1772 without Papal authority, but it was approved by Pope Pius VI in 1783. Minsk-Mohilev was established later established in 1798. When the Jesuit order was suppressed in the second half of the 18th century, the papal brief promulgating the suppression was not promulgated in Russia. Catherine the Great valued the contribution of the Jesuits to learning, and invited them to Russia, where they remained active until they were expelled in 1820 at the instigation of Russian Orthodox hierarchs. 20th century Before 1917, there were two dioceses in Russia: in Mogilev with its episcopal see in St. Petersburg and Tiraspol with its episcopal see in Saratov. 150 Catholic parishes were present with more than 250 priests to serve around half a million Catholic believers in Russia. During the 69 years of the Soviet time (1922-1991) many Catholic faithful lost their lives, were persecuted or imprisoned for their faith. Besides being Christian, the Catholics had an additional stigma by belonging to a church that, unlike the Eastern Orthodox Christians, has not been considered indigenously Russian. By the end of the 1930s, there were only two functioning Catholic churches in the USSR, staffed by and catering largely to French expatriates: the Church of St. Louis in Moscow and the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in St. Petersburg. In the aftermath of post-Civil-War famine of 1921, the Catholic Church sent a Papal Famine Relief Mission to Russia, headed by the American Jesuit Edmund A. Walsh. The mission also succeeded in securing for the Vatican the Holy Relics of St. Andrew Bobola, which were then transported to Rome by the Mission's Assistant Director, Louis J. Gallagher. 21st century , there are approximately 140,000 Catholics in Russia - about 0.1% of the total population. After the Soviet Union collapsed, there were an estimated 500,000 Catholics in the country, but most have since died or emigrated to their ethnic homelands in Europe, such as Germany, Belarus, or Ukraine. The members of European Catholic ethnic groups are mostly elderly and rapidly decreasing (see here), although they do still account for most of the senior clergy. At the same time, the numbers of ethnic Russian Catholics account for more of the younger faithful, especially as the children of mixed marriages between European Catholics and Russians are registered as ethnic Russians. There also has been a slight boost in Catholics via immigration of Armenians, some of whom are