Navigation – Plan du site

AccueilNumérosVol. 20 n° 1DossierThe Holy Trinity “Russian” Church...

Dossier

The Holy Trinity “Russian” Church in Athens: From a Russian Embassy Church to a Greek Orthodox Parish (19th–21st Centuries)

L’Église russe à Athènes : d’une église d’ambassade russe à une paroisse grecque orthodoxe (xixe-xxie siècles)
Kira Kaurinkoski

Résumés

L’église « russe » de la Sainte-Trinité d’Athènes est l’église byzantine la plus remarquable de la capitale grecque. Datant du xie siècle, elle fut concédée en 1847 par le roi Othon de Grèce au gouvernement russe pour subvenir aux besoins religieux de la communauté russe d’Athènes, à condition qu’elle soit reconstruite dans son état d’origine. Après l’établissement de relations diplomatiques entre la Grèce et l’URSS en 1924, elle passa sous la juridiction de l’archevêque d’Athènes. Cet article offre un aperçu de l’histoire cette église du xixe siècle à nos jours, tout en prenant en compte les développements plus récents, depuis la dissolution de l’Union soviétique jusqu’à la guerre de la Russie contre l’Ukraine.

Haut de page

Texte intégral

I extend my gratitude to Andrea Gritti, Detelina Tocheva, and the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this text. I also express my gratitude to Patty A. Gray for her professional English language editing.

Introduction

  • 1  In this article, the Holy Trinity Russian Church refers to the period 18471919 when the church wa (...)
  • 2  Colloquially, the Soviet Union and the Newly Independent states (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Geo (...)
  • 3  Currently, the choir is composed of both professional and amateur singers. The maestro, Valery Ore (...)

In 2025, the Holy Trinity Church1 in Filellinon Street, or the Russian church, as it is popularly known, is celebrating a thousand years of operation. In this church, the hymns and services are sung in Slavonic. The reason is that Orthodox Christians from Russia2 and other Slavic countries of the Balkans are hosted there. For this purpose, priests who know the language well have been recruited, as well as a choir that sings a repertoire polyphonically.3

  • 4  The program of the celebrations includes a series of concerts, a scientific conference, and an exh (...)
  • 5  Antonin (Kapustin), Hristianskie drevnosti Grecii [Christian antiquities of Greece], Athens, 1853, (...)

1With these words, the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, ERT 3, announced a radio program dedicated to the “Russian” church in Athens, broadcast in October 2024.4 The church building, which dates to the eleventh century is the most remarkable Byzantine monument in Athens.5 In 1847, it was acquired by the Russian Empire and established as the church of the Russian Ecclesiastical mission in Athens under the jurisdiction of the Holy Synod of the Church of Russia.

  • 6  Transliteration from Russian to English follows the international standard ISO 9 (1995) transliter (...)
  • 7  Frary Lucien J., Russia and the making of modern Greek identity (1821-1844), Oxford, Oxford Univer (...)

2In a memorandum dated 24 February 1833, Prince Pëtr S. Meŝerskij,6 chief procurator of the Russian Holy Synod, wrote that “our August Monarch deigned it opportune to revive our spiritual relations with this country [Greece] and to build a strong foundation for the spiritual influence which belongs exclusively to Russia and which no other power has or should have.”7

  • 8  On the formation of the Kingdom of Greece and the role of the Great Powers, e.g., Clogg Richard, G (...)
  • 9  Frary, Russia and the making…, op. cit.

3Since the Kuçuk-Kainardji Treaty of 1774, Russia had professed a special right to intervene in the affairs of Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire. Moreover, as one of the guarantor powers of the newly established Greek Kingdom (together with Great Britain and France), Russia took a special interest in its affairs.8 By declaring the church to be autocephalous in 1833, the Greek government unilaterally broke with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, placing the church under the authority of a permanent five-member Synod of Bishops and King Othon of Greece (18331862), a Bavarian Catholic. This did not please the Tsar, who was concerned for the conditions and fate of the Greek people and their church. The formation of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Athens in 1833 was a reaction to these developments.9

  • 10  Ibid., p. 125-127, 129.

4The Russian Ecclesiastical Mission was to consist of an archimandrite, a deacon, two clergymen, and eight cantors. The next step involved the material needs of the mission, including liturgical vestments, material for the iconostasis, mitres, icons, crosses, Bibles, plates, candles, lamps, and other items for the celebration of the liturgy. The items were deposited into ten wooden crates and delivered to Greece via Odessa and Constantinople under the responsibility of the Asiatic department of the Foreign Ministry, which made the most important decisions regarding the ecclesiastical mission. On 4 March 1833, it agreed to a total of 100,000 rubles for the ecclesiastical mission, the reconstruction of destroyed churches in Greece, and for aid to poor clergy. The members of the mission were equipped with over fifty prayer books, collections of songs, hymns, and canons, books of the church fathers, service manuals, and other texts of a religious and theological nature. 10

  • 11  Ibid., p. 148.

5The first priest of the mission was Archimandrite Irinarh (Ȃkov Dmitrevič Popov, 1790–1877), a preacher who had previously served in Italy. He arrived in Greece in September 1833, but already two years later was forced to return to Russia for health reasons. Upon his return to St. Petersburg, the Holy Synod sent Irinarh to Tolgskij Monastery with the order to write a detailed report on the condition of the church in the Kingdom of Greece. The report was later forwarded to the foreign ministry. Irinarh remarked that the Church of Greece was undergoing a profound crisis, claiming that the Greek clergy was not in position to correct the Bavarian church legislation independently, because they were uneducated, indifferent, and overwhelmed by the influence of non-believers. Moreover, Irinarh discussed, in detail, the dissolution decrees, the abolition of eparchies, the spread of missionaries, and Protestant book publishing. He concluded that the government was unsympathetic to religion and worse, sent students to Munich to learn foreign ways. The Tsar read Irinarh’s evaluation with profound dismay.11

  • 12  Further repair work was undertaken by the Greek authorities in 1908, after which the church became (...)
  • 13  Krûkov A. M., Petrunina O. E., “Russkaâ obŝina v A. (c. Presv. Troicy)” [The Russian community in (...)

6The Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested that the next person appointed by the Holy Synod to serve in Greece be of “proven morality, primarily from among the monastics, not young and with sufficient knowledge of the Greek language.” Hieromonk A. Anikita (Sergej Alexandrovič Širinskij-Šihmatov, 1783–1837) spent less than a year in Greece, where he died in 1837. After the death of Anikita, Hieromonk Anatolij (Zografskij) was invited to serve as part of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Athens. In 1843, he left Athens and settled in Athos. In 1843, Archimandrite Polikarp (Radkevič, 1798–1867), formerly rector of the Smolensk Theological Seminary and abbot of the Avraamev Smolensk monastery for men, was appointed to serve in Greece. He decided to build a separate church for the Russian community in Athens and achieved that. In 1847 the Greek government transferred the ancient church of Sotira Lykodemos to Russia. In the years 1834–1847, the Russian community was hosted in the Transfiguration Church in Kydathinaion Street, originally built in the thirteenth century and restored in 1835–1837 with Russian funds.12 In the Transfiguration Church, two separate liturgies were celebrated, one in Greek and a second one in Slavonic. In those days, the Russian embassy was located nearby, in the building currently housing the Greek Folk Art Museum.13

7In 1924, after the establishment of diplomatic relations between Greece and the USSR, the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church came under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Athens.

  • 14  Antonin (Kapustin), O drevnih hristianskih nadpisâh v Afinah [On ancient Christian inscriptions in (...)
  • 15  Kitromilidis Paschalis, “Apo tīn orthodoxī koinopoliteia stis ethnikes koinotītes: Ellīno-Rossikes (...)
  • 16  Divani Lena, “The Russian Refugees in Greece,” Balkan Studies, vol. 35, 1994, p. 47-69; Žalnina-Va (...)

8This article provides an overview of the history of the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church in Athens from the nineteenth century to the present day, based on secondary sources and scholarship available in Greek, English, French, and Russian.14 Ecclesiastical relations between Greece and Russia in the nineteenth century have been explored by Paschalis Kitromilides, Lucien J. Frary, and Olga Sokolovskaâ.15 The pioneering research conducted by Lena Divani and Irina Žalnina-Vasil’kioti on Russian emigration to Greece in the early twentieth century sheds valuable light on the Russian community in Athens following the 1917 Revolution.16 The article also accounts for more recent developments and changes in jurisdiction and composition of the parish, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and continuing up to Russia’s War against Ukraine, thus contributing to the existing literature.

9The article is divided into four parts. The first part gives a brief historical overview of the Holy Trinity Church in Athens. The second part presents an overview of the rectors and priests who have served the church. The third part discusses the perception of this church by the wider Greek society during different periods of time. The fourth and final part discusses the parish and the changes in its composition between the mid-nineteenth century and the present day.

The Holy Trinity “Russian” Church in Athens: A Brief Historical Overview

  • 17  Antonin, O drevnih hristianskih nadpisâh v Afinah, op. cit. These are the only surviving Byzantine (...)
  • 18  The two inscriptions recorded by Antonin refer to the years 6553 (1046), the year of death of the (...)

10Information regarding the history of the Holy Trinity Church (see Fig. 1) can be drawn from the inscriptions (akidographimata in Greek) on its walls, which were recorded and published by Archimandrite Antonin (Andrei Ivanovič Kapustin, 1817–1894) in 1874.17 Two inscriptions, on the internal south-western wall, lead us to the dating of the construction of the church at the beginning of the eleventh century, with all likelihood before 1046, the year of death of the protoktitor, Stefanos.18 The exact date of the construction of the church has not been found.

11The church was constructed over Roman baths, which during the early Christian period were converted into a small church, and later in the eleventh century, an Orthodox women’s monastery dedicated to Panagia Soteira Lykodemos (Saviouress of Lykodemos). The katholikon of the monastery is the current “Russian” church.

12During the Latin domination in the thirteenth century, the building became a Catholic women’s monastery, which was occupied by Roman Catholic Benedictine monks, who held it until 1669, when it became an Orthodox male monastery. In 1687, the church was damaged at its western part from a cannon ball during the siege of the Acropolis by the Venetian general Morosini. Further damage was caused by the 1705 earthquake, during which part of the church walls and the monastic building collapsed.

  • 19  Antonin, Hristianskie drevnosti Grecii, op. cit., p. 46.

13In 1778, the Ottoman governor of Athens, Hadzi Haseki (1775–1795), demolished many of the apartments and used the materials to raise the Haseki city wall around Athens. The katholikon was the only site that survived, becoming a metochion (a monastery dependency) of the Kaisariani Monastery. During the Greek War of Independence (1821–1829), the church sustained considerable damage from artillery shells, causing the collapse of the dome and the north-eastern façade; only the eastern wall of the altar with fragments of Byzantine frescoes survived. Being in a ruined state and covered by thick grass, the church represented an old, neglected bastion.19

14In 1847, the Russian embassy in Athens showed interest in the church and requested its concession by the Greek government to cover the devotional needs of the Russian community. The Greek government agreed on the condition that the existing church would be reconstructed in its original form.

  • 20  In this manner, the weight of the dome is divided into arches, barrel-vaults, and piers, which, in (...)
  • 21  The motifs of the individual Kufic patterns and their system of application are very similar to th (...)

15By design, the church belongs to the Byzantine octagonal style with a narthex and a gallery over the side aisles. It is the largest surviving Byzantine church in Athens and the earliest and most faithful copy of the katholikon of the Hosios Loukas monastery, measuring three quarters the size of Hosios Loukas. The large dome covering the central space of the church rests on eight arches which, when branching out, form an octagon.20 Thus, the main space of the church appears unified, and undivided, enabling the pilgrim to discern the dome decoration. The walls of the church are built with cloisonné masonry, where four-sided white stones, unusually of porous stone, are framed by thin red bricks. On the north and west sides there is a frieze with pseudo-Kufic decorations imitating letters of the old Arabic alphabet.21 A respective pseudo-Kufic frieze exists also in the bell tower (see below).

16The church is lit by large and other smaller arched double-lobed and single-lobed windows, which exist on two levels on the north and south sides, and in the arches of the Holy Step. On the west side there are three rectangular doorways with marble frames and a brick arch. Two similar doors exist on the north and south sides.

  • 22  During the reign of King Othon of Greece, numerous dilapidated small byzantine churches in Athens (...)

17Permission to restore and reconstruct the church was obtained from the Greek authorities by Archimandrite and Professor of the Kiev Theological Academy, Antonin (Kapustin), who thus continued the work of Archimandrite Polikarp. Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin) played a seminal role in the history of the church; thanks to his zeal and mediation the church was not demolished, as had initially been proposed, but repaired, while parts of it were reconstructed.22

  • 23  Roman Kuzmin and Ivan Štrom also designed the Orthodox Cathedral in rue Daru in Paris, completed i (...)
  • 24  During the restoration work, under the floor of the church, at a depth of five meters, a covered t (...)
  • 25  Though the monument was largely restored to its ancient form, it was deemed necessary to make some (...)
  • 26  Hanoune Roger, “De Douai à Rome et Athènes : un architecte oublié, Florimond Boulanger (1807–1875) (...)
  • 27  Krûkov, Petrunina, “Russkaâ obŝina v A. ...”, op. cit.

