On Protopresbyter George Grabbe (Bishop Gregory)

On Protopresbyter George Grabbe (Bishop Gregory)

In 1957, in the ROCOR, as a result of a "slander campaign," Bishop Panteleimon (Rudyk) was retired. According to Archpriest Mitrofan Znosko-Borovsky [later Bishop of Boston], the main accuser was Archpriest George Grabbe.

In 1963, he was one of the main opponents of Archbishop John (Maximovich)'s activities in San Francisco. He supported the initiation of a civil court case against him and participated in its sessions as a witness for the prosecution.

On September 30, 1964, in New York, he performed the wedding of the impostor Mikhail Goleniewski, who pretended to be the miraculously saved Tsarevich Alexei, to the Protestant German Ingrid Kampf, in the presence of "his sisters," the non-Orthodox and non-Russian-speaking "Olga Nikolaevna Romanova" and "Tatyana Nikolaevna Romanova." For this wedding, Grabbe received more than 10 thousand US dollars. This caused a scandal in ROCOR. As a result, the canonization of the royal family by ROCOR, which had been planned for the same year, was postponed for 17 years, as doubts arose about the death of all five Romanov children. Upon learning of this "wedding," Archbishop John of Shanghai of ROCOR conducted a memorial service after the liturgy in memory of the murdered Tsarevich Alexei.

Since 1967, he served as a consultant to the Synod of Bishops of ROCOR and head of the Department of External Relations.

From 1932 to 1946 and from 1951 to 1967, he was the editor of the journal Church Life, the official organ of the Synod of Bishops of ROCOR.

He had significant influence over the third First Hierarch of ROCOR, Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky). In 1967, Archbishop Averky (Taushev), abbot of Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, wrote several letters to Metropolitan Philaret, in which he lamented that the metropolitan was under the influence of his secretary, Protopresbyter George Grabbe, and his "party":

"...It is indescribably sad for you, Holy Master, that you are so skillfully and cunningly courted by dishonest people who have clearly lost their conscience if they are capable of such vile and disgusting slander against others who see and know them, and whom they therefore fear. After all, apart from a small handful of personal friends and relatives, along with those bound to them by a commonality of equally low-grade interests, absolutely no one supports them. The true church people are not with them, for they see through them and do not believe them. By slandering others, they think they can whitewash themselves... Everything would be peaceful, quiet, and harmonious in our Church if it weren't for this group's ambition to seize dictatorial power for themselves..."

Russian source: https://russianemigrant.ru/book-author/grigorij-grabbe-episkop