Jesuit Restoration 1814
Follow Us
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Timeline
    • History Flowchart
    • Dominus ac Redemptor (1773) >
      • Original Latin
      • English Translation
    • Catholicae Fidei (1801) >
      • Original Latin
      • English Translation
    • Solicitudo omnium ecclesiarum (1814) >
      • Original Latin
      • English Translation
  • Key Figures
    • Popes >
      • Clement XIV
      • Pius VI
      • Pius VII
    • Jesuits >
      • Fr General Brzozowski
      • Stanislaus Czerniewicz
      • Antoine LaVallete
      • Gabriel Malagrida
      • St Joseph Pignatelli
      • Fr General Ricci
    • Opponents >
      • Jansenists
      • Pombal
      • Mdm de Pompadour
      • Count of Aranda
      • Gallicanists
    • Supporters >
      • Catherine the Great
      • Ferdinand
      • The Zelanti
  • Links
  • Multimedia
    • Videos from the Archives
  • Purchases

Background - Russian Bible Society

3/3/2014

 
Picture
AMDG 

One of the curiosities about the restoration era is that soon after the bull was promulgated by Pope Pius VII the Jesuits were exiled from Russia.  This is curious as it was the Russian Empire that harboured the Society when no-one else would take them.  There are a few factors that may explain this turn in events.  A resurgent Orthodox Church that was concerned by the success of the Jesuit colleges and the danger of conversions of the aristocracy to Catholicism. When the nephew of a Prince announced that he was to convert to Catholicism it was a thunderbolt - leading to accusations that his Jesuit teachers had violated rules of neutrality.  In an age when the favour of powerful patrons was necessary,  a cooling of the relationship with the Tsar was a decisive factor.  At the heart of this was the Russian Bible Society. 

A full-scale translation of the Bible into the Russian language began in 1813, after the establishment of the Russian Bible Society. It was an offshoot of the British & Foreign Bible Society and a sign of the growing influence of English merchants who were establishing a trading network in St Petersburg and other Russian cities.  The full edition of the Bible with both the Old Testament and the New Testament were eventually published in 1876. This edition is called the Russian Synodal Bible, is widely used by Protestant and even Catholic communities all over Russia and in the former Soviet States, and by many Russian Orthodox for teaching and private study, outside of liturgical use (for which the Old Church Slavonic version is preferred). 

A Prince was was very influentials with Tsar Alexander I,  saw the Society as an opportunity to raise the educational level of the Orthodox Clergy. He was also convinced that a dividend of encouraging his subjects to read the Bible would be peace and stability.  This idealism was heavily influenced by similar movements in N.America. The Prince was a close friend of General Brozozowski, and knowing that the Jesuits had a large amount of influence with the nobility, was keen the General and the Jesuits threw their weight behind this new Bible Society.  The newly restored Jesuits, still traumatised by the Supression wanted to tread carefully.  They were unwilling to approve a new translation without explicit approval from the Pope.  This intransigence poisoned the relationship with the Prince and thus the Tsar - and thus their chief protectors would become enemies. 




Comments are closed.

    Authors

    Tim Byron SJ 
    Chris Corbally SJ 
    Michael Campbell-Johnston SJ
    Thomas McClain SJ
    Paul Nicholson SJ 
    Oliver Rafferty SJ 
    Eric Ramirez SJ 
    Ian Tomlinson SJ 

    Click Here to find out more about the authors of the blog

    Archives

    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

    Categories

    All
    20th Century
    Background
    Belgium
    China
    France
    Fr General
    Gallicanism
    Ignatius
    Italy
    Jansenism
    Mexico
    Popes
    Portugal
    Pre Suppression
    Reflection
    Restored Society
    Russia
    Spain
    Spiritual Exercises
    Suppression
    The Americas
    UK

      Subscribe to Blog
      & recieve updates by email

    Submit

    RSS Feed


Picture
We want it to be a year of study and reflection. All the crises of
history enclose a hidden wisdom that needs to be fathomed. For us, Jesuits, this is the commemoration of our greatest crisis. It is, therefore, important that we should learn from the events themselves, that we should discover the good and the bad in our behaviour in order to revive those great desires the Pope spoke of and continue the work of Evangelisation, refining our brotherhood and deepening our love. 



Fr Adolfo Nicolás SJ, Superior General of the Jesuits, 2014
Picture
✕