It took 90 years to return the keys to the temple

The confrontation between the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Russian Orthodox Church around St. Nicholas Cathedral in Nice has come to a head. The clergy of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, who, contrary to the decision of the French court, refused to transfer the temple to Russia, told Kommersant yesterday that they would hand over the keys to the cathedral to the historical owner. Thus, after 90 years, the largest Orthodox church in Europe will again belong to Russia.

Yesterday, the rector of the cathedral, Archpriest John Geit, told Kommersant that he would “hand over the keys to the church to the Russian side, because the parish cannot pay €6 thousand fines a day for refusing to leave the cathedral.” Father John made this statement after the appellate court of the city of Aix-en-Provence recognized as legal the decision of the Nice court to impose a penalty on the parish in the amount of €6 thousand for each day of delay in transferring the cathedral to Russian representatives. “I don’t want to comment on the court’s decision,” said Father John. “We now live in a different world: France has ceased to be a republic.” The rector added that the Constantinople clergy do not intend to leave the temple “until there is an order to do so from the Patriarchate of Constantinople.”

St. Nicholas Cathedral was built in the style of the Intercession Cathedral on Red Square in Moscow and consecrated in December 1912. After the revolution of 1917, his church community decided to come under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Let us recall that the conflict around the largest Orthodox church in Western Europe began in November 2005, when the Russian Embassy in France appealed to the court with a request to conduct an inventory of St. Nicholas Cathedral with a view to further transfer to the rightful owner, that is, Russia. Lawyers pointed out that from the moment of construction until 1917, the temple was the property of the Russian Empire, and the Russian Federation is its legal successor. The court agreed with these arguments, but when bailiffs came to the cathedral in February 2006, the parishioners, led by the rector, Father John (Jean Gate), refused to let them in and challenged the decision in court. In May 2011, the appeal court (court of second instance) of the city of Aix-en-Provence (France) finally recognized Russia as the owner of the cathedral in Nice.

However, this decision did not break the resistance of the Constantinople clergy. In September 2011, the Korsun diocese of the Moscow Patriarchate, whose canonical territory is France, demanded that the priests of St. Nicholas Cathedral hand over documentation and announced their intention to “take on administrative management and responsibility for the maintenance of the temple.” “We recognize the court’s decision, but according to canonical rules we cannot leave the temple,” Archpriest John Gate said in response. Ownership of a building does not give the owner the right to choose the jurisdiction of clergy, he said. “Let our patriarchs agree, but Bartholomew (Patriarch of Constantinople - Kommersant ) told me not to go anywhere,” said Father John. Thus, the dispute over property has already turned into an inter-church conflict.

The Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, on whose balance sheet all Russian foreign property is located, does not yet have information, according to the department’s press secretary, Viktor Khrekov, that “the Orthodox Association is ready to hand over the keys to the temple.” Previously, the administration did not hide the fact that the cathedral would most likely be transferred for free use to the Moscow Patriarchate, as was done in 2009 with the Church of St. Nicholas in Bari (Italy). Yesterday, Mr. Khrekov was more cautious: “It’s too early to say who exactly will be given the cathedral; our primary task is to get the temple and start restoring it, because it is in a very poor condition.”

However, the Russian Orthodox Church has no doubt that the cathedral will come under its jurisdiction. The Korsun diocese told Kommersant that they are waiting for all issues to be resolved and the temple to be transferred to the Moscow Patriarchate. “The Orthodox Association also has a temple in Nice, so the parish of St. Nicholas Cathedral may well move there,” the diocese told Kommersant. “But we do not exclude the possibility of sharing the cathedral on the condition that the senior priest will be a cleric of the Moscow Patriarchate.”

Pavel Korobov

The Cathedral in Nice is being connected to Russia