July 12– day of remembrance of Metropolitan Gury (Egorov, † 1965), the first abbot of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra upon the opening of the monastery in 1946.
Family, education, war
Metropolitan Gury (in the world - Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Egorov) was born on July 1, 1906 in the village of Opechensky Posad, Novgorod province, into a bourgeois family - his father was the owner of an artel of St. Petersburg dray drivers. The family had five children, including Nikolai (future professor of theoretical mechanics at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology), Leonid (future Archimandrite Leo), Vera, Vasily. The parents died early, the children were raised by their uncle, who was the head of the Alexander Nevsky market.
In 1911 he graduated from the St. Petersburg Petrovsky Commercial School with the title of Candidate of Commercial Sciences. Vyacheslav refused lucrative career offers, wanting to become a monk. I went to Optina Pustyn to see the elder Hieroschemamonk Anatoly (Potapov; †1922), and then visited the famous Archpriest Yegor Kossov. These meetings confirmed his desire to become a monk and priest.
Hieromonk Gury (Egorov), one of the creators
Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood. Photo 1922
In 1912 he entered the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. The following year, during the summer holidays, he made a trip to Japan, where St. Nicholas (Kasatkin; †1912; commemorated February 3) had previously labored as a missionary, to the Japanese Bishop Sergius (Tikhomirov) and accepted an offer to become a missionary in the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission upon completion of his studies. in Japan. In 1914-1915, having interrupted his studies, he served at the front as a brother of mercy, fell ill with pulmonary tuberculosis and, after treatment, returned to the academy.
On December 4, 1915, the rector of the Petrograd Theological Academy, Bishop Anastasy (Alexandrov) of Yamburg, tonsured him into monasticism with the name Gury in honor of St. Gury, Archbishop of Kazan; on December 5, he was ordained a deacon, and on December 6, a hieromonk. In 1917 he graduated from the Petrograd Theological Academy with a candidate's degree in theology for the essay “Japanese missionary Archimandrite Anatoly (Tihai).” This was the last graduation from the Petrograd Academy before its closure.
Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood
On July 7, 1917, Hieromonk Gury was accepted into the brethren of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Soon he was appointed acting treasurer, and later treasurer of the Lavra. During these years he met Archimandrite Nikolai (Yarushevich). As a priest, Father Gury was entrusted with priestly services (on Sundays and holidays) in a convent located in Luga district, near the station. Plyussa, relatively close to Petrograd. By the time of Father Guria’s dedication, his brother Leonid, who had also become a monk with the name Leo, had already been ordained. The two fathers - Lev and Gury - were joined by Hieromonk Innokenty (Tikhonov), who received the rank of bishop. The Egorov brothers (as the people soon began to call fathers Lev and Gury) developed together with Fr. Innocent intensive missionary activity.
They “went to the people,” that is, they turned mainly to workers and the poorest, most declassed and alcohol-abusing people. The place of their activity was the current Ligovsky Avenue. There the brothers rented a room and held talks for the people in it - they told certain events from the Sacred History, accompanied by a display of transparencies, and held conversations about life, mainly speaking out against alcoholism. Father Innocent loved to explain the divine service. Naturally, activists joined this house and began to call themselves the “Brotherhood of St. Alexander Nevsky,” which, however, had no organizational forms. Anyone close to the activities of the “Egorov brothers” could call themselves a member of this brotherhood.
In addition, from January 22, 1920, Father Gury served as rector of the Sorrowful Gate Church in the Lavra. He taught the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament at the Theological and Pastoral School (1920-1922), located on the territory of the monastery. In the beginning May 1920 participated as a fellow chairman in the 1st all-fraternal conference, which united the activities of the Orthodox brotherhoods of Petrograd within the framework of the all-fraternal union. He was elected member and secretary of the council of the general fraternal union of the Petrograd diocese. Chairman of the organizational bureau of the 2nd all-fraternal conference (April-July 1921). In the spring of 1922, Metropolitan of Petrograd. Veniamin elevated him to the rank of archimandrite and awarded him a staff.
Father Gury resolutely opposed the schismatic actions of renovationism initiated by the state authorities. His firmness in canonical matters maintained the unity of his flock. On June 1, 1922, he was arrested in the case of Orthodox brotherhoods on charges of “counter-revolutionary agitation,” and on January 4, 1923, he was sentenced to three years of exile in Turkmenistan.
Upon his release, he went to Moscow, where on April 12, 1925 he took part in the funeral of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, and was the celebrant during the funeral service. Returning to Leningrad in 1925, Father Gury was appointed rector of the cinenia of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, located on the right bank of the Neva (1925–1926).
