Russian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Harbin
The Russian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Harbin is a dormant jurisdiction of the Russian Byzantine Catholic Church based in Harbin, China. Its cathedral was the Cathedral of St. Vladimir in Harbin, which is now in ruins. The exarchate also had churches in Shanghai and Beijing.
From the 1890s to the 1930s, Harbin drew Russian migrants, including railway workers and later white émigrés fleeing upheaval in Russia. The community included Russian Orthodox, Polish Latin Catholics, and Jewish groups. In 1926, Ivan Koronin’s parish converted from Orthodox to Catholic; after his death, about 40 people remained and formed the nucleus of an Eastern Catholic community.
On 20 May 1928, the Pontifical Commission for Russia established an ordinariate at Harbin for Russians of the Byzantine Rite and for all Catholics of Oriental Rites in China. It later became an apostolic exarchate. The exarchate was an exempt jurisdiction, directly subject to the Holy See (through the Congregation for the Oriental Churches). The exarch would come from the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, a Polish Latin Catholic order. In 1939, Andrzej Cikoto obtained Pope Pius XII’s consent for a Byzantine Rite branch of the Marian Fathers.
During the Chinese Communist Revolution, Russian Catholic clergy were arrested and deported to the Soviet Union. Since 1952 there has been no ordinary for Harbin, and the exarchate is effectively discontinued until further papal notice.
Russian Catholic communities in Melbourne, New York, Buenos Aires, and São Paulo carry Harbin heritage.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 06:09 (CET).