Bartholomew Remov

Archbishop Bartholomew Remov
Archbishop Bartholomew Remov
	Варфоломей Ремов (Russian)
	Archbishop Bartholomew Remov
Personal details
Born	Nikolai Fedorovich Remov; 3 October 1888; Moscow, Russian Empire
Died	26 June 1935 (aged 46); Butyrka Prison, Moscow, Soviet Union
Parents	Fyodor Remov

Bartholomew Remov (3 October 1888 – 26 June 1935) was a Russian archbishop who was sentenced to death by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union.

Monastic life

On 10 June 1911, he worked as a deacon and as a priest from 18 February 1912. He later became the associate professor of Old Testament Scriptures at the Moscow Theological Academy.

In 1913, Remov was appointed as the dean of the Academic Intercession Church, where in 1914, he became an associate professor. In 1919, he became the head of the Academic Protection Church and Archimandrite. In 1920, the Patriarch Tikhon appointed him the director of the Higher Institute of Theology. The same year on September 6, he was arrested for preaching against the opening of the relics of Sergius of Radonezh.

However, he was released on 28 February 1921 due to health complications and was carried away from the prison on a stretcher.

Scholarly work

His master's degree thesis, "Bishop Bartholomew", is based on a detailed analysis of the Greek and Hebrew texts of Habakkuk, complemented with the Slavic manuscripts. The work shows the deep erudition and a multifaceted approach to the subject. The author focused on textual criticism and the historical interpretation of the book of Habakkuk.

Beyond his work as a historian and biblical scholar, Remov was known as an expert on liturgy and the Old Church Slavonic language. The knowledge Old Church Slavonic was requested by Metropolitan Sergius Stragorodsky from Remov for auditing the proceedings of all church services, in particular, the choir and hymns with a focus on the Moscow Patriarchate.

Orthodox Bishop

On 28 July 1921, the bishop of Sergiev Posad Vicariate of the Moscow Diocese, appointed Remov to a position at the Trinity Sergius Lavra. He served in that position from 1921 to 1923 and became the head of the Vysokopetrovsky Monastery in Moscow until 1929. From 1925 to 1935, he was also the head of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin at Putinki.

After the closure of that monastery, clergy, who served with Bishop Bartholomew, moved to that church. There, Remov was respected by his faithfulness as an ascetic, a confessor and a labourer. Despite wider clerical dismissal, Remov organised secret monastic communities, under the de jure jurisdiction of Deputy Patriarch Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius Stragorodsky. It was here that Remov began to voice the criticism of the church and its political course.

In 1928, he was arrested and charged with "harbouring a spy". While in detention, Remov officially agreed to co-operate with the Joint State Political Directorate under what are presumed to be threats of torture and extortion. He was later released after he had failed to reveal any significant information during his detention by the security agency. His "co-operation" with the agent acted as a formal order to preserve the secret monasticism in Moscow, thereby "covering" him from reprisals from authorities.

On 9 June 1934, Remov was elevated to the rank of archbishop.

Secret Catholic

In 1928, Remov met with the apostolic administrator in Moscow, Bishop Pius Eugene Neveu, with whom he had stayed in contact. The Directorate believed that Bishop Bartholomew would inform the security officers about the moods and activities of Neveu. In fact, he considered a rapprochement with Catholics for an opportunity to ease the fate of the Russian Orthodox Church. He conveyed information about the persecution of the church to the Vatican representative in Russia to bring it to the attention of an international community.

Gradually, Remov began to show sympathy for Catholicism. Even in a letter dating from 1931, Bishop Neveu doubted whether Bishop Bartholomew was a Catholic since he "limited himself to vague words about his sympathies and was too afraid of compromising himself". However, in November 1932, unknown to the security officers, he secretly converted to Catholicism and created a small secret Catholic community of members of his church.

In 1933, he received the official documents on its powers of papal commission Pro Russia, signed by the head of the commission, Bishop Michel d'Herbigny. The document told about the establishment of the department of the titular Sergiev Posad vicariate in the jurisdiction of the Pope and made Bishop Bartholomew a vicar bishop of Bishop Neveu. In its own words, it "is vested with the episcopal dignity in the Eastern rite". D'Herbigny gave his support to Bishop Bartholomew, the first such example in Russia in the 20th century, and considered the secret Catholic bishop as the future Patriarch of the Eastern Rite in the jurisdiction of the Pope.

Some believed Bishop Bartholomew's information about his transition to Catholicism to be false. They seriously considered the possibility of his identity as a saint of the Orthodox saints in the first half of the 1900s. They believed that his identity as an Orthodox bishop with the Catholics did not go beyond consultation and the transfer of information. In their view, the recognition of the interrogations was removed by the employees of the NKVD and that the documents that came from d'Herbigny were dubious. However, their argument is rejected by both Orthodox and Catholic scholars. The General Archive of the Augustinian monks in Rome kept correspondence between Bishop Bartholomew and Bishop Neveu, which proves his Catholicism.

Final arrest and death

Remov was arrested in early 1928 but released if he became a secret informant for the Directorate and had the agreement sealed in writing. Remov was arrested again on 21 February 1935 and was prosecuted for his involvement in the NKVD for "dereliction of duty". He was accused of passing on the Vatican representative in Russia regarding the persecution of the Church, instead of relating the faith of NKVD to fellow believers. After a brief detention period in the Butyrka Prison, where he was sent shortly after his arrest, Remov was charged for committing treason and dereliction of duty for inability to practice the best interests of NKVD.

The Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union sentenced him to death on 17 June 1935, and he was shot soon after.

There were others arrested with him, but he was the only one sentenced to execution. The sentence was incredibly severe for 1935 and was later attributed to the fact of his stubborn unwillingness to co-operate during interrogations. When the interrogator questioned his silence, he replied, "I tried to find a substitute, but it cannot found".

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