The Basilica of St. Catherine of Alexandria is a Catholic church in
St. Petersburg, one of the oldest Catholic churches in Russia. A
monument of classicism architecture. Located at the address: Nevsky
Prospekt, 32-34.
The parish of the church administratively
belongs to the Northwestern Deanery of the Archdiocese of the Mother of
God (with its center in Moscow), headed by Archbishop Metropolitan Paolo
Pezzi. The only Catholic church in Russia, which was awarded the
honorary title of a small basilica.
The Catholic parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria was founded in
1716; in 1738, Empress Anna Ioannovna signed a permit for the
construction of a Catholic church on the Nevsky prospect (Nevsky
Prospekt), but the construction went on with big problems. The initial
project was developed by Pietro Antonio Trezzini, the work that began
under his leadership was stopped in 1751 after the architect left for
his homeland. On January 14, 1761, in the depths of the site, with a
retreat from the "red line", a new stone church was laid, the project of
which was developed in the style of French academic classicism by the
French architect Jean-Baptiste Vallin-Delamot, who worked in Russia. The
main compositional idea with a recessed portal and two symmetrical
towers, typical of Western European architecture, belongs to him. After
Vallin-Delamote left for France in 1775, the construction according to
his project from 1779 was continued by the Italian Antonio Rinaldi, who
was the syndic of the church. But construction was suspended and on July
16, 1763, a new laying was required on behalf of Empress Catherine II,
on the occasion of which a commemorative medal was issued.
All
this time, the community served in a temporary church, the hall for
which was equipped in a neighboring house (on the site of the modern
house 34 on Nevsky Prospekt). Only in 1782, the construction of the
temple was completed under the guidance of the Italian architect D.
Minchaki, and on October 7, 1783, the temple, which received the status
of a cathedral, was consecrated in honor of St. Catherine of Alexandria,
the patroness of Empress Catherine II.
Church of St. Catherine is associated with the names of many
prominent personalities. In 1798, the last Polish king, Stanislaw August
Poniatowski, was buried here (later reburied in Poland), and in 1813,
the French commander Jean Victor Moreau. The parishioner of the temple
was the famous architect Montferrand, the builder of St. Isaac's
Cathedral. Here he married and baptized his son. Here his body was
buried after death, after which his widow took the coffin with the body
of her husband to France. Also, the parishioners of the temple were a
number of Russian nobles who converted to Catholicism: Princess Z. A.
Volkonskaya, Decembrist M. S. Lunin, Prince I. S. Gagarin and others.
Service in the church was carried out by representatives of various
monastic orders. Initially, the temple belonged to the Franciscans, in
1800 Paul I gave the temple to the Jesuits, and in 1815, after the
expulsion of the latter from Russia, the parishioners of the temple
began to take care of the Dominicans. In 1859, the future architect F.
O. Shekhtel was baptized in the church.
In 1892, the temple
ceased to be an order and began to be managed by diocesan priests, but
the Dominican community at the temple continued to exist.
Before
the revolution of 1917, the parish had more than thirty thousand
parishioners.
At the church of St. Catherine, people who were
canonized by the Catholic Church were serving: St. Zygmunt Felinsky, St.
Ursula Ledukhovskaya, Blessed Anthony Leshchevich.
At the moment,
processes are underway to beatify a number of priests who worked in the
temple: Fr. Konstantin Budkevich, Bishop Anthony Maletsky, Bishop
Boleslav Sloskan, Bishop Theophilus Matulionis.
Under Soviet rule, some members of the parish were persecuted; parish
rector Konstantin Budkevich was shot in 1923.
The temple remained
open until 1938; French priests served in it. Dominican Michel Florent
served in the church from 1935 to 1938 and at that time remained the
only Catholic priest in Leningrad.
In 1938 the temple was closed
and looted; utensils, icons and books from the forty-thousandth temple
library were thrown into the street. The ruin of the temple was
completed by a fire in 1947, during which the interior was damaged, the
details of the interior decoration, and the metal pipes of the organ
were melted. O. Florent was arrested in 1941 and sentenced to death, but
at the last moment the execution was replaced by deportation to Iran
through Baku.