Archimandrite Gury (Egorov),
head of Petrogradsky
Theological and Pastoral School. Photo 1928
Also, since 1926, Archimandrite Gury became the head of the Theological and Pastoral School, teaching Church history there. For this pedagogical activity, on May 27, 1927, Father Gury was arrested by the OGPU along with a large group of students and teachers of the Theological-Pastoral School, led by Bishop Grigory (Lebedev) of Shlisselburg, accused of “contributing to the distribution and storage of lectures by [ont]r[revolutionary] character.” On November 19, 1927, he was released on his own recognizance. Although on November 10, 1928, the “case of the Theological-Pastoral School” was terminated “due to insufficient compromising material,” the school itself, closed since the arrest of the head, was liquidated.
On December 24, 1928, he was arrested again and sentenced on July 22, 1929 to imprisonment in a camp for 5 years. He served his time in the White Sea-Baltic camp (“BelBaltLag”) during the construction of the White Sea Canal, initially in Kemi, then in Medvezhyegorsk. Since 1930 - at the Kuzema station of the Murmansk railway. At first he was a lumberjack, then, as a person who knew accounting, he was transferred to an office, working as an accountant and cashier.
Life in Central Asia
After his release, Father Gury worked at the Biysk Museum of Local Lore, then lived in Central Asia, working there as an accountant. In 1937, in Tashkent, Saint Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky; †1961; commemorated May 29) treated Father Gury, who was ill with pneumonia. With the blessing of Metropolitan Arseny (Stadnitsky), Archimandrite Gury served the Liturgy at home. Gradually, a small community was created around him, which included, in particular, the future Metropolitan John (Wendland), whom Archimandrite Gury tonsured into monasticism. Since 1944 he served openly. In 1944, he became rector of the Intercession Cathedral of Samarkand and served as secretary of the diocesan administration.
Viceroy of the Lavra
After the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR granted the petition to open the Assumption Cathedral in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra on September 25, 1945, Archimandrite Gury was appointed by His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy I as the vicar of the Lavra and the honorary rector of the Elias Church in Zagorsk (now Sergiev Posad).
Father Viceroy settled with the headman of the Elias Church, Ilya Vasilyevich Sarafanov. Having learned that in the Lavra on Sundays after Vespers they served cathedral prayer services with Akathist to St. Sergius, Father Gury began to serve prayer services with Akathist every Sunday evening in front of a large image of St. Sergius with a particle of his holy relics. The first choir of the Lavra gathered at these prayer services. On April 16, 1946, Archimandrite Gury received the keys to the Assumption Cathedral and began serving there on Good Friday (April 19). On the evening of April 20, the cathedral received the keys to the bell tower.
Archimandrite Gury, first governor
Laurels upon its opening.
Photo: April 1946
It is no coincidence that the work of reviving the great monastery was entrusted to such a person as Father Gury. He exuded inner peace and meekness. He treated the Holy Scriptures with great reverence, advising his loved ones to constantly read the Gospel and at the same time “get a notebook, bend it in half lengthwise and, while reading the Gospel, write down the questions that arise on one half, but do not immediately try to answer them. The answer,” he said , will come later from another place in the Gospel, and then it must be written down on the other half of the notebook, opposite the question.” It is noted that of the ascetic works he “loved most of all the “Ladder” of St. John Climacus, the works of St. Simeon the New Theologian, St. Ephraim the Syrian, St. John Chrysostom and “Lavsaik.” But he found especially necessary for us, modern Orthodox people, the teaching of St. Abba Dorotheos on obedience.
On the day of Holy Easter, Archimandrite Gury was awarded the right to wear 2 pectoral crosses “in commemoration of the joyful event of the resumption of divine services in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and the labors incurred by the vicar.” On Trinity Day, June 9, 1946, I met at the Lavra its holy archimandrite Patriarch Alexy I, who performed the first liturgy in the Assumption Cathedral. It is very symbolic that the first service in the Lavra took place on Easter 1946. The Lavra of St. Sergius resurrected again and opened its gates to pious pilgrims. At this time such a significant event occurred. Just before the Divine Service, it suddenly became clear that there was no antimension. But at this time, T. Pelikh, who later took the rank and served as a priest in the Elias Church for many years, came to the father governor, and handed him the old antimension, consecrated for the Dormition Cathedral of the Lavra. He received this antimension in his time from the last governor of the Lavra, now glorified among the new martyrs, Archimandrite Kronid (†1937).