18The scientific restoration was carried out by the Russian architects Roman Kuzmin (1811–1867) and Ivan Štrom (1823–1887).23 The restoration, financed by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was carried out by the Greek military engineer Tilemachos Vlassopoulos and supervised by Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin). Work began in December 1850 and continued until April 1851, to be resumed, after an eleven-month interruption, in March 1852 and completed at the end of 1855.24 The monument was restored to its old form, with minor alterations.25 The old and low marble templon was replaced with a new and high iconostasis, according to Russian standards, made by the French architect Florimond Boulanger (1807–1875) of light Parian and Pentelic marble, and decorated with rich carving and gilding.26 The Royal Doors were carved from mahogany according to a sketch by Roman Kuzmin.27 Two chapels were formed, to the left of St. Nicodemus, the night disciple of the Lord, and to the right of St. Nicholas, bishop of Myron of Lycia.

  • 28  Antonin (Kapustin), in his 1853 work, Hristianskie drevnosti Grecii, op. cit., p. 58, notes that t (...)
  • 29  Son of the German Philhellene, Friedrich Thiersch. Ludwig Thiersch studied sculpture and later pai (...)
  • 30  The book published by Toula Kalantzopoulou includes two drawings by Paul Durand representing the m (...)
  • 31  Ludwig Thiersch was at the forefront of a movement to “modernize” Byzantine art by introducing ele (...)
  • 32  Sakkas, Neizvestnoe sokroviŝe…, op. cit., p. 109-133.
  • 33  Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 63.

19The oldest frescoes that have survived are those of Christ, St. Stefanos the Protomartyr, and St. John the Theologian on the south-western wall next to the inscriptions recorded by Archimandrite Antonin, and those of the Holy Hierarchs in the altar space.28 The current iconography is the work of the Bavarian painter and professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts, Ludwig Thiersch (1825–1909),29 and his students, Spyridon Hadzigiannopoulos (1832–1905) from Rumelia and Nikiforos Lytras (1832–1904) from the island of Tinos, who covered the remains of the earlier frescoes known from Paul Durand’s nineteenth-century drawings, published by Toula Kalantzopoulou.30 The style employed by Thiersch is not strictly Byzantine, but introduces elements from the naturalistic Nazarene movement.31 Noteworthy is the depiction of St. Paul with features of the Bavarian King Othon of Greece. All the church fathers, saints, hierarchs, and martyrs depicted on the walls have a certain connection with Athens, by birth, profession, or passage.32 The work of Thiersch was completed by the Venice-born Greek painter and professor of arts, Vincenzo Lanza (1822–1902), who painted the golden- and silver-coloured stars of the dome. The seventeen images of saints in the main iconostasis were painted by the Russian painter Pëtr Šamšin (1811–1895). Of these, six represent Russian saints, and the remainder Greek saints. In the small chapels, six heavenly patrons of the family of Tsar Nicholas I, also painted by P. Šamšin, are placed in medallions.33

  • 34  Ibid., p. 63-64. In 1999, the bell tower was renovated with funds from the Greek government.

20In 1852–1855, Archimandrite Antonin carried out extensive archaeological excavations in the basement of the church, during which tombs and remains of Roman baths were discovered, accessible from the interior of the church. In 1855, a three-tiered bell tower was erected, based on a sketch by Antonin, who drew inspiration from the Mystra bell towers, and designed by F. Boulanger.34 The bells were cast in Trieste at the Miller plant, the largest “Nikodim” weighing 280 pounds.

  • 35 Sakkas, Neizvestnoe sokroviŝe …, op. cit., p. 69.
  • 36 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 219-221.

21The church was consecrated in honour of the Holy Trinity, and later, received the popular name Sotira Lykodemos (Sotira Lykodemou in Greek) in honour of the founder, or the donor, Lykos being one of the oldest family names in Byzantine Athens. The consecration ceremony was celebrated on 5–6 (17–18) December 1855 and chaired by the Metropolitan Theophan of Mantineia and Kyrineia. Archimandrite Antonin concelebrated the divine liturgy together with five Greek priests.35 Soon after the consecration, water began to flow from the underground source, and the foundation had to be disassembled. In 1885, leaks started in the church, and following expert recommendations, the dome was lowered by half, despite the protests of painter Ludvig Thiersch. During the repair work undertaken in 1954, the dome was restored to its ancient height.36

  • 37 Ibid., p. 224-225.

22During the excavation carried out to the east of the church in 1955, the cemetery of the ancient monastery was found. In the eastern corner of the church, an ossuary was discovered, where, according to old chronicles guarded in St. Michael’s Monastery in Kiev, Kiev citizens and monks, captured by the Tatars and sold at the slave market in Constantinople, were buried. On 7 October 1955, the remains discovered were transferred to the crypt of the church, with the authorisation of the Church of Greece.37

23In 1975, a church consecrated in the name of St. Sevastianos was established in the crypt of the church, where some church services were held until the 1980s. Since 2023, Saturday vespers are again held in the crypt once a month.

  • 38 Škarovskij, “Russkaâ cerkov’ v Afinah v konce XIX – načale XX vv.”, op. cit., p. 249-250.
  • 39 The cast iron fence was removed in 1961 on the order of the Greek authorities and with the authoris (...)

24In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the decoration of the church amazed with its abundance. The church owned numerous silver and gilded church utensils, silver candlesticks and candelabra, gold pectoral crosses strewn with precious stones, Gospels in silver frames, as well as mitres embroidered with gold and silver with enamel and silver icons, strewn with semi-precious stones, and rich velvet or brocade vestments of priests. In addition to the frescoes painted during the construction of the church, it contained more than fifty icons, some from the eighteenth century, with gold and silver frames or vestments, many in icon cases. Oak cabinets were ordered for the unique library, the foundation of which was laid by Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin) and continued by his successors. Additionally, portraits of Tsar Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, and church rectors in oak frames under glass, as well as rare photographs of the church itself, were displayed in the church.38 On the outside, the church was surrounded by a beautiful iron grille, specially cast for it at a factory in St. Petersburg.39

Fig. 1. The Holy Trinity Church

Fig. 1. The Holy Trinity Church

Lithograph.

  • 40 After World War II, the church council deemed it necessary to sell some of the heirlooms to cover e (...)

25Today, some of the historical heirlooms are still safeguarded in the church and include icons, mitres, nineteenth century holy vestments, and a Gospel. Consideration is attributed to the portable icon of St. Nicholas, a tribute of Queen Olga of Greece in 1891.40 Newer icons are gifts, e.g., from Russian schools, as well as Serbian and Bulgarian cultural associations in Athens.

The St. Olga Church and the Russian Cemetery in Piraeus

  • 41 Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna Romanova was born in Pavlovsk and became Queen Olga of Greece aft (...)
  • 42 On the St. Olga church and the Russian cemetery in Piraeus, Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russka (...)
  • 43  Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 296.

26The history of the Holy Trinity Church in Athens is inextricably linked with the Russian cemetery, and the Naval Hospital in Piraeus, both founded on the initiative of Queen Olga in the late nineteenth century.41 The hospital, which opened in 1902, had a house church built with donations from officers of the Russian squadron stationed in Piraeus, and was consecrated in the name of St. Olga in 1904. This church was Russian until the 1960s, when the parish was disbanded, and the building came under the jurisdiction of the Greek Ministry of Maritime Transport, to which the hospital had previously been given. In the 1990s a mosaic image of St. Olga was installed above the entrance of the church. Russian sailors, soldiers, and members of diplomatic missions were initially buried in the Russian cemetery, later also emigrants, namely clergy and officers of the tsarist army.42 In 1971, the “Russian cemetery,” which was cared for by the Holy Trinity Church and the St. Olga Church, as well as the Russian emigrant association Soûz russkih èmigrantov v Grecii (Union of Russian Emigrants in Greece), came under the formal jurisdiction of the municipality of Piraeus. In 1977, the municipality decided that only 20 of more than 600 Russian tombs, considered historically valuable, would be saved. On the much smaller plot allocated to the Russian community in exchange, a small church was built and consecrated in the name of St. Olga in 1982. A reliquary for the remains of the opened graves was built in the basement of the church, while some historical tombstones were built into the walls of the church.43 Today, the cemetery is assigned to the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church.

The Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Athens and the Rectors of the Holy Trinity Russian Church (1834–1919)

  • 44 Ecclesiastical governing body created by Tsar Peter I in 1721 to head the Church of Russia, replaci (...)
  • 45 After the 1917 Revolution, the Church of Russia (Russkaâ Cerkov’) became the Russian Orthodox Churc (...)

27An important role in the history of the Holy Trinity Church and its religious and community life belongs to the clergy and the rectors of the church. The rectors of the Holy Trinity Church can be divided into three categories depending on the period of their service. The first period coincides with the presence in Athens of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission (Russkaâ duhovnaâ missiâ) (1834–1919), which was under the jurisdiction of the Holy Synod of the Church of Russia.44 The second period covers the years 1919–1924, when a temporary solution was found for the administration of the church after the abolishment of the Holy Synod of the Church of Russia in the aftermath of the February Revolution of 1917.45 The third period began in 1924 when the church came under the jurisdiction of the autocephalous Church of Greece, first as a chapel (parekklisī in Greek), and then from 2021 as a regular parish (enoria in Greek).

  • 46 Rectors of the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church in Athens (1833–2024): Archimandrite Irinarh (Popov, 1 (...)

28All clergy who served the Holy Trinity Russian Church in Athens between 1834 and 1919 were sent to Greece by the Holy Synod of the Church of Russia and financed by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During this period, the rectors of the church were highly educated and distinguished personalities, who had held and came to hold important positions in the Russian church hierarchy, in Russian Ecclesiastical Missions in Constantinople, Rome, Florence, Jerusalem, as well as in Russia proper. 46Most were archimandrites or hieromonks with knowledge of Greek language. While it is not possible to discuss each one in detail, I will mention a few of them, namely the Archimandrites Antonin (Kapustin), Mihail (Gribanovskij), Sergij (Stragorodskij), Leontij (von Wimpfen), and Sergij (Dabič).

  • 47 The Greek manuscripts of Archimandrite Antonin are safeguarded in Kiev, in the Library of the Ukrai (...)

29Archimandrite Antonin (Andrei Ivanovič Kapustin, 1817–1894) is the one we must thank for the preservation and restoration of the Holy Trinity Church (see Fig. 2). Born in Perm, in a family of a village priest, he pursued his theological studies in the Perm and Ekaterinoslav Ecclesiastical Seminaries and later at the Kiev Ecclesiastical Academy. In 1845 he received the tonsure by the Metropolitan of Kiev, Filaret. While stationed in Athens (1850–1860), Antonin became fascinated with ancient Christian inscriptions and Byzantine monuments. His most celebrated accomplishment was the restoration of the Byzantine “Russian” church in Athens. Antonin wrote several scientific studies about the architecture and the restoration of this church, which he personally oversaw. The initiative and decision to showcase Athenian saints and martyrs as part of the frescoes of the Russian church in Athens also belongs to him. He mastered several languages, ancient and modern, had a special passion for Greek manuscripts, and was considered one of the best specialists of Byzantine Greece of his time.47

Fig. 2. Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin, 1817–1894)

Fig. 2. Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin, 1817–1894)

Wikimedia Commons.

  • 48 Frary Lucien J., “Russian Missions to the Orthodox East: Antonin Kapustin (1817–1894) and his World (...)
  • 49 Antonin, Hristianskie drevnosti Grecii, op. cit., p. 33.

30After leaving Athens, Antonin was appointed to serve as the rector of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Constantinople (1860–1865), and later in Jerusalem (1865–1894), where he served until his death. His contribution to Byzantine, archaeological, and historical studies helped further these disciplines in Russia. Antonin believed in the unity of the Christian Church, attempted to maintain a flexible attitude regarding foreign beliefs, and tried to convince people of the virtue of tolerance.48 His reflections on Greek identity of his time suggest the blending of Orthodox Christianity and nationalism. For Antonin, the modern Greek was a Byzantine Greek, not a Hellenic one.49

  • 50 Мihail (Gribanovskij), Nad Evangeliem [Above the Gospel], St. Petersburg, 1896, 1898, 1911; Poltava (...)
  • 51 Škarovskij, “Russkaâ cerkov’ v Afinah v konce XIX – načale XX vv.,” op. cit., p. 243-245.

31Another significant figure among the rectors of the Holy Trinity Church in the late nineteenth century was the theologian, Archimandrite Mihail (Mihail Mihajlovič Gribanovskij, 1856–1898). He was the elder brother of the future First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA), Metropolitan Anastasij (Gribanovskij), and served as the prototype for the hero of A. P. Chekhov’s story “The Bishop.” His years of service in Athens (1890–1894) were for Archimandrite Mihail a period of productive study. In Athens, he compiled a collection of articles containing reflections on the Gospel, which was published after his return to Russia. To this day, his book “Above the Gospel”50 is considered an outstanding work, both in the originality of the method of interpreting the Gospel and in its content. After his return to Russia in 1894, Archimandrite Mihail was consecrated as Bishop. According to M. Škarovskij, Bishop Mihail was a bright and original church thinker, one of the inspirers of the revival of the patriarchate in the Russian Church, a remarkably profound and psychological exegete and interpreter of the Gospel.51

  • 52 The position of Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia was restored in 1917 after almost two hundred ye (...)
  • 53 Škarovskij, “Russkaâ cerkov’ v Afinah v konce XIX – načale XX vv.,” op. cit., p. 245-246.