The temple building was used as a warehouse; in
1977, a decision was made to reconstruct the building and transform it
into the organ hall of the Philharmonic. Restoration work has begun. In
February 1984, as a result of arson, a severe fire broke out in the
building, which brought to naught the work of restorers and completely
destroyed the interior decoration. All the sculpture, the remains of
paintings, marble altars and the 12-meter organ body of the end of the
18th century perished in the fire. After that, the burnt temple stood
closed, and the windows were boarded up. In the building of the
monastery, offices of the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism
and private apartments were arranged.
The restoration of the activities of the Catholic Church in Russia
began in the early 1990s. In 1991, the newly formed parish of St.
Catherine was registered, in February 1992, the city authorities decided
to return the temple to the Church. In the same year, large-scale
restoration work began in the temple building, which was in a terrible
state. By October 1992, the first stage of restoration work was
completed, a temporary altar was installed. In October 1998, the chapel
of the Annunciation was opened, and on April 16, 2000, the altar part of
the church was consecrated. In 2003, the restoration of the main part of
the temple was completed and the central gate was opened for the first
time. Work on the restoration of the interior continues to this day.
On March 11, 2006, St. Catherine's Church took part in a joint
prayer of the Rosary with Catholics from ten European and African
cities, organized through a teleconference. Pope Benedict XVI took part
in the prayer.
On November 29, 2008, after many years of
restoration work, the main nave of the church was consecrated.
In
2013, the church was granted the status of a minor basilica. It became
the only basilica in Russia.
The church has a Sunday school, a
catechumenate, a children's center named after. Ursula Ledukhovskaya,
meetings of the Living Rosary Movement, Lay Dominicans. The parish choir
regularly performs at various festivals. The temple hosts concerts and
meetings with cultural figures. The community helps those in need.
The parish has about a thousand parishioners, among them the famous
jazz musician and teacher Gennady Golshtein, writer and journalist Ilya
Stogov.
The building has the shape of a Latin cross, with a transverse
transept, topped with a large dome. The temple building is 44 meters
long, 25 meters wide and 42 meters high. The temple can accommodate
about two thousand people at the same time.
The main facade of
the building has a recessed arched portal (traditional for the Catholic
churches of Rome), which is supported by free-standing columns. The
outer side of the church is decorated with pilasters. The windows of the
second tier are oval. Above the facade is a high parapet, on which are
placed the figures of four evangelists and angels holding a cross. Above
the main entrance, the words from the Gospel of Matthew (in Latin) are
inscribed: “My house will be called a house of prayer” (Mt 21.13) and
the date the construction of the cathedral was completed. A large altar
image “The Mystical Betrothal of St. Catherine of Alexandria”, painted
by the German painter Johann Mettenleiter and donated to the temple by
Empress Catherine II, was previously placed above the main altar, but
the image did not survive the ruin of the temple after the revolution.
An organ was installed in the temple no later than 1789. Then the
Jesuits changed it to a new one, which was famous as one of the best in
St. Petersburg (the instrument has not been preserved), at the end of
the 19th century an organ made in Germany was installed in the church
(also not preserved).
The ancient altar cross was saved in 1938,
during the looting of the temple, by one of the parishioners, Sofia
Stepulkovskaya, and has now been returned to the temple.
In 2013,
the restoration of the altar part began, the doors were restored from
photographs. In 2014, the altar cross was restored and installed from
photographs.
O. Evgeny Geinrichs, OR (1992-2002)
O. Maciej Rusiecki, OR
(2002-2010)
O. Vladislav Zombkovsky, OR, (2009-2010 parish
administrator)
O. Iakinf Destivel, OR (2010-2013)
O. Maciej
Rusiecki, OR, (from July to November 2013, parish administrator)
O.
Tomasz Wytrwal, OR, (since December 2013 parish administrator)
O.
Pavel Krupa, OP, (since September 2021 ward administrator)