Orthodox Church of the Czech lands and Slovakia

It was founded on the territory of the Great Moravian Principality in 863 by the works of Saints Cyril and Methodius . However, after the death of the Thessalonica brothers, the initiative passed to the supporters of the Latin rite . In the future, Orthodoxy was retained only within the Mukachevo eparchy , which covered mainly the territory of Subcarpathian Rus (the current Transcarpathian region of Ukraine). However, as a result of the Uzhgorod Union in 1646, most of the priests of this diocese entered into union with the Catholic Church .

In the XIX century, the first Orthodox communities began to organize. In 1903 the Orthodox Conversation Society was established in Prague. In 1920, thanks to the Serbian initiative in the Carpathians , Orthodox parishes re-emerged under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Orthodox Church (TWC).

In the period between the First and Second World Wars there were several Orthodox jurisdictions on the territory of Czechoslovakia . The most numerous was the group subordinated to the Serbian Orthodox Church .

On September 25, 1921, the Patriarch Serbian Demetrius ordained Gorazd Pavlik to the Czech-Moravian bishops.

In 1929, the SEC created two dioceses in Czechoslovakia - the Czech one with its center in Prague and the Mukachevo-Presevo one with its center in Mukachevo .

In 1942, Bishop Gorazd and several clerics for hiding the murderers of Reinhard Heydrich were shot. The Czech Orthodox Church was banned, its property confiscated, the temples closed, the clergy subjected to arrest and detention.

After the war in 1946, the Czechoslovak Orthodox Church passed from Serbian jurisdiction under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate and was organized into an exarchate . The final decision of the jurisdictional issue can be considered the definition of the Holy Synod of the TWO of May 15, 1948.

After the closure of the monastery of St. Job of Pochaev in Ladomirova in 1946, not a single Orthodox monastery remained in Czechoslovakia.

On November 14, 1948, a theological seminary was founded in Karlovy Vary . The following year she was transferred to Prague. ^[4]

On December 7, 1949, by the decision of the diocesan meeting held in Prague, the Czech Orthodox diocese was divided into two separate dioceses: Prague and Olomouc-Brno .

On January 30, 1950, the Council of Ministers of the USSR, in a secret decree, declared the necessity of granting independence (autocephaly) to the Orthodox Church in Czechoslovakia ^[5] .

On April 28, 1950, in Presov, under pressure from the authorities, a council of Greek Catholic clergy and believers was convened, which announced the abolition of the Uzhgorod Union of 1646 and 1649 and its reunification with the Orthodox Church. In connection with the increase in the flock on the territory of Slovakia, two dioceses were created - Presevska , headed by Bishop Aleksiy (Dekhtyarev) and Mikhailovskaya, headed by Bishop Alexander (Mihalich) .

In the same year, the seminary was transformed into an Orthodox theological faculty and transferred to Presov in Slovakia, and therefore the problem of the spiritual enlightenment of former Greek Catholics became particularly relevant ^[6] .

On October 8, 1951, Patriarch Alexy I and the Holy Synod, at the request of the Council of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in Czechoslovakia, gave preliminary consent to the autocephaly of the latter ^[7] .

On November 23, 1951, on behalf of the Patriarch and the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Patriarchate signed the Act on the granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Czechoslovakia ^[8] . However, the Patriarchate of Constantinople did not recognize this autocephaly, believing that the Russian Church did not have the right to its talent, because since the times of Saints Cyril and Methodius, the Czech Church was under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople ^[9] .

In 1968, during the Prague Spring , the Greek Catholic Church was legalized. This fact, coupled with mass discontent with the invasion of the Soviet troops , given that Orthodoxy in the mass consciousness was associated primarily with Russia, led to the mass transition of many believers of Eastern Slovakia among Orthodox believers ^[10] .

According to the 1991 census, about 53 thousand Orthodox believers lived in the territory of the Czech Republic and Slovakia - about 0.34% of the 15.6 million population, the majority in the territory of Slovakia.

In connection with the projected collapse of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, the Local Council of the Czechoslovak Orthodox Church, held on December 11-12 in Prešov, spoke in favor of preserving a single autocephalous Church, spreading its jurisdiction in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. However, for political reasons, it was decided to rename the Church into the Orthodox Church in the Czech lands and Slovakia. At the same time, a new statute was adopted, according to which the united Metropolitan Council was divided into two independent bodies - the Metropolitan Council of the Czech lands in Prague and the Metropolitan Council of Slovakia in Prešov, and the head of the Church could be elected as the Archbishop of Prague and the Archbishop of Prešov. The Holy Synod and the Local Council remained unified for the whole Church. The 1992 Prešov Council made a decision on the canonization of the Moravian prince Rostislav, the initiator of the Cyril and Methodius mission among the Slavs. Celebrations on the occasion of canonization were held October 29-30, 1994 in Presov and Brno .

On August 27, 1998, the Patriarchate of Constantinople , who had not previously recognized the autocephalous status of the Czechoslovak Church, issued the Patriarchal and Synodal Tomos on the granting of autocephaly to the Holy Orthodox Church in the Czech lands and Slovakia, which was considered by Constantinople to recognize the already existing autocephaly in 1951 from the Russian Orthodox Church. In fact, the autocephaly of Patriarch Bartholomew signified the recognition of the previously established status quo , “for it is impossible to bestow what the one who is presented with an imaginary gift already possesses” ^[11] . The message of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, drawn up on July 25, 1998, states that "the receipt of autocephaly from the Russian Church by the Czechoslovak Church in 1951 was the only opportunity for survival in the communist environment." Thus, this letter did not dispute the obvious fact of the talent of the Czechoslovak Church of autocephaly by the Russian Church - a talent dictated by the maternal concern for its survival. However, in March 2012, the Patriarch of Constantinople sent to Metropolitan Christopher (Pulets) his protest over the celebration of the 60th anniversary of autocephaly as illegal in December 2011 ^[12] , and therefore the Metropolitan Christopher brought his explanations to the Constantinople Patriarch ^[13] . They boiled down to the fact that there was no celebration of the 60th anniversary of autocephaly, and only the representative of the Moscow Patriarchate spoke about autocephaly received from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1951 from the pulpit .

According to the 2001 census in Slovakia, there were 50,363 believers. , Orthodox are most numerous in the Prešov region (4% of the population, especially in the regions of Medzilaborce (29%), Snina (21.1%), Svidnik (19.8%)) and Košice ((1, 8% of the population). There were 23,053 Orthodox believers in the Czech Republic ^[14] . The four dioceses of the Church united 166 parishes with 184 temples. Of all the traditional religious associations of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the Orthodox Church is considered the Church with the fastest growing number of believers ^[15] . After the death of Metropolitan Nicholas (Kotsvara) in 2006, Christopher (Pulets) became head of the Church.

In 2007, there were 249 parishes (78 in the Czech Republic and 171 in Slovakia), served by 197 priests and deacons ^[14] .

According to estimates by the primate of the church, Metropolitan Christopher, in 2011 there are approximately 100,000 Orthodox Christians in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The institute of monasticism is very small. However, in recent decades, several small monasteries and hermitages were founded by the labors of Metropolitans Dorotheus and Christopher ^[16] .

In 2013, the Primate of the Czechoslovak Church, Metropolitan Christopher, was forced to retire due to the mass media campaign against him , which marked the beginning of the crisis in the Orthodox Church of the Czech lands and Slovakia. Until the election of the new Primate as the locum tenens of the Czechoslovak Department, Simeon (Yakovlevich), Archbishop of Olomouc and Brno, was appointed. However, disagreements arose between the members of the Synod, and since Archbishop Simeon remained in the minority, he attempted to invite two bishops of the Constantinople church, the Metropolitan of Galsky, Emanuel (Adamacis) and Vienna Arseny (Kardamakis) , to balance the votes of his opponents .

After Archbishop Simeon declared that two bishops of Constantinople would have the right to vote at the Synod, three other members of the Synod decided to dismiss him, electing Archbishop Rotovislav Presovsky (Gaunt) to take his place.

Despite the discontent The Patriarchate of Constantinople and the statements of Archbishop Simeon, who declared all other members of the Synod dissenters, the subsequent Local Council of the Orthodox Church of the Czech lands and Slovakia supported Vladyka Rostislav and elected him to the pulpit Primate, which was not recognized by Archbishop Simeon, which was supported by the Czech authorities. With Metropolitan Rostislav and the hierarchs who supported him, Constantinople interrupted all communication.

On February 6, 2015, a meeting was held in Vienna, in which, in addition to Vladyka Simeon, the bishops of the Constantinople Patriarchate, the Metropolitan of Gallic Emanuel and Vienna Arsenius, took part. During the meeting, a decision was made on the episcopal consecration of Archimandrite Isaiah (Slannky) in order to create an "alternative synod" of the Orthodox Church of the Czech lands and Slovakia. On February 22nd, the consecration of the Vicar Bishop of Sumperk Isaiah (Slaninki) took place at the Cathedral in Brno ^[17] .

• Rostislav (Gont) , Archbishop Prešovski , Metropolitan of the Czech Lands and Slovakia
• Joachim (Grdi) , Archbishop of Beroun
• Michael (Dandar) , Archbishop of Prague
• Simeon (Yakovlevich) , Archbishop of Olomouc and Brno
• George (Stransky) , Archbishop Mikhalovsky and Košytsky
• Isaiah (Slaninka) , Bishop of Sumperk

• Eleutherius (Vorontsov) (December 8, 1951 - November 28, 1955)
• John (Kukhtin) (May 17, 1956 - October 23, 1964)
• Dorofei (Philip) (October 25, 1964 - December 30, 1999)
• Nikolay (Kotsvar) (April 14, 2000 - January 30, 2006)
• Christopher (Pulets) (May 28, 2006 - April 12, 2013)
• Simeon (Yakovlevich) (April 12 - December 9, 2013), from the point of view of the Patriarchate of Constantinople: from April 12, 2013 to January 14, 2016, w / c, Archbishop. Olomouc Brno
• Rostislav (Gont) (from January 11, 2014) to / from December 9, 2013

• The Church of St. Nicholas in Kotelniki is the compound of the Orthodox Church of the Czech lands and Slovakia in Moscow

• Prague Diocese - Diocese of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia
• Pravoslávna cirkev na Slovensku (Orthodox Church in Slovakia) . Official website in Slovak.
• Magazine Icon
• Journal "Voice of Orthodoxy"
• Vladimir Burega. Orthodox Church of the Czech lands and Slovakia. Historical excursion // Orthodoxy.Ru
• Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia (inaccessible link from 14-06-2016 [1147 days]) // Encyclopedia "Religion"
• Orthodox parish in Bratislava
• Compound of the Orthodox Church of the Czech lands and Slovakia in Moscow
• Czechoslovak Orthodox Church: the path to autocephaly
• Orthodox Czechoslovakia 1/2 2/2