Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2023 7:00:20 GMT
On the 25th of August, 2023, Pope Francis appeared via video-conference at the conference of Russian Catholic youth held in Saint Petersburg. After encouraging the youth of Russia to work for peace and to follow the example of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, the Pope said:
“Never forget the legacy. You are the heirs of great Russia: great Russia of saints, rulers, great Russia of Peter I, Catherine II, that empire - great, enlightened, country of great culture and great humanity. Never give up this legacy, you are the heirs of the great Mother Russia, go ahead with it. And thank you – thank you for your way of being, for your way of being Russians.”
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bluekumul
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Christian humanist, democratic socialist, world citizen
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Post by bluekumul on Aug 28, 2023 10:30:25 GMT
Peter I and Catherine II were certainly respectable leaders. They were imperialistic, but in the positive sense of unifying large areas under one government and spreading civilization. IIRC Catherine II encouraged Tartars to convert to Christianity. I've watched a really impressive movie on Empress Catherine: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_the_Great_(2015_TV_series)"Empire" as such is neither good or bad, and judgement must depend only on the goals it is used for. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2023 10:50:38 GMT
Peter I, I will say, had some issues around the fact that he could not stand the idea of there being a Patriarch. Even though New Rome granted to Russia a Patriarch, Peter the Great was having none of it. He got rid of the Patriarch, and in fact from his reign until the election of Patriarch Tikhon in 1917, the Russian Orthodox Church was governed almost along English or German Protestant lines. The de jure leader was the Obercurator, a layman appointed by the Tsar, who controlled the Most Holy Synod and dictated its policy.
The great 20th century Patriarch Alexy I, who served as Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia from 1945 until 1970, was appointed a bishop personally by Emperor Nicholas II in 1913 (yes, he served 57 years as a bishop under every leader from Nicholas II to Brezhnev).
Patriarch Tikhon, to whom I was referred before, was the first Patriarch after Peter the Great abolished the Patriarchate. Tikhon, who died in 1925, was famous for his many years as a bishop in the United States. He lived in San Francisco and then in New York, and established some of the first Orthodox communities in Chicago, various cities in Ohio, etc. Then he returned to Russia around 1906 and was elected Patriarch in 1917 after the abolition of the monarchy.
One of the most famous pictures is of Tikhon at the consecration of an Episcopal bishop in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
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