Parish Clergy of the Barnaul Spiritual Government in the First Half of the 19th Century

Abstract

The territory, accountable to the spiritual governing of Barnaul in the early 19th century, consisted of 24 parishes churches; fully staffed with clergy were only three of them. The educational level of the clergy was low (only 20 of 122 trained in the Seminary). Later, the situation with staffing of churches deteriorated. The construction of new churches and the formation of new parishes demanded a growing number of clergy, the natural growth of the Siberian clergymen could not solve this problem. They begin to transfer the clergy from the dioceses of European Russia. Material support of the clergy during the first half of the 19th century steadily increased. Lack of priests in Siberia led to frequent infringements on their part. They were not afraid of punishments because to replace them in the conditions of shortage of personnel was impossible. However, among the clergy of churches of the Barnaul spiritual Board there were a lot of the true adherents of Christianity who performed their duty with due respect, exemplary zeal and diligence. The increase in the number of clergy and improvement of their financial security aggravated the competition in their environment, which led to the improvement of their moral character and educational level of the mid 19th century.

DOI 10.14258/izvasu(2016)2-30