The Circumstances of the Convocation of the Missionary Congress in Irkutsk in 1910 and the Consideration at It of Questions about Russian Ecclesiastical Missions Abroad

The article examines the circumstances of the convocation of the missionary congress in Irkutsk in 1910 on the basis of, among other things, archival materials. Archbishop Tikhon (Troitsky-Donebin) and Hieromartyr John Vostorgov played an important role in this process. The latter regularly visited Siberia and the Far East, studying the state of the mission there. At the Irkutsk Congress, issues related to the activities of Russian missions in China, Japan, and Korea were considered in the fifth section. The main speaker was the head of the Korean mission, Archimandrite, later bishop, Pavel (Ivanovsky). The key decisions of the congress on overseas missions concerned the expansion of the staff of the missions, as well as an increase in funding. This article is a revised version of a report that was presented at the International Scientific and Practical Conference, held on March 10–12, 2021 at the St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University for the Humanities.