Yevgeny Yevsigneyevich Golubinsky (; 28 February 1834 – 7 January 1912) was one of three major

church historian Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception. Henry Melvill Gwatkin defined church history as "the spiritual side of th ...

s of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, along with

Macarius Bulgakov Metropolitan Macarius (, born Mikhail Petrovich Bulgakov, ; –), was the Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna in 1879–82 and member of many learned societies, including the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1841, he graduated from the Kiev Theol ...

and Filaret Gumilevsky. He was considered the foremost authority on the Russian medieval

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

s. Golubinsky was the son of an Orthodox priest from the district of Kologriv who gave him the surname of Fyodor Golubinsky, a religious philosopher from

Kostroma Kostroma (, ) is a historic city and the administrative center of Kostroma Oblast, Russia. A part of the Golden Ring of Russian cities, it is located at the confluence of the rivers Volga and Kostroma. In the 2021 census, the population is 267, ...

. He was educated in the church schools of

Soligalich Soligalich () is a town and the administrative center of Soligalichsky District in Kostroma Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Kostroma River. Population: History It originated as an important center of saltworks, which suppli ...

and Kostroma before completing his studies at the

Moscow Theological Academy Moscow Theological Academy () is a higher educational institution of the Russian Orthodox Church, training clergy, teachers, scholars, and officials. The Academy traces its origin to the Slavic Greek Latin Academy, which was founded in 1685 by th ...

. In 1872 and 1873, he travelled to the

Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

and

Mount Athos Mount Athos (; ) is a mountain on the Athos peninsula in northeastern Greece directly on the Aegean Sea. It is an important center of Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox monasticism. The mountain and most of the Athos peninsula are governed ...

. Golubinsky's most highly regarded work examines the

canonization Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christianity, Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon ca ...

practices of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1881, he was awarded the Uvarov Prize for his outline of the history of the Russian Church. At the theological academy, Golubinsky repeatedly ran afoul of his conservative minded colleagues such as

Konstantin Pobedonostsev Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev ( rus, Константи́н Петро́вич Победоно́сцев, p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ pəbʲɪdɐˈnostsɨf; 30 November 1827 – 23 March 1907) was a Russian jurist and states ...

, because he employed the innovative method of

Positivism Positivism is a philosophical school that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positivemeaning '' a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. Gerber, ''Soci ...

: "the objective study of a phenomenon to find a positive solution based on logic as opposed to superstition or some other nonrational approach".Quoted from: Lawrence P. King. ''Theories of the New Class: Intellectuals and Power''. University of Minnesota Press, 2004. Pages 7-8. As a result of these conflicts, some of his works have never been published, although he was elected into the

Petersburg Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

in 1902. He went blind four years later.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Golubinsky Historians of the Russian Orthodox Church Scholars in Eastern Orthodoxy 1834 births 1912 deaths Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Blind scholars and academics 19th-century historians from the Russian Empire Moscow Theological Academy alumni