Irkutsk diocese

• Irkutsk and Nerchinskaya (December 1706 -?)
• Irkutsk, Nerchinsk and Yakutsk (May 31, 1816 - June 26, 1852)
• Irkutsk and Nerchinskaya (June 26, 1852 - March 12, 1894)
• Irkutsk and Verkholenskaya (from March 12, 1894)
• Irkutsk and Chita (1943 - April 21, 1994)
• Irkutsk and Angarsk (April 21, 1994 - October 4, 2011)
• Irkutsk (from October 05, 2011)

It was established in December 1706 as a vicar of the Tobolsk Metropolis with the title of vicar bishop of Irkutsk and Nerchinsk. Since 1721 it becomes independent.

The vast diocese, which included Yakutia since 1731, originally extended to the whole of Siberia and the Far East of Russia, and with the accession of Alaska to the American continent. In December 1840, the Kamchatka, Kuril and Aleutian dioceses were allocated from it, to which Yakutia was subordinated on June 26, 1852.

On January 28, 1894, the Chita Vicariate was created, and on March 12 of the same year it was singled out as an independent diocese. So, by the beginning of the 20th century, the Irkutsk diocese was included in the borders similar to modern ones. In 1912, there were 326 churches, 205 chapels and houses of worship, 4 monasteries, 283 priests and 77 deacons in the Irkutsk diocese ^[1] .

After the revolution of 1917 , under the pressure of the atheistic authorities, the spiritual institutions of Siberia and the Far East are destroyed and closed. Local dioceses are also abolished, their territory re-enters Irkutsk, for the most part in the 1930s. The Irkutsk diocese itself bears the same fate, but not for long - in 1943 it was restored.

Between 1945 and 1949, the Khabarovsk diocese for the Far East had an independent existence, but after that the Irkutsk rulers took control of the widowed Far Eastern department.

Until the end of the Soviet period, the Irkutsk diocese was the largest in the Russian Orthodox Church and extended to the easternmost reaches of Russia. As Metropolitan Alexy (Kutepov), who served in the diocese in the 1970s, noted, “extended from the Yenisei to the Pacific Ocean and to Japan. It took several days to travel by train from Moscow to Irkutsk, and the same then from Irkutsk to Vladivostok. And if you call in also to other parishes - how much time was needed! ” ^[2] . This does not mean that the diocese in the 1950s and 1980s had many parishes. In 1958, there were 20 Orthodox parishes in the Irkutsk diocese, including 14 churches in the Irkutsk region , 2 churches in the Buryat Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic , the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the Chita Region ^[3] . The number of clergy in the territory of the Irkutsk region by year was as follows: 1954 - 29 people, 1958 - 31 people, 1969 - 22 people, 1985 - 23 people ^[3] .

Only in 1988, the Khabarovsk Department in the Far East was again isolated. In 1993, the independent Yakut diocese was also allocated from the jurisdiction of the Irkutsk department, in 1994 - the Chita diocese .

On October 5, 2011, the Bratsk and Sayan dioceses were separated from the Irkutsk diocese. On October 6, the Bratsk, Irkutsk and Sayan dioceses are included in the newly formed Irkutsk Metropolis ^[4] .

Irkutsk and Nerchinsk Vicariates of the Tobolsk Metropolis

• Varlaam (Kossovsky) (December 15, 1706 - January 21, 1714)

Irkutsk diocese

• Kodiak (invalid)
• Chita (now an independent diocese)
• Selenginsky (invalid)
• Kirenskoye (invalid)
• Nizhneudinskoe (invalid)

• Irkutsk Metropolis
• Diocese of brotherhood
• Sayan diocese

• Irkutsk diocese // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.

• Irkutsk and Angarsk diocese on the website Patriarchy.Ru
• Irkutsk diocese // Open Orthodox Encyclopedia "Tree" (inaccessible link)
• The official website of the diocese