Chronology of Catholic Dioceses:The Russian Catholic Church

See a list of abbreviations used in this list.

1: Historical Background

From the early 19th century until 1905, Byzantine Catholicism was illegal in the Russian Empire. But after Czar Nicholas II issued his edict of religious toleration, a few small communities of Byzantine Catholics were formed. In 1917 an Apostolic Exarchate was established for them. But this was soon followed by the Communist revolution, after which the group was virtually annihilated. A second Apostolic Exarchate was set up for the few Russian Byzantine Catholics in China on 24 May 1928 based in Harbin. This was always an extremely small community, and today approximately 3,500 live in the diaspora. A Russian College, the "Russicum" was founded in Rome in 1929 under Jesuit supervision to train clergy to work with Russian emigrés and in Russia itself.

The Apostolic Exarchates in Russia and China are still officially extant, but as of 2002 had not been reconstituted. There are 31 Russian Byzantine Catholic parishes in the United States; 2 in Siberia; 2 in Moscow; 1 community in St Petersburg; 2 in France; 1 monastery in France and 1 in Italy and 1 skete in Brazil.

2: Jurisdictions

1917: Russia [Russ.-Byz.] (ApEx, detached from the care of Mohilev) - Russia
1928: Harbin [Harbin] [Russ-.Byz. and all Oriental Rite Catholics in all China] (ApEx) - China