Russian priest among the Latvian Emigration: The fate of Archpriest Feodor Mikhailov (1903-1959)

This paper deals with the fate of representatives of the Latvian post-war emigration on the example of a unique personality, the Russian priest Archpriest Feodor Mikhailov. A priest born on the territory of the current Pskov region. In the 1920s he became one of the representatives of the clergy in opposition to Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), for which he was punished in jail from 1929 to 1941. Leaving places of detention at the beginning of 1941, he soon found himself in the territory occupied by the Nazis and became a member of the Pskov Orthodox Mission. Together with the Pskov missionaries Archpriest Feodor Mikhailov was evacuated first to Latvia and then to Germany. There the priest was faced with a choice of two ecclesiastical jurisdictions: his mentor, Bishop John (Gaklavs) of Riga, and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. Subordinating to the latter in the second half of the 1940s he managed to serve in several Orthodox parishes, including in Regensburg, and also to help in the nourishment of Orthodox believers in local prisons. By the end of the 1940s the priest and his family were faced with the choice of moving to the United States of America. After much deliberation, for the welfare of the children, Archpriest Feodor Mikhailov moved to the United States and came under the jurisdiction of the North American Metropolitanate. The article is based on material from the Archives of the German Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and the works of authors specializing in Russian church emigration, published collections of documents. The material is one of the first works in a series of articles devoted to the Russian, Estonian, Latvian and Belarusian post-war church emigration.

Feodor Mikhailov, Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, Latvia, Pskov Mission, church revival, emigration, USA, Germany, World War

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