The Conversion of Russia

Who could have imagined this during the Cold War? Certainly not I (even as young as I was then). As most Eastern Christians will tell you, it is a strong monastic presence that invigorates and sustains the laity. So in true chicken/egg thinking one could say that the mark of a faithful people is a strong monastic community just as one could say that monasteries/sketes/abbeys are a requirement for the growth in faith of a people.

Moscow, Sep. 17, 2007 (CWNews.com) - The Patriarchate of Moscow is reporting a four-fold increase in the number of Orthodox parishes and monasteries in Russia during the past 20 years.

In 1987, before the final collapse of the Soviet Union, there were 6,800 Orthodox parish churches and 19 monasteries in Russia, Patriarch Alexei II told an audience in Moscow last week, as reported by the Interfax news service. By the beginning of 2007 there were 27,300 parishes and 716 monasteries.

"Those who were in the Soviet Union 20 years ago and come here again [today] can hardly recognize the country," Patriarch Alexei said, proclaiming a resurgence of belief in the country since the Communist empire fell.

"When we traveled abroad in 1960s or 1970s we could often hear, 'Who comes to your churches but old ladies?’" the Russian Patriarch reported. Today he said there is a keen interest in the faith among young Russians. "Yet we gratefully remember those old ladies who brought up their grandchildren as believers in Christ," he said.