The institute was founded in 1945 by members of the Cathedral of St. Irenaeus in Paris (of the Orthodox Church of France) and by a number of French intellectuals who were not themselves Orthodox Christians - the first registrar, for example, was the French Roman Catholic philosopher, Gabriel Marcel.
The institute was founded with the assistance of the Brotherhood of St. Photius[2] and with the blessing of Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) of Moscow.
During the academic year 1945-1946, two members of the St. Sergius faculty, Alexander Schmemann and Constantine Andronikoff, taught at St. Denys, but the political climate of the Russian Church in Paris at the time caused them to withdraw the next year.
[4] It has remained close to the French academic world, drawing a number of its faculty from the University of Paris, including the Sorbonne.
After lecturing at the Institute for a year, he went on to later become Archbishop of New York in the Orthodox Church in America.