Today, when the Orthodox and Catholic churches, in the person of their primates, extended their hands to each other in search of ways of joint service to the Lord, the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, located in Moscow, draws particular attention to itself, the history of which is largely similar to the fate of many Orthodox temples of Russia.
The Catholic community of Moscow at the end of the 19th century
The end of the XIX century was for Russia a period of rapid development of capitalism. Countless joint-stock companies, banks, and also manufacturing and commercial enterprises grew like mushrooms. All this caused an intensive influx of a large number of foreigners into the country, including from Catholic countries. They opened their business here and, gradually adapting to the new conditions, nevertheless remained adherents of their faith.
In Moscow, before, there was their community, performing services in two cathedrals belonging to them, but by the end of the century it had grown so much that its representatives were forced in 1894 to turn to the city authorities with a request to consider the construction of a new church. The Moscow governor met them and signed a document, on the basis of which the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built.
Temple design
Giving his consent to the construction of the Catholic Cathedral, the governor set a condition: the place chosen for him should be located away from the city center and its main Orthodox shrines. He made restrictions in the appearance of the future building, prohibiting the construction of towers and the installation of outdoor sculptures. Despite the fact that religious tolerance was always characteristic of Moscow, in this case the head of the city showed a certain amount of caution.
The development of documentation was entrusted to the architect F.O. Bogdanovich-Dvorzhetsky, and soon his project, executed in the neo-Gothic style, was approved. Despite the fact that the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, according to the author's plan, did not meet the requirements put forward earlier (the ban on the construction of towers was violated), the governor agreed to its construction.
Solving construction financing problems
In those years, a large number of Poles who served on the railway lived on Malaya Gruzinskaya Street. Their religious community was very numerous, and included about thirty thousand people. It was there that a plot was acquired for the future cathedral, and the Poles themselves, who later formed the parish of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, raised a significant amount for its construction. The missing funds were provided by Catholics of other nationalities living in Russia.
Construction work lasted until 1911 and were completed by the installation of a decorative fence. The total amount required to pay all expenses amounted to three hundred thousand rubles, which at that time was quite a lot. However, for six years, until the revolution, the interior of the temple continued to be decorated. Of course, this required additional funds.
Years of total atheism
In the first years after the consecration, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary had the status of a branch church and only in 1919 was converted into an independent parish, after which services continued for almost another twenty years. But the wave of universal atheistic madness that swept the country in those years did not pass the Catholic Cathedral either. At the end of 1938 it was closed, the community was dissolved, and property acquired with donations from thousands of people was looted.
During the war years, when hundreds of thousands of enemy bombs and shells were rained down on Moscow, the former cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was damaged. During one of the air raids, he lost several towers and spiers, but, fortunately, the building itself survived. Already in the post-war years, it was transferred to one of the Moscow research institutes.
Before moving into the building provided by him, the leadership of the scientific organization restructured its interior, finally destroying the remains of the church interior. In particular, the entire space of the former cathedral was divided into four floors. They touched on the change and appearance, ruthlessly distorting the harmony of its architectural forms.
Attempts to return the cathedral to the sphere of spiritual life
The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built taking into account the laws of acoustics, due to which the magnificent sound of an organ and a church choir was noted in its premises. It was an unforgivable mistake to ignore such unique features of the building.
In 1976, representatives of the creative intelligentsia of the capital turned to the Ministry of Culture with a proposal: after appropriate reconstruction, use the cathedral as a concert hall for performing organ music. Their initiative was approved, even a corresponding project was developed, but its implementation was never implemented.
The difficult way to return the cathedral to parishioners
The Cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary found its new life already in the period of perestroika, when in 1989 the association, which united Moscow Poles in its ranks, turned to the Moscow government with a request to transfer the temple building to them.
The return of the cathedral to believers in 1996 was preceded by many years of bureaucratic ordeals associated with the eviction of the institute that had settled in it. Despite the trends of modern times, the thinking of many officials remained at the same level that prevailed in the dead of stagnation. This has caused many annoying delays.
However, even before the desired day, in December 1990, the current bishop, and in those years, ordinary priest Janusz Wilski, served a mass on the steps of the cathedral, which then belonged to a civil organization. Starting next year, cathedral services became regular, but they were performed outside the building.
Consecration of the restored cathedral
After completing all the formalities, it took another three years to give the temple its original appearance, eliminating all the changes made over many years. This affected both the facade and the layout of the interior, the decoration of which had to be re-performed. It should be noted that it was not possible to achieve complete similarity with what the temple was in the year of its first consecration, due to a number of technical reasons. However, comparing the work of restorers with the sketch of the cathedral, stored in the archive along with other documents related to the project of the late XIX century, it should be noted that they managed to restore the style and restore the building an indescribable spirit, laid down by the author.
On the occasion of the solemn consecration of the newly opened cathedral, the Vatican delegation arrived in Moscow, led by its Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano.
An unusual and unusual event for the parishioners of Orthodox churches was held in this cathedral in 2002. On that day, with the help of a teleconference, a joint prayer of his abbot was held with the Pope and the heads of some Western European Catholic parishes.
Liturgical Cathedral Choir
It has long been a tradition to organize sacred music concerts in Moscow dedicated to various church holidays, at which the choir of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception enjoys particular success. His active concert and liturgical activity began in 1999 with the blessing of Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz.
Today, choral group classes are held weekly on Wednesdays in a specially equipped class of the basement of the building.