Eastern Orthodoxy in Estonia
[5] Around 600 AD on the east side of Toome Hill (Toomemägi) the Estonians established the town Tarbatu (modern Tartu).
In 1030, the Kievan prince, Yaroslav the Wise, raided Tarbatu and built his own fort called Yuryev, as well as, allegedly, a congregation in a cathedral dedicated to his patron saint, St. George.
[5] One such congregation was expelled from the town of Dorpat (Tartu) by the Germans in 1472, who martyred their priest, Isidor, along with a number of Orthodox faithful (the group is commemorated on January 8).
During the 1800s, a significant number of Estonian peasants converted to the emperor's Orthodox faith in the (unfulfilled) hope of being rewarded with land.
[9] In 1917 a plenary council chose Paul Kulbusch, a priest of the St. Petersburg Estonian Orthodox community, to become Bishop Platon of Tallinn.
[11] In response, Patriarch Tikhon had excommunicated the Soviet leadership in 1918, leading to a period of intense persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church.
By that time, roughly one fifth of the total Estonian population were Orthodox Christians, including Konstantin Päts, Estonia's first President.
[16] There were over 210,000 adherents (mostly ethnic Estonians), three bishops, 156 parishes, 131 priests, 19 deacons, and a Chair of Orthodoxy in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Tartu.
[17] In 1940, Estonia became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, as part of a secret territory-dividing agreement in the German–Soviet Nonaggression Pact of August 1939.
[17] Despite stiff resistance from retreating German troops and Estonian nationalists, the Soviet Union reasserted control over Estonia by autumn of 1944.
In 1945, the Moscow Patriarchate liquidated the EAOC, dismissing the remaining clergy and bringing all Estonian congregations into a single diocese within the Russian Orthodox Church.
[14] The Estonian Orthodox church remained split as long as Estonia was a member state of the Soviet Union, nearly half a century.
[18][19] Early in 1993, the Estonian parliament passed the Churches and Congregations Act, which required all religious institutions to re-register with the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
[20] The Russian diocese continued its campaign to claim legal succession until 2001, when it dropped attempts to register the 1935 statute, and instead applied to the Ministry of Internal Affairs with the name "Estonian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate".
The Estonian Business Association soon lobbied on behalf of the Moscow Patriarchate, because statements by Russian officials led them to believe a favorable registration would lead to reduced customs tariffs on Estonian-Russian trade.
The effort succeeded, and on 17 April 2002 the Russian diocese was registered as the Estonian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate (EOCMP).
