The theologian Vladimir Lossky died on this day in 1958. Most of the reports I have been sharing here have been dedicated to the Russian Church Abroad. One of the objectives of our project This Day in the Life of the Church is to understand “others” and perhaps to recognize their value and contribution. If Vladimir Nabokov was growing up in Saint Petersburg an anglophile, Vladimir Lossky was growing up a Francophile. He was born in 1903 in Gottingen, where his father Nikolay Onuphrievich defended his Master thesis in philosophy. Nikolay Onuphrievich was born in Krāslava in Latgale, the most Roman Catholic populated region of the modern-day Latvia. His mother was a Roman Catholic. Lossky junior belonged to the so-called Vekhi (landmarks, by the name of the volume published in 1909) movement in the Russian intellectual thought signaling conversion for a number of thinkers from positivism to idealism. Having been expelled from the gymnasium for prophesying atheist views, early in his life, after the Bolshevik revolution Lossky senior was prohibited from teaching at the university in Saint Petersburg and expelled from the country with his family in 1922 on the famous “philosophical steamboat.” The family ended up in Prague. Vladimir Lossky enrolled in the university there, specializing in medieval studies, obtaining his instruments: Latin and classical Greek. The relocation to France in 1924 defined the rest of Lossky’s life. The French bonne (nanny) in Saint Petersburg affected him with love for her motherland and Paris. Lossky was immersed in all aspects of the life and culture of his adopted homeland. Interaction with the famous French Byzantinist Charles Diehl (d.1944) resulted in Lossky’s interest in the theological legacy of St. Gregory Palamas (Diehl was disapproving of it). Thus, Lossky became a pioneer of Palamite studies in Orthodox theology. Lossky’s theological method was based on deep understanding of the text and analysis of patristic insights. During all church divisions in the Russian diaspora Lossky remained loyal to Moscow Patriarchate. To some extent his theological expertise was used in the inter-jurisdictional conflicts. Metropolitan Sergii (Stragorodskii) in dealing with the problematic “theological impressionism” of Archpriest Sergei Bulgakov (d.1944), relied on Lossky’s critical analysis. Lossky’s deep knowledge of Western theological thought of the first millennium helped him to explain negative consequences of introducing the Filioque (teaching that Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son) in trinitarian theology. Lossky became one of founders of the Institute of St. Dyonisios in Paris, a Moscow Patriarchate alternative to St. Serge Theological Institute. His name is also connected with the foundation of the first Western rite parish in Paris. Whereas in the other quarters of the ecclesiastical diaspora, especially within the Russian Church Abroad, their strong feeling of discontentment with the people in the USSR and patronizing attitudes toward them, Lossky’s tie with the church people there worked to mutual benefit to those inside and outside of Iron Curtain. Perhaps this is something we can borrow from him nowadays.
Source: S.V.Nikitina, Lossky, Pravoslavnaia Entsiklopedia.
Relevant Resource: Alexis Klimoff, “On the Sophiological Controversy of the 1930s,” Historical Studies of the Russian Church Abroad. | 
