The Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church () It is a Catholic church located in

Gatchina Gatchina (, ) is a town and the administrative center of Gatchinsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies south-south-west of St. Petersburg, along the E95 highway which links Saint Petersburg and Pskov. Population: It was pr ...

, near

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

in northwest

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

History

The Catholic parish of Gatchina decided to build a church dedicated to

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Our Lady of Mount Carmel, or Virgin of Carmel, is a Roman Catholic Titles of Mary, title of the Blessed Virgin Mary venerated as patron saint, patroness of the Carmelites, Carmelite Order. The first Carmelites were Christian hermits living on M ...

in 1906. The project was assigned to Lev Chichko, and construction continued until 1911 with the collaboration of Leonid Kharlamov and Alexander Baryshnikov. The

Gothic revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

church was consecrated by Bishop Jan Cieplak the November 13, 1911, and depended on the parish of St. Catherine in St. Petersburg. Gatchina kostel 1910-e

During the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

, the Church was the site of a Soviet war crime. According to Fr. Christopher Lawrence Zugger, "In 1920 at Gatchina (outside Petrograd), Bolsheviks demanded that the priest give up the keys to the

Tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle (), also known as the Tent of the Congregation (, also Tent of Meeting), was the portable earthly dwelling of God used by the Israelites from the Exodus until the conquest of Canaan. Moses was instru ...

, so they could gain access to, 'the greatest treasure of the Catholics'. The elderly priest refused, he was assaulted, and locksmith ordered to break open the tabernacle doors. The

Holy Eucharist The Eucharist ( ; from , ), also called Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament or the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite, considered a sacrament in most churches and an ordinance in others. Christians believe that the rite was instituted by J ...

was dumped onto the floor and the Ciborium stolen. The priest died from the shock."Father Christopher Lawrence Zugger, "The Forgotten: Catholics in the Soviet Empire from Lenin through Stalin,

Syracuse University Press Syracuse University Press, founded in 1943, is a university press that is part of Syracuse University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Domestic distribution for the press is currently provided by the University of North ...

, 2001. Page 125. It closed in 1937 during

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

Great Terror The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the assassination of Sergei Kirov by Leonid Nikolaev ...

, and this was confirmed in 1939, to become a bakery and after the war, during which the building was badly damaged, into a garage. The Catholic parish of Gatchina was reborn in 1992 and met in a rented room. The church returned to the parish in 1994, but the first

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

es are held in 1996, and episodically, for the church is not ready to welcome the faithful there. The parish is run by the

Salesians The Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), formally known as the Society of Saint Francis de Sales (), is a religious congregation of men in the Catholic Church, founded in 1859 by the Italian priest John Bosco to help poor and migrant youth during the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Church Anti-Catholicism in the Soviet Union Anti-religious campaign in the Soviet Union Buildings and structures in Gatchina Roman Catholic churches completed in 1911 Soviet war crimes in the Russian Civil War 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Russia Cultural heritage monuments in Leningrad Oblast Anti-Christian sentiment in Russia Looting in Russia

History

See also

References