Michel d'Herbigny

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michel d'Herbigny (1880-1957) .jpg

Michel-Joseph Bourguignon d'Herbigny SJ (born May 8, 1880 in Lille , Nord-Pas-de-Calais , † December 23, 1957 in Aix-en-Provence , Bouches-du-Rhône ) was a French orientalist and secret bishop in the Soviet Union . For a decade (1922–1932) he was the main advisor to the Holy See on Russian affairs.

Life

Education and early career

The son of a great and wealthy Catholic family attended a College of the Jesuits in Lille. On October 4, 1897, he joined the Society of Jesus. After training, according to the traditional curriculum of the Order and a study in Trier and Paris he received in the August 7, 1910 Enghien the priesthood . At the end of his theology studies , he defended his doctoral thesis A Russian Newman : Wladimir Solowjow (1853-1900) , which received much attention and was published immediately in 1911. Herbigny made known a great Russian religious philosopher in the Catholic world who was previously unknown in the West . The Académie française therefore awarded him a prize. This book helped shape his career in the service of the Eastern Catholic Churches .

Careers in education

Professor in Enghien

Herbigny began his career as professor of theology of the French Jesuits in Enghien, Belgium. He stayed in Enghien for almost ten years (1912–1921). This did not prevent him from making trips to Eastern Europe, and especially Russia , during the summer . The impressions he brought with him - material poverty and the lack of clergy - led him to organize a Russian Catholic seminary in Enghien. Some students came from Russia in 1912. But the First World War failed the project - the Russians were driven out of Belgium by German troops. His treatise De Ecclesia , published in 1920, opened a new ecumenical perspective.

Rector in Rome

In 1922, Herbigny was called to Rome to teach at the Pontifical Gregorian University . When the Pontifical Oriental Institute , founded in 1917, was founded in 1922 by Pius XI. was entrusted to the Society of Jesus, Herbigny was appointed rector . After its initial difficulties, he gave the institute a decisive impetus. The founder of the most important trade journal Orientalia Christiana gave it its own identity, separate from the Pontifical Gregorian University. From December 1924 he advised the Congregation for the Eastern Churches , although he was critical of the handling of Russian affairs. He was also an active member of the Pro Russia Commission .

Secret Bishop in the Soviet Union

Herbigny became a confidante of Pius XI. for Eastern affairs and especially for the Russian ones. By 1926, the pressure of religious persecution in the Soviet Union had increased so much that the entire leadership of the Catholic Church there was eliminated through exile or imprisonment. Pius XI. took the decision to establish a temporary hierarchy neither with the knowledge nor with the approval of the Soviet government. The plans were recorded in the rescript Plenitudine potestatis and in the decree Quo aptius . Apostolic administrators were supposed to replace the diocesan structures that had existed in the times of the tsars in the metropolitan centers .

Herbigny was chosen to conduct this attempt and on February 11, 1926 was appointed titular bishop of Ilium ( Troy ). Herbigny's mission in the USSR can be compared to that of the Trojan Horse . The apostolic nuncio in Berlin , Eugenio Pacelli (the future Pope Pius XII.) He received his secret with a witness in the Apostolic Nunciature in Berlin , the episcopal ordination . He made his way to Moscow under the pretext of an Easter pastoral visit from the Western European Catholics residing in the Soviet capital.

In Moscow, on April 21, 1926, Herbigny consecrated Pie Eugène Neveu AA , until then pastor of the Catholic community in the mining town of Makijiwka in the Ukraine , as bishop and installed him as pastor of the Church of St. Louis of France in Moscow with the secret role of Apostolic Administrator for the Catholic Church in the Moscow Region (the historic Archdiocese of Minsk-Mahiljou ). Herbigny consecrated Aleksander Frison and Boļeslavs Sloskāns to bishops on May 10 of the same year and appointed them for the respective roles in Odessa and Mahiljou . On August 13 of the same year he also consecrated Antoni Malecki as bishop and appointed him to the same role in Leningrad . Further missions to the Soviet Union followed. The mission ended in disaster: all new bishops were arrested. Apparently the mission was uncovered, Soviet agents followed Herbigny during his journey. For a time he got the trust of Pius XI. as chairman of the Pro Russia Commission , which gained independence from the Congregation for the Eastern Churches. Since visiting the Soviet Union was no longer possible, he turned to other oriental churches and in 1927 visited the Patriarchs of the Middle East .

In late 1932, Herbigny was seriously drawn into the scandal surrounding Alexander Deubner , Russian priest and nephew of Clara Zetkin , a famous communist . Herbigny had hired him as a translator and the strange priest was also officially the co-author of the book Herbigny had just published. After Deubner rushed to Berlin in November 1932 for reasons that were not very honorable, he was denounced as a Soviet spy.

