Diocese of Vienna and Austria


Diocese of Vienna and Austria is a diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. It unites parishes in Austria. The diocese exists alongside the Austrian parishes of the Berlin and German Diocese of ROCOR.
WWW austria-diocese.com

History

On June 7, 1946, Archbishop Sergius was appointed Archbishop of Vienna, vicar of the Patriarchal exarch in Western Europe with residence in Vienna. On October 21 of the same year, Archbishop Sergius was confirmed Exarch of Central Europe as diocesan bishop of Vienna. In 1948 he was transferred to Berlin, and Diocese of Vienna was ceased.
In 1951, a deanery was established in Vienna, and in 1962 it was transformed into a diocese. Bishop Herman (Timofeyev) blessed the recitation of parts of the Divine Liturgy and sermons in German language.
By the decision of the Holy Synod of June 11, 1993, the parish in the city of Graz, which had passed from the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, was included to the diocese.
During his tenure at the department of Bishop Paul (Ponomaryov), the Orthodox deanery in Hungary also came under his jurisdiction, which was transformed on April 20, 2000, into an independent Diocese of Budapest, with Bishop Paul receiving the title of "Vienna and Budapest" and managing both dioceses.
The next bishop, Hilarion (Alfeyev), is again titled "Bishop of Vienna and Austria", being also the interim administrator of the Diocese of Budapest. The expansion of the diocese's activities to new parishes dates back to the 2000s - since May 2004, the Intercession Parish in Graz has received permanent pastoral care, since June of the same year — the parish in Linz, in 2005 it was planned to resume regular divine services in the St Lazarus cemetery church.
As 2000s the parishioners of the diocese belong to different nationalities — including Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Moldovans, native Austrians, as well as Georgians. Divine services in the parishes of the diocese are celebrated in Slavic and German.
On March 7, 2012, the Austrian authorities officially approved the legal status of the Diocese.

Ruling hierarchs

Parishes