In connection with the joyful event, the resumption of monastic life in the Lavra, His Holiness the Patriarch sent a telegram to Archimandrite Gury, which, along with the patriarchal message, was read during the Easter service: “Christ is Risen! With a feeling of special tenderness, we received the news of the restoration of divine services in the Holy Trinity St. Sergius Lavra. The joy of the great feast of the Resurrection of Christ is now enhanced for us by the joy of this bright Lavra celebration. May this Easter truly be an Easter of deliverance from sorrow and unceasing joy for all the multi-healing relics of St. Sergius flowing to the race. be the first to offer your prayers in the grace-filled Lavra. May the blessing of the Lord be extended over all of us through the prayers and intercession of St. Sergius, and may the Rev. not forget to visit his children according to his false promise. Truly Christ is Risen! (ZhMP. 1946. No. 5. P. 10).
By the time of its discovery, most of the Lavra was occupied by civilians who lived in it. Years of impoverishment left their mark on the Lavra. Temples, towers, monastery walls, buildings, buildings, chapels - everything is in a dilapidated state. Poverty, as it once was originally, was in everything. Gradually, the brethren gathered around Father Gury in the revived Lavra. The monks initially lived in private apartments, then in rooms under the Refectory Church. Very soon, and without any announcements, Orthodox people learned about the opening of the Lavra, and pilgrims flocked to the Reverend and supported the monastery with their participation. The revival of the holy monastery was perceived as a miracle, a special impulse was felt. Among the first monks were the venerable archimandrites Veniamin (Milov), the future inspector of the Moscow Theological Academy, and then the bishop of Saratov (†1954), Mauritius (Tomin; †1953), Father Vladimir (Kobets), the future abbot of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery and also bishop ( †1960), tonsure of the pre-revolutionary Lavra, Father Dorimedont (Chemodanov; †1950).
The then young priest John Krestyankin was a sacristan. The hierodeacons were Father Seraphim and Father Porfiry, the future cleric of the Epiphany Cathedral, Schema-Archimandrite Seraphim. The cell attendants of the father of the governor were A. Kharkharov and I. Maltsev. Most of these people who came to the Lavra at the beginning of its revival did not have the opportunity to live there permanently; some were then transferred to other places of service, others, like Father Benjamin, were later arrested. All of them, together with Father Gury, were the foundation on which the reviving house of St. Sergius was built, they were the leaven that leavens all the dough.
It took about two years to repair the main churches of the Lavra before the relics of the Saint took their original place in the Trinity Cathedral. But initially they were in the Assumption Cathedral, and then in the Refectory Church, re-sanctifying with their presence the previously desecrated shrines. The number of lamps over the shrine of the Saint’s relics gradually increased, and they were also donated by donors. And still, as in the time of V. O. Klyuchevsky, people who came to the newly opened Lavra did not feel time and distance, since for them Abba Sergius was a dear and close comforter and prayer book.
During the short amount of time that Father Gury was in the post of abbot of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, he actively restored monastic traditions according to the behests of the founder of the monastery, St. Sergius, believing that the monastery would be reborn again in its former glory and greatness. During this period, Father Gury wrote the work “Patriarch Sergius as a Theologian,” later published in the book “Patriarch Sergius and His Spiritual Heritage” (M., 1947).
Bishop
On August 22, 1946, in the meeting room of the Holy Synod, Archimandrite Guria was named Bishop of Tashkent and Central Asia. The naming ceremony was performed by: Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy I, Metropolitan of Krutitsky Nikolai (Yarushevich) and Bishop of Mozhaisk Macarius (Daev).
Metropolitan Gury of Leningrad,
permanent member of the Holy Synod
On August 25, 1946, he was consecrated Bishop of Tashkent and Central Asia in the Moscow Cathedral of the Epiphany. The consecration was performed by Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy I, Metropolitan of Leningrad Gregory (Chukov), Bishop of Kaluga and Borovsk Onisifor (Ponomarev) and Bishop of Uzhgorod and Mukachevo Nestor (Sidoruk).
In conditions when the majority of the clergy of the Central Asian diocese came from a renovationist environment, for many years Bishop Gury had to overcome the renovationist past of his diocese; he was forced to resort to prohibitions from priests who continued, as in the times of renovationism, to live in an immoral manner. The diocese regularly held meetings of rectors of churches and houses of worship. The instructions drawn up by Bishop Gury on the division of responsibilities between the headman, his assistant, the treasurer and members of the audit commission received the approval of the Holy Synod and were recommended for use by all bishops.
During the bishop's service, the number of Orthodox parishes in the Central Asian diocese increased from 39 to 66; Candle making, sewing and icon painting workshops were organized, and a bishop's house was purchased. It was possible to build several churches and houses of worship, including the wooden temple of Archangel Michael in Krasnovodsk (now Turkmenbashi) in 1947. A special event was the construction of the stone Resurrection Cathedral in the city of Frunze (now Bishkek) in 1952. With the blessing of the ruling bishop, the Sergius Church of Fergana was decorated with a 3-tier iconostasis - a smaller copy of the iconostasis of the Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. The diocesan administration published typewritten editions of “Information on the Central Asian Diocese”, which were sent to parishes. Unfortunately, in 1949 the authorities banned this publication and did not allow the opening of theological and pastoral courses in the diocese, for which Bishop Gury selected teaching staff.
The Bishop participated in the Meeting of heads and representatives of Orthodox churches in connection with the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the autocephaly of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1948, where he made a co-report on the topic “The attitude of the Orthodox Church to the Anglican hierarchy.” He was an opponent of ecumenism and Western influence on the Russian Church.
Tomb of Metropolitan Guria
During the period of his bishopric, many famous priests served in the diocese - John (Wendland), the future Bishop Stefan (Nikitin), Archpriest (then Archimandrite) Boris (Kholchev), and others. The number of churches during his management of the diocese increased from 16 to 66.
On February 25, 1952, Bishop Gury was elevated to the rank of archbishop. The following year, on January 26, he was appointed Archbishop of Saratov and Stalingrad with temporary entrustment of the administration of the Astrakhan diocese. On February 8, 1954, by the decision of the Holy Synod in connection with the formation of the Balashov region, the episcopal title was changed to “Bishop of Saratov and Balashov.” One of the wise measures to bring the believing people and the diocesan theological school closer together was the organization by Bishop Gury of a solemn service in the Trinity Cathedral of Saratov with the involvement of teachers and students of the Saratov Seminary.
Since May 31, 1954 - Archbishop of Chernigov and Nizhyn.
Since October 19, 1955 - Archbishop of Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye.
Since May 21, 1959 - Metropolitan of Minsk and Belarus. At this time, local authorities in Belarus launched a broad campaign “to combat religious prejudices.” The admission of students to the Minsk Theological Seminary, which in 1960 found itself without first-year students, was systematically disrupted. In the same year, churches were closed throughout the republic, historically considered ascribed and accounting for almost 1/3 of the operating churches. Most of the closed churches were immediately demolished. Region Commissioners of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church removed priests from registration without even informing the ruling bishop about this. Newspapers constantly published slanderous materials about the clergy. Attempts by Metropolitan Guria to appeal to the commissioners did not yield results. He supported parishes and monasteries as best he could, personally giving subsidies and benefits to church elders and abbots. In particular, the abbess of the Euphrosyne Convent of Polotsk received a large sum of money from Bishop Guria. On June 30, 1960, the Grodno convent in honor of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was closed. All the sisters of the monastery were placed on the territory of the Zhirovitsky monastery in honor of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The grave of Metropolitan Guria on the city
All Saints Cemetery in Simferopol
Since September 19, 1960 - Metropolitan of Leningrad and Ladoga. In the course of a further attack on the Church, from the beginning of June 1961, changes were introduced in the Leningrad diocese in the economic and administrative system. parish administration–
even before the forced consent of the Church to the reform of the parish administration of the Russian Orthodox Church. In June-July, the executive bodies carried out a “reduction in the staff of the clergy” of Leningrad. According to the lists outlined by the authorized representative of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church for Leningrad and the Leningrad Region. G.S. Zharinov, it was necessary to cut almost 40% of the clergy, but due to protests from believers, half as many were cut. Bishop Gury did not issue a single decree on dismissal, informing the manager of the affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archbishop of Tula (later His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus') Pimen (Izvekov), that “the clergy who were left without places were removed not by me, but by the executive bodies of the churches” (Archive of S. -Petersburg diocese. F. 1. Op. 1. D. 26. L. 57).
In July 1961, Metropolitan Guria and the diocesan administration were evicted from the Spiritual building of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra to the former rector's apartment in the building of the Leningrad DA. The number of employees of the diocesan administration was reduced by 70%. G. participated in the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church on July 18, 1961, at which he spoke in the debate on the issue of increasing the number of permanent members of the Synod by including in it ex officio the Administrator of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Chairman of the DECR.
During this period, he was already seriously ill and could not resist the anti-church campaign of the authorities initiated by N.S. Khrushchev. He asked to be transferred to a calmer diocese, refusing - for the only time in Russian church history - the position of a permanent member of the Holy Synod in the department.
Since November 14, 1961 - Metropolitan of Simferopol and Crimea. At the same time he ruled the Dnepropetrovsk diocese. Despite his illness, he often performed divine services. He spent the last days of his life in a rented house on the eastern coast of Crimea.
Archbishop Gury died suddenly on July 12, 1965 in his apartment, having returned on the day of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul after celebrating the Liturgy. The rite of the bishop's funeral was led by Metropolitan John (Kukhtin). Vladyka was buried on July 15 at the city All Saints Cemetery of Simferopol next to the grave of Archbishop Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky).
