The Friars-Preachers in Russia III

Extract

During the reign of Alexander I the position of the Catholic Church in Russia was a peculiar one. Not only did the Government consider itself called to rule the Church, but also to safeguard the purity of her faith from any alien influence, including the Pope’s. Thus, in 1822, the Emperor decreed the expulsion from Russia of Fr. Lindl, Rector of the Church in Odessa, for ‘preaching a creed which was not in accordance with the dogmas of the Latin faith,’ but at the same time the Russian Ambassador Italinsky was admonished for accepting from the Vatican a confidential note, demanding Lindl’s expulsion.

The Russian Dominicans figured in another example of this solicitude of the Government for the Catholic Church. As we have seen previously, the Monastic Orders were compelled to participate in the cost of primary and higher education and other useful institutions, having, however, little to do with religious life. A Conference of representatives of the Catholic Church was convened by Chatzky, visitor of the schools of Volhynia, Podolia and Kiev, in Luck, on October 20th, 1803, at which the expenses of maintaining the schools in these provinces were divided amongst the Orders. The Dominicans had to support (a) one district school in Staro-Constantinov; (b) twenty primary schools; (c) three scholarships in the Vilna University for preparing teachers; (d) pay 1,000 zloty for the maintenance of the botanical garden; (e) maintain two metereological stations; (f) hand over to the Ministry of Public Education the foundation for the education of pupils in Rome; (g) print in their printing office in Luck a hundred books for the Volhynia secondary school, also give to the same school four copies of every book which had been published there.