Irina Mikhaylovna Posnova (; 9 August 1914,

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

– 18 December 1997,

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) was publisher, founder of the Catholic publishing house "Life with God" and the ecumenical journal of the same name, was a prominent member of the

Russian Greek Catholic Church The Russian Greek Catholic Church or Russian Byzantine Catholic Church is a ''sui juris, sui iuris'' (self-governing) Byzantine Rite Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholic particular church that is part of the worldwide Catholic Church. Hi ...

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Biography

Born in 1914 in Kiev, in the family of Mikhail Emmanuilovich Posnov, an Orthodox church historian and professor of

Kiev Theological Academy The Kiev Theological Academy (1819—1919) was one of the oldest higher educational institution of the Russian Orthodox Church, situated in Kiev, then in the Russian Empire (now Kyiv, Ukraine). It was considered as the most senior one among simila ...

. Irina Posnova moved to

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and studied at the Russian school in Sofia. Then she moved to Belgium, graduated from the

Catholic University of Louvain The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, defended her doctoral thesis on classical

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

. During this period, she was engaged in historical and theological issues. As a result of theological studies she converted to the Catholic Church. After graduation, she taught the

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in some schools. During World War II, Irina Posnova dedicated herself to help the

Soviet prisoners of war The following articles deal with Soviet prisoners of war. * Camps for Russian prisoners and internees in Poland (1919–24) *Soviet prisoners of war in Finland Soviet prisoners of war in Finland during World War II were captured in two Soviet Un ...

and

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who worked in the mines in

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, and after the war helped refugees from the Soviet Union in Belgium. Posnova founded publishing house "Life with God", which published Christian books in Russian language. The main goal of the publishing house was publishing of both Orthodox and Catholic literature for the needs of the

Russian diaspora The Russian diaspora is the global community of Ethnicity, ethnic Russians. The Russian-speaking (''Russophone'') diaspora are the people for whom Russian language is the First language, native language, regardless of whether they are ethnic Russ ...

, as well as for illegal distribution inside the USSR. Posnova accordingly took an active role in smuggling religious literature into the USSR via diplomatic baggage and its secret dissemination. The activities of the publishing house was held in a spirit of Christian ecumenism. In 1945 she began publishing a magazine with the same name "Life with God.", with the Orthodox priest

Valent Romensky Valent may refer to: * Valent (name) *Valence (chemistry) *Valency (linguistics) In linguistics, valency or valence is the number and type of arguments and complements controlled by a predicate, content verbs being typical predicates. Valency ...

. Since 1951, she edited the magazine "Russian Catholic Herald", later renamed the "Russia and the Universal Church," and in 1971 bore the name of the "Logos." In 1954

parish was organized in Brussels. In 1958 World Fair took place in Brussels, where the Soviet pavilion was close to the Vatican pavillon. At the suggestion of Irina Posnova in the pavilion was set up a special department, where Soviet tourists were given the Gospels and Orthodox prayer books. Since 1967 Posnova led religious programs in Russian on

Radio Monte Carlo Radio Monte Carlo (RMC) is the name of radio stations owned and managed by several different entities: Stations Radio Monte Carlo is considered one of the most popular networks especially in non-European Italian and French-speaking regions for it ...

. Since 1969, the publishing house, "Life with God" actively published work of Orthodox priest Fr.

Alexander Men Alexander Vladimirovich Men (; 22 January 1935 – 9 September 1990) was a Soviet Russian Orthodox Church priest, dissident, scholar of theology and the Bible, and author of works on theology, history of religion, the fundamentals of Christian ...

. In December 1997, after a long illness, Irina Posnova died in Belgium.

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20190321201752/http://idjsb.ru/ * http://www.socionet.narod.ru/ * http://pvd.chat.ru/text/Chistjakov/Posn2.html * http://rgcc.narod.ru/his.htm * http://krotov.info/lib_sec/04_g/gol/ovanov_05.htm * http://pravkniga.ru/izd_prav.html?id=572 {{DEFAULTSORT:Posnova, Irina Converts to Eastern Catholicism from Eastern Orthodoxy Eastern Catholic writers Former Russian Orthodox Christians Russian Greek-Catholics Russian publishers (people) 1914 births 1997 deaths