But in the history of the Lavra, he will remain the first governor on whose shoulders fell the heavy, responsible, but at the same time joyful burden of reviving the monastery of St. Sergius, abbot of Radonezh.
Awards:Order of Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, 1st degree (1963).
Literature
· Galkin A.K. GURY Egorov Vyacheslav Mikhailovich // Orthodox Encyclopedia. Volume XIII. – M.: TsNTs Orthodox Encyclopedia, 2006. P. 473-475. URL: http://www.pravenc.ru/text/168372.html
· Opening of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra // ZhMP. 1946. No. 5. P. 10; Chronicle // Ibid. No. 9. P. 18.
· Medvedsky A., prot. Meeting of the archpastor // ZhMP. 1960. No. 10. P. 8; Permanent member of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, His Eminence. Gury, Met. Leningrad and Ladoga // Ibid. No. 12. pp. 17-19.
· Acts of the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church // ZhMP. 1961. No. 8. P. 8.
· Severin G., diac. Metropolitan Simferopol and Crimean Gury (obituary) // ZhMP. 1965. No. 9. P. 17-20.
· John (Wendland), Metropolitan. In memory of a friend and teacher // ZhMP. 1965. pp. 20-21; aka. Metropolitan Gury (Egorov) // Vestn. RHD. 1998. No. 179. P. 182-253; aka. Metropolitan Gury (Egorov): East. essays. - Yaroslavl, 1999.
· Boskin S., protodiac. Easter 1946: Opening of the Lavra of St. Sergius // Trinity Word. – Serg. P., 1990. No. 4. P. 16-30
· Antonov V.V. Parish Orthodox Brotherhood in Petrograd: 1920s // The Past. – M.-SPb., 1993. Issue. 15. pp. 424-445.
· Antonov V.V. Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood and secret monastic communities in Petrograd // St. Petersburg EV, 2000. Vol. 23. pp. 103-112.
· Shkarovsky M. V. Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood: 1918-1932. - St. Petersburg, 2003
· Makariy (Veretennikov), archimandrite. Archim. Gury - the first governor of the revived Trinity-Sergius Lavra // He. Holy Rus': hagiography, history, hierarchy. – M., 2005. P. 323-328.
· Litvinko M.V.Church-ist. the significance of the archpastoral activity of Metropolitan. Guria (Egorova): 1959-1965: Dipl. work / SPbDS.– St. Petersburg, 2006. RKP.
July 12, 2019
The Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Lavra celebrates its 300th anniversary this year. This monastery showed many examples of spiritual asceticism. The closest to us in time and, at the same time, one of the most significant manifestations of the spiritual life of the Lavra was the activity of the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood in 1918-1932.
Without exaggeration, it can be argued that the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood became a unique phenomenon in the history of not only the Lavra, the St. Petersburg diocese, but also the Russian Orthodox Church as a whole, especially in the first post-revolutionary decades. Being under the “sword of Damocles” of repression during all the years of its existence, it showed amazing activity and variety of types of work. It should be especially noted that on May 7, 2003, three members of the brotherhood were canonized: the martyr Archimandrite Lev (Egorov), the martyrs Ekaterina Arskaya and Princess Kira Obolenskaya.
The history of the activities of the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood indicates that the brotherhood is one of the most optimal organizational forms of external activity of believers in conditions of godless persecution. Here, the experience of countering heterodox pressure gained in Ukraine in the 16th-17th centuries was rethought and revived under much harsher conditions. When unprecedented persecution fell upon the Orthodox Church, brotherhoods again became one of the most effective forms of its defense. The traditions of the past have been revived. To unite clergy and laity, associations of people devoted to the cause of Christ began to emerge in Petrograd, and then in other cities of Russia. Brotherhoods were now created in accordance with the decision of the All-Russian Local Council of 1917-1918; in the Petrograd diocese this process was actively led by the Holy Martyr Metropolitan Veniamin (Kazan). In the northern capital, the main one immediately became the brotherhood formed at the Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Lavra. His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon blessed his work in a special letter dated September 19, 1918. And for fourteen years, the brotherhood represented, in a certain sense, the core of the life of the Petrograd diocese, playing a prominent role in all the most important events, in particular, actively fighting the Renovationist schism and opposing the Josephite division.
The Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood was formed in January 1918 at the Lavra from laymen - both men and women - under the leadership of monks, and at first one of its main tasks was to protect the monastery from the attacks of atheists. Then - in 1919-1921 - it played a central role in the creation and activities of the union of Orthodox brotherhoods of the Petrograd diocese. It was on him that all other similar associations of believers were oriented. In these and subsequent years, the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood tirelessly sought to attract representatives of various layers of the intelligentsia into the church environment, to bring them closer to learned monasticism, and in this it achieved noticeable success. The brothers and sisters maintained constant close contact with the new forms of spiritual education that arose after the revolution - the Theological Institute, various courses. But this connection was especially strong with the Theological and Pastoral School, which replaced the closed Theological Seminary in the fall of 1918, where members of the brotherhood made up a significant part of the students and teachers, including one of the main founders and leaders of the brotherhood, Hieromartyr Archimandrite Leo (in the world Leonid Mikhailovich Egorov ).
