Church of the Resurrection of Christ (Rabat)

In the 1920s, Russian immigrants from Tunisia , France , Yugoslavia and Bulgaria arrived in Morocco, divided into French and Spanish protectorates . Among them were warriors of the Foreign Legion , sailors of the Russian squadron from Bizerta , engineers and other emigrants of various classes.

According to the memoirs of the head of the Russian Western European parishes, Metropolitan Eulogius (Georgievsky) , who was also in charge of Morocco as a French possession, the parish in Rabat arose in 1925, originally located in an empty hut converted into a church ^[1] . In 1927, Metropolitan Evlogy (George) at the request of the Russian community was commanded by Barsanuphius (Tolstukhin) , a former inhabitant of the Valaam monastery ^{[2] [1] [3]} .

Father Barsanuphius organized a parish in Morocco, the basis for which was the Orthodox community, registered as a society Eglise orthodoxe et foyer russe au Maroc in 1927. In this regard, Metropolitan Eulogius asked for a blessing from the Patriarch of Alexandria Meletius , who approved the opening of the Russian parish ^[4] .

The first liturgy , served in Rabat by Father Barsanuphius, was received with great enthusiasm by Orthodox believers:

This Orthodox church in a modest hut marked a historically important event - the emergence of Orthodoxy again in this part of Africa. How many centuries!

- Metropolitan Eulogius. The path of my life ^[1]

Since Russian emigrants lived and worked not only in Rabat, but also in other cities, Russian parishes soon opened in Morocco: Holy Trinity Church in Khurib (the church was consecrated October 19, 1930), Assumption Cathedral in Casablanca (1933), and in Marrakesh chapel of St. Sergius (1932).

To help Father Barsanuphius, Metropolitan Eulogius sent clerics from Paris : Hieromonk Abraham (Tereshkevich) (arrived in 1930 and served until 1937 as rector of the church in Khuribga, after which he left for France) ^{[5] [6]} and Alexander (Tyumenev) (arrived in 1930, he served as assistant rector of the church in Rabat until his death in 1943), deacon Nikolai Shkarin (arrived in 1932, was involved in organizing the parish choir in Rabat) ^[7] . Priests regularly visited Russian communities throughout Morocco. In 1931, for the first time in the modern history of Morocco, the Easter service was held immediately in three cities: Rabat, Khuribge and Casablanca ^[8] .

For many years, daily divine services were held in the main parishes of Morocco in Rabat and in Khouribga (until 1943), in Casablanca - twice a month, in Kenitra - once a month.

In the 1920s and 30s, Russian emigrants did not have sufficient funds to acquire a land plot for the construction of the church. Divine services were held in a temporary hut. The appearance of the majestic Resurrection Church was one amazing case.

A notable resident of Rabat, Sheriff Hussein Jabli, married to Russian citizen Elena Alekseevna Bezrukova (married to El Aydouni Djebli el Alami , and Khadija Muslims) ^[9] , suffered a serious illness. When the medical supplies were exhausted, and the disease did not recede, on the advice of his Russian wife, the Moroccan called his father Barsanuphius to him and asked him to pray. After the moleben performed by the Orthodox priest, Jebley recovered. In gratitude, he donated a plot of land to the Russian community for the construction of the temple. On December 12, 1929, a deed of sale was issued, where a symbolic amount of one franc was listed. It specified that the land can only be used for the construction of a Russian Orthodox church.

In the Russian community began collecting donations for construction. To this end, even charity Russian evenings were organized with a theatrical program and balls, which were popular with Arabs and French. Metropolitan Eulogius recalled this: “we can say without exaggeration - our girls danced with their legs, - they built our wonderful temple in Rabat” ^[1] .

The laying of the church took place on July 5-6, 1931 on the day of the celebration of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God . The construction of the snow-white church in honor of the Resurrection of Christ in simple Arabic ^[2] (according to other sources, in the Moorish ^[1] or Moorish-Byzantine ^[2] style) lasted a little over a year.

November 13, 1932 ^{[10] [11]} Metropolitan Eulogius consecrated the Resurrection Church. The Metropolitan was accompanied by the rector of the church (elevated to the rank of archimandrite ), Hieromonk Avraamy and Alexander, deacon Evgeny Vdovenko, who arrived from Paris, as well as the rector of the Greek Church of the Annunciation in Casablanca, Archimandrite Dimitri, who read out the congratulations of Patriarch Meletius . Representatives of the civil authorities and Christian communities of Morocco attended the service.

At the expense of A.F. Stefanovsky , a long-time warden of the parish, a bell tower was added to the church in December 1932.

Since 1933, a Charity Committee began to operate at the church, providing assistance with Russian money and things, scattered throughout the country.

The parish in Rabat was all-Moroccan and united as of 1931 about 280 families in different cities ^[8] .

The parish choir, created by the efforts of Deacon Nikolai Shkarin and Peter Petrovich Sheremetev ^[12] , performed with concerts throughout Morocco. The French also sang in the choir, reaching for Russian spiritual culture ^{[13] [14]} .

