ST. JOHN OF SAINT-DENIS - BISHOP, CONFESSOR, AND A FATHER OF WESTERN ORTHODOXY (JAN. 30TH)

St. John of Saint-Denis

By Rdr. Joseph Alexander Smith (Orthodox Church of the Gauls) 

St John was born Evgraf (Eugraph) Evgrafovich Kovalevsky in St Petersburg on 8 April 1905 into a preeminent noble family with roots in Ukraine. Together with his brothers, Maxime and Pierre, he received from his parents a well-rounded education, as well as a thorough grounding in the Orthodox faith. As an adolescent, he sang together with this brother Maxime in the monastic choir at Holy Protection monastery, Kharkiv. When political events in Russia meant the Kovalevsky family had to emigrate to France, settling in a relative's villa in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, near Nice, Eugraph and Maxime set about converting an entire floor of the building into an Orthodox chapel, complete with an iconostas and icons by their own hands, in which they chanted the daily offices. 

In the 1920s, with Russian emigres scattered across France and religious life in the orthodox emigration complicated by jurisdictional conflicts, Eugraph was instrumental in procuring and arranging places of worship for Russian orthodox faithful. No small French town was too far for him to travel, and no building too squalid for him to clean and fit out as a space worthy for worship. Using his personal connections, he would often persuade exiled or itinerant clergy passing through France to make a detour to some out-of-the way community so that the faithful could receive the Holy Mysteries. 

This is the Iconostatis that the adolescent Kovalevsky brothers created in Beaulieu-sur-Mer for their home chapel. It was later transferred to an Orthodox parish Church.

As a student, he wrestled with the questions that arose from his status as a Russian Orthodox immigrant in secular, historically catholic, France. Is Orthodoxy just a religion for Russian immigrants? How can the Church be true to its calling to be One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic outside of its traditional homelands? Could the displacement of his coreligionists to France perhaps be providential? An opportunity for renewal of the Orthodox faith and evangelism of the once-Orthodox West? The rest of Eugraph Kovalevsky's earthly life was lived as a resounding 'yes' to this last question. 

Eugraph's mission to bring Orthodoxy to the French people, and French people to Orthodoxy, was confirmed by a visit to the relics of Saint Radegonde, a saintly Frankish queen. While praying at her tomb, Eugraph heard a woman's voice telling him "I wish France to become Orthodox", finding the tomb chamber empty, Eugraph took this voice to be that of Saint Radegonde herself and remained faithful to this evangelical commission for the rest of his days. 

Together with Vladimir Lossky, Eugraph founded the Brotherhood of St Photius in 1925, one of the purposes of which was to examine the Orthodox heritage of the West, before the schism with the Orthodox Church. At the same time, Eugraph petitioned the local Russian hierarchs to provide a priest for a community of French converts to Orthodoxy who wished to worship in their native tongue, rather than in Church Slavonic. 

At the same time, Eugraph came into contact with a group of French Christians, led by their Bishop, Louis-Charles Winnaert, who had journeyed through the Old Catholic Church of Utrecht, the Liberal Catholic Church and a period as an independent Church, and who were seeking to join the Orthodox Church whilst also retaining their Western liturgical heritage. Bishop Louis-Charles was eventually received into the Orthodox Church with the rank of Archimandrite and the name Irenaeus (feast day 3 March).

Bp. Louis-Charles Winnaert, later made Archimandrite Ireneaus in the Russian Orthodox Church. 

Eugraph's work to reconcile these various currents and movements in French Orthodoxy contributed to the 1936 Ukaz (decree) of Metropolitan (and future Patriarch) Sergius establishing a "Western Orthodox Church" under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Moscow, worshipping according to Western liturgical rites and using Western vestments. Eugraph was ordained Priest in 1937 to serve this community, only to find himself serving the funeral Liturgy of Archimandrite Irenaeus a month later. 