In a certain sense, the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood was a link in a number of semi-legal religious and philosophical circles and societies that existed in the northern capital in the 1920s. In the early 1920s, such societies, although not officially registered, still operated quite openly. The Brotherhood included a special Orthodox religious and philosophical circle.
An important component of the brotherhood’s activities was the creation of semi-legal monastic communities in the world, as well as the monastic tonsure of young people (including secret ones) in order to preserve the institution of monasticism in the conditions of the massive closure of previously existing monasteries. The first two communities of sisters were created in the fall of 1922, then, in the late 1920s and early 1930s, several more small communities arose. Secret tonsures were especially active during this period, which were mainly performed by Fr. Lion.
The Fraternal Fathers considered one of their main tasks to be the training of young, educated clergy - in conditions of limitation, and in the long term, complete elimination of spiritual education, this would make it possible to preserve cadres of clergy capable of carrying out the revival of the Church in the future. All the activities of the brotherhood greatly helped to unite believers of all ages and classes in the face of violent anti-church persecution; it was an amazingly friendly community of people who worked for the sake of Christ and in the name of love for their neighbors, where the very word “brother” was understood in its truly evangelical sense.
We named one of the founders of the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood - it was the hieromonk of the Lavra, Fr. Lev (Egorov). Together with him, the brotherhood was led by his brother Gury, as well as Fr. Innokenty (Tikhonov). These young monks, back in 1916, developed intensive missionary activity among the poor population of Petrograd. Continuing it after the October Revolution, Hieromonk Lev, together with Fathers Gury and Innocent, on March 8, 1918, when the brotherhood was already operating, created a youth circle at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Of course, now the missionary activity of the three young monks took on slightly different forms than before the revolution. They did not “go among the people,” but the people came to them. In particular, the circle included many students of the Diocesan Women's School. Metropolitan John (Wendland) wrote about this period in 1918 as follows: “The fame of the ‘Egorov brothers’ spread throughout the city.” One day, Father Gury introduced himself to Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky, whom he did not know before. When he named his last name, the Metropolitan exclaimed: “Ah, brothers.” Egorovs, how can we not know you, all of Russia knows the Egorov brothers!” In those years, Father Gury met His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon: several times he traveled to the Patriarch in Moscow on instructions from Metropolitan Veniamin of Petrograd. There was such a unique case when Patriarch Tikhon [in May-June 1918 - Author] came to Petrograd. Metropolitan Benjamin introduced him to Fathers Innocent, Gury and Leo. The Patriarch said: “Well, who doesn’t know them, Innocent, Guria and Lev. They need to be put forward"" (1).
In January 1919, Vladyka Veniamin provided members of the circle with the Assumption of the Cross Church located at his chambers. And on February 1, at this temple, the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood, which had existed since 1918, was finally organized. The care of its members has become the most important part of Fr. Leo. He served in the Lavra Cross Church, which was the center of fraternal life (2).
Later, during interrogation on June 27, 1922, Fr. Leo pointed out that the main goals of the brotherhood were: 1. “a purely church revival of the church liturgical charter,” which was not properly observed everywhere; 2. “the fight against commerce in the church” (excluding the sale of candles and prosphora, free services); 3. “reform of church singing” - rejection of secular performance in parties and “singing according to everyday life”, so that “the people can easily sing with us.” Members of the brotherhood selflessly performed all the duties of maintaining their temple - sextons, singers, candle bearers, readers, and so on (3).
At the beginning of 1920, a circle of St. John Chrysostom, whose meetings were held on Wednesdays. This circle was part of the “Commonwealth under the patronage of St. Basil the Great”, which dealt with theological problems, the chairman of which was the eldest of the Egorov brothers Nikolai (professor of mathematics), and the spiritual leader was Fr. Lion. By February 1921, several meetings of the commonwealth had taken place. The educational activities of the brotherhood consisted not only of organizing lectures and debates, but, mainly, of church work with children. And it was also headed by Hieromonk Lev. The brothers did everything possible so that after the prohibition of the study of the Law of God in schools among the people, the fire of faith did not go out. With the blessing of Metropolitan Benjamin, special crosses, banners, icons and vestments were introduced for children and teenagers. Children took part in divine services and religious processions. Lavra monks and laymen from the brotherhood led 69 children's circles in which the Law of God was studied. These classes took place mainly on Sundays in the premises of the Cross Metropolitan Church. Much attention was paid to the catechesis of children - they were taught church singing, the Church Slavonic language, a fast and a separate liturgy were held for them, at which the children sang, read and helped the priest.
