Catacomb Church

For the broader True Orthodox movement, see True Orthodoxy. For Christians worshipping or hiding in the catacombs of Rome during persecutions, see Catacombs of Rome § Christian catacombs.

The Catacomb Church (Russian: Катакомбная церковь, romanized: Katakombnaya tserkov') as a collective name labels those representatives of the Russian Orthodox clergy, laity, communities, monasteries, brotherhoods, etc., who for various reasons, moved to an illegal position from the 1920s onwards. In a narrow sense, the term "catacomb church" means not just illegal communities, but communities that rejected subordination to the acting patriarchal locum tenens Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) after 1927, and that adopted anti-Soviet positions. During the Cold War of 1947-1991 the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (the 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, romanized: istinno-pravoslavnaya tserkov) is synonymous with 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]

Unofficial Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, Judaic and Uniate groups in the Soviet Union also engaged in similar Catacomb-like activity.[5]

From the 1990s some (though not all) Catacomb Church groups began emerge from the "underground" and to affiliate with various more-mainstream Orthodox bodies.[6]

  1. ^ 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. ^ Parry, Ken; Melling, David J.; Brady, Dimitri; Griffith, Sidney H.; Healey, John F., eds. (2017-09-01) [1999]. "True Orthodox church". The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. pp. 498–9. doi:10.1002/9781405166584. ISBN 978-1-4051-6658-4.
  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. ^ Беглов, А. Л. (2013). "КАТАКОМБНОЕ ДВИЖЕНИЕ" [Catacomb movement]. Православная энциклопедия (in Russian). Vol. 31. Moscow: Церковно-научный центр «Православная Энциклопедия». pp. 643–650. Retrieved 8 July 2024. В регионах традиц. распространения ислама действовало значительное количество незарегистрированных мусульм. общин, евр. население имело подпольные иудейские центры. Своя история существования в подполье была у католич. Церкви, баптистов и др. протестант. деноминаций, различных религ. объединений, не признаваемых властями. Однако термин «катакомбное движение» получил распространение в публицистической, в мемуарной и отчасти в исторической лит-ре только применительно к РПЦ (включая близкие к ней по традиции религ. группы).
  6. ^ Sidorov, Dmitri (1 January 2001). Orthodoxy and Difference: Essays on the Geography of Russian Orthodox Church(es) in the 20th Century. Princeton Theological Monograph Series, volume 46. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers. pp. 145, 183. ISBN 9781725242272. Retrieved 8 July 2024. [...] the Foreign Church lost some of its Catacomb communities in Russia. In 1993 the Catacomb Church broke this affiliation in protest against the Foreign Church's acceptance of former priests of the ROCh [...]. [...] There are several Catacomb communities in Moscow. After being denied access to property, many again returned to a semi-underground status, functioning out of the homes of believers.