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This article examines the specifics of missionary activity of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Don Army Region at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. The feature of this region of the Russian Empire, which hampered the missionary work on its territory, was the ethnic heterogeneity of its population and religious subordination to two different dioceses: the Don and Novocherkassk Eparchy, and the Yekaterinoslav and Taganrog Eparchy. This period of the country’s domestic history is marked by an active growth of various sectarian groups and movements. To combat them, the church authorities took different actions, both national and local, which are outlined in this article. The prominent growth of sectarianism in the South of Russia required the bishops of southern eparchies to gather in Kiev. The Orthodox Missionary Society was opened in Saint Petersburg to counteract the sectarians, and eparchial missionary committees subordinate to the Society were established in many dioceses. To prepare missionaries, the theological seminaries opened Missiology departments where students not only studied the theoretical foundations but also participated in disputes with sectarians. In addition, the eparchies created a new staff position of an eparchial travelling missionary. The eparchies were divided into missionary districts, and each of them had a separate missionary subordinate to the eparchial missionary. Another means of countering the spread of sectarianism was the supply of central and parish libraries with anti-sectarian books and manuals. One of the forms of the Russian Orthodox Church’s missionary activity was the creation of religious and educational brotherhoods, some kind of charitable organizations. Different settlements started to run the pastoral and missionary courses aimed at combating the sectarians and at educating people. To help the eparchial bishops, the Most Holy Governing Synod started the Vicarial Chairs. The Right Reverend Flavian (Gorodetsky), the Bishop of Aksay and Vicar of the Don Eparchy, was appointed to the Don Eparchy. In the Yekaterinoslav Eparchy, the Chair of Vicar Bishop appeared in Taganrog, where Bishop Theophylact (Klimentiev) was appointed. A special form of mission in the Don Region was the invitation for interviews of former Old Believers who had converted to the Orthodox Church. |