Injustice and deportation from Rome

In 1928 the Pontifical Collegium Russicum (Russicum) was founded by Pius XI. founded. This project appealed to Herbigny because his dream from 1911 has now been realized in Rome. But times had changed. Herbigny also committed indiscretions, and his misadventures in Russia began to be known. He resigned as rector of the Pontifical Oriental Institute in 1931 and returned to Belgium in 1933, officially for health reasons, but did not return to Rome. In 1934 he left the Pro Russia Commission, likely as a result of the failure to restore a Catholic hierarchy in the USSR.

Herbigny continued to travel the world until 1937, giving numerous lectures with a sharp anti-communist tone. In 1937 he was silenced and strictly forbidden to speak or communicate with anyone other than his friars and family. Historians cannot exactly clarify the circumstances of its cold position . The French church historian Yves Chiron gives a number of possible reasons: an internal regulation of the affairs of the Jesuits; Jealousy of the Polish Superior General of the Society of Jesus , Vladimir Ledóchowski, because of his privileged relations with Pius XI .; an affair with a woman; Russian provocation in revenge for his covert ventures; general failure of his policies and tactics. After renouncing the episcopal insignia, he lived in Mons in the Gers department for twenty years as a simple priest. He died in Aix-en-Provence in 1957, where he is buried.

Major works

  • Vladimir Soloviev (1853-1900). Un Newman Russian. Paris 1911, OCLC 53758520 .
  • L'anglicanisme et l'orthodoxie gréco-slave. Paris 1922, OCLC 559792747 .
  • La tyrannie soviétique et le malheur russe. Paris 1923, OCLC 35656449 .
  • Pâques 1926 en Russie. Paris 1926, OCLC 759821973 .

literature

  • Paul Lesourd: Entre Rome et Moscou: Le Jésuite Clandestin, Mgr d'Herbigny. P. Lethielleux, Paris 1976, ISBN 978-2-249-60107-1 .
  • Hansjakob Stehle : The Vatican's Ostpolitik . Munich 1975, ISBN 3-492-02113-1 .
    • Hansjakob Stehle: The Eastern Politics of the Vatican, 1917–1979. Ohio University Press, Athens-OH 1981, ISBN 0-8214-0564-0 .
  • Etienne Fouilloux: Les Catholiques et l'Unité Chrétienne du XIXe au XXe Siècle. Le Centurion, Paris 1982, ISBN 2-227-31037-5 .
  • Manfred Barthel: The Jesuits: Legend and Truth of the Society of Jesus - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. Econ Verlag, Düsseldorf 1982, ISBN 3-430-11172-2 .
  • Antoine Wenger: Rome et Moscou: 1900–1950. Desclée de Brouwer, Paris 1987, ISBN 978-2-220-02623-7 .
  • Tretyakewitsch, Léon, Bishop Michel d'Herbigny SJ and Russia: A Pre-Ecumenical Approach to Christian Unity , Augustinus Verlag, Würzburg, 1990 ISBN 3-7613-0162-6
  • Antoine Wenger: Catholiques en Russie d'Après les Archives du KGB: 1920-1960. Desclée de Brouwer, Paris 1998, ISBN 2-220-04236-7 .
  • Christopher Lawrence Zugger: The Forgotten: Catholics of the Soviet Empire from Lenin Through Stalin. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse-NY 2001, ISBN 0-8156-0679-6 .
  • David Alvarez: Spies in the Vatican: Espionage & Intrigue from Napoleon to the Holocaust. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence-KA 2002, ISBN 0-7006-1214-9 .
  • Yves Chiron: Pie XI: 1857-1939. Perrin, Paris 2004, ISBN 2-262-01846-4 .
  • Christian Weise:  Herbigny, Michel-Joseph Bourguignon d '. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 32, Bautz, Nordhausen 2011, ISBN 978-3-88309-615-5 , Sp. 667-679.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hansjakob Stehle: The Eastern Politics of the Vatican, 1917–1979. Ohio University Press, 1981, p. 81
  2. ↑ Stehle, p. 84
  3. ↑ Christopher Lawrence Zugger: The Forgotten: Catholics of the Soviet Empire from Lenin through Stalin. Syracuse University Press, 2001, p. 229
  4. ^ Stehle, p. 87
  5. ↑ Manfred Barthel: The Jesuits: Legend and Truth of the Society of Jesus - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. Econ Verlag, 1982, p. 311
  6. ^ Christian Weise:  Herbigny, Michel-Joseph Bourguignon d '. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 32, Bautz, Nordhausen 2011, ISBN 978-3-88309-615-5 , Sp. 667-679.
  7. ↑ Stehle, p. 177
  8. ^ Yves Chiron: Pie XI: 1857-1939. Perrin, 2004, p. 191
personal data
SURNAME Herbigny, Michel d '
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Herbigny, Michel-Joseph Bourguignon d '(full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French orientalist and secret bishop in the Soviet Union
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Lille , Nord-Pas-de-Calais
DATE OF DEATH December 23, 1957
Place of death Aix-en-Provence , Bouches-du-Rhône