“Faithfully loyal to Your Imperial Highness...” Letters of bishop Grigoriy (Grabbe) to grand prince Vladimir Kirillovich (1971–1991)
Abstract
This article makes public letters of Bishop Grigoriy (Grabbe; prior to 1979, protopresbyter Georgiy). The author of these letters was for several decades secretary of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad and Ruler of the affairs of the Synodal offi ce of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. In the 1960s — early 1980s, he had a great power that sometimes exceeded the power of the Chairman of the Synod of bishops, Metropolitan Filaret (Voznesensky). The recipient of the letters is Grand Prince Kirill Vladimirovich Romanov. Although in 1939, the Russian Church Abroad actually recognised this person as the spiritual leader of the future free Russia, in the post-war years the attitude to him deteriorated. The correspondence was conducted against the background of protests by representatives of the house of the Romanovs, who did not agree with Vladimir Kirillovich’s claims to the throne. The author of the letters, being a supporter of Vladimir Kirillovich, tried to support him. The correspondence is also interesting because it refl ects important events in the life of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad in those years. This is the preparation of the canonisation of new martyrs and confessors of Russia, the scandalous marriage that Revd. Grabbe performed on M. Golenevsky, calling him Tsarevich Alexei, and internal confl icts within the Russian Church Abroad. The correspondence refl ected Bishop Grigoriy’s attitude to the changes in the home country in the late 1980s and early 1990s, to Vladimir Kirillovich’s trip to the Soviet Union and his meeting with Patriarch Alexy II.
Keywords
