The Parish of the Three Holy Hierarchs and the Icon

« In 1928-1929, the Brotherhood was involved in the organisation of a French parish, a parish of the Eastern rite, that is true, but one that played its part in the cause of Western Orthodoxy, be it only by the interest it created in Russian church circles of the diaspora in the Orthodox mission in France (Paris, Nice, Strasbourg) dedicated to Western Orthodoxy. On many occasions, we have proclaimed that the primary religious duty of the Russian emigration was the mission among the peoples of the West. Such also was the thought of the Most Blessed Sergius of Moscow, expressed in his decree to Russian bishops of Karlovtsy.

« In 1930-1931, at the moment of the separation of Metropolitan Eulogius from the Russian Church, when canonical issues came to the fore, a canonical definition for the forthcoming Western Orthodoxy became necessary. In broad terms, it was formulated as follows: the ecclesial territory of the West as such belongs to the Roman Patriarchate. Therefore, none of the local Churches of the East, nor the Church of Constantinople or the Russian Church, can make this territory its own by creating new dioceses on it (for instance: the diocese of Paris, of Rome, etc. …) A local Church of the West can be born only on the very soil of the West, as a result of a mission, that of a restoration of Western Orthodoxy with its traditions, its rite, its spirituality, the cult of its local saints. This goal, which will probably be achieved only by future generations, demands a co-operation of Orthodox people of different nationalities living in France and governed by legitimate Exarches of their Mother Churches. Once again, this formulation follows the line of thought of Metropolitan Sergius of Moscow who, while rebutting the pretensions of Metropolitan Eulogius, based himself on the same principle: the impossibility for a local Church of the East of establishing a normal diocese on the former territory of the Roman Patriarchate.

« In 1932, at the Brotherhood congress called in Monfort (15), (…) (…) an appeal was launched to the Orthodox people of the diaspora to unite in the great cause of the restoration of Western Orthodoxy … »

The « Saint Irenaeus Domain », established in January 1926, with Eugraph Kovalevsky heading it from 1927 on, began the drawing up of Orthodox liturgical texts on the basis of Western texts. A « Commission de France », on the other hand, dealt exclusively with the translation of Eastern texts into French..

Albeit very far from any kind of « Orthodox propaganda among the French » and solely concerned with "denationalised Russians", Metropolitan Evlogius seeing that Slavonic texts were gradually becoming incomprehensible for emigrant children, gave his blessing to the establishment of a French-speaking parish for a strictly pastoral purpose; this was done on 3rd October 1927 with the sympathetic consideration of the Saint-Sergius Institute lecturers around Father Serge Bulgakov, who were favourable to all that could contribute to the ecumenical dialogue. The first Liturgy in French was celebrated on November 11, on Saint Martin's feast day. At that time, the parish counted 41 French people, but had no premises or assigned priest.

Father Lev Gillet, a Benedictine received into the Church simply through con-celebration on May 25th 1928, would co-operate with the Brotherhood as the first French-speaking Orthodox priest, and was designated as the rector of the « Transfiguration and Saint Genevieve » parish on November 26th 1928. In the manifesto published in 1929 in the first issue of « La Voie » newsletter, he formulated well the general stance of the Brotherhood:

« If we fall within his Eminency Metropolitan Eulogius's (authority), it is not so much because he is the leader of the Russian Orthodox in Western Europe, but (according to the canons) because he is the nearest bishop to our burgeoning community. It is possible and even normal that French Orthodoxy will become autonomous when it reaches a certain level of development. And since Orthodoxy is neither Byzantine nor Slavic, but universal, it is up to Western Orthodox people to create a kind of Orthodoxy proper to the West, which might noticeably differ on some points from the Eastern type, because of a return to local traditional sources. (…). French by nationality or language, we feel related to the ancient « Orthodox » tradition of France, the « very Christian » France of the centuries when the East and the West were not separated... Saint Irenaeus (who is the link between the East and the West), the martyrs of Lyon and Vienna, Saint Denys, Saint Martin of Tours, Saint Genevieve: these are some of the great names that we want to relate to. Yet Saint Louis or Joan of Arc or Pascal will not feel foreign to us. And we also want to make our own, consecrate to Christ and make Orthodox all good and great things that French hearts and minds are creating today (…). We must aim at a situation in which those who discover Orthodoxy in us see this word as a synonym of two great things: believing in Jesus Christ and living in Jesus Christ. »

In 1929, the first French layman, Father Georges Jouanny, was ordained a priest.

« In addition to the rapid growth of French Orthodoxy, 1929 was marked by the meeting of the Brotherhood on the day of Saint Leo, pope of Rome, with the aim of discussing issues related to Western Orthodoxy. Three liturgies were celebrated on that day in the Brotherhood's Church (in Saint-Cloud): a Roman liturgy, a Gallican one according to Vladimir Guetté's text approved by the Holy Synod in 1875 as well as Saint John Chrysostom's liturgy in Latin ; the Brotherhood studied dogmatic, (…), canonical (…) and liturgical questions: it was acknowledged that in order to promote the revival of Orthodoxy in the West, it was necessary on one hand, to adopt absolute intransigency on the dogmatic level (21), and on the other, on the liturgical level, to consider the realisation of fully Western traditions. »

This « absolute intransigency on the dogmatic level » also characterised the position of Father George Florovsky as much in the work carried out in Paris at the Saint-Sergius Institute as in his participation in the "Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius", and, combined with the great openness of Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, has proved to be of extraordinary efficiency from an ecumenical and spiritual point of view. France, on the contrary, was subjected to Fr. Serge Bulgakov's policy of dogmatic compromise, which exacerbated the current situation of spiritual fragmentation between Orthodox jurisdictions standing further apart from each other than from different Christian confessions themselves.

This fidelity to patristic Orthodoxy, that is, to the living Tradition, this « love of Truth » is called today by some « fundamentalism ». This expression is a complete anachronism and was meaningless at that time. At that time, there were on one hand, the Russian Orthodox who were concerned with Russians only and considered Orthodoxy as a purely national issue: a French person was Catholic by definition, a Russian was Orthodox by definition, whatever the theology - so that in a movement like ACER for example, that had all the qualities apart from that of being interested in Westerners and the French in particular - and Russians would participate in ecumenical movements without giving it another thought. On the other hand, there were those who took an interest in Westerners and, from a spiritual point of view, were interested in Western culture and piety. These people, who at the time were the few members of the Saint-Photius Brotherhood, wanted to bring people's attention to the treasure of Orthodoxy. They wanted to share Christianity in its fullness with all those who had been deprived of it since the Schism of 1054 and, long before that, by the domination of Augustinian theology in the West.

« On the 11th November 1930, the day of Saint Martin of Tours, a great victory of a symbolic nature was won at the Cathedral church of Saint Alexander Nevsky: a liturgy was celebrated in French by Metropolitan Eulogius and four French priests. » The church was full of French people who were Orthodox or close to Orthodoxy.

Alas, the consequences of the tragic events in Russia were going to disrupt the progress of the undertaking.