The Fate of the Catholic Church of St. Louis of the French in Soviet Moscow: the Perspective of an American Assumptionist

From 1938 to 1992, the Church of St. Louis of the French was the only legally operating Roman Catholic parish church in Moscow. The peculiarity of the parish was that its core membership and its “executive bodies” comprised foreign nationals and representatives of the diplomatic corps, primarily of France and the United States. In the second half of the 1940s, amid rising tensions with the West, the Soviet authorities subjected the community of St. Louis and its clergy to their control. Today, it is possible to detail the circumstances of this case not only thanks to the Russian archival materials but also to the document published below, a copy of a memorandum by Fr. Leopold Braun, A. A., an American priest who administered the Church of St. Louis in 1934—1945. The document, originally forwarded to the US State Department in February 1954, was found in the Archives of the North American Province of the Assumptionists in the Provincial House in Boston, MA. In this document, Fr. Braun describes the history of the church in the Soviet period, focusing on the confrontation between its clergy and parishioners, on the one hand, and the Soviet authorities, on the other. He also suggests that the US Government intervene in the situation and return control of the church to Catholics of all nationalities, including those who do not have Soviet citizenship. The basis for such interference, from the point of view of Fr. L. Braun, was the Roosevelt — Litvinov agreements of 1933, which contained guarantees of religious freedoms for American citizens in the USSR.

Keywords

USSR, Catholic Church, US-Soviet relations, Roosevelt—Litvinov agreements, Church of St. Louis of the French (Moscow), Fr. Leopold Braun

Acknowledgment

This study has been supported by the Russian Science Foundation for the project № 19-18-00482: “Entangled Histories: Russia and the Holy See, 1917—1958”.

Received

08.06.2021

Publication date

15.09.2021

Number of characters

38950

Cite

GOST	Fadeyev I., Beglov A. The Fate of the Catholic Church of St. Louis of the French in Soviet Moscow: the Perspective of an American Assumptionist // ISTORIYA – 2021. – V. 12. – Issue 8 (106) [Electronic resource]. URL: https://history.jes.su/S207987840016675-1-1 (circulation date: 05.12.2024). DOI: 10.18254/S207987840016675-1
MLA	Fadeyev, Ivan, Beglov, Aleksey "The Fate of the Catholic Church of St. Louis of the French in Soviet Moscow: the Perspective of an American Assumptionist." ISTORIYA 12.8 (106) (2021) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840016675-1
APA	Fadeyev I., Beglov A. (2021). The Fate of the Catholic Church of St. Louis of the French in Soviet Moscow: the Perspective of an American Assumptionist. ISTORIYA 12(8 (106)) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840016675-1

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