Session 9 - (Church History - Age of the New Persecutions & 20th-21st centuries)

The Ottoman Empire

By the 11th century the Byzantine Empire had long been in a period of decline. In the 6th century Emperor St. Justinian in his efforts to reunify the lands of the empire brought parts of Italy, North Africa, and even Spain back under the control of the empire. However, this would not last for very long. The plague ravaged the empire and would return in waves. The borders were continually contested. Civil war and Muslim conquest would ensure that the empire would remain in a state of decline until the fall of Constantinople in the year 1453.

The Ottoman Turks came from the east and were from the Asiatic steppes, similar to the Huns and Mongols who had caused the empire trouble for many years. The Ottomans believed in Sunni Islam, although for part of the life of the Ottoman Empire Christians were not often actively persecuted through violence. Instead, the Ottomans demanded loyalty and submission to the state. Christians had to pay a special tax. The people were not free to choose bishops and patriarchs freely, but rather the state placed restrictions on who could be chosen. Even today the modern state of Turkey requires the Ecumenical Patriarch to be a Turkish citizen. Christian churches in the Ottoman Empire were built secondary to mosques and Christians were regarded as infidels by the state.

In the Late 17th century relations between Muslims and Christians within the Empire declined rapidly, partially due to the wars between the Ottoman Empire and the Christian nations of Europe. Muslim leaders called for the execution of Christians and the destruction of their churches. The Ottomans targeted historically Christian peoples such as the Serbs and the Greeks in their efforts to persecute their Christian adversaries.

Slavic Persecutions

The Slavic people began to establish themselves in Eastern Europe during the 7th century, and by the 10th century groups such as the Kievan Rus had established themselves. Although not unified, the Slavic people shared common heritage and culture. In the early 13th century the Mongols began to raid and conquer deep into these Slavic lands, especially those of the Rus. They were often indifferent to religion, which although this meant they might not persecute strictly because of one's faith, they did not take issue with plundering churches as they went through the land. For a little under two centuries the Rus lived under control of the Mongols.
After this time much of the Rus began to become much more unified. Centered in Moscow, the Tsar was seen as the protector of the Rus, though it would take many years and many wars for much of the Rus to be under the control of the Tsardom of Russia, and subsequently the Russian Empire which Peter the Great established in the 17th century.

The Russian people lived in the Russian Empire as serfs, a status which remained unchanged since the feudal age. Even into the middle of the 19th century serfdom was still practiced within Russia. During this time there was unrest within many groups within the upper class, especially those who despised the current state of Russia and looked to Western philosophers such as Karl Marx for an answer. For decades this unrest bubbled, and by the time the 20th century came around many groups were ready to make their move when they got the chance. In 1905 a revolution occurred which resulted in the St. Tsar Nicholas II enacting constitutional reforms. However, with the weakened state of the empire after years of the First World War, in 1917 unrest had spread across enough of the population that Communist groups were finally able to seize power and force the Tsar to step down. At first the Tsar was kept in exile, but later both he and his family were killed by Communists.

The Soviet Union was incredibly hostile to Orthodox Christians from the very beginning. Between the years of 1917-1935 95,000 priests were executed, and many more monks, bishops, and laypeople were also killed. In homes and in public spaces where icons of Saints once were, portraits of state officials were now placed. The Soviets established its own church known as the "Living Church" in order to try and subvert the True Church. Through the nearly 7 decades that the Soviet Union existed the persecution of the Church lessened over time in different periods, but until its fall in 1991 Christianity remained heavily restricted.

The Church in America

Because most of the early settlers in America were of Western European heritage, it took several centuries for Orthodoxy to really begin to be established. Waves of Slavic and Greek immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries brought their faith with them and established churches in their neighborhoods.

Although there were few Orthodox in the early days of the American colonies, Russia had begun to send missionaries to Alaska and parts of California. Probably the most important person in these efforts was St. Herman of Alaska who helped evangelize thousands of Native Americans. The first truly American Saint, St. Peter the Aleut, was baptized by monks from St. Herman's mission.

The Carpatho-Russians came to America primarily early in the 19th century, coming from what is now Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary. Through the efforts of the Catholic church over centuries, many of these people who had originally Orthodox were coerced and deceived into accepting the Roman Catholic Church while holding on to many Orthodox traditions. Eastern Catholics who converted from the Orthodox Church were and are still today known as Uniates. However, in America the Catholic Church was not willing to allow them to retain these traditions, such as priests being able to be married. Because of this, many of the Carpatho-Russian faithful in America gathered together in council and decided to appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch in order to leave the Catholic Church and establish the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of North America.

Even earlier than this, an Eastern Catholic immigrant priest named Alexis Toth helped lead the effort to return many Eastern Catholic parishes in America to the Orthodox Church. Through cooperation with the Russian missionary diocese, Alexis Toth led over 20,000 Eastern Catholics to Orthodoxy by the time of his repose in 1909. In 1994 Alexis Toth was recognized as a Saint and glorified as Saint Alexis of Wilkes-Barre by the Orthodox Church in America, and he remains buried in a shrine at St. Tikhon's Monastery in South Canaan, Pennsylvania.