Russia’s territiry is big and a as result of it its parishes extend for many kilometers and so the distances that priests have to travel are enormous. As a matter of fact, our parish is the only one in Ulianovsk Province. The borders of the parishes that surround us are precisely the borders of the neighboring provinces. The closest city to the north is Kazan city, 250 km; to the south, Sizran, 140, (it also belongs to our parish); to the East, Samara, 220 km; and to the west Penza, 400 km. Our parish is located in the center of the capital. The city has 700.000 inhabitants including around 400 Catholics. We still do not know the exact number of Catholics because every now and then we meet a new one. Of course we appeal to the mass media so that the people of the city might get to know us.
Our parish was founded 12 years ago but it never had a priest living permanently there neither was there a church or even a house and also the priests in the area seldom visited it.

  In 2004 the bishop asked us to live in the city and begin its organization. We even didn’t know at that time whether there were Catholics or not in town. Slowly but steadily, people started to show up and it happened that God blessed us with one of the most populated parishes in the diocese.