Kazan Theological Seminary
Kazan Theological Seminary (Russian: Казанская духовная семинария) is the principal Russian Orthodox seminary in the Diocese of Kazan and Tatarstan.
History
Orthodox Christian Theological education began in 1718 in Kazan with the setting up of a school for education of children of the clergy in the Kazan area. This was then followed by the opening of the Kazan Slavonic-Latin School in 1723. In 1732 this in turn, was reorganized as the Kazan Theological Seminary.
In 1798 an attempt was made to provide higher education through the Kazan Theological Academy in 1798. However this proved unsustainable and in 1818 it reverted to the Kazan Theological Seminary. But in 1842, the Theological Academy was revived and continued to function until the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917. During this period it became the fourth theological academy in the Russian Empire.
In 1847, the Kazan academy supported the missionary efforts of the Kazan Diocese among the non-Christian peoples by organising a committee to oversee translation of texts.
While Grigory Postnikov was the bishop of the Kazan Diocese (1848 to 1856) that the Academy received an old library from the Solovetsky Monastery on the White Sea greatly enriching the library. While Anthony of Kiev was rector (1895 to 1900), the theological education at the academy reached its fullest flower.
Notable people associated with the academy
The Kazan Academy produced over eighty students who later were consecrated bishops. Some of these became regarded as martyrs by the Russian orthodox Church, including:
- Gavrill Abolimov
- Anatoly Grisyuk the rector of the academy
- Athanasy Malinin
- Juvenaly Maslovsky
- Victor Ostrovidov
- Ioann Poyarkov
- Iov Rogozhin
- German Ryashentsev
- Gury Stepanov
- Ioasaf Udalov
Others:
- Ilia Berdnikov - an expert in church law
- Nikolai Ostroumov
- Victor Nesmelov - a philosopher
- Gordiy Sablukov (1804–1880) - an expert on Islam, who produced the first Russian translation of the Koran
- Peter Znamensky - a historian
References
- This article incorporates text from Kazan Theological Academy at OrthodoxWiki which is licensed under the CC-BY-SA and GFDL.