Maxim Viktorovich Pulkin,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Federal Research Center “Karelian Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences”, Petrozavodsk, Russia; Petrozavodsk State University, Petrozavodsk, Russia, e‑mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Diocesan Bishop in the Middle of the 18th – Beginning of the 20th Century: A Circle of Concerns and the Boundaries of Competence (Based on the Materials of the Olonets Diocese)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2022-2-11
The article examines the main patterns and directions of activity of diocesan bishops. It was revealed that the main spheres of work of archpastors were the solution of personnel issues (care for training the clergy and filling vacancies at churches), the problem of forming the material foundations of religious life (building churches, replenishing church property) and developing the system of church education. The volume of creative work gradually increased, along with the volume of business documentation, since the Synod demanded that the bishops draw up annual reports on the main difficulties and achievements in the sphere of religious life of the dioceses entrusted to them. Missionary activity became a matter of concern for the archpastors. On the one hand, it included the introduction to Orthodoxy of representatives of the Finno-Ugric peoples (Karelians and Vepsians), on the other hand, it was connected with the reunification of the Old Believers with the ruling church. All of these duties required constant constructive interaction with numerous secular authorities, local peasant communities, and the Synod.
Publishing: 28/04/2022
The article has been received by the editor on 02.11.2021
How to cite: Pulkin M.V. Diocesan Bishop in the Middle of the 18th – Beginning of the 20th Century: A Circle of Concerns and the Boundaries of Competence (Based on the Materials of the Olonets Diocese) // Historical Courier, 2022, No. 2 (22), pp. 177–187. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2022/ISTKURIER-2022-2-11.pdf]
The financial support of the research was carried out from the federal budget to fulfill the state task of the KarSC RAS on the topic: “Karelia in the Conditions of Social Transformations of the 17th–21st Centuries: new Approaches and Interpretations” (state registration number 121070700117-1).
Links: Issue 2 2022
Keywords: bishop, Orthodoxy, clergy, parish, archpastor, Christianity, administration