STEFAN KASHMENSKY AND HIS RELIGIOUS-EDUCATIONAL AND MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES IN THE VYATKA PROVINCE IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE XIX CENTURY

Abstract

The article examines the life and work of one of the prominent missionaries and enlighteners of the Russian Empire of the second half of the 19th century, Stefan Kashmensky, based on archival materials and published sources. By virtue of the changed religious policy in the Russian Empire in the second half of the nineteenth century there were changes in religious education and missionary work in the Vyatka province. In the Vyatka Diocese, a special contribution to the development of missionary activity was made by the diocesan missionary, the archpriest Stefan Kashmensky. The article reflects the contribution of Stefan Kashmensky to the organization of full-fledged work with the Gentiles and Old Believers. To strengthen the work with non-believers on his initiative, the Vyatka Committee of the Orthodox Missionary Society was opened in the Vyatka province. Stefan Kashmensky contributed to the reorganization of missionary work with the Old Believers in the Vyatka Diocese. To this end, he, with the support of the clergy, opened an anti-scholastic school in the city of Vyatka to train missionaries from among the peasants. According to the decree of the Holy Synod, the experience of organizing schools against old believers was to spread throughout the Russian Empire. But the main result of the work of Stefan Kashmensky was the creation of the Vyatka brotherhood of St. Nicholas, which led the work in three main areas: with the Old Believers, with the non-Russian population and, later, with the sectarians. Thus, Stefan Kashmensky, through his activity, managed to improve the position of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Vyatka province and prepare missionaries for conducting religious work in all religious areas in the Vyatka Diocese.