During World War II, part of the Russian refugees began to sympathize with the idea of ​​transferring to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate . Together with Metropolitan Eulogius in Paris, the clergy and parishes of Morocco decided to transfer to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. Hoping for profound changes in the USSR , Archimandrite Barsanuphius (Tolstukhin) , rector of the temple in Rabat, accepted Soviet citizenship .

A number of members of the Casablanca community (Admiral A.I. Rusin , Princess V.V. Urusov, and others), nourished by the clergy from Rabat, expressed their disagreement with this decision and turned to the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Church Abroad (ROCOR) with a request to appoint priest in Casablanca. Hundreds of second-wave immigrants who arrived from European camps for displaced persons ^[15] , most of whom settled in the suburbs of Casablanca Burnazel, joined these esteemed representatives of white emigration. The ROCA regarded parishes in Morocco as its own ^[16] , so it was not slow to send its representative to Casablanca. Such was Archpriest Mitrofan Znosko , who had previously served in the church at Camp Mönchegof ^[17] .

Archpriest Mitrofan Znosko arrived in Casablanca on September 2, 1948. From that moment, the parishes of Rabat and Casablanca were in a state of many years of confrontation. This confrontation was aggravated by the fact that until the 1950s the ROCOR community was much more numerous than the arrival of the Moscow Patriarchate in Rabat. In addition, from the 1950s to the 1970s, a parallel eponymous parish of the ROCOR was operating in Rabat in a temporary building. The Casablanca asset was exploring the possibility of legal rejection of the “magnificent” ^[18] Resurrection Church of Rabat from the “Soviet” Patriarchate. There is a long public correspondence between two Mitrofans, rectors of the MP parish in Rabat and the ROCOR parish in Casablanca, where each of them defends the position of his parish and his jurisdiction ^[19] . The struggle between the two communities ended with the gradual departure of representatives of white emigration to the world and the departure of former displaced persons from Morocco in 1950-1960.

The conflict between the two Russian parishes and the separation among Orthodox believers undermined the health of the builder of the slave church, Archimandrite Barsanuphius (Tolstukhin), who died in 1952. His successor and associate Archimandrite Mitrofan (Yaroslavtsev) died in 1954. Both were buried in the Orthodox chapel in the Christian cemetery of Rabat , 1 km south of the Resurrection Church.

At the end of 1952, a parish with a center in Rabat consisted of 115 people scattered in the twelve cities of Morocco, and had temples in Rabat and Khouribga. The parish clergy consisted of the abbot, archimandrite and deacon ^[20] .

In 1958, through the efforts of the chairman of the parish association of the count , V.A. Ignatiev (son of A.N. Ignatiev ), its charter was revised, which has not changed since 1927. This allowed the parish to finally get rid of claims from the ROCA. After the death of Archimandrite Mitrofan in 1954, the priest Vasily Solnyshkin, who was sent from the West European exarchate , became rector. In the same year, Deacon Nikolai Shkarin was ordained to be a priest.

During the long reign of Hieromonk Vladimir (Balin, archimandrite from July 17, 1964), close relations were established with representatives of other Christian denominations registered in Morocco (within the framework of the Council of the Churches of the Kingdom). In 1960–61, under the guidance of Count Ignatiev, the first reconstruction of the temple was carried out. During this period, Morocco was first visited by two governors of the West European exarchate: Metropolitan Nikolai (Eremin) (June 29 - July 8, 1960) and Anthony (Bloom) .

Since Morocco gained independence, the Orthodox communities in the kingdom began to disappear due to the departure of Russians partly to Europe, partly to America. The communities of Khuribgi, Marrakesh, Fez, Meknes and Tangier, and with them the temporary Orthodox churches and chapels in these cities ceased to exist. ROCA parishes in Rabat and Casablanca closed behind them ^[21] .

By a synodal decision of December 15, 1972, Morocco was removed from the jurisdiction of the West European Exarchate and transferred to the care of the Department for External Church Relations . From that moment on, the priesthood of the rabbinical parish was appointed directly from Moscow.

Due to the small number of parishes in Rabat, the question of closing the Resurrection Church was repeatedly raised. However, it was possible to maintain it thanks to the constant presence of clergymen appointed from Moscow and a new stream of emigration in 1980-2000.

In 2010–2015, the next reconstruction of the temple was carried out. In 2010–11, the walls of the church were covered with frescoes by the Moscow icon painters of the Joy wall painting artel ^[22] , a new stone iconostasis was made for the church, and a number of unique icons were painted (including the holy martyrs Markell and Cassian of Tangiers ). In 2013–14, the base, facade and domes of the temple were reconstructed. In 2015, a khoros was installed, made in the workshop of Kavida .

Other clergy, assigned at different times to the slave church: hieromonk Alexander (Tyumenev, from 1930 to 1943), priest Georgy Chretien (February 1 - December 1, 1956), priest G. Fedorov.

• Assumption Church (Casablanca)

• Resurrection Parish official Facebook page
•   Video channel “Russian Church in Morocco” on YouTube