The brotherhood actively responded to the famine that swept the country after the end of the Civil War. On March 11, 1922, the Lavra’s abbot, Archimandrite Nikolai (Yarushevich), addressed Metropolitan Veniamin with a report: “I ask for the filial blessing of Your Eminence to open a feeding station at the Lavra for the hungry at the expense of pilgrims of the Holy Spiritual and Cross churches and with the participation of representatives of both. Voluntary donations for this cause have already begun. If it pleases Your Eminence, Hieromonk Leo could stand at the head of this matter, as the head of the point.” The very next day - March 12 - the Bishop wrote a resolution on the report: “May the Lord bless the holy undertaking with good success” and appointed Fr. Leo (4). Concern for those arrested and convicted was expressed in material assistance to them and spiritual support, which was provided both during personal meetings with prisoners in prison and indirectly. During interrogation on June 27, 1922, Fr. Lev said that members of the brotherhood tried never to refuse help to those prisoners they knew.
In the first post-revolutionary years, in addition to Alexander Nevsky, several more Orthodox brotherhoods arose in Petrograd. It became necessary to coordinate their activities. And on May 5, 1920, in the Lavra, after a prayer service and a greeting from Metropolitan Benjamin, the first all-fraternal conference opened in the premises of the Cross Church, at which a joint decision was made to unite all existing city fraternities into a union “on the basis of religious, educational and charitable activities.” During the conference sessions, five sections worked, and one of them - on working with children - was headed by Fr. Lion. He was thus actually recognized as the leader of this direction of church activity in Petrograd. At the conference, an exemplary all-fraternal charter, written by Fathers Innocent, Gury and Lev, was adopted, and a council of the all-fraternal union was elected. As permanent members, it necessarily included the spiritual leaders of the brotherhoods, three of whom - hieromonks Innocent, Gury and Lev - practically handled all matters in the council itself, designed to “serve as the unifying center of all brotherhoods” and “resolve all sorts of issues of fraternal practice” (5) .
In the council of the all-fraternal union, Fr. Leo served until its liquidation in the spring of 1922, while the young hieromonk was actively involved in working not only with children and youth, but also in missionary teaching activities. From the autumn of 1918 to July 1922, he lectured on Russian literature at the Theological and Pastoral School. In April-July 1921, Fr. Lev was a member of the organizing bureau of the 2nd general fraternal conference of the Petrograd diocese, again acting as organizer of the children's section. In addition, he was instructed to compose a new fraternal prayer. Fr. actively participated. Lev and in the work of the conference held in early August 1921. And from August 18, 1921 until the summer of 1922, he was a member of the men’s monastic circle of the Petrograd diocese formed at the Feodorovsky Cathedral, which had as its goal “clarification of issues of monastic life and dissemination of the ideas of monasticism, especially among students.” By April 1, 1922, 13 reports were read at circle meetings, mainly on the history of monasticism, some of which were delivered by Fr. Leo (6).
The active pastoral activity of the young hieromonk was interrupted in June 1922 due to the start of a campaign to confiscate church valuables and the so-called renovationist schism organized by the highest bodies of the Communist Party and the GPU. After the arrest of Patriarch Tikhon and his forced resignation on May 12, 1922, from the leadership of the Orthodox Church, the Renovationists dominated the church life of the country for more than a year. In many areas, including Petrograd, they initially met determined resistance. On May 28, Metropolitan Veniamin (Kazansky), in his message to his flock, excommunicated the Petrograd renovationists from the Church. This was the main reason for his arrest. From June 10 to July 5, 1922, a trial of 86 clergy and laity took place in the city. They were accused of organizing resistance to the seizure of church valuables.
The artificiality of the process was obvious, but the authorities wanted to suppress any possible resistance in any way, regardless of the legality. Therefore, repression fell on many leaders and activists of the Petrograd brotherhoods, first of all, those closest to Metropolitan Alexander Nevsky. And a few hours after the arrest of the Bishop, in the early morning of June 1, GPU agents captured Bishop Innocent, Fr. Guria, three brothers, the abbot of the Lavra, Bishop Nikolai (Yarushevich), and on June 16 - Fr. Leo. The interrogations and searches of more than 40 Orthodox brotherhoods arrested in the case yielded little to the investigative authorities. Father Lev was interrogated twice - on June 27 and August 17. Like most of the other defendants, he did not see anything reprehensible or prohibited in the activities of the brotherhoods that took place completely openly and, in fact, legally, and therefore told a lot about it, but rejected any accusations of counter-revolutionism.
