SILVESTER, LEBEDINSKIY. - Russian theologian and ecclesiastical writer of the 18th century. Born on an unknown date in southern Russia, died at Astrakhan on 5 November 1808.

He studied at the Ecclesiastical Academy of Kiev. In 1791 he was elected rector of the Seminary at Astrakhan, in 1794 of the Seminary of Kazan, and on 25 July 1797 first rector of the Ecclesiastical Academy of Kazan. In 1799 he became bishop of Poltava and Pereyaslavl, and in 1807 archbishop of Astrakhan.

S. composed in Latin a manual of theology for seminaries: Compendium theologiae dogmaticae (1st ed. St. Petersburg 1799; 2nd ed., much enlarged, Moscow 1805). In theology S. follows the Protestantizing tendency of Theophan Prokopovich; admitting for the faith only Sacred Scripture, while councils cannot establish irreformable dogmas and oral tradition is not necessary; the "deuterocanonical" books are excluded from the canon, etc. Other notable writings (in Russian): The Incorruptible Food, 1st ed. Moscow 1789, 3rd ed. 1843; Evangelical Interpreter of the Proverbs (it is an interpretation of Proverbs, with parallel texts of Sacred Scripture for each verse), 1st ed. Moscow 1796, 4th ed. 1894.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: M. Jugie, Theologia dogmatica christianorum orientalium ab Ecclesia catholica disidentium, I, Paris 1926, pp. 594-595, 644-45; see also the indexes of vols. II-IV, s. v. Lebedinskii Sylvester.

Bernardo Schultze

@incollection{ec11_silvester_lebedinskij, author = {Schultze, Bernardo}, title = {Silvester, lebedinskij}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {594}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/silvester-lebedinskij} }

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Silvester, Lebedinskiy

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