Kyiv Eparchial Guardianship in the System of Material Security of the Orthodox Clergy

Abstract

The paper deals with the activities of the Kyiv diocesan guardianship as an estate care institution. The reasons for the establishment of eparchial guardianship in the Russian Empire were the difficult financial situation of the non-staff clergy, widows and orphans. The state, being unable to undertake for the social security of clerics, appeared to be without means of subsistence, and their families, entrusted their maintenance to the clergy that were in service.

The sources of financing for the poor clergy were determined: church offerings, charitable donations, profits of cemetery churches, fines paid by members of the clergy for their faults, etc. The attention is paid to the rules that governed the diocesan guardianship in providing assistance to the needy. It is noted that the work of the institution gave results in just one year of activity. But despite the growth of the capital of eparchial guardianship, the financial capacities of the guardianship were still not enough to provide full-time maintenance and often the assistance was insignificant. In the vast majority, the amount of payments was 10-30 rubles per year and only some of them exceeded 50 rubles.

Under the authority of the eparchial guardianship was the almshouse named after Metropolitan of Kyiv Ioanikii, established in 1905 in the town of Boguslav. There were about 40 people in the almshouse mainly wives and children of the clergy.

It is noted that Kyiv eparchial guardianship played a leading role in the social security of the needy representatives of the clergy. That assistance was perhaps the only source of support before the introduction of pension benefits, since, when leaving the staff, the clergy were deprived of the right to have all the profits they enjoyed being at the service.