The Orthodoxy and the Cult of the Catholic Saint Andrew Bobola in the 19th – Beginning of the 20th Century

Abstract

The article is devoted to the history of changes in the attitude of Orthodox clergy and publicists to the figure of the Catholic martyr Andrew Bobola, a Jesuit killed in the middle of the 17th century by Orthodox Cossacks. It is shown that in the first half of this period (until the 1850s) the veneration of the saint had a transconfessional character. Some representatives of the educated Orthodox community (Archbishop Vasily (Luzhinsky), Bishop Daniel (Nattok-Mikhailovsky), K. A. Govorsky) were inclined to acknowledge the authenticity of the legend originating in Pinsk in the 18th century. According to it, the saint was not a Jesuit killed by the Orthodox, but an Orthodox martyr killed by Catholics. The reasons that caused changes in the attitude towards Andrew Bobola in the 1850s – 1860s are examined. There is a tendency towards declining trust in the legend of the “Orthodox Bobola”, which resulted in the identification of his cult by the Orthodox church as an instrument in the hands of forces hostile to the Church and Russia. The article demonstrates the process of formation of an alternative Orthodox version of the biography of Andrew Bobola, which acknowledges the saint’s affiliation with Catholicism, but perceives him as an analogue of St. Josaphat Kuntsevich. This implies the characteristics of a soul-grabber, a murderer and persecutor of Orthodoxy, who, in the opinion of Orthodox authors, deserved a tragic ending through his actions.

Acknowledgements
This research was conducted with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 21-48-04402: “RSF-DFG: Saints and Heroes: From Christianization to Nationalism. Symbol, Image, Memory (North-Western Russia, the Baltic States and Northern Europe)”).

Received: 09.10.2023.
Revised: 15.06.2024.
Accepted: 01.07.2024.

Citation
Koronevskii V. I. The Orthodoxy and the Cult of the Catholic Saint Andrew Bobola in the 19th – Beginning of the 20th Century // Slavic Almanac. 2024. No 3–4. P. 376–393 (in Russian). DOI: 10.31168/2073-5731.2024.3-4.20