A Debate on Formally Glorifying Western Saints in the ROCOR (1950)

(Minutes from Protocol #2 of the Council of Bishops, November 15/28, 1950, Mahopac, NY)

 

 

After the break, the schedule of reports to the Hierarchical Council, prepared by the secretariat, is read aloud. Changes are made to this schedule, and the secretariat is instructed to draw up a new schedule. Newly received greetings from the day are read, and the Council proceeds to the agenda. The proposal of Archpriest Stefan Lyashevsky to allow the Church to glorify Archbishop Ansgar of Hamburg, a notable figure in Church history and canonized by the Western (then still Orthodox Local) Church, is discussed. Archbishop John reads the proposal of Archpriest S. Lyashevsky and adds his considerations, stating that the absence of Archbishop Ansgar’s name in existing Menologia is not a reason to reject the possibility of his veneration by the Church. Our Menologia do not represent a complete list of all our saints. Various Menologia provide different lists of saints. Many saints are not included in any Menologion. In Lives of the Saints, saints are often mentioned whose names cannot be found in the Menologia, such as the martyr Leonida. Returning from England, Metropolitan ANTHONY mentioned that we were unaware of St. Alban, who is undoubtedly an early Christian saint. Thus, we have no right to deny the sanctity of Archbishop Ansgar. Archbishop JOHN also presents biographical information depicting the saintly image of Archbishop Ansgar. Bishop GREGORY objects to Archbishop JOHN, believing that caution must be exercised in this matter. He refers to the historian [Archimandrite Andronik] Yelpidinsky, who portrays Archbishop Ansgar unfavorably. However, the excerpt read from Yelpidinsky does not turn out to be unfavorable for Archbishop Ansgar. Nevertheless, Bishop GREGORY insists that Archbishop Ansgar cannot be recognized as a saint because Ansgar was a missionary acting on the orders of Emperor Louis the Pious and the Roman Pope to Germanize and subjugate the Slavic peoples. Furthermore, Bishop GREGORY asserts that no Western saints should be recognized starting with Pope Gregory the Great, who already exhibited strong papal tendencies. Bishop GREGORY is countered by Bishop NATHANAEL, who points out that there is a whole series of saints in the Western Church undoubtedly recognized as saints by the Orthodox Church, though their names do not appear in the Menologia. Examples include St. Vincent of Lerins, St. Hilary of Poitiers, and St. Genevieve. However, there are certain saints of the Western Church who are rightly not glorified by the Orthodox Church—for instance, Boniface, who preached in Germany, as he opposed Irish and Anglo-Saxon Christian missionaries who were closer to Orthodoxy. In the life of Archbishop Ansgar, it is evident that he was merely a preacher of Christianity among pagans and did not oppose any movements within the Western Church that were close to Orthodoxy. We cannot trust the characterizations of liberal historians, as liberal ecclesiastical thought has brought more harm to the Church than Latinism itself. Archbishop JOHN agrees with Bishop NATHANAEL's opinion and considers the glorification of Ansgar by the Orthodox Church to be possible. He also clarifies that even the new canonization of saints has always been the right not of a Local Church, but of any legitimate ecclesiastical hierarchical diocesan authority. Metropolitan ANASTASY finds the matter too significant in principle and proposes postponing it until the next day. The session concludes with the singing of a prayer.

 

Russian source: http://sinod.ruschurchabroad.org/Arh%20Sobor%201950%20Prot.htm