15 Years of the Capuchins in Russia

Fifteen years ago, in 2003, the first Capuchin house in Russia was opened. It is in the city of Voronezh in the diocese of Saratov, which has a million inhabitants but only 120 Catholics. In this sense ours is a small Catholic presence in a large area of Orthodox majority.

This year, 2018, on June 29, the feast of Saints Peter and Paul—the patrons of the parish—a second house was erected in the city of Belgorod (also in the diocese of Saratov). Belgorod has 350,000 inhabitants and about sixty Catholics, mostly students from various African, Latin American, and Asian countries.

Currently there are five friars total working in these two houses. Belgorod is in western Russia, close to the border with Ukraine. Officially and in Capuchin terms, the territory belongs to the Custody of Ukraine and Russia, which is a provincial custody of the Province of Kraków.

Photo galleries of the opening of the house in Belgorod.