Orthodox History

St. Anatole Kamenskii: A Guest Post by Fr. Andrew Morbey

Originally, the following was made as a comment over on Frontier Orthodoxy, but I (Fr. Oliver) have asked Fr. Andrew Morbey to write it up as a separate post because I think it is good reading for everyone. I had forgotten that I had been told that Kamenskii was canonized. I...

Orthodoxy in Alaska after 1885 and Protestant Missionaries

The Russian Orthodoxy course I am teaching at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, is drawing to a close. Since I am the instructor, we devoted part of that course to an introduction to the Russian Mission in North America and another part to Orthodoxy in America more generally. So, to...

Fr. Antony Hill: the second black Orthodox priest in America

After a week's worth of articles on the Archbishop Arseny criminal libel case, I thought I'd break things up a bit by looking at something completely different -- the story of Fr. Antony Hill, the second black Orthodox priest in America. By now, a lot of people know that Fr....

The Archbishop Arseny Trial Transcript

Last week, Fr. Oliver Herbel wrote a series of articles on the 1909 criminal libel trial involving Archimandrite (later Archbishop) Arseny Chagovtsov, who is currently being considered for canonization by the OCA. Fr. Oliver's summary may be found at the following links: Part 1 - Introduction Part 2 - the...

Archbishop Arseny Addendum

As an addendum, I would like to make a couple notes. First, I should state that there are aspects of the case and testimonies that I have not highlighted that may deserve further scrutiny and there are some details I have examined and/or questioned about which I could be wrong. ...

Some Mildly Humorous Quotes from the Criminal Trial

The court transcript includes some mildly humorous lines. Obviously, they're more humorous to those who are reading along through the entire transcript, but they're good enough that I thought maybe after all I've posted, a few lines to lighten things a bit might be acceptable. The first is a zinger...

Archbishop Arseny Post 4: The Defense Completes its Case

First, by way of a quick preface, I want to note the name of Archbishop Arseny's wife: Paraskevya [see the vita by Fr. John Hainsworth, also available in hard copy through Alexander Press]. I noticed I had not mentioned her name and she does have one. Paraskevya is not just...

Archbishop Arseny Post 3: Clarifications and the Defense Begins its Case

Before I continue, I want to add a couple of words of clarification from the last post: First, I suggested that relative to the documents the canonization committee claims it has, Arseny perjured himself. Here is how I came to that conclusion. The documents the canonization committee says it has...

The Criminal Libel Trial and Archbishop Arseny, Part 2

Well, this project has become a little lengthier than I intended, so the number of postings may be increasing. I do sincerely apologize for this. I simply did not want to throw together too long of a post. In this post, I am going to provide an analysis of the...

Archbishop Arseny’s Canonization, Part 1: Introducing His Alleged Rape of Mary Krinitsky and the Subsequent Criminal Libel Case

Dear Readers, This is the first of a three part series looking into a court case that relates to Archbishop Arseny (1866-1945), who is being considered for canonizatiion as an Orthodox saint by the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). Those wanting a bit of a biography may check out the...