклопедия. — М. : Церковно-научный центр «Православная энциклопедия», 2011. — Т. XXVII. — С. 704-716.
  5. .
  6. .
  7. .
  8. ^ диакон Андрей Псарев Стремясь к единству: экклезиология РПЦЗ в отношении Московского Патриархата (1927—2007 гг.) Archived 2019-09-04 at the Wayback Machine // bogoslov.ru, 24 января 2018
  9. ^ Кашеваров А. Н. «Православная Русь» — «церковно-общественный орган» Русской Православной Церкви Заграницей // bogoslov.ru, 10 февраля 2016
  10. ^ Кострюков 2020, p. 122.
  11. ^ "Letter to the Third Council of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad - ROCOR Studies". rocorstudies.org. 12 December 2012.
  12. ^ Кострюков 2020, p. 125.
  13. ^ Кострюков 2020, p. 126-127.

Literature