Nikita Struve

This article by Nikita Struve is devoted to the figure of Élie (Ilya) Fondaminsky, a layman of Jewish origin, former socialist-revolutionary and martyr of the Second World War, canonized by the Archdiocese of Russian parishes in Western Europe. The article takes the form of a hagiographic and biographical study, drawing in particular on the works of Georges Fedotov. Struve traces Fondaminsky's journey from his revolutionary commitment to his gradual conversion to Orthodox Christianity, his baptism received at the Compiègne camp and his death in deportation in 1942. The central idea is that Fondaminsky's holiness rests on two inseparable elements: a life of exemplary justice and charity, and a death freely accepted as a martyr. The theological contribution of the article lies in its reflection on the criteria of holiness, the legitimacy of this canonization and the spiritual continuity between humanist commitment and Christian life.

This article reports on three presentations given during a round table and workshops organized as part of an Orthodox congress. The first contribution, by Nikita Struve, examines the tension between conservatism and reformism in the Church through a theological and historical approach. It argues that this duality is constitutive of ecclesial life and that the true danger lies not in the opposition itself, but in the absolutization of one or the other tendency, or in the recourse to binding authority. The second presentation, by Claude Hiffler, analyzes the relationship between the Orthodox Church and the contemporary world, marked by the predominance of technical knowledge to the detriment of spiritual knowledge. The third contribution, by Élie Korotkoff and André Lossky, deals with liturgical life, emphasizing the centrality of the Eucharist, the communal dimension of all celebration, and the place of services without a priest in the ecclesial tradition.