Orenburg Theological Seminary

A theological seminary called “Orenburg” existed in Ufa until 1865. When the Orenburg diocese was divided in 1859 from the department in Ufa into the Orenburg and Ufa, the seminary in Ufa became known as Ufa, in Orenburg, in 1860 a religious school was opened.

Since that time, the ruling bishops of Orenburg Anthony , Varlaam and Mitrofan , as well as the Orenburg governor-general N. A. Kryzhanovsky, raised the question of opening a theological seminary in Orenburg .

Approval from the Synod was received in 1870; a project of seminary buildings with 200 seats was prepared by April 30, 1876; finally, on April 26, 1878, the decision of the Holy Synod “on the construction of a seminary building in Orenburg” took place. At the end of March 1879, a construction contract was approved with the Orenburg merchant Belov, under which he pledged for 28,334 rubles. 10 kopecks make constructions for the seminary by October 15, 1880. The building was laid on September 2, 1879. However, due to a severe fire that occurred in the same year, the completion dates were adjusted ^[1] ; construction was completed only by the beginning of 1883, but the opening of the Synod was postponed until August 16, 1884 ; On August 26, the seminary house temple was consecrated.

P. Stolpiansky wrote:

Theological seminary - a huge beautiful building encloses a lot of residential and other premises, light, high, equipped with all the hygiene facilities and fenced with a stone fence with iron bars, which encloses an area of ​​more than 8400 square meters. soot. land at the highest and best place in the city. The views from the windows of the building in all directions are amazingly good.

In the first year, one class was opened, in which 41 students were accepted. Along with the usual subjects for seminaries in Orenburg, it was proposed to introduce the study of the Tatar and Arabic languages, the exposure of the schism and the history of Mohammedanism. Beekeeping was also taught at the seminary. In 1889, in the 5th and 6th grades, a special scholarship course was introduced: the students got acquainted with the history of schism in general and the history of schism in the Orenburg region, in particular, they gave information about sects in the Orenburg diocese: Dukhobors , Molokans , Stundists and Baptists .

The seminary was closed in 1919 .

The seminary is now revived by the decision of the Holy Synod of May 27, 2009 ^[2] .

• Archpriest Fedor Alekseevich Dmitrovsky (1883-1911)
• Archpriest Joseph Krechetovich (1911-1915)
• Archimandrite Varlaam (Novgorod) (1915-1919)
• Hieromonk Alexy (Antipov) (May 27, 2009 - December 26, 2012)
• Metropolitan Valentine (Mishchuk) (December 26, 2012 - October 23, 2014)
• Mother Superior Nicodemus (Shushmarchenko) ^[3] (October 23, 2014 - December 28, 2017)
• Metropolitan Benjamin (Zaritsky) v / u (since December 28, 2017 ^[4] )

• From seminary to flight school // Evening Orenburg. - No. 31. - July 26, 2000.