United States

In 1960, Damien Jentges, OSB, of blessed memory, was in his sixth year as Abbott of Mt Angel Benedictine Abbey in Saint Benedict, OR, when he became aware of several Old Believer bodies settling in the abbey's vicinity. These were emigrants whose communities had escaped Russia, relocated to Harbin and Shanghai, China, but were ultimately forced to flee again, in the aftermath of the Chinese Communist takeover.

The Abbott recognized the difficulties that the newcomers would face due to language barriers and unfamiliarity with navigating governmental, social service, health care, and educational systems. He was struck by their plight and determined to offer what assistance the monks could provide to help the Old Believers successfully cope with integrating into American life.

In the course of meetings with the refugees, it was discovered that their numbers included a small contingent of Catholic Old Ritualists. Undaunted, Abbott Damien began searching to find a priest who could serve these Catholics according to their own ritual praxis. His efforts succeeded when he located Hieromonk Feodor (Palczynski), MIC, now also of blessed memory.

Father Feodor was himself descended from an Old Believer family and a member of the Marist Fathers, an order with a history of devoted service to the Byzantine Churches of the Slav Tradition that including the martyrdom of several of its members. His superiors did not hesitate to approve the Abbott's request for Father Feodor to separate from their Stockbridge, MA monastery and undertake a mission in Oregon. In the following decades, Father Feodor and Brother Ambrose Moorman, OSB, afforded advocacy services to the Popovotsy and Bespopovotsy, as well as providing pastoral care to the Catholics among them.

Abbott Damien's tenure in office lasted until 1964. Throughout that time and thereafter, Father Feodor and Brother Ambrose continued their ministry. However, none of the successor abbotts continued Abbott Damien's commitment and Brother Ambrose himself never took Holy Orders. As a result, subsequent to Father Feodor's repose, there was no presbyter available to fulfill the spiritual needs of the small Catholic Old Ritualist community.

Brother Ambrose, who had learned  Church Slavonic and Russian to aid in his work, and had himself become a practicing Old Ritualist, single-handedly continued the secular aspects of the ministry to the various communities. However, over time, the Catholic faithful were subsumed into local Popovotsy communities.

As a result, Russian Catholic Old Ritualists no longer exist in the US as a discernable body of faithful. Brother Ambrose, of blessed memory, who reposed in 2012 and is buried in the Russian Cemetery, was almost certainly the last Catholic Old Ritualist in the United States. The former chapel which. at one time afforded worship space to no less than five different Old Believer sects, today remains as an integral part of an Old Believer Museum on the Abbey grounds.

Icon: Our Lady of Tihkvin