Irina Mikhaylovna Posnova (russian: Ирина Михайловна Поснова; 9 August 1914,
Kiev
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
– 18 December 1997,
Brussels) was publisher, founder of the Catholic publishing house "Life with God" and the ecumenical journal of the same name, was a prominent member of the
Russian Greek Catholic Church in
exile
Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...
.
Biography
Born in 1914 in Kiev, in the family of Mikhail Emmanuilovich Posnov, an Orthodox church historian and professor of
Kiev Theological Academy
The Kiev Theological Academy (1819—1919) was one of the oldest higher educational institution of the Russian Orthodox Church, situated in Kyiv, then in the Russian Empire (now Kyiv, Ukraine). It was considered as the most senior one among simila ...
.
Irina Posnova moved to
Bulgaria and studied at the Russian school in Sofia. Then she moved to Belgium, graduated from the
Catholic University of Louvain, defended her doctoral thesis on classical
philology. During this period, she was engaged in historical and theological issues. As a result of theological studies she converted to the Catholic Church. After graduation, she taught the
Greek language in some schools.
During World War II, Irina Posnova dedicated herself to help the
Soviet prisoners of war and
displaced persons who worked in the mines in
Limburg, and after the war helped refugees from the Soviet Union in Belgium.
Posnova founded publishing house "Life with God", which published Christian books in Russian language. The main goal of the publishing house was publishing of both Orthodox and Catholic literature for the needs of the
Russian diaspora, as well as for illegal distribution inside the USSR. Posnova accordingly took an active role in smuggling religious literature into the USSR via diplomatic baggage and its secret dissemination. The activities of the publishing house was held in a spirit of Christian ecumenism.
In 1945 she began publishing a magazine with the same name "Life with God.", with the Orthodox priest
Valent Romensky. Since 1951, she edited the magazine "Russian Catholic Herald", later renamed the "Russia and the Universal Church," and in 1971 bore the name of the "Logos."
In 1954
Russian Greek Catholic Church parish was organized in Brussels. In 1958 World Fair took place in Brussels, where the Soviet pavilion was close to the Vatican pavillon. At the suggestion of Irina Posnova in the pavilion was set up a special department, where Soviet tourists were given the Gospels and Orthodox prayer books. Since 1967 Posnova led religious programs in Russian on
Radio Monte Carlo. Since 1969, the publishing house, "Life with God" actively published work of Orthodox priest Fr.
Alexander Men
Alexander Vladimirovich Men (russian: Александр Владимирович Мень; 22 January 1935 – 9 September 1990) was a Soviet Russian Orthodox priest, dissident, theologian, biblical scholar and writer on theology, Christian hi ...
.
In December 1997, after a long illness, Irina Posnova died in Belgium.
External links
* https://web.archive.org/web/20190321201752/http://idjsb.ru/
* http://www.socionet.narod.ru/
* http://pvd.chat.ru/text/Chistjakov/Posn2.html
* http://rgcc.narod.ru/his.htm
* http://krotov.info/lib_sec/04_g/gol/ovanov_05.htm
* http://pravkniga.ru/izd_prav.html?id=572
{{DEFAULTSORT:Posnova, Irina
Converts to Eastern Catholicism from Eastern Orthodoxy
Eastern Catholic writers
Former Russian Orthodox Christians
Russian Greek-Catholics
Russian publishers (people)
1914 births
1997 deaths