Church of Saint-Louis of the French of Moscow

Saint Louis of the French in Moscow ( церковьСвятогоЛюдoвикаФранцузскоговМоскве in Russian) is a church Catholique located in full center of Moscow in the district Loubianka. The church belongs to the French parish of the same name which was at the origin of its construction.

Construction

By an agreement concluded with France on December 31st, 1786, the alive French in Russia receive the authorization to open their churches: a total freedom of confession is granted to the French subjects in Russia, and under the terms of the perfect tolerance which is granted all the religions, they can freely achieve the duties of their religion, to as well celebrate the offices according to their rite in their houses as in their churches, without never encountering for that any difficulty.

The shortly after the catch of the Bastille to Paris, the vice-consul from France to Moscow, Mr Condert de Bosse, asks for the empress the permission of build a French church in Moscow. The parish Saint-Louis-of-French in Moscow was created by Catherine II in 1789 by a decree addressed to the Eropkine general, commander-in-chief in Moscow and responsible for the religious questions. The authorization to build is granted on December 5th, 1789 on a ground located in full heart of Moscow in the German suburb.

While waiting for that are joined together the sufficient funds to raise the church, French celebrates their offices in the house of the vice-consul. It is only with beginning of the year 1830 that the current church is high. November 24th, 1835, the French church of Saint-Louis is devoted by the vice-senior of Moscow, Igor Motchoulevski, in presence “of all the authorities of the city”.

History

After the Revolution of October, the majority of the churches of Moscow are closed or destroyed. Monseigneur Vidal, priest of Saint-Louis of 1913 to 1920, tells in sounds delivers (“ In Moscow during the first triennium ”) what was the revolution for the church, the priest and the parishioners.

The Saint-Louis-of-French church will remain one of the only churches in Moscow with being able to exert the worship under the auspices of a very cumbersome neighbor - the Tchéka (ancestor of the KGB). It will profit however from a preferential treatment: the priest will not have to give to the police chief of the people the white seals, plugs and stamps which authenticate, marriage and the death baptismal certificates of the parishioners: in addition, it does not seem only the opening of the relics, ordered by Lénine in 1922, to denounce what it called the trickery of the clergy misleading the believers by the veneration of the be-saying body of the incorruptible saints, caused incidents in Saint-Louis. Nevertheless, since the departure of Mr Vidal in 1922, Saint Louis does not have any more the serving regular one. There was no more, to ensure the worship catholic Moscow, that two priests not including/understanding as Polish and Russian, and having to provide for the spiritual needs for 25.000 to 30.000 catholics, as well for languages Frenchwoman, allemande or Italian that languages Russian or Polish.

Several times, the Soviets wanted to close Saint-Louis in spite of the sometimes heroic devotion of the parishioners. After the decree on the seizure of the invaluable goods in Russia to help the famished ones, year April 1922, the métropolite Antonin ordered that one removes the sacred vessels of the church of Saint-Louis. This ordinance did not find an echo among parishioners who joined together the money necessary to avoid the sacrilege.

The church Saint-Louis-of-French becomes, in the Twenties the hearth living of the church of all Russia. Its priest helps the priests of the parishes and the administrators apostolic who exert their ministry under difficult conditions, without reviews neither books nor theology. After the wave of diplomatic recognitions of 1924 and the arrival of a French priest, Saint-Louis is essential like the church of the diplomatic corps. When the Father Nephew arrives at Moscow in 1924, Stalin occupies the position of secretary general of the party, and the religious policy is its reserved domain. The “small father of the people” organizes masquerades blasphématoires and gives his support Aix militant atheists.

The church in Russia becomes increasingly alone after the agreement made between the Soviets and the métropolite Serge, on July 29th, 1927. It can count only on itself and returns in clandestinity. Many fathers, bishops are secretly devoted in the church of Saint-Louis.

The life of Monseigneur Magpie-Eugene Nephew, bishop of all Russies, is a true martyrdom. It is constantly followed. Soon all the members of the clergy are off-set, exiled or shot. At the same time as collectivization continues at the cost of ten million victims, the police force takes part in raids, the expropriation of the last houses and assembles lawsuits faked against the catholic priests.

The great purgings continue with martyriser the priests. After the departure in 1950 of the father Jean de Matha Thomas, the cleaned last of the Stalinist period, the load of the parish was taken by Soviet prètres orginaires Baltic States, subjected to the monitoring of the Council for the religious affairs until 1990.

Since the revolution of 1991, the church is given to the provision of the French parish. A new priest, the father Bernard Léannec, is named there after the restoration of the catholic hierarchy in Russia. The Saint-Louis-of-French church is the symbol of the Catholicisme in Russia, freedom and the religious tolerance. She was visited successively by the Général de Gaulle on December 3rd, 1944, Konrad Adenauer, the presidents Lech Walesa and Jacques Chirac, and of aures political personalities and nuns.

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