Imiaslavie

The theological controversy that arose in connection with the teachings of the Imiaslavie revived interest in the legacy of St Gregory Palamas and the Hesychasts in Russia and had a noticeable impact on the development of Russian religious and philosophical thought in the first half the 20th century.

This occurred on the feast day of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God Galaktotrophousa ("Milk-Giver"), enshrined at Hilandar Monastery of the Serbians.

After interrogation in Odessa, 8 monks were deported back to St. Andrew's, 40 were jailed, and the rest had their hair and beards shaved, were defrocked, and were resettled in the cities of their homeland.

On 17 July 1923, another 212 monks who opted to voluntarily leave Mount Athos arrived in Odessa on the steamer Chikhachev, some wearing Jewish kippot as ritual mockery.

Those who promote this doctrine claim support from the writings of Saint John of Kronstadt, and the influential mystic and healer Grigori Rasputin, the popularly styled "mad monk" closely associated with the Russian imperial family shortly before the October Revolution.

Saint John of Kronstadt died before this controversy erupted, and his quotes, it can be argued, were taken out of context to support a whole set of ideas that were not found in his own writings.

[10] In September 1917 the Pomestny Sobor of the Russian Orthodox Church was convened to resolve the Imiaslavie question, with both proponents and opponents present.

Bulatovich's second letter to the Tsar in 1916 noted that he "correlates the military failures of Russia in World War 1 at the front with the struggle of the Synod against Name-Glorification".

[10] Bishop Hilarion (Alfeyev) wrote in 1999 that: “Even though the movement of the 'Name-worshippers' was crushed at the beginning of the century on the orders of the Holy Synod, discussion of the matter regained impetus in the years preceding the Moscow Council (1917–18), which was supposed to come to a decision about this but did not succeed in doing so.

[12][13] Social psychologist Professor Martin Bauer frames this as a conflict over "representation" which "centres on the issue of whether a word is more than just a flatus voci (Latin for a vocal fart).