Metadata: Kherson Ecclesiastical Administration; Kherson
Collection
- Country:
- Ukraine
- Holding institution:
- State Archive of the Kherson Region
- Holding institution (official language):
- Державний архів Херсонської області
- Postal address:
- Ukraine, 73003, Kherson, 3 Yaroslav Mudryi Str.
- Phone number:
- 380 (0552) 22-5733
- Web address:
- http://kherson.archives.gov.ua/
- Email:
- daxo@ukrpost.net
- Reference number:
- F. 207
- Title:
- Kherson Ecclesiastical Administration; Kherson
- Title (official language):
- Херсонське духовне правління, м. Херсон Херсонської губ.
- Creator/accumulator:
- Kherson Ecclesiastical Administration; Kherson
- Date(s):
- 1782/1920
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- 2,124 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
- Materials housed in the fonds include an edict of the Ekaterinoslav Ecclesiastical Consistory barring the clergy from converting Jews to the Christian faith without certification from the Office of Custodianship over Foreign Settlers of Novorossiia (1813); and a letter of the Kherson City Municipality to the Kherson Ecclesiastical Administration (22 December 1831) stating that “Jewish farmers interested in being baptized into Russian Orthodoxy cannot be converted to that faith without the cognizance and permission of their superiors, and without presenting written certification from same.” A considerable number of the fonds’ documents pertain to Jews who converted to Russian Orthodoxy in the period of 1782-1857. The materials include clergymen’s reports of baptisms performed “with permission” of higher-ups; letters from commanders of military units regarding soldiers and sailors “of the Jewish law” who wished to convert to Russian Orthodoxy; police reports and petitions by converts’ parents regarding conflicts occurring in connection with conversion, and in particular, a complaint filed by S. Bertenzon, a Kherson merchant of the 2nd guild, to the effect that “on 9 May [1825] his fourteen-year-old son Feitel had hidden from him in fear in order to avoid punishment for laziness in his studies,” and that “a priest at the secondary school [gimnaziia] had given [the child] money and convinced him to change faiths.” There are also complaints by Jews against priests alleged to have beaten them, and regarding other abuses.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- This was established on 9 September 1775. It was a collegial body whose members were appointed by the archbishop. Originally it was under the jurisdiction of the Slavic-Kherson Ecclesiastical Consistory; from 1786-96 and 1803-37, the Ekaterinoslav, Kherson, and Tavriia Ecclesiastical Consistory; from 1796-1803, the Novorossiia Ecclesiastical Consistory; and from 1837 on, the Kherson Ecclesiastical Consistory. It arranged for the local-level implementation of edicts and rulings of the ecclesiastical consistory; kept service records of members of the clergy; conducted investigations (as directed by the consistory) relating to members of the clergy; monitored income and disbursements of Church funds; etc. It was liquidated in 1920.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Bertenzon, S.
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds includes a single inventory; documents are systematised chronologically.
- Finding aids:
- An inventory is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary
