Danielle Gousseff

This article traces the pastoral ministry of Father Boris Bobrinskoy at the head of the parish of the Crypt of the Holy Trinity in Paris. Belonging to the genre of historical and biographical testimony, it reconstructs the concrete action of a major figure of Francophone Orthodoxy during the second half of the twentieth century. The central idea is that Father Boris Bobrinskoy played a determining role in the structuring and influence of this parish community, durably shaping its liturgical, spiritual and human life. On the theological and historical level, the article contributes to documenting the local rootedness of a living Orthodox theology, by showing how a demanding theological thought can be embodied in the daily exercise of the presbyteral ministry and in the construction of a coherent parish identity within the Orthodox diaspora in France.

This article traces the history of the parish of the Holy Trinity, an Orthodox community known as "la Crypte," from its founding through its first fifty years of existence. Written in the form of a historical testimony by a long-standing parishioner, the text adopts a chronological and documentary approach. The main aim is to reconstruct the institutional and spiritual memory of this community by identifying its founding events, the stages of its development, and the key figures who helped shape it. From a historical standpoint, the article constitutes a firsthand source on the life of an Orthodox parish in the diaspora, offering concrete insight into community dynamics, the challenges specific to the establishment of Orthodoxy in a Western context, and the transmission of ecclesiastical tradition across generations.