The witness of the Gospel in the countries of the East

This article is the transcription of a lecture by Bishop Stefan, Bishop of Žiča in Serbia, devoted to the situation of the Orthodox Churches in the socialist countries of Eastern Europe. Adopting both a theological and testimonial approach, the author examines the conditions under which these Churches maintained their evangelical mission in the face of Marxist state atheism. The central idea is that the witness of the Gospel, though hindered by systematic persecution, took multiple forms: liturgical life, martyrdom, the presence of churches and monasteries, the Christian family, and the unexpected conversions of atheist intellectuals. The contribution of the article lies in its concrete documentation of the strategies of Orthodox ecclesial survival under totalitarian regimes, illustrated in particular by the Serbian, Russian and Albanian cases, thus offering a first-hand historical testimony of this period.