It was not possible to prove the opposition of members of the brotherhoods to the removal of valuables from churches. Almost all those arrested spoke during interrogation about their complete non-involvement in the resistance to this action. The investigation did not lead to the results desired by the authorities - they did not risk bringing those arrested to trial. As a result, on September 14, 1922, the Petrograd provincial branch of the GPU, at a closed meeting, decided to expel seven accused from the Petrograd province for two years “as politically unreliable,” including Fr. Guria, Bishop Innocent - to Arkhangelsk province, and Fr. Lev - to the Orenburg province. The case against the other 26 people was dropped (7).
Despite the repressions, the activities of the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood did not stop, and in 1925 they began to revive again. One after another, all three founders of the brotherhood returned from exile. Fr. was the first to be released at the end of 1924 and came to Leningrad. Lion.
The years 1926-1928 marked a new, relatively favorable period in the existence of the brotherhood. Of course, his life and activities officially remained illegal, but at the same time they were not directly prosecuted. Despite the arrest and exile of Bishop Innocent, the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood was still headed by three leaders who were in close spiritual communication and unity - Fathers Gury and Lev (Egorov) and Fr. Varlaam (Sacerdote). In October 1926, Father Lev was appointed rector of one of the largest cathedrals in Leningrad - the Church of the Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God in memory of the 300th anniversary of the reign of the House of Romanov. Gradually, most of the members of the fraternity moved there, and in 1930 - two fraternal choirs. Father Lev was also elevated to the rank of archimandrite and from March 1926 began to fulfill the duties of dean, teacher of Russian literature and member of the pedagogical council of the Theological-Pastoral School.
In the spring of 1927, Fr. Lev was arrested a second time. At this time, about 70 people were studying at the school, and its popularity began to irritate the authorities. At the end of April, the head of the district church table wrote to the city leadership stating the need to close the Higher Theological Courses and the Theological-Pastoral School, since they were “training enemies of the Soviet regime.” At that time, the authorities did not dare to liquidate these educational institutions, but instructed the GPU to fabricate the “case of the Theological-Pastoral School.” Arrests related to it took place mainly in May-June 1927 and seriously affected the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood. On May 27, GPU agents arrested Archimandrites Gury and Lev; Archbishop Gabriel (Voevodin), Bishop Gregory (Lebedev), and several teachers and students were also jailed. But in the end, the “business of the Theological-Pastoral School” fell apart. On November 19, 1927, all those arrested were released on their own recognizance, and a year later, on November 10, 1928, the case was generally closed “due to insufficient compromising material” and the subscriptions taken were canceled (8). However, all educational institutions of the Moscow Patriarchate by this time in Leningrad (as well as throughout the country) were already closed.
From the secret correspondence of the OGPU stored in the investigative file, it is clear that those arrested in the “case of the Theological-Pastoral School” were released with the expectation that they would join the Josephite movement that was gaining strength. The Soviet leadership benefited from any new schisms and divisions in the Russian Orthodox Church as they weakened its unity. Therefore, at first, the authorities did not interfere with the emergence of a church movement in opposition to them, which received its name after its leader, Metropolitan Joseph (Petrovykh) of Leningrad. The Josephites did not recognize the declaration of the Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan, published in July 1927. Sergius (Stragorodsky) about loyalty to the Soviet government and refused to commemorate both this government and Metropolitan himself in churches. Sergius. Some of those released in November 1927 became active participants in the Josephite movement. But all the leaders of the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood unanimously remained faithful to Metropolitan. Sergius. Under their influence, almost all members of the brotherhood, with rare exceptions, did not support the Josephites. This position of the fraternal fathers influenced the situation in the diocese as a whole. They even corresponded with the leaders of the Josephites, trying to convince them that their position was wrong.
From the turn of 1928-1929, the situation changed significantly; the wave of mass persecution and repression against all movements of the Russian Orthodox Church began to grow rapidly. Churches at the Leningrad courtyards of the liquidated monasteries also began to close, although officially they had long been considered only parochial. Thus, in April 1930, the church of the Tvorozhkovsky Monastery was closed, which was a heavy blow for the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood. From this church, Archimandrite Varlaam (Sacerdote) and Archbishop. Gabriel (Voevodin) went to serve in the Feodorovsky Cathedral. Both fraternal choirs that had previously been at the Tvorozhkovsky courtyard also moved there. Hieromonk Seraphim (Sutorikhin) was appointed regent of the choir of the right choir; the rector of the cathedral, Fr. Lion. The choir of the left choir was regent by Vera Kiseleva, and the spiritual father of the singers was Archimandrite. Varlaam.
During interrogation