SUMMARY:

This article examines the construction of an Orthodox community on the isle of Vormsi on the western coast of the Russian Empire’s Estland Province through the approaches of national indifference and confessional ambiguity. Vormsi, a locale overwhelmingly populated by mobile Swedish-speakers, posed particular challenges to the Orthodox clergy both during and after conversion in 1886, especially in terms of language and the evangelical legacy left by a charismatic Swedish preacher. The article analyzes the efforts by a mixed team of Russo-Estonian clergy to claim Vormsi as a space of Orthodoxy and to connect it to the Russian Empire.