The works of Metropolitan Eleutherius (Vorontsov) on the creation of the Czechoslovak Autocephalous Orthodox Church

Abstract

The article deals with the history of the Czechoslovak Autocephalous Orthodox Church in the second half of the 1940s and early 1950s, the main works on its creation were performed by the well-known Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church — Metropolitan Eleutherius (Vorontsov). He was appointed Exarch of the Moscow Patriarchate in Czechoslovakia in 1946 and in a short time created a fairly viable Exarchate on the basis of several dozen severely affected Ruthenian, Slovak, and Russian communities during the Second World War at the hands of the Czech Nazis. In this situation, the Bishop had to solve complex problems, the most important of which was the transfer to the Orthodox Church of Slovak Greek Catholics, which was often carried out by the state bodies of Czechoslovakia through the use of repressive measures. Metropolitan Eleutherius did not share this approach and tried to act by other methods. Largely as a result of his skillful policy, by the early 1950s the Czechoslovak Orthodox Church was established, which received autocephaly from the Russian Mother Church in 1951. The present Orthodox Church of the Czech lands and Slovakia invariably commemorates its first Metropolitan Eleutherius, who is remembered fondly.