Having spent years researching Western liturgical rites, music and spirituality, Eugraph and his associates restored to active use the Divine Liturgy according to St Germanus of Paris. In doing so, they drew on manuscript sources, including the Letters of St Germanus, which describe how the Mass was celebrating in Gaul in the 6th Century. If there were gaps in the manuscripts for this Gallican Rite of the Liturgy, the restorers resorted to sources for the closely-related Mozarabic and Ambrosian Rites, or sensitively and sparingly supplemented the text of the Liturgy with borrowings from the Byzantine Liturgy. In any case, the Gallican Rite was notably "richer" in its texts and ceremonial than the more austere Roman Rite, making it perfect for the project of restoring Western liturgies to Orthodox Use. Eugraph's brother Maxime undertook the monumental task of creating music for this restored Gallican Rite, harmonising and adapting the traditional Gregorian Chant melodies and creating his own adaptations of Russian musical tones. 

The French Orthodox Church (which later took the name 'Orthodox Catholic Church of France') remained under Moscow's jurisdiction until 1956, after baseless accusations were made against Fr Eugraph, who was a leading candidate for the Episcopacy. The Church later came under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), and the saintly Archbishop John (Maximovitch, later 'of Shanghai and San Francisco, feast day June 19) was assigned to care for and nurture the faithful in France. Archbiship John had Fr Eugraph consecrated a Bishop, with the name Jean-Nectaire (John-Nectarius), with his Episcopal See at Saint-Denis, Paris. With Archbishop John's death in 1966, the Western Orthodox lost a key supporter in ROCOR's Synod, and they were soon driven out of that jurisdiction. Keen to see the Western Orthodox enter into Communion with other Orthodox, Bishop John-Nectarius established contact with the Patriarchate of Romania, preparing a thorough report on the life of the Western Orthodox Church which remains a key document in the restoration of Western Orthodoxy. However, Bishop John fell asleep in the Lord in 1970, shortly before this project came to fruition. 

 

St. John of Saint-Denis and St. Irenaeus of Paris 

Bishop John was canonised by the Communion of Western Orthodox Churches (Orthodox Church of the Gauls, French Orthodox Church, Celtic Orthodox Church) in October 2008, followed some years after by canonisation in the Orthodox Catholic Church of France (ECOF). Excerpts from the first service of canonisation may be viewed here.

Although his earthly life was not especially long, Saint John left us copious writings on liturgy, prayer, spirituality and canon law, as well as numerous icons and frescos which he himself created to adorn and beautify Western Orthodox places of worship.

Even today, the Western Orthodox faithful still find opposition and lack of recognition from many of those who still believe that Orthodoxy can only exist in an eastern form. We must hold fast to the Faith in Jesus Christ, and draw inspiration from the life and words of our holy father John: 

'Let them be rejected who teach that local churches should be united by the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, which alone fully expresses Orthodoxy, instead of teaching that the diversity of rites is characteristic of the Church of Christ. This new trend, under the guise of piety, disfigures the whole and universal Orthodox Tradition. 

'Let them be rejected who, in their madness, claim that the Orthodox Church is only eastern and that the Western Orthodox Church cannot exist, that western peoples are doomed to be Christians of Roman or Protestant denominations, instead of professing that the Church founded by Christ has its children running to it "from the West, the North, the sea, and East like stars lit by God" (St John of Damascus), and that every nation, every race, and every language has its place in this unity. 

'Indeed, this new trend is spreading in Orthodox circles with alarming speed, tempting ordinary people by blaspheming the words of Christ: "Go, teach all nations...". It breaks the apostolic net and allows a multitude of fish - peoples caught in the wonderful catch - to return to the watery abyss. They impose monotony where there should be diversity, and tear apart what should be one. 

'The Liturgy is Orthodox not because of the unity of the rite, but because of the Orthodoxy of its content. It is Orthodox when its texts, chants, and gestures speak of an unchanging Faith.'

St. John of Saint-Denis, Pray for Us!