Vladimir Pecherin
Father Vladimir Sergeyvich Pecherin (Владимир Сергеевич Печерин) (1807–1885), was a controversial Russian political figure both in 19th-century Ireland and in Russia. A rebellious writer and Romantic lyricist poet that rejected despotism, his writings in his autobiographical notes and in his letters to other Russians provide a historical context to the evolution of Russian intellectual thought of the 1860s and 1870s. Pecherin's writings present the Russian Zeitgeist of the period artistically. Early years. Pecherin was born in the town of Velyka Dymerka in the Russian Empire (modern-day Ukraine) on 27 June 1807. He was raised in  the Russian Orthodox Church. Pecherin was attracted to the moral and religious ideology of Utopian Socialism. He entered Moscow University, as a student of classical languages, and he wrote manuscripts of poetry that circulated among his university companions. Pecherin was sent abroad for two years on a government scholarship to complete his education. In 1835, after returning to Moscow University from his travels, even before completing his degree, Pecherin was appointed as Professor of Greek Language and antiquities. After one term, in 1836, he left Russia to pursue radical politics in Europe. In a letter explaining to the authorities, Pecherin  stated that he would never return to a country among whose inhabitants it was impossible to find the imprint of their Creator. He is considered by some to have been the first Russian political emigrant. Self-exile. In 1840, after four years of exploring Europe, at times reduced to complete poverty, Pecherin unexpectedly converted to Catholicism and became a monk in the Redemptorist Order. The Order's mission was to work among the poor. He lived in a monastery in Clapham, near London and later in Ireland. In 1855, he was the last person to be tried for blasphemy in  Ireland. The trial, which was a major public event, took place at Kingston (now Dún Laoghaire) for allegedly burning Protestant Bibles with many works of immoral literature on Guy Fawkes Day. Despite many witnesses, the case was not proven and Fr. Pecherin's acquittal was raucously celebrated by his followers. Later life. In 1862, after 20 years of service as a missionary, Pecherin left the Redemptorists. He spent the last 23 years of his life serving as a chaplain at the Mater Hospital in Dublin, Ireland. During his time in Dublin, he wrote his memoirs, "Apologia pro vita mea" (Notes  from Beyond the Tomb). His memoirs were so controversial, critical of both the Russian government and the Catholic Church of the time, that they were not published in Russia until a hundred years after his death. They contain an account of his experiences in Europe, particularly in Belgium, after leaving Russia, and his fight against poverty. Pecherin died in Dublin on 29 April 1885.