The empress Catherine II as an example of women’s service to the church. Commentary on the article by Yu. V. Ospennikov “Actual problems of church law studies (interim results of the work of the Barsov society)”

The article is a response to the article of Yu. V. Ospennikov “Actual problems of studying church law (interim results of the work of the Barsov Society)” and is devoted to the problem of the Women's priesthood and of the Women's imperial power in medieval Byzantium and in the Russian Empire of the XVIII century. A. Yu. Mitrofanov concludes that the idea of female priesthood was implemented in the context of the ideology of the Emperor Constantine the Great, who proclaimed himself a bishop of the external affairs of the Church, by the Russian Empress Catherine the Great. The manifestation of this ideology was the coronation of Catherine the Great, who was introduced into the altar and received the Holy Communion according to the rank of the clergy.