Procurator of the Synod Office established

1 (13) August 1836, was established the Office of the Chief Procurator of the Synod to handle cases that were the responsibility of the Chief Procurator of the Synod. It was preceded by the Department for the Greek-Russian confession, which made part of the Department of Religious Affairs under the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education.

The Office of the Chief Procurator of the Synod was managed by Director and comprised of three divisions and a consulting bureau. Directors of the Office at different times were: K. S. Serbinovich (1839-1853), K. E. Frank (1853-1858), P. I. Gajewski (1858-1860), A. F. Turin (1860-1862), V. I. Avchinnikov (1862-1866), N. A. Sergievsky (1866-1869), I. A. Nenarokomov (1869-1889), O. S. Sidorovsky (1890-1895), D. N. Solovyov (1896-1909), V. I. Yatsievich (1910-1917).

The Office carried out the preparation of legislation on ecclesiastical matters, managed the affairs of the Synod with the supreme authority and other agencies, amounted annual reports of the Office of Orthodox confession, considered the reports of the diocesan authorities, matters of church property, income and expenditure, construction and renovation of church buildings, the activities of the Synod printing, the supply of churches, monasteries and religious educational institutions with various property, was in charge of the service of officials of institutions of spiritual agency, awards and pensions of the clergy, parishioners' complaints against priests and parish clergy’s complaints against the diocesan authorities, cases of misconduct of the clergy, the transition from one profession to another as well as the change of name and issue of metrics.

Consultation with the chief prosecutor considered legally contentious cases of ecclesiastical property, a misdemeanor of the clergy, marriage and divorce cases.

In 1839 was issued a Supreme Decree to the Governing Senate regarding the reform of the office - its terms of action were established and a new staff introduced. 2 (14) December, 1861 the Office was divided into four sections. From 1872 the main functions of the office were limited to the following: preparation of documents, submitted to the emperor’s discretion, correspondence with other agencies, and supervision of its own, superintendence of personnel of the ecclesiastical department and gathering of statistics.

In 1917, the Office of the Chief Procurator of the Synod ceased to exist.

Lit.: Высшие и центральные государственные учреждения России 1801-1917. Т. 1. СПб., 2000; Карташев А. В. Очерки по истории Русской Церкви. Т. 2. Париж, 1991; Цыпин Владислав, протоиерей. История Русской Церкви в Синодальный период. Ставрополь, 1996.

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Most Holy Governing Synod in the history of Russian statehood: [digital collection]

Полное собрание законов Российской империи. Т. 11. СПб., 1836. № 9451. С. 854.