Lipetsk Metropolia of the Russian Orthodox Church

Lipetsk metropolia has a long and dramatic history. It is known that on the territory belonging to her today the population took Christianity in the pre-Mongol period, but, in view of the frequent raids of nomads at the end of the fourteenth century, she had to leave it. For almost two centuries the Upper Don region remained a "wild field", and only at the end of the 16th century the inhabitants returned. During this period, Orthodox churches and monasteries are beginning to be actively constructed.

History of the Lipetsk Diocese

Until the beginning of the XX century Lipetsk region was part of the Ryazan and part of the Voronezh diocese. Throughout the pre-revolutionary period, religious life here developed in its entirety. To see this, it is enough to turn to statistical data of the nineties of the XIX century.

One can see from them that the territory where the present Lipetsk metropolis is located included more than five hundred existing temples and about a dozen monasteries, in which hundreds of thousands of pilgrims came from all over Russia every year. In addition, these lands showed the innumerable host of holy saints of God, and in the twentieth century, when persecution of the church began, and the new martyrs.

Post-revolutionary and pre-war years

The natural course of church history was interrupted by the Bolshevik coup that took place in 1917, which passed the death sentence to many Orthodox shrines, representatives of the clergy and just believers. However, religious life in this region did not die, but only entered its new phase. Before the Lipetsk metropolia was created, that is, the territorial unit subordinated to the metropolitan, in its place a somewhat smaller structure - the diocese was formed.

She was under the supervision of Bishop Uara (Shmarin), who headed it until, in 1935, he was arrested, and then shot. Two years later, his newly appointed bishop Alexander (Toropov) shared his fate, as did his predecessor, who accepted the martyr's crown. Since that time, Lipetsk, having lost the importance of the diocesan center, has become part of the Voronezh department.

Partial revival of the diocese during the war years

After a terrible period of persecution against the church marked by the thirties, by the beginning of the war there were no active churches in the territory of the Lipetsk region, and representatives of the clergy were either shot or exiled to camps. Only when the difficult situation on the fronts forced the authorities to seek ways to strengthen national unity, they decided to return some churches to believers.

The first of these was the Christ-Christmas Church in the village of Studenki, which opened its doors in 1943. In the postwar years he was joined by the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in the city of Lipetsk, but during the Khrushchev persecutions of the church many of the temples that were opened earlier were closed again.

The creation of the metropolis on the Lipetsk land

As in the whole country, the attitude of local authorities to the church changed only with the onset of perestroika, which triggered the process of democratization in society. During these years, many churches, previously taken from the church, were reopened and used for household needs. At the same time, the construction of new ones began.

By 2003, religious life in the city and the region had reached such a wide scale that a separate diocese was re-established by the decision of the Holy Synod, on the basis of which the Lipetsk Metropolia was established in ten years. It was headed by Archbishop Nikon, who was soon elevated to the rank of Metropolitan.

Today the Lipetsk Metropolis is one of the largest in the country. On its territory there are more than two hundred parishes, as well as the construction of several dozen new temples in the towns and villages of the region. A powerful impulse was received by the monastic ministry, which began in the 16th century. Today in the territory of the Lipetsk Metropolitanate there are four monasteries and six women's monasteries.

Church life in Vologda region

The process of extensive administrative reforms aimed at improving the pastoral ministry and the care of parishioners has developed in recent years throughout Russia. In 2014, the Holy Synod, by a decree of October 23, brought to life a new major church structure, which became the Vologda Metropolitanate. It was entrusted to head Metropolitan Vologda and Kirillovsky Ignaty (Deputatov).

The structure of the new administrative education included three dioceses: the Vologda and Kirillov, Veliky Ustyug and the Totem, as well as Cherepovets and Belozersk. The Vologda Metropolis is one of the largest in its area, since it includes all the territory of the Vologda region, which makes up almost one hundred and fifty thousand square kilometers.

The creation of the metropolis on the banks of the Volga

Part of the process of administrative and ecclesiastical transformations was also the Nizhny Novgorod Metropolitanate, created in 2012. The history of Orthodoxy on the banks of the Volga dates back to the most ancient times, but the diocese here was established only in 1672. The population in these parts associated with the most important navigable river of Russia has been steadily growing over the centuries and by 1912 reached more than 1.5 million people.

In pre-revolutionary years there were about a thousand hundred churches and twenty-eight monasteries. Forty-eight bishops headed the diocese for more than three hundred years. After experiencing in the Soviet years all the same ordeals that fell to the lot of the entire Russian Orthodox Church, the diocese revived in the years of perestroika. For the period of its existence, it has accumulated considerable experience in the spiritual nurturing of parishioners, which is now being implemented within the framework of a new administrative entity known as the Nizhny Novgorod Metropolitanate.

Strengthening the centralized management of the church

The process of transforming the largest dioceses in the metropolis continues, and its positive results leave no doubt about the correctness of the chosen path. An example of this can serve as the St. Petersburg Metropolitanate, which became under the control of Metropolitan St. Petersburg and Ladoga Varsonofia one of the main supports of modern Russian Orthodoxy.

This is a completely natural process. Each newly formed metropolitanate of the Russian Orthodox Church, including several dioceses, summarizes their experience and, thanks to centralized leadership, allows it to obtain maximum implementation.