32Archimandrite Mihail was followed by Archimandrite Sergij (Ivan Nikolaevič Stragorodskij, 1867–1944), who in 1943 became the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, serving in this position until his death.52 During his years in Athens (1894–1897), Archimandrite Sergij was awarded a master’s degree in theology for his dissertation, “The Orthodox Teaching on Salvation” (Pravoslavnoe učenie o spasenii), which was based on the works of the Russian theologians St. Theophan the Recluse and St. Tikhon of Zadonsk.53

33Archimandrite Leontij (Vladimir Fedorovič von Wimpfen, 1873–1919) was the last rector of the Holy Trinity Russian Church in Athens before World War I. He came from a family of German barons, graduated from the Kazan Theological Academy, and served as inspector of the Kursk Seminary. Archimandrite Leontij’s service in Athens (1906–1914) coincided with the First and Second Balkan Wars (1912–1913). Like many other rectors, in addition to serving in the Holy Trinity Church, he also performed memorial services and liturgies at the Russian cemetery and in the St. Olga Church. Possessing a brilliant oratorical gift, Archimandrite Leontij delivered speeches at almost all services, which were later published in the synodal printing houses of Kursk and Kazan.

  • 54 Ibid., p. 249-250.

34Archimandrite Leontij was particularly loved by Queen Olga, who took an active part in his fate. He was with Queen Olga during the grief that befell her on 18 March 1913, when her husband, King George I, was killed by an anarchist in Thessaloniki. The funeral service of King George I was held in the Annunciation Cathedral in Athens on 3 April and was officiated by 50 bishops, including the rector of the Holy Trinity Russian Church. After his return to Russia in 1914, Archimandrite Leontij was consecrated as Bishop. He was shot by the Bolsheviks in Astrakhan in the summer of 1919.54

  • 55 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 132-133, 14 (...)

35Archimandrite Sergij (Nikolaj Fedorovič Dabič, 1877–1927) was the last priest of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Athens. His stay in Athens (1914–1920) coincided with World War I, the severance of diplomatic ties between Russia and Greece after the 1917 Revolution, and the civil war in Russia. In addition to caring for the church and the parish, Archimandrite Sergij travelled extensively throughout Greece, visited soldiers in military camps and hospitals, and actively helped the Russian monks on Athos. After the closure of all Russian churches in the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria, he remained the only Russian rector in the Eastern Mediterranean, and in 1916 regularly informed the Holy Synod on church affairs in Greece and in the Middle East. After Bulgaria entered the war in October 1915, many Serbian refugees arrived in Greece and approached the Holy Trinity Russian Church. Serbian priests and bishops, including the future Serbian Patriarch, Bishop Varnava (Rosič), periodically concelebrated with Archimandrite Sergij in the Holy Trinity Russian Church. Memorial services for the Russian and Serbian soldiers who had died on the Macedonian front were also held in the church. In 1919, Archimandrite Sergij organised the publication of the Russian newspaper, Russkaâ gazeta, which attempted to unite the emigrants. After leaving Athens, Archimandrite Sergij converted to Catholicism, which he later regretted. He died in Italy in 1927 before he was able to convert back to Orthodoxy.55

Rectors of the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church after the 1917 Revolution

  • 56 As patroness of the St. Olga Church, taking upon herself the maintenance of the church and the cler (...)

36After the 1917 Revolution, the Russian community in Athens, as in many other European cities, did not want the church to be subjugated to the Soviet powers and had to find a solution to protect the church. The first rector in such conditions was archpriest Sergij (Sergij Grigorevič Snegirev, 1882–1947) who served in this role from 1920 until 1922. He was also the chairperson of the Union of Russian Orthodox Christians in Greece (Soûz russkih pravoslavnyh hristian v Grecii), founded in 1919, with the aim to meet the spiritual, moral and social needs of the emigrants and maintain the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church in good condition. Archpriest Sergij was succeeded by Archpriest Pavel Krahmalev (1874–1949), a former military chaplain on the Macedonian front during World War I, who remained in Greece and served at the “Russian” churches in Athens and Piraeus. A charismatic person who was much-loved by the Russian emigrant community, he served as rector of the Holy Trinity Church from 1922 to 1924, and as rector of the St. Olga Church in Piraeus from 1921 to 1922, and repeatedly from 1927 until his death in 1949.56

  • 57 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 173-181.

37An extraordinary situation emerged in the very first years of Russian emigration, with the presence in Greece in 1919–1920 of Metropolitan Platon (Porfirij Fedorovič Roždestvenskij, 1866–1934), the future head of the American Metropolia, and in 1920–1922, of Bishop Jermogen (Georgij Ivanovič Maksimov, 1861–1945). By the decision of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia or ROCOR (Russkaâ Pravoslavnaâ Cerkov’ za granicej), in May 1922, Bishop Jermogen was given the charge of Russian Orthodox Christians in Greece, Cyprus, and Egypt, which he held until 1929. While the news was received with acclaim in part of the Russian community, who were pleased with the presence of a Russian bishop in Athens, this was not the case of the Greek hierarchs. Shortly after his arrival in Athens, Bishop Jermogen was expelled to Serbia, at the request of the Synod of the Church of Greece, which could not accept the presence on its territory of an Orthodox bishop in exile under an external ecclesiastical authority whose canonicity was contested.57

  • 58 In March 1920, Metropolitan Antonij briefly visited Greece, where he was cordially received by the (...)
  • 59 On the Russian Orthodox Church in the interwar years and thereafter, e.g., D’Herbigny Michel, Deubn (...)

38The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, also called the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA), was established in the early 1920s as a de facto independent ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Eastern Orthodoxy, initially due to lack of regular contact between the central church authority in Moscow and some bishops as a result of their voluntary exile after the Russian Civil War. In emigrating, these bishops rejected the Moscow Patriarchate’s unconditional loyalty to the Bolshevik regime in the USSR, formally promulgated by Metropolitan Sergij (Stragorodskij), deputy Patriarchal locum tenens, on 20 July 1927. Metropolitan Antonij (Aleksej Pavlovič Hrapovickij, 1863–1936) of Kiev and Galicia,58 a renowned author and theologian, was the founding First-Hierarch of ROCOR in 1920, which from 1921 was based in Sremski Karlovci. After World War II, ROCOR moved its headquarters to New York. In parallel, many ROCOR parishes and clergy joined the Moscow Patriarchate as an exarch. The Act of Canonical Communion with the Moscow Patriarchate, restoring the canonical link between the two churches, was signed only in May 2007, after the Russian Orthodox Church canonised Tsar Nicholas II and his family, and additionally about a thousand martyrs and confessors. This, however, led to a further split within ROCOR.59

  • 60 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 173, 206.

39The interwar years were complex in many ways, including economically, and the Russian community had to be inventive to keep the church going. Feeling the imminent arrival of the representatives of the USSR, in February 1923 the Russian envoy in Athens, Prince Elim Demidov, transferred the Holy Trinity Church under the order of the Union of Russian Christian Orthodox in Greece. Until the summer of 1923, the salaries of the clergy were paid by the Council of the Russian Imperial Ambassadors based in Paris. Thereafter, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes and later Yugoslavia took the parish under its patronage, and from the summer of 1924 until 1939 paid the salaries of the clergy. Elim Demidov was related to the Royal House of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes by family ties, and enabled this connection. By then, the parish included many Serbian emigrants, as well as the Serbian envoy in Athens. Since 1939, the salary of the clergy has been paid by the archdiocese of Athens. In 1941, aid from Yugoslavia stopped altogether. 60

  • 61 Ibid., p. 182-183.
  • 62 Decision of the Synod of the Church of Greece, 27.12.1923.
  • 63 Krûkov, Petrunina, “Russkaâ obŝina v A. …”, op. cit.
  • 64 The question was raised by the Patriarchs of Moscow and all Russia, Alexis I, Alexis II, and Kirill (...)

40On 8 March 1924, the Greek government recognised the USSR. The same year, the Holy Trinity Church officially separated from the Embassy and joined the Archdiocese of Athens with the status of a chapel, or a parish without full legal rights.61 The union of the Russian hierarchs in exile tried to resist this, seeing in this the isolation of the community, which was aggravated by the transition of the Church of Greece to the Gregorian calendar,62 and instead tried to include it in ROCOR. Bishop Dimitrij (Voznesenskij), a member of the Synod of Bishops Abroad, wrote an appeal in 1936 calling on the members of the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church in Athens to ask the Greek hierarchical authority to release them, but this appeal was unsuccessful.63 Over the years, there were various attempts by ROCOR and the Moscow Patriarchate to include the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church under their jurisdiction, without results.64

41Since 1924, all the rectors of the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church in Athens have been ordained by the Archbishop of Athens, the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Greece. For the administration of the Holy Trinity Church, in 1924 a church council was established, replacing the Union of Russian Orthodox Christians. Until 2013, all rectors were Russians or ethnic Greeks from Russia or the Soviet Union, or their descendants, who at the time of their appointment were living in Greece. Here, I discuss Father Ilia Apostolidīs, rector of the church in the years 1953–1961 and Archimandrite Timofej (Sakkas), who oversaw the parish for 40 years, from 1966 to 2006.

  • 65 The Renovated Church, or the “Living Church,” was a reformed church set up by the Bolshevik governm (...)

42Ilia Georgevič Apostolov (Apostolidīs) (1893–1976) was the last rector of the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church belonging to the first wave of Russian emigration. He was born to a Russian mother and a Pontic Greek father in Theodosia (Crimea) and graduated from the Tauride Theological School in Simferopol. He was an officer in the Imperial Army, then in the White Army, was injured in battle, and was therefore not able to evacuate from Crimea together with the Volunteer Army in 1920. In 1922 Ilia Apostolov was ordained as a deacon, and then as a priest. From 1922 until 1927, because of his refusal to cooperate with the so-called “Renovated Church,”65 Priest Ilia Apostolov was four times arrested by the Soviet authorities, sent into internal exile to a forced labour camp and sentenced to death. Thanks to the intervention of the Greek Ambassador to the USSR, Nakos Panourias, the death sentence was not carried out, and in 1927, he was sent to Greece. In Greece, Father Ilia served in various parishes, and in parallel, as the chaplain in the first Military Corps of the Hellenic Army, before being assigned to the Holy Trinity Church.

  • 66 In parallel, he was transferred from the Church of Greece to the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Ch (...)

43As rector of the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church, Father Ilia Apostolidīs (1953–1961) reorganised and painted the church, renovated the Byzantine style tile roof, and enabled the entrance to the catacombs. In 1956, together with Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna, he laid the foundations for the Russian home for the elderly in Argyroupoli. He was a member, and later chairperson, of the Union of Russian Military Invalids in Greece (Soûz russkih voennyh invalidov v Grecii). In 1955, he graduated from the Theological Faculty of the University of Athens. In 1961, Father Ilia left for North America, was tonsured monk, given the name Anatolij, ordained bishop, and assigned to serve as the Bishop of Montreal and Canada.66

  • 67 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 234-235.

44In the interwar and early postwar years, the church council and the rectors of the Holy Trinity Church saw their role as “carriers and guardians of the traditions of the sacred temple” tirelessly caring for its splendour. It has been estimated that approximately 10–30 per cent of the income of the church came from the parishioners, who in their majority were Russians and ethnic Greeks from Russia. Funds for the church were also generated by the organisation of balls, bazaars, and charity; various prosperous members of the Greek high society and the wider Russian diaspora continuously contributed to the wellbeing of the church.67

45In the 1960s, after the departure of Father Ilia to America, a “crisis” emerged in the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church. The old generation of Russian-speaking priests in Europe was dying, while among the younger generation born in emigration, few chose priesthood. In the years 1962–1966, several priests officiated at the Holy Trinity Church; however, the church had no permanent rector. During this period, the church council even contacted Russian-speaking priests in Poland (Mihail Bud’ko) and in Finland (Aleksandr Kasanko), but to no avail. Finally, in 1966, Archimandrite Timofej (Sakkas, 1933–2020) was invited by the church council to visit the Holy Trinity Church and was nominated as its rector by the archdiocese.

  • 68 Ibid.., p. 238, 240-243.

46Archimandrite Timofej was born in a family of Pontic Greeks in Voronež (Central Russia) who repatriated to Greece in 1948. As rector of the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church (1966–2006), Archimandrite Timofej experienced all the phases in the history of the parish since it had become part of the Church of Greece: the first wave of Russian emigrants who arrived in Greece after the 1917 Revolution, their offspring, the subsequent Hellenisation of the parish, and the “new” migration from the (former) Soviet Union (FSU), which began in the late 1980s. In addition to caring for the Russian church and the Russian home for the elderly, Archimandrite Timofej was the Abbot of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit Comforter (Paraclete) in the town of Oropos in Attica and cared for the Russian cemetery in Piraeus. He also published spiritual literature, which he distributed free of charge in Greece and Russia.68

47Archimandrite Timofej was succeeded by Protopresbyter Geōrgios Skoutelīs (1952–2013), who served as rector of the church from 2007 to 2013 and was the last rector with roots in Russia/FSU.

  • 69 Ibid., p. 315.

48The current rector since 2019 is Archimandrite Synesios (Viktōratos) from Patras. He is seconded by Archpriest Aleksandr Nosevič, a Greek citizen of Russian origin from Krasnoyarsk (Siberia) who arrived in Greece in 1997 and was ordained priest by the late Archbishop of Athens, Christodoulos, in 2007. Both completed their theological studies at the Theological Faculty of Athens University and at the Moscow Theological Academy.69

The Holy Trinity Church and the Wider Greek Society

  • 70 Bozonelos Dino, “Thrīskeytika-politika afīgīmata kai sygchrones ellīno-rōssikes scheseis” [Religiou (...)
  • 71 In the 1820s, Russian aid supported rebuilding programs on Mount Athos, while the Russian state and (...)

49The strength of an ethnic or a national community is closely tied to the status it can derive from its old homeland and from its earlier presence in the host country. For historical reasons, the representations of Russia in Greece have been rather positive. Both are largely Orthodox countries and use Orthodoxy as part of their “soft power”;70 moreover, Russia supported Greece against the Ottomans in the Greek War of Independence (1821–1832) and was one of the guarantor powers of the modern Greek state established in 1830.71

  • 72 Chassiotis Ioannis, Oi Ellīnes tīs Rōsias kai tīs Sovietikīs Enōsīs. Metoikesies kai ektopismoi. Or (...)

50Between the eighteenth and early twentieth centuries, large numbers of Greeks from the northern shores of the Black Sea coast in current Turkey, mainland Greece, and the Greek islands settled in Russia, where many found a good life and even prosperity. Some came to occupy important civic positions in Russian and later Soviet society.72

  • 73 Unlike King Othon, King George I of Denmark adopted Orthodoxy on the eve of his accession, regularl (...)

51Moreover, the Greek royal family had close relations with the Russian imperial family, and among its members counted several Romanovs, most prominently Queen Olga, spouse of King George I of the Hellenes.73 Another prominent personality who actively engaged in social and charity work in Greece during the Balkans Wars and in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution was Princess Elena of Greece and Denmark (b. Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia, 1882–1957).

  • 74 Sakkas, Neizvestnoe sokroviŝe…, op. cit.; Frary, Russia and the making…, op. cit., p. 125.
  • 75 Frary, Russia and the making…, op. cit.

52The Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Athens (1834–1919) and its priests were generally well perceived and exercised appeal among the vast majority of Greeks who believed that Orthodoxy was the organising canon of the world.74 Additionally, as Lucien J. Frary points out, the Russian embassy in Athens was unique among the foreign powers; it was the only one that included an ecclesiastical wing, whereas a large number of its diplomatic staff was of Greek origin, knew Greek, and was familiar with the local conditions.75

  • 76 Giannaras Christos, Orthodoxia kai Dysī stī Neoterī Ellada [Orthodoxy and the West in Modern Greece (...)
  • 77 Frary, Russia and the making…, op. cit., p. 92-95.

53A few periods, however, were marked by tensions that can be explained by wider Russian foreign policy initiatives in Greece and the Balkans. The heated debate between Theoklītos Farmakidīs (1784–1860) and Kōnstantinos Oikonomos (1780–1857) in the 1840s concerning the church regime in Greece was one of those issues. The liberal and modernising clerics, led by T. Farmakidīs and Neophytos Vamvas, favoured a national Church of Greece. Meanwhile, traditionalists and conservatives, led by K. Oikonomos, argued that the principle of eucharistic catholicity prevailed over national factionalism, opposed the church reforms, and championed the canons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.76 Russia, which defended united Orthodoxy and a strong traditional position of the church, favoured the latter, conservative standpoint.77

  • 78 Sakkas, Neizvestnoe sokroviŝe…, op. cit., p. 53-54.

54This period coincided with the political victory of the pro-British party of A. Mavrokordatos in Greece. Moreover, the royal palace opposed the Russian attempts to convert King Othon of the Wittelsbach dynasty to Orthodoxy. Archimandrite Polikarp, who led the Russian church in Athens in this period, diligently carried out his responsibilities, but was not able to improve relations between the Russian and Greek Churches.78

  • 79 Frary, Russia and the making…, op. cit., p. 92-95, 118, 138-139.

55In 1850, the Church of Greece finally received recognition from the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the Synodal Tomos, which outlined the conditions of independence and the organisational structure of the church according to canon law. The resolution of the conflict in Greece set the precedent for dealing with similar cases in the Orthodox world.79 The struggle for an independent Bulgarian church and the establishment in 1870 of a Bulgarian exarchate, though not recognised by the Ecumenical Patriarchate until 1945, was such a case.

  • 80 Frary, “Russian Missions to the Orthodox East…,” op. cit.
  • 81 Sakkas, Neizvestnoe sokroviŝe…, op. cit., p. 74.
  • 82 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 81.

56Additionally, in 1878, the signing of the Treaty of San Stefano, creating “Greater Bulgaria,” to which most of Macedonia was ceded, was seen as a gift from St. Petersburg to the newly established principality of Bulgaria.80 These developments gave rise to suspicions as far as the intentions behind the charity of the Church of Russia and its representatives in Greece were concerned. Archimandrite Anatolij, who served the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church in Athens from 1878 to 1885, was limited to carrying out strictly ecclesiastical duties.81 However, overall, from 1850 onwards, relations between the Russian and Greek churches developed favourably, and until 1918 many Greeks studied in the theological seminars and academies in Russia.82

  • 83 Makrides Vasilios N., “The Orthodox Church of Greece,” in Lucian N. Leustean (ed.), Eastern Christi (...)
  • 84 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit.

57The 1917 Revolution started a new era of mutual suspicion, reaching its peak in the 1940s, with the Greek Civil War accentuating antagonisms and deepening divisions. During the Cold War, relations between the two countries and their churches remained dictated by their divergent geostrategic and geopolitical interests, with the Church of Greece siding with the Ecumenical Patriarchate on issues related to pan-Orthodox unity and problems resulting from Slavic ambitions.83 The atmosphere of suspicion was also felt in the Holy Trinity Church, which was occasionally visited by agents of both Greek and Soviet secret services.84

  • 85 Ibid., p. 238-240, 245-246.
  • 86 Ibid., p. 309-310.
  • 87 In 2002, the Church of Greece decided to construct a new larger church dedicated to Panagia Sumela (...)
  • 88 Pontic Greek migrants from the Soviet Union started settling in Menidi in the 1960s and were later (...)

58Nevertheless, in the late 1950s, during the tenures of Archbishop Theoklitos II and Patriarch Alexis I, relations between the Greek and Russian churches were normalised, leading to regular contacts and visits between the heads of the two churches. Between 1960 and 2013, several Patriarchs of Moscow and all Russia visited Greece and were received by the corresponding Archbishop of Athens; they were, Patriarch Alexis I in 1960, Patriarch Pimen in 1972, Patriarch Alexis II in 1992, and Patriarch Kirill in 2013. Additionally, in autumn 1964, Patriarch Alexis I was invited to Athens by King Constantin for his wedding with the Danish princess Anna-Maria. In 1971 a large delegation led by the Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod, Nikodim, visited Greece in connection with the 150-year festivities of the Greek independence struggle. During his visit in 1972, Patriarch Pimen also visited Mount Athos, setting a precedent for future Patriarchs of Moscow. In the report on the work of the permanent synodal commission of the Church of Greece, the visits of Metropolitan Nikodim and Patriarch Pimen were characterised as a valuable contribution to the “kindling of love” between the two brotherly churches.85 Usually, the delegations visiting Athens also visited the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church and met with members of the Russian community. Patriarch Alexis II visited the Seraphim of Sarov Church at the Russian home for the elderly and was granted the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Athens, Faculty of Theology.86 In 2012, when Greece was undergoing a severe economic crisis, Archbishop of Athens, Ieronymos II, visited Russia. Following this visit, the Church of Greece received a considerable amount for its charitable needs from the Russian Orthodox Church. The following year, Patriarch Kirill paid a return visit to Archbishop Ieronymos II and was awarded the Holy Cross of Apostle Paul by the Synod of the Church of Greece. During the visit, the two hierarchs attended liturgies in the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church and in the Panagia Sumela Church87 in Menidi, established in 1994 to cover the spiritual needs of the Russian-speaking Pontic Greek migrants from the former Soviet Union living in this municipality.88

  • 89 Rousselet Kathy, “L’impasse ukrainienne,” Observatoire international du religieux, Bulletin no 51, (...)
  • 90 Manoli Panagiota, “Parametroi diamorfōsīs tōn sygchronōn ellīnorōsikōn scheseōn” [Configuration par (...)
  • 91 Bozonelos, “Thrīskeytika-politika afīgīmata kai sygchrones ellīnorōsikes scheseis,” op. cit.
  • 92 The Russian diplomats were suspected of bribing Greek officials in connection with the vote in the (...)
  • 93 Manoli, I sygchronī Rōsia kai oi Ellīnorōsikes scheseis, op. cit., p. 209.

59The relations between the two churches developed well thereafter. However, the announcement by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in October 2018 that it would grant the Synodal Tomos to the Church of Ukraine, officially recognising and establishing the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and granting it autocephaly, caused a rupture in communion between the Ecumenical and the Moscow Patriarchates,89 while also affecting the relations between the Greek and the Russian Orthodox Churches.90 Markedly, the Church of Greece was the first to recognise the autocephalous Church of Ukraine.91 The relations between the Greek and Russian governments experienced a setback in July 2018 when Greece expelled two Russian diplomats and barred the entry of two others for allegedly violating its national security.92 Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, however, led to a significant severing of ties. The Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Church of Greece, and the Greek government all condemned Russia’s invasion.93

  • 94 Rori, Georgiadou, “Ī rōsofilia sto ellīniko kommatiko systīma, 2009–2023,” op. cit., p. 266.
  • 95 The Russophilia in Greece can be explained by historical and religious relations, but also by longs (...)
  • 96 Giochalas Thanassis, Kafetzaki, Tania, Athīna, Ichnīlatōntas tīn polī me odīgo tīn istoria kai tī l (...)

60Notwithstanding the above, and Greece being a country integrated into Western security structures (EU, NATO), there is no hostility towards Russia and Russian language and culture in wider Greek society. Significantly, in 2015 – after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and when the country was already under EU sanctions – the Greek government of Alexis Tsipras approached Russia asking for economic assistance in the context of the Greek economic crisis, which was declined by Russia.94 In 2025, Greece was still one of the most Russia-friendly countries in the EU.95 The “Russian” church, located in a prestigious spot in central Athens,96 opposite the Parliament and the National Garden, has not been the target of hostilities or vandalism. Generally, the church and the community are well perceived, thus also pointing to the Hellenisation of the church, while many people ignore that the church has been under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church of Greece for more than a hundred years.

The Parish: A Russian and Slavic Language Community Centre in Central Athens

  • 97 Škarovskij, “Russkaâ cerkov’ v Afinah v konce XIX – načale XX vv.,” op. cit., p. 248-249.

61In the second half of the nineteenth century and in the early twentieth century, the Russian community actively engaged in charity work in Greece. Queen Olga particularly played an important role in the development of the Russian community in Athens and in the establishment of the Holy Trinity Church as a place for religious, artistic, cultural, and musical encounters (see Fig. 3). Moreover, the Holy Trinity Church was the “soul” of the Russian community, culturally speaking, and the thread connecting the parishioners with their homeland. Members of the community, which included Russians, Ukrainians, Serbs, and persons of other nationalities, were married in the Holy Trinity Church, baptised children there, and had funeral services for the dead performed there. Queen Olga was often accompanied by her husband, King George I, and her children, the Greek and Danish princes and princesses Constantine, George, Nicholas, Maria, Andrew, and Christopher. It was in this church that Olga Konstantinovna annually commemorated her deceased parents, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevič and Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna, her grandfather, Tsar Nicholas I, her brother, Vâčeslav Konstantinovič and her uncle, Tsar Alexander II, and ordered services for the health of members of the Russian Imperial House. In the chapel of St. Nicholas there was an imperial box, and behind it, a box for imperial secretaries and ladies-in-waiting. The chapel of St. Nicodemus had a diplomatic box. Greek newspapers described in detail the solemnity and grandeur of the services being held. 97

Fig. 3. Queen Olga of Greece leaving the Holy Trinity Church after hearing a divine service on 14 March 1891

Fig. 3. Queen Olga of Greece leaving the Holy Trinity Church after hearing a divine service on 14 March 1891

Photo: Unknown.

  • 98 Ibid.
  • 99 In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, approximately 50,000 expatriate and ethnic Greeks and u (...)
  • 100 The school leaving certificate did not give access to Greek universities. After the completion of t (...)
  • 101 Raeff Marc, Russia Abroad: A Cultural History of the Russian Emigration 19191939, Oxford, Oxford U (...)

62Following the Balkan Wars and the Great War, the Russian community decreased, being mainly composed of priests, singers, imperial envoys, and a small number of Russians living in Athens.98 This changed after the 1917 Revolution with the arrival of the emigrants, who were an ethnically, nationally, socially, and politically heterogeneous group. There were military officers and soldiers of the White Army, politicians, scientists, artists, musicians, members of the aristocracy, priests, as well as “ordinary people.”99 In terms of ethnicity and nationality, in the interwar years, the parish was largely composed of Russians, Ukrainians, ethnic Greeks, and Serbs. Many had fled war, hunger, social change, and even terror. In Greece, many Russian emigrants developed and retained the memory of old Russia because of the historical changes and potential danger for their lives. Many also retained a Russian identity and gave a Russian education to their children, who were brought up in the belief that they would eventually return to Russia. To this end, a Russian gymnasium with a school program modelled after those in Imperial Russia was established in 1921 and functioned until 1935.100 With time, a good number of the emigrants understood that return to Russia was impossible. Like elsewhere in Europe, in emigration, life continued and was closely related with the Russian church, the emigrant community, and its numerous charitable, educational, cultural, religious, scientific, and political organisations.101

  • 102 The sisterhood functioned until the 1980s. Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ (...)

63In the Holy Trinity Church, a sisterhood, which was subjugated to the church council and named after the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan, was established in 1931 and divided into three departments: church affairs, charitable work, and spiritual and educational activities. The sisters also visited desolate parishioners and organised their burial. Initially, the sisterhood, whose founding charter was approved by the Archbishop of Athens, Chrysostomos I, was placed under the patronage of princess Sofia Demidova. After her death, Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna assumed this role.102

  • 103 Elim Demidov renounced his position in 1917, but he was reappointed as the Russian envoy by the sho (...)
  • 104 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti Irina, “Knâginâ S. I. San-Donato v istorii russkoj èmigracii v Grecii” [Princes (...)

64In the interwar years, the church in many ways relied on the generous assistance of the last Russian envoy to Greece, Prince Elim P. Demidov (1868–1943) of the Demidov industrial family, and his spouse, Princess Sofia I. Demidova (1870–1953). In 1924, Elim Demidov was nominated as honorary consul of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes in Greece and continued to care for the “Russian” church as its elected leader (starosta).103 Sofia Demidova (b. Voroncova-Daškova), a philanthropist and commissioner of the Russian Red Cross Society, who outlived her husband by ten years, dedicated her remaining life to the Russian community, selling most of her artworks and property. A great number of the charity organisations founded by the Russian emigrants in the interwar years were founded on her initiative.104 In gratitude for their services, the couple was buried beneath the walls of the church.

  • 105 Prime Minister of Greece (1943–1944) during the axis occupation in Greece in World War II.
  • 106 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 201-203.

65Among the many emigrant organisations of this period, I would like to mention the Union of Russian Emigrants (Soûz russkih èmigrantov), founded in 1927 with the aim of uniting the Russian refugees in Greece, defending their rights, improving their situation, and providing aid. According to its charter, the union was apolitical and declared non-interference in the internal affairs of Greece. Membership in the union was open to all Russian refugees in Greece and their children, without restrictions on gender or nationality, who did not hold Soviet citizenship and did not work for the Soviet state. In addition to caring for the old, the disabled, and the children, the union also set as its task to care for the “Russian” cemeteries in Piraeus. The charter was renewed in 1972 with few changes. Princess Sofia Demidova was the honorary president of the union until her death in 1953. Irina Ralli, widow of Ioannis Rallis (1878–1946),105 was the last president of the Union of Russian Emigrants and served in this role until her death in 1984.106

  • 107 General Peter Wrangel personified the idea of the White cause and tried to keep the spirit of resis (...)
  • 108 Grand Duke Nikolaj Nikolaevič was commander in chief of the Imperial Russian Army and a symbolic fi (...)
  • 109 Archbishop Chrysostomos I (1923–1938) (b. Chrysostomos Papadopoulos, 1868–1938) pursued his theolog (...)
  • 110 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 197-198.

66Various important events marked the life of the Russian community and the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church in the interwar years. After the death of General Peter Wrangel (1878–1928)107 in Brussels and the Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna (1847–1928) in Denmark, two separate foundations were established at the Holy Trinity Church: one for the benefit of needy children and the other for the benefit of the neediest parishioners. The memorial services held in Athens after the passing of Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna in 1928 and Grand Duke Nikolaj Nikolaevič (1856–1929) in Antibes the following year108 were both celebrated by the Archbishop of Athens, Chrysostomos I, in person, which shows the respect that Imperial Russia still commanded.109 Both services were attended by members of the diplomatic corps and the Russian emigrant associations in Greece.110

  • 111 Ibid., p. 200.
  • 112 Ibid., p. 204.

67In 1936, two important events took place. On 15 November, the remains of the Metropolitan of Smyrna, Chrysostomos, were presented to the Archbishop of Athens, Chrysostomos I, as a gift from the Russian parishioners after a festive liturgy celebrated at the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church. The remains were acquired thanks to the financial support of one of the parishioners and her husband, a British businessman.111 The following week, on 22 November, the remains of Queen Olga, King Constantin, and Queen Sofia (previously buried in the crypt of the “Russian” church of the Nativity of Christ and St. Nicholas in Florence) were reburied at the estate of the (former) Greek royal family in Tatoi. Three days later, a memorial service was celebrated by the rector of the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church, Protopresbyter Georgij Karibov, together with Archpriest Pavel Krahmalev (the spiritual father of Queen Olga) and Father Ilia Apolostolidīs in Tatoi, attended by numerous members of the Russian community in Athens.112

  • 113 Ibid., p. 172, 212.

68However, not everything was so spectacular. For many, isolation, poverty, and the loss of homeland and loved ones were intolerable, and suicides were common. Andrej Gorenko (1887–1920), the younger brother of the Silver Age poet, Anna Akhmatova, was one of those who died at his own hand in Athens. In the church courtyard, barracks for the needy were set up by the church council and subsisted until 1950, when they were demolished on the order of Greek authorities.113

  • 114 Ibid., p. 210.
  • 115 The Nansen passport for stateless persons, named after the Norwegian diplomat and humanitarian Frid (...)
  • 116 Kaurinkoski, “Les communautés russe et italienne de Nice dans l’entre-deux-guerres…,” op. cit.
  • 117 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Russkaâ èmigraciâ v Grecii…, op. cit., p. 406; Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij(...)

69After World War II, the number of Russians in Greece diminished considerably. Considering the difficult situation in Greece and fearing the victory of the communists, many moved to other European countries, USA, Australia, and Latin America.114 By then, obtaining Greek citizenship had become easier. Nevertheless, like elsewhere in Europe, many lived and died with a Nansen passport:115 naturalisation was perceived as denaturalisation and was a delicate subject. 116Without Greek citizenship, however, the emigrants could not rely on help from the Greek state.117

  • 118 Christianikos Filanthropikos Syllogos “Ī Agia Trias.”
  • 119 According to memories of the contemporaries, Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna regularly attended th (...)

70To alleviate the plight of the needy, in 1956, on the initiative of the church council, a home for elderly emigrants from Russia was built in Argyroupoli, in greater Athens. Officially, the home, which was initially planned for 40 people, belonged to The welfare committee of the Russian St. Trinity Church in Athens, and was under the patronage of Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna.118 In 1962, a one-domed little church, constructed in Russian style and consecrated in the name of St. Seraphim of Sarov, was built in the garden of the almshouse in her memory.119

  • 120 Ī Agia Trias Ellīnorōsikos oikos yperīlikōn. Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troic (...)
  • 121 Ibid., p. 247-254.

71In 1978, under the pastorship of Archimandrite Timofej (Sakkas), who by then was also the president of the board of the almshouse, the foundations for a new and larger home for the elderly were laid in the same area. The new home opened its doors in 1981 as a Greek-Russian home for the elderly, and remained culturally Russian until 1992, when all Russian memorial plaques were removed and replaced by Greek ones.120 In the 1980s, the historical library and archives of the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church, the Russian gymnasium, and later, also of the Union of Russian emigrants of Macedonia-Thrace were moved to this building. In 2014, Archimandrite Timofej donated an important part of the archives of the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church to the Historical Archives of the Church of Greece, and part of the archives of the Russian emigration to the Aleksandr Solženitsyn House of Russia Abroad in Moscow.121

  • 122 A first attempt to introduce Greek as the second church language dates to 1929; however, this propo (...)
  • 123 Ibid., p. 252-253.

72The children of the first generation of Russian emigrants, who stayed in Greece, married and integrated into Greek society. In the 1960s, for the sake of the further preservation of the church and to attract new members to the parish, ecclesiastical Greek was introduced as a second liturgical language.122 By the late 1980s, church services were mostly conducted according to the Byzantine rite. From 1991, the protocols of the church council, which by this date was composed of ethnic and homeland Greeks, were no longer written in Russian but in Greek. Because of these changes, heralding the Hellenisation of the church, some of the remaining descendants of Russian emigrants in Athens stopped attending services in the Holy Trinity Church altogether.123 The disintegration of the Soviet Union, and the ensuing mass migration to Greece, entailed further changes while also signalling a new beginning.

The Holy Trinity “Russian” Church and the Post-Soviet Migrants in Greece

  • 124 Ethnic Greek return migration from Russia and the former Soviet Union to Greece in the twentieth ce (...)
  • 125 Overall, between 1987 and 2000 Greece welcomed some 200,000–300,000 migrants from the FSU, of whom (...)
  • 126 De Rapper Gilles, Sintès Pierre, Nommer et classer dans les Balkans, Athens, École française d’Athè (...)
  • 127 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 306-309.

73The vast group of post-Soviet migrants to Greece were heterogeneous nationally, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically, and they differed in their points of departure, their reasons for coming to Greece, their initial expectations, and their situations. Most were Pontic Greeks, but there were also smaller numbers of Mariupol Greeks,124 as well as a significant number of persons of other nationalities (Ukrainians, Georgians, Russians, Moldovans, Armenians, etc.).125 At the time, attitudes towards migrants from Eastern Europe in Greek society were generally negative, even if some distinctions were made between different categories of migrants.126 The same attitudes were felt in the Holy Trinity Church.127 Nevertheless, in the 1990s, church services in Slavonic were gradually reintroduced. The overall situation changed over time.

  • 128 Metropolitan Theoklītos of Stagoi and Meteora, Archimandrite Nektarios (Kōtsakīs), Abbot of the Obl (...)
  • 129 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 316-317.
  • 130 Michael Herzfeld explains cultural intimacy as aspects of cultural identity that provide insiders w (...)

74Today, the parish members at the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church are mainly migrants from the FSU (Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine) and the Balkans (Bulgaria, Serbia). Most are Russian-speaking Ukrainians, but there are also ethnic Greeks and some descendants of earlier waves of migration. According to the estimations of Father Aleksandr (Nosevič), only 5 to 10 per cent of the Russian-speaking diaspora in Athens visit the church and attend liturgies. Approximately two hundred people attend the Sunday liturgy. The celebration of divine services takes place in Slavonic and ecclesiastical Greek. For historical reasons, important religious holidays (Easter, Christmas, Dormition of the Mother of God, Saints’ days, etc.) are celebrated according to both the Gregorian calendar, predominant in the Church of Greece, and the Julian calendar observed by many migrants to this day (see Fig. 4). On particularly festive occasions, divine services are concelebrated with the participation of hierarchs of the Greek Orthodox Church with predilection given to the Byzantine rite thus showcasing the allegiance to the Church of Greece. The celebration of the Pentecost and the Holy Trinity feasts during the thousand-year anniversary in 2025 were such occasions (see Fig. 5).128 Announcements are pronounced in Greek and Russian, though the order may vary. After the liturgy, coffee is served in the courtyard. A Sunday school for children was first organised in 2009 and has been functioning on a permanent basis since 2014.129 Excursions and pilgrimages to churches, monasteries, and holy sites are organised once a month. Since January 2024, a concert of classical or ecclesiastical music is held at the Holy Trinity Church monthly. Seen from this perspective, the church is a place where newly arriving migrants meet and receive spiritual and practical support. The church thus facilitates integration and at the same time distinguishes the migrants in their host society. It is also a place where “cultural intimacy” is recreated.130

Fig. 4. Blessing of Easter baskets after the Holy Saturday morning liturgy in the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church in Athens, 23 April 2022

Fig. 4. Blessing of Easter baskets after the Holy Saturday morning liturgy in the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church in Athens, 23 April 2022

Photo: Kira Kaurinkoski.

Fig. 5. Religious procession during the celebration of the patronal feast of the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church in Athens, 8 June 2025

Fig. 5. Religious procession during the celebration of the patronal feast of the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church in Athens, 8 June 2025

Photo: Kira Kaurinkoski.

  • 131 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 310-313.
  • 132 Kaurinkoski, “Constructing Home Away from Home…,” op. cit.

75In 2010, the Union of Russian Emigrants, named after Princess Sofia I. Demidova, mentioned above, was reestablished by the post-Soviet migrants with the support of descendants of the first wave of White Russian emigrants living in Greece with the primary aim to restore the “Russian” cemetery in Piraeus and maintain it in good order. The historian and author Irina Žalnina-Vasil’kioti became the president of the newly founded association, while Xenia Sfiri (b. Šeremeteva), current head of the illustrious Yusupov family (b. 1942), was nominated as its honorary president. During the following years, the “Russian” cemetery, which was in a bad shape after years of neglect by successive Greek governments and Soviet and Russian embassies, was refurbished with financial support from the Russian government. Ever since, memorial services and liturgies by the priests of the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church are again held at the cemetery church.131 In this case, we see a beautiful example of continuity between the different waves of migration. Moreover, we see that movement and change do not take away places which often retain a powerful significance for people’s lives.132

76After the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine, some Ukrainians left the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church; however, other Ukrainians, as well as Moldovans, Serbs, and Bulgarians, arrived. While Russian and Greek often serve as lingua francas, other languages and dialects are also spoken by the parishioners. The priests in charge of the parish frequently insist that the church is open for everybody, thus underlining its ecumenical character. Consequently, saints of the Georgian, Serbian and Moldovan churches, St. Nino, St. Savva, and St. Paraskevi, are also celebrated with a divine liturgy, a cultural program, and local cuisine. These events are typically organised in cooperation with the cultural associations and language schools of these countries, while corresponding diplomatic staff frequently honour these events with their presence. Russia is an exception. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in February 2022, Russian diplomatic staff no longer attend divine services or cultural events at the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church.

Conclusion

77The Holy Trinity “Russian” Church in Athens is the oldest and largest Byzantine church in the Greek capital, dating to the eleventh century. In 1847 it was conceded by King Othon of Greece to the Russian government to cover the devotional needs of the Russian community in Athens, on the condition that the church would be reconstructed in its original form. Restoration of the church was carried out between 1850 and 1855 by the Russian architects Roman Kuzmin and Ivan Štrom, and the Greek military engineer Tilemachos Vlassopoulos, and personally supervised by Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin), the rector of the church. In December 1855, the church was consecrated in the name of the Holy Trinity. The original name of the church, Saviouress of Lykodemos, is also widely used.

78Until 1919, all priests in charge of the parish were sent to Greece by the Holy Synod of the Church of Russia and financed by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as part of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Athens (1834–1919). Between 1919 and 1924, a temporary solution was found for the administration of the church, and for a brief period, the church was under the protection of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. After the establishment of diplomatic relations between Greece and USSR in 1924, the church came under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church of Greece, first as a chapel, and in 2021 as a parish with full legal rights. From 1924, all the priests and rectors of the Holy Trinity Church have been ordained by the Archbishop of Athens, the Primate of the Church of Greece.

79During the reign of Tsar Nicholas I (1825–1855), the religious factor dominated Russian policy in the Greek Kingdom. The Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Athens was established with the intent of opposing church reforms in Greece following the uncanonical unilateral proclamation of the Greek Church as autocephalous. Russian philanthropic assistance to Greek churches, monasteries, clergymen, and other conservative elements of Greek society, as well as financial backing for religious publishing ventures, should be seen in this context. The reconciliation between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Church of Greece in 1850 was much to Russia’s satisfaction, and a result of the efforts of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Athens. The activities of the mission set a precedent for intervention in the subsequent struggles for national independence in the Balkans.

80The perceptions of the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church and its rectors by the wider Greek society have varied according to political circumstances and conjunctures. Periodic political tensions between Greece and Russia were observed already in the nineteenth century, e.g., in connection with the Bulgarian and Macedonian issues. During the Cold War, the two countries and their churches were political adversaries, since the Ecumenical Patriarch is the spiritual leader of the Orthodox Christian Greeks, while the Moscow and the Ecumenical Patriarchs are traditional rivals. Nevertheless, in the 1950s the relations between the Greek and Russian churches were normalised and developed positively ever since. Recent developments, namely the recognition of the Church of Ukraine as autocephalous, entailed a break of communion between the two Patriarchates, which also affected the Church of Greece. Political tensions between Greece and Russia flared in 2018, with Greece expelling two Russian diplomats in connection with the negotiation of the Prespa Agreements. Significantly, while Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 was of little consequence for the relations between the two countries and their churches, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was condemned by the Greek government, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and the Church of Greece alike, and this led to a serious severing of ties. Nonetheless, these events have not visibly altered the perceptions of the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church and community by the surrounding Greek society.

81Until the 1917 Revolution, the parish members were Russian imperial envoys, visiting churchmen, sailors and soldiers, and a limited number of “Russians” and Serbs living in Greece. Thereafter, the parish was largely constituted by Russian emigrants, who found a symbolic home in the Russian church, and their offspring. Ethnically and nationally, the parish, like the “Russian” community in Athens, has always been diverse. In the interwar years, Russians, Ukrainians, Greeks from Russia, and Serbs largely made up the parish. By the late 1980s, however, the parish was largely composed of ethnic Greeks from Russia and USSR, along with their offspring, and the services were celebrated according to the Byzantine rite. Slavonic was reintroduced in the 1990s in response to the cultural demand created by the mass arrival of Russian-speaking migrants from the FSU. Today, Bulgarians, Georgians, Moldovans, Russians, Serbs, Ukrainians, as well as Pontic, Mariupol, and homeland Greeks, have become an integral part of the parish community. The divine services are officiated in Slavonic and Ecclesiastical Greek. Important holidays are celebrated according to both the official Gregorian calendar and the Julian calendar, as many migrants continue to observe this latter calendar. The parish also runs a Sunday school, and organises bazaars, cultural events, and pilgrimages to churches and monasteries.

82The example of the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church in Athens showcases a church and community that has changed jurisdiction from the Church of Russia to the Church of Greece, and allegiance from Imperial Russia to the Greek nation, while constantly adapting to changing times and welcoming new parishioners independently of their national or ethnic belonging.

Haut de page

Notes

1  In this article, the Holy Trinity Russian Church refers to the period 18471919 when the church was under the jurisdiction of the Holy Synod of the Church of Russia, while the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church refers to the period 1919–2025 thus pointing to the cultural identity and memory of the church. For readability, the expressions the Holy Trinity Church and “Russian” church are used interchangeably.

2  Colloquially, the Soviet Union and the Newly Independent states (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan) have often been referred to as Russia. In Greece, this practice continues to this day.

3  Currently, the choir is composed of both professional and amateur singers. The maestro, Valery Oreškin, graduated from the prestigious Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow before his arrival to Greece in the early 1990s.

4  The program of the celebrations includes a series of concerts, a scientific conference, and an exhibition of the heirlooms guarded in the church. “Egnatia Odos me ton Geōrgio Dovolo”, 05.10.2024 – ΕΡΤecho (ertecho.gr) [Egnatia Odos with Georgio Dovolo], (08.10.2024). Translation from Greek by the author.

5  Antonin (Kapustin), Hristianskie drevnosti Grecii [Christian antiquities of Greece], Athens, 1853, p. 45, 48. Antonin particularly emphasised the remarkable harmony and proportionality of all parts of the building.

6  Transliteration from Russian to English follows the international standard ISO 9 (1995) transliteration system. Transliteration from Greek to English follows the international standard ISO 843 (1997) transliteration system.

7  Frary Lucien J., Russia and the making of modern Greek identity (1821-1844), Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2015, p. 126.

8  On the formation of the Kingdom of Greece and the role of the Great Powers, e.g., Clogg Richard, Greece. A Concise History, London, Cambridge University Press, 1992; Koliopoulos John S., Veremis Thanos, Greece. The Modern Sequel. From 1831 to the Present, London, Hurst & Co., 2002.

9  Frary, Russia and the making…, op. cit.

10  Ibid., p. 125-127, 129.

11  Ibid., p. 148.

12  Further repair work was undertaken by the Greek authorities in 1908, after which the church became a three-aisled basilica.

13  Krûkov A. M., Petrunina O. E., “Russkaâ obŝina v A. (c. Presv. Troicy)” [The Russian community in Athens (The church of the Holy Trinity)], Pravoslavnaâ Ènciklopediâ [Orthodox Encyclopaedia], Athens, 2009, p. 26–45.

14  Antonin (Kapustin), O drevnih hristianskih nadpisâh v Afinah [On ancient Christian inscriptions in Athens], St. Petersburg, Tipografiâ Imperatorskoj Akademii Nauk [Publishing house of the Imperial Academy of Sciences], 1874; Antonin, Hristianskie drevnosti Grecii, op. cit.; Antonin (Kapustin), O raskrytiâh vnutri rossijsko-posol’skoj cerkvi v Afinah [On revelations inside the Russian Embassy Church in Athens], St. Petersburg, 1860; Apostolidis Ilias, Panagia Lykodīmou [The Saviouress of Lykodemos], Athens, 1959; Sakkas Timofej, Neizvestnoe sokroviŝe. Hram Svâtoj Troicy russkoj obŝiny v Afinah [An unknown treasure. The Holy Trinity Church of the Russian community in Athens], Athens, 2009; Žalnina-Vasil’kioti Irina, Škarovskij Mihail, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah. Prošloe i nastoâŝee [The Holy Trinity Russian Church in Athens. Past and present], Moscow, Rostok, 2017; Škarovskij Mihail, “Russkaâ cerkov’ v Afinah v konce XIX–načale XX vv.” [The Russian Church in Athens at the end of the nineteenth and in early twentieth century], Vestnik Istoričeskogo obŝestva SPbDA, vol. 6, no 1, 2021, p. 241-253; Nivière Antoine, Pravoslavnye svâŝennoslužiteli, bogoslovy i cerkovnye deâteli russkoj èmigracii v zapadnoj i central’noj Evrope (1920–1995). Biografičeskij spravočnik. [Orthodox clergy, theologians and church leaders of the Russian emigration in Western and Central Europe (1920–1995). Biographical directory], Мoscow, Russkij Put’ / Paris, YMCA Press, 2007.

15  Kitromilidis Paschalis, “Apo tīn orthodoxī koinopoliteia stis ethnikes koinotītes: Ellīno-Rossikes pnevmatikes scheseis” [From the Orthodox commonwealth to the national communities: Greek-Russian ecclesiastical relationships], Ta Istorika, vol. 10, no 6, 1989, p. 29-46; Frary, Russia and the making…, op. cit.; Sokolovskaâ Olga, “Rossijskaâ blagotvoritel’nost’ v Grecii i na Kipre v gody pravleniâ korolâ Georga I” [Russian Philanthropy in Greece and Crete during the Reign of King George I], Istoriâ, vol. 12, no 2, 2021.

16  Divani Lena, “The Russian Refugees in Greece,” Balkan Studies, vol. 35, 1994, p. 47-69; Žalnina-Vasil’kioti Irina, Russkaâ èmigraciâ v Grecii. Sud’by, XX vek [Russian emigration to Greece. Destinies, twentieth century], Moscow, Staraâ Basmannaâ, 2015.

17  Antonin, O drevnih hristianskih nadpisâh v Afinah, op. cit. These are the only surviving Byzantine literary sources on the construction of the church.

18  The two inscriptions recorded by Antonin refer to the years 6553 (1046), the year of death of the protoktitor Stefanos; and to 6529 (or 6559), the year of death of the priest John (Ioann). The author first notes that the second inscription was not clear at the time when he recorded it. On page 80, however, the author refers to the years 1046 and 1051 as the years of death of the protoktitor Stefanos and the priest John, respectively. Ibid., p. 4, 8, 80.

19  Antonin, Hristianskie drevnosti Grecii, op. cit., p. 46.

20  In this manner, the weight of the dome is divided into arches, barrel-vaults, and piers, which, in turn, are borne by the internal walls, forming a square with the cross arms of the inscribed cross and carry the weight of the dome.

21  The motifs of the individual Kufic patterns and their system of application are very similar to those of the church of the Mother of God at Hosios Loukas and the church of the Holy Apostles in the Athenian Agora. Bouras Charalambos, “The Soteira Lykodemou at Athens. Architecture,” Deltion tīs Christianikīs Archaiologikīs Etaireias, 2004, vol. 4, no 25, p. 11-24 (21-22).

22  During the reign of King Othon of Greece, numerous dilapidated small byzantine churches in Athens were demolished. The building materials were used to erect the Athens cathedral, as well as for other construction purposes. Antonin, Hristianskie drevnosti Grecii, op. cit., p. 48-49.

23  Roman Kuzmin and Ivan Štrom also designed the Orthodox Cathedral in rue Daru in Paris, completed in 1861.

24  During the restoration work, under the floor of the church, at a depth of five meters, a covered tank was discovered, part of the ancient Peisistrateio aqueduct from which the Loutro of Navarchou Nikodimou Street took water.

25  Though the monument was largely restored to its ancient form, it was deemed necessary to make some modifications, such as closing external openings and building walls at the three sides of the central square of the church, with the aim of better supporting the arches, on which the dome rested.

26  Hanoune Roger, “De Douai à Rome et Athènes : un architecte oublié, Florimond Boulanger (1807–1875),” Revue du Nord, vol. 61, no 241, 1979, p. 427-437; Loyer François, L’architecture de la Grèce au XIXe siècle (1821-1912), Athènes, École française d’Athènes, 2017, p. 107-140.

27  Krûkov, Petrunina, “Russkaâ obŝina v A. ...”, op. cit.

28  Antonin (Kapustin), in his 1853 work, Hristianskie drevnosti Grecii, op. cit., p. 58, notes that this is the oldest and perhaps the only fresco that has survived without amendment. In his later work from 1874, О Drevnih hristianskih nadpisâh v Afrinah, op. cit., a drawing of the fresco of St. Stefanos and St. John is included; however, the author does not comment on the date of its origin.

29  Son of the German Philhellene, Friedrich Thiersch. Ludwig Thiersch studied sculpture and later painting at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. In the years 1849–1852, he studied the work of Raphael in Rome, then returned to Athens and taught painting at the School of Arts until 1855. His frescoes in the Russian church in Athens are considered his most significant work in Greece. He also painted the icons in the iconostasis of the Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sophia in London (consecrated in 1882).

30  The book published by Toula Kalantzopoulou includes two drawings by Paul Durand representing the most valuable depictions of the church before the repairs. The nineteenth century drawings by Paul Durand, however, are drawn in a style which does not allow for establishing the date of origin of the frescoes. T. Kalantzopoulou proposes three painting phases in the church, none of which is the original and the last of which is dated to the early eighteenth century, after the necessary repair work caused by the 1705 earthquake. Kalantzopoulou Toula, Mesaiōnikoi naoi tīs Athinas apo sōzomena schedia kai sīmeiōseis tou Ρaul Durand [Medieval churches of Athens from the drawings and notes of Paul Durand], Athens, ΕΛΙΑ, 2002, p. 42-51.

31  Ludwig Thiersch was at the forefront of a movement to “modernize” Byzantine art by introducing elements from the post-Renaissance period, such as naturalistic perspective and anatomy. Such reform was met with fierce opposition from some, who opposed what they saw as attempts to replace longstanding Greek traditions with foreign ones. Several newspaper editorials opposed Thiersch’s appointment as professor and continued to oppose his receipt of commissions to paint church frescoes. Natural-perspective reforms were favoured by the Bavarian monarchy of King Othon, as well as by Lysandros Kaftanzoglou, a prominent architect and head of the Athens Polytechnic, and so his opponents were largely unsuccessful. Danos Antonis, “The Culmination of Aesthetic and Artistic Discourse in Nineteenth-century Greece: Periklis Yannopoulos and Nikolaos Gyzis,” Journal of Modern Greek Studies, vol. 20, no 1, 2002, p. 75-112.

32  Sakkas, Neizvestnoe sokroviŝe…, op. cit., p. 109-133.

33  Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 63.

34  Ibid., p. 63-64. In 1999, the bell tower was renovated with funds from the Greek government.

35 Sakkas, Neizvestnoe sokroviŝe …, op. cit., p. 69.

36 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 219-221.

37 Ibid., p. 224-225.

38 Škarovskij, “Russkaâ cerkov’ v Afinah v konce XIX – načale XX vv.”, op. cit., p. 249-250.

39 The cast iron fence was removed in 1961 on the order of the Greek authorities and with the authorisation of the archdiocese, it was later moved to the Russian home for the elderly in Argyroupoli. Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 230-231.

40 After World War II, the church council deemed it necessary to sell some of the heirlooms to cover expenses related to the maintenance of the parish. Other heirlooms have disappeared, e.g., in connection with robberies and break-ins. Notably, between 1954 and 2014 no inventory of property was conducted by the respective church councils. During this period, the church lost a large part of its precious decoration. Sakkas, Neizvestnoe sokroviŝe…, op. cit., p. 137-143; Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 222-223, 254-261.

41 Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna Romanova was born in Pavlovsk and became Queen Olga of Greece after marrying King George I of the Hellenes (tenure: 1867–1913), later regent of Greece (November–December 1920). In Greece, Queen Olga dedicated herself to charity, and was genuinely popular, especially among soldiers and sailors. In 1897, she founded the Russian Naval Hospital in Piraeus (since 1924, the Naval Hospital of Piraeus), and in 1888, the Russian cemetery. One of her most glorious deeds was the building of Evangelismos Hospital (1884) in Athens. On the life of Queen Olga, who experienced the turmoil of the Russian-Ottoman War of 1877–1878, the Balkan Wars, World War I, and the 1917 Revolution, see e.g., Karolou Ioulia, Olga, Vasilissa tōn Ellīnōn [Olga, the Queen of the Hellenes], Athens, Estia, 1934; Sokolovskaâ Olga, Grečeskaâ koroleva Ol’ga Konstantinovna – Pod molotom sud’by [The Greek Queen Olga Konstantinovna: under the hammer of fate], Moscow, Institute of Slavic Studies, 2011.

42 On the St. Olga church and the Russian cemetery in Piraeus, Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 261-296; Žalnina-Vasil’kioti Irina, “Rodnoj zemli komok suhoj”. Russkij nekropol’ v Grecii [“Dry lump of native land.” Russian necropolis in Greece], Moscow, Knižnica, Russkij Put’, 2012; Talalaj Mihail, Russkoe kladbiŝe imeni E. K. V. Korolevy Èllinov Ol’gi Konstantinovny v Piree [The Russian cemetery named after HRH Queen Olga of Greece in Piraeus], St. Petersburg, VIRD, 2002.

43  Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 296.

44 Ecclesiastical governing body created by Tsar Peter I in 1721 to head the Church of Russia, replacing the patriarchate of Moscow. It was abolished following the February Revolution of 1917.

45 After the 1917 Revolution, the Church of Russia (Russkaâ Cerkov’) became the Russian Orthodox Church (Russkaâ Pravoslavnaâ Cerkov’).

46 Rectors of the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church in Athens (1833–2024): Archimandrite Irinarh (Popov, 1833–1835); Hieromonk Anikita (Širinskij-Šišmatov, August 1836–June 1837); Hieromonk Anatolij (Zografskij1838–1842); Archimandrite Polikarp (Radkevič, January 1843–March 1850); Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin, May 1850–1860); Archimandrite Pëtr (Troitskij, September 1860–June 1869); Archimandrite Nikolaj (Novikov 1869–1878); Archimandrite Anatolij (Stankevič, January 1878-June 1885); Archimandrite Gennadij (Špetilnikov, 1885-1890); Archimandrite Mihail (Gribanovskij, September 1890–August 1894); Archimandrite Sergij (Stragorodskij, October 1894–1897); Archimandrite Arsenij (Timofeev, 1898–1900); Archimandrite Ioannikij (Efremov, November 1900–1905); Archimandrite Anatolij (Georgij Junger, March 1905–April 1906); Archimandrite Leontij (Baron, Von Wimpfen, 1906–October 1914); Archimandrite Sergij (Dabič, 1914–1920); Archpriest Sergij Snegirev (1920–1922); Archpriest Pavel Krahmalev (May 1922–1924); Archpriest Georgij Karibov (Karipidīs, 1924–1939); Archimandrite Nikolaj (Pekatorōs, 1939–1952); Father Ilia Apostolidīs (February 1953–1961); Hieromonk Afanasij Evtič and others (1961–1962); Bishop Anatolij (Apostolidīs, 1962–1966); Archimandrite Timofej (Sakkas, 1966–2006); Protopresbyter Geōrgios (Skοutelīs, 2006–2013); Archimandrite Symeōn (Voliōtis, 2014–2018); Archimandrite Synesios (Viktōratos, 2019–).

47 The Greek manuscripts of Archimandrite Antonin are safeguarded in Kiev, in the Library of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, in the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg, and in the Russian State Historical Archives. Fonkič Boris-L., “Les manuscrits grecs d’Antonin Kapustin,” Scriptorium, vol. 38, no 2, 1984, p. 254-271.

48 Frary Lucien J., “Russian Missions to the Orthodox East: Antonin Kapustin (1817–1894) and his World,” Russian History, vol. 40, no 1, 2013, p. 133-151.

49 Antonin, Hristianskie drevnosti Grecii, op. cit., p. 33.

50 Мihail (Gribanovskij), Nad Evangeliem [Above the Gospel], St. Petersburg, 1896, 1898, 1911; Poltava, 1911; Мoscow, 2004.

51 Škarovskij, “Russkaâ cerkov’ v Afinah v konce XIX – načale XX vv.,” op. cit., p. 243-245.

52 The position of Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia was restored in 1917 after almost two hundred years of Synodal rule in the Church of Russia. In November 1917, Tikhon of Moscow was elected the eleventh Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia. After Tikhon’s death in April 1925, the seat of the Patriarchate remained vacant until 1943, when Metropolitan Sergij (Stragorodskij) became the twelfth Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, from 8 September 1943 until his death on 15 May 1944. He was also the de facto head of the Russian Orthodox Church 1925–1943, first as deputy Patriarchal locum tenens (1925–1937), subsequently as Patriarchal locum tenens (1937–1943). From 1927, he pursued a policy of unconditional loyalty to the Soviet regime, which led to criticism by Russian laity and clergy, many of whom broke communion with him, both in Russia and abroad. Nonetheless, through his declaration he was able to establish a Temporary Patriarchal Council that received government recognition. During World War II, Stalin sought the moral and financial support of the Russian Orthodox Church. On 4 September 1943, he met with the hierarchy of the church and, in exchange for their loyalty and assistance, gave concessions to religion. Among these concessions were permission to open the Moscow Theological Academy and Seminary, release of imprisoned clergy, the return of church property, including the Holy Trinity-St. Sergij Lavra, and permission to convene a council to elect a new patriarch, at the cost of increased control by government secret services.

53 Škarovskij, “Russkaâ cerkov’ v Afinah v konce XIX – načale XX vv.,” op. cit., p. 245-246.

54 Ibid., p. 249-250.

55 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 132-133, 145, 167-168; Nivière, Pravoslavnye svâŝennoslužiteli…, op. cit., p. 432-433.

56 As patroness of the St. Olga Church, taking upon herself the maintenance of the church and the clergy, Queen Olga reserved for herself the right to choose the rector. Father Pavel was her personal choice. Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 178-179; Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Russkaâ èmigraciâ v Grecii…, op. cit., p. 94, 103-120.

57 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 173-181.

58 In March 1920, Metropolitan Antonij briefly visited Greece, where he was cordially received by the Metropolitan of Athens, Meletios III (Metaxakīs), who thus showed his support, considering the repressive measures against the church in Russia. Ibid, p. 164-165.

59 On the Russian Orthodox Church in the interwar years and thereafter, e.g., D’Herbigny Michel, Deubner Alexandre, Évêques russes en exil : douze ans d’épreuves (1918-1930), Rome, Pontificium institutum orientalium studiorum, 1931; Davis Nathaniel, A long way to Church. A contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy, New York, Routledge, 2003; Kalkandjieva Daniela, The Russian Orthodox Church, 1917-1948, London, Routledge, 2014; Tchoukanov Vadim, Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR): Path from Separation to Unity, Master Thesis, Faculty of Philosophy, School of Theology, University of Eastern Finland, 2024.

60 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 173, 206.

61 Ibid., p. 182-183.

62 Decision of the Synod of the Church of Greece, 27.12.1923.

63 Krûkov, Petrunina, “Russkaâ obŝina v A. …”, op. cit.

64 The question was raised by the Patriarchs of Moscow and all Russia, Alexis I, Alexis II, and Kirill. Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 231. Communication by Archimandrite Synesios (Viktōratos), October 2024.

65 The Renovated Church, or the “Living Church,” was a reformed church set up by the Bolshevik government in 1922 which lasted until a successor to Patriarch Tikhon was elected in 1943. On this period in the USSR, see e.g., Rosloff Edward, Red Priests: Renovationism, Russian Orthodoxy, and Revolution, 1905-1946, Bloomington & Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, 2002.

66 In parallel, he was transferred from the Church of Greece to the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of North America (ROGCCNA). However, already the same year, for health reasons, Bishop Anatolij decided to return to Greece. From 1962 to 1966, he put himself at the service of the Church of Greece and served in different parishes, including the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church. He died in Athens in 1976. Žalnina-Vasil’kioti Irina, “Sud’ba pastyrâ: otec Il’â (Apostolov) v èmigracii v Grecii (1927–1976)” [The destiny of a pastor: Father Ilia (Apostolov) in emigration in Greece (1927-1976)], in Lûdi i sud’by Russkogo Zarubež’â [People and destinies of Russian emigration], Moscow, Institut vseobŝej istorii RAN [Institute of General History of the Russian Academy of sciences], 2011, p. 251-261; Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Russkaâ èmigraciâ v Grecii…, op. cit., p. 277-294.

67 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 234-235.

68 Ibid.., p. 238, 240-243.

69 Ibid., p. 315.

70 Bozonelos Dino, “Thrīskeytika-politika afīgīmata kai sygchrones ellīno-rōssikes scheseis” [Religious and political narratives and contemporary Greece–Russia relations], in Panagiota Manoli (ed.), Ī sygchronī Rōsia kai oi Ellīnorōsikes scheseis [Contemporary Russia and Greece–Russia relations], Athens, Gutenberg, 2025, p. 271-299. The concept of “soft power” was developed by Joseph Nye to describe a nation’s ability to attract and persuade by virtue of its culture, political ideas, and policies, thus contrasting with “hard power,” which relies on military might and coercion. Nye Joseph S., Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, New York, Public Affairs, 2005.

71 In the 1820s, Russian aid supported rebuilding programs on Mount Athos, while the Russian state and society donated thousands of rubles to purchase candelabras, bells, and books in various monasteries. The ransoming and release of Christian captives who had been taken prisoner by Ottoman soldiers was another dimension of Russian religious and philanthropic aid to the Greek rebels. During the reign of Ioannis Kapodistrias, Russian aid included the establishment of orphanages and education programs for Greek youth, and massive loans to support religious order and morals in the state emerging from revolutionary war. Frary, Russia and the making…, op. cit., p. 100-103; Kitromilidis, “Apo tīn orthodoxī koinopoliteia stis ethnikes koinotītes …,” op. cit.

72 Chassiotis Ioannis, Oi Ellīnes tīs Rōsias kai tīs Sovietikīs Enōsīs. Metoikesies kai ektopismoi. Organōsī kai Ideologia [The Greeks of Russia and the Soviet Union: Relocations and Displacements. Organisation and Ideology], Thessaloniki, University Studio Press, 1997.

73 Unlike King Othon, King George I of Denmark adopted Orthodoxy on the eve of his accession, regularly attended Orthodox liturgy in the main cathedrals, and was on good terms with church hierarchy.

74 Sakkas, Neizvestnoe sokroviŝe…, op. cit.; Frary, Russia and the making…, op. cit., p. 125.

75 Frary, Russia and the making…, op. cit.

76 Giannaras Christos, Orthodoxia kai Dysī stī Neoterī Ellada [Orthodoxy and the West in Modern Greece], Athens, Ikaros, 2021 [1972].

77 Frary, Russia and the making…, op. cit., p. 92-95.

78 Sakkas, Neizvestnoe sokroviŝe…, op. cit., p. 53-54.

79 Frary, Russia and the making…, op. cit., p. 92-95, 118, 138-139.

80 Frary, “Russian Missions to the Orthodox East…,” op. cit.

81 Sakkas, Neizvestnoe sokroviŝe…, op. cit., p. 74.

82 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 81.

83 Makrides Vasilios N., “The Orthodox Church of Greece,” in Lucian N. Leustean (ed.), Eastern Christianity and the Cold War, 1945-1991, London, New York, Routledge, 2010, p. 252-270.

84 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit.

85 Ibid., p. 238-240, 245-246.

86 Ibid., p. 309-310.

87 In 2002, the Church of Greece decided to construct a new larger church dedicated to Panagia Sumela in Menidi (officially Acharnes). Construction of the new church started in 2003, and in 2006 the first services were held in the lower church dedicated to St. John the Russian. Ibid., p. 319-323.

88 Pontic Greek migrants from the Soviet Union started settling in Menidi in the 1960s and were later joined by more recent migrants. Today Pontic Greek migrants and their offspring make up 25–30 per cent of the population in this municipality. Kaurinkoski Kira, “La migration de retour des Grecs d’ex-Union soviétique en Grèce. Réflexions sur les logiques diasporiques d’exclusion et d’appartenance,” Revue européenne des migrations internationales, vol. 37, no 3-4, 2021, p. 225-250.

89 Rousselet Kathy, “L’impasse ukrainienne,” Observatoire international du religieux, Bulletin no 51, 2024.

90 Manoli Panagiota, “Parametroi diamorfōsīs tōn sygchronōn ellīnorōsikōn scheseōn” [Configuration parametres in contemporary Greece–Russia relations], in Panagiota Manoli (ed.), 2025, op. cit., p. 185-227 (209-210).

91 Bozonelos, “Thrīskeytika-politika afīgīmata kai sygchrones ellīnorōsikes scheseis,” op. cit.

92 The Russian diplomats were suspected of bribing Greek officials in connection with the vote in the Greek parliament on the naming of North Macedonia, Russia being opposed to the Prespa Agreements. Rori Lambrini, Georgiadou Vassiliki, “Ī rōsofilia sto ellīniko kommatiko systīma, 2009–2023” [Russophilia in the Greek party system, 2009–2023], in Panagiota Manoli (ed.), I sygchronī Rōsia kai oi Ellīnorōsikes scheseis, op. cit., p. 248-270 (257).

93 Manoli, I sygchronī Rōsia kai oi Ellīnorōsikes scheseis, op. cit., p. 209.

94 Rori, Georgiadou, “Ī rōsofilia sto ellīniko kommatiko systīma, 2009–2023,” op. cit., p. 266.

95 The Russophilia in Greece can be explained by historical and religious relations, but also by longstanding anti-Western, anti-NATO, and Eurosceptic sentiments in parts of the electorate. Ibid.; Fagan Moira, Gubbala Sneha, Poushter Jacob, Nato Viewed Favourably Across 13 Member Nations, Pew Research Center, 23 June 2025, online : pg_2025.06.23_global-views-russia-nato_reportc.pdf (accessed in September 2025).

96 Giochalas Thanassis, Kafetzaki, Tania, Athīna, Ichnīlatōntas tīn polī me odīgo tīn istoria kai tī logotechnia [Athens, Tracing the city with history and literature as a guide], 7th edition, Athens, Estia, 2021, p. 307-311.

97 Škarovskij, “Russkaâ cerkov’ v Afinah v konce XIX – načale XX vv.,” op. cit., p. 248-249.

98 Ibid.

99 In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, approximately 50,000 expatriate and ethnic Greeks and up to 10,000 Russians and Ukrainians temporarily settled in Greece. Additionally, between November 1920 and October 1921, some 50,000 Don and Kuban Cossacks were temporarily settled in camps on the Greek island of Lemnos by the French authorities, waiting for a host country to be found; some 2,500 eventually settled in Greece. According to the 1928 Greek population census, there were 3,329 Russians in Greece. The great majority lived in Athens, a smaller number in Thessaloniki. Divani, “The Russian Refugees in Greece,” op. cit.; Bagni Bruno, “Lemnos, l’île aux Cosaques,” Cahiers du monde russe, vol. 50, no 1, 2009, p. 187-230; Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Russkaâ èmigraciâ v Grecii…, op. cit.

100 The school leaving certificate did not give access to Greek universities. After the completion of the gymnasium, some pursued their studies in Russian language institutions in countries where such institutions existed. Until 1928, the gymnasium received financial aid from Zemgor (an organisation reestablished by former Russian civil servants in emigration and registered in Paris in 1921 to help Russian emigrants); thereafter, funds had to be raised locally. Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Russkaâ èmigraciâ v Grecii…, op. cit., p. 355-372.

101 Raeff Marc, Russia Abroad: A Cultural History of the Russian Emigration 19191939, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1990; Ellis LeRoy, Les Russes sur la Côte d’Azur. La colonie russe dans les Alpes-Maritimes des origines à 1939, Nice, Éditions Serre, 1988; Kaurinkoski Kira, “Les communautés russe et italienne de Nice dans l’entre-deux-guerres : similitudes et differences,” Cahiers de la Méditerranée, no 58, 1998, p. 133–155; Baschmakoff Natalia, Leinonen Marja, Russian Life in Finland 19171939: A Local and Oral History, Helsinki, Institute for Russian and East European Studies, 2001; Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Russkaâ èmigraciâ v Grecii…, op. cit.; Kaurinkoski Kira, “Constructing Home Away from Home: The Case of the Interwar Russian Refugees and the Post-Soviet Migrants in Greece,” in Maria Yelenevskaya, Ekaterina Protassova (eds), Material Culture of the Russian-Speaking Diaspora: The Social Semiotics of Home, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2023, p. 20-42.

102 The sisterhood functioned until the 1980s. Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 200, 219.

103 Elim Demidov renounced his position in 1917, but he was reappointed as the Russian envoy by the short-lived government of General Wrangel in 1920, serving in this position until the recognition by the Greek government of the USSR in 1924. Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 166, 173, 206.

104 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti Irina, “Knâginâ S. I. San-Donato v istorii russkoj èmigracii v Grecii” [Princess S. I. San Donato in the history of Russian emigration to Greece], Rossiâ i sovremennyj mir, no 4, 2012, p. 220-229; Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Russkaâ èmigraciâ v Grecii…, op. cit., p. 19-44.

105 Prime Minister of Greece (1943–1944) during the axis occupation in Greece in World War II.

106 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 201-203.

107 General Peter Wrangel personified the idea of the White cause and tried to keep the spirit of resistance against Bolshevism alive. Kröner Anthony, The White Knight of the Black Sea. The Life of General Peter Wrangel, Paris, Leuxenhoff Publishing, 2010.

108 Grand Duke Nikolaj Nikolaevič was commander in chief of the Imperial Russian Army and a symbolic figurehead of the Russian monarchic movement in exile.

109 Archbishop Chrysostomos I (1923–1938) (b. Chrysostomos Papadopoulos, 1868–1938) pursued his theological studies in Constantinople (1884–1887), Jerusalem (1887–1888), Smyrna (1888–1889), at the University of Athens Faculty of Theology (1889–1891), and under the patronage of Queen Olga, also at the Theological Academies in Kiev (1891–1893), and later St. Petersburg (1893–1895), where he received his doctoral degree.

110 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 197-198.

111 Ibid., p. 200.

112 Ibid., p. 204.

113 Ibid., p. 172, 212.

114 Ibid., p. 210.

115 The Nansen passport for stateless persons, named after the Norwegian diplomat and humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen, was a certificate that allowed refugees to cross borders legally and which at various times was recognised by more than fifty governments. Although the passport was created initially for refugees from Russia, it was later extended to other groups, such as the Greek and Armenian refugees from the Ottoman Empire. Voutira Eftihia, “Population transfer and resettlement policies in interwar Europe: the case of Asia Minor refugees in Macedonia from an international and national perspective,” in Peter Mackridge, Eleni Yannakakis (eds), Ourselves and Others: The Development of a Greek Macedonian Cultural Identity since 1912, Oxford, Berg, 1997.

116 Kaurinkoski, “Les communautés russe et italienne de Nice dans l’entre-deux-guerres…,” op. cit.

117 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Russkaâ èmigraciâ v Grecii…, op. cit., p. 406; Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 296.

118 Christianikos Filanthropikos Syllogos “Ī Agia Trias.”

119 According to memories of the contemporaries, Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna regularly attended the Sunday liturgy at the Holy Trinity Church and generously assisted Russian emigrants, especially those in need.

120 Ī Agia Trias Ellīnorōsikos oikos yperīlikōn. Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 296-306, 309.

121 Ibid., p. 247-254.

122 A first attempt to introduce Greek as the second church language dates to 1929; however, this proposal of the archdiocese was refused by the church council of the Holy Trinity Church. Ibid., p. 198.

123 Ibid., p. 252-253.

124 Ethnic Greek return migration from Russia and the former Soviet Union to Greece in the twentieth century can be divided into four waves. The first wave refers to those who “returned” to Greece in the wake of the Russian Revolution and Civil War (1917–1923), and the second to those who “returned” in the context of the Stalinist purges in the 1930s. Thereafter, “return” migration to Greece resumed in 1965 and continued through the 1970s and 1980s. The limited number of ethnic Greeks who “returned” to Greece during this period constitute the third wave. Most were political refugees of the Greek Civil War (1946–1949) and held Greek passports. The fourth wave, which is the most heterogeneous and numerous, started in the late 1980s and lasted until 2010. Voutira Eftihia, “Pontic Greeks Today: Migrants or Refugees?,” Journal of Refugee Studies, vol. 4, no 4, 1991, p. 400-420; Voutira Eftihia, The “Right to Return” and the meaning of “Home.” A post-Soviet Greek diaspora becoming European, Berlin, LIT, 2011; Kaurinkoski Kira, “Les Grecs de Mariupol. Réflexions sur une identité en diaspora (Ukraine),” Revue européenne des migrations internationales, vol. 19, no 1, 2003, p. 125-146; Kaurinkoski Kira, Le retour des Grecs de Russie. Identités, mémoires, trajectoires, Athens, École française d’Athènes, 2018.

125 Overall, between 1987 and 2000 Greece welcomed some 200,000–300,000 migrants from the FSU, of whom 150,000–200,000 were ethnic Greeks.

126 De Rapper Gilles, Sintès Pierre, Nommer et classer dans les Balkans, Athens, École française d’Athènes, 2008 ; Kaurinkoski, Le retour des Grecs de Russie…, op. cit.

127 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 306-309.

128 Metropolitan Theoklītos of Stagoi and Meteora, Archimandrite Nektarios (Kōtsakīs), Abbot of the Oblou Monastery in Patras, and Bishop Paylos (Kitsos) of Thespia, who represents Archbishop of Athens Ieronymos II at various events, participated in the three-day celebration of the patronal feast at the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church on 7-9 June 2025.

129 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 316-317.

130 Michael Herzfeld explains cultural intimacy as aspects of cultural identity that provide insiders with their assurance of common sociality, in opposition to outsiders. It has become a crucial element in current debates on inclusion and exclusion. Herzfeld Michael, Cultural Intimacy: Social Poetics in the Nation State, 2nd ed., New York, Routledge, 2005.

131 Žalnina-Vasil’kioti, Škarovskij, Russkaâ Svâto-Troickaâ cerkov’ v Afinah…, op. cit., p. 310-313.

132 Kaurinkoski, “Constructing Home Away from Home…,” op. cit.

Haut de page

Table des illustrations

Titre Fig. 1. The Holy Trinity Church
Légende Lithograph.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/balkanologie/docannexe/image/7221/img-1.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 651k
Titre Fig. 2. Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin, 1817–1894)
Crédits Wikimedia Commons.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/balkanologie/docannexe/image/7221/img-2.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 155k
Titre Fig. 3. Queen Olga of Greece leaving the Holy Trinity Church after hearing a divine service on 14 March 1891
Crédits Photo: Unknown.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/balkanologie/docannexe/image/7221/img-3.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 167k
Titre Fig. 4. Blessing of Easter baskets after the Holy Saturday morning liturgy in the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church in Athens, 23 April 2022
Crédits Photo: Kira Kaurinkoski.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/balkanologie/docannexe/image/7221/img-4.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 1,4M
Titre Fig. 5. Religious procession during the celebration of the patronal feast of the Holy Trinity “Russian” Church in Athens, 8 June 2025
Crédits Photo: Kira Kaurinkoski.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/balkanologie/docannexe/image/7221/img-5.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 779k
Haut de page

Pour citer cet article

Référence électronique

Kira Kaurinkoski, « The Holy Trinity “Russian” Church in Athens: From a Russian Embassy Church to a Greek Orthodox Parish (19th–21st Centuries) »Balkanologie [En ligne], Vol. 20 n° 1 | 2025, mis en ligne le 01 octobre 2025, consulté le 23 janvier 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/balkanologie/7221 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/15aal

Haut de page

Auteur

Kira Kaurinkoski

Aix-Marseille Université, UMR 7307 – Institut d’ethnologie et d’anthropologie sociale (IDEAS)
kaurinkoski[at]yahoo.fr

Articles du même auteur

Haut de page

Droits d’auteur

CC-BY-ND-4.0

Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence CC BY-ND 4.0. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont susceptibles d’être soumis à des autorisations d’usage spécifiques.

Haut de page
Rechercher dans OpenEdition Search

Vous allez être redirigé vers OpenEdition Search