Career
The modern re-emergence of an Orthodox Western Rite begins in 1864 with the work of Overbeck, a former Catholic priest. Initially, Metropolitan Philaret was hesitant about Overbeck"s request, but did not rule out the idea entirely. Overbeck had also begun to convince others of the feasibility of a Western Orthodox Church and was ultimately able to submit a petition of 122 signatures (mostly Tractarians) to the Holy Synod in 1869 asking for the creation of a Western Rite.
A synodical commission was established to investigate the question, and Overbeck was invited to state his case before the commission in Saint St. Petersburg in 1870.
Overbeck"s idea received the approval of the commission and he was instructed to present a revised Western Liturgy for evaluation by the commission, which he did in December of that year which was subsequently approved. The next several years were spent with further developing the Western liturgies for administration of the other sacraments as well as the praying of the Divine Office.
By 1876, Overbeck began to make appeals to other Orthodox Churches for their recognition of his scheme. The Orthodox Catholic Review published its final issue in 1885 and Overbeck died in 1905 without seeing the implementation of the Western Orthodox Church.
Georges Florovsky summed up Overbeck"s experience in this way: "it was not just a fantastic dream.
The question raised by Overbeck was pertinent, even if his own answer to it was confusedly conceived. And probably the vision of Overbeck was greater than his personal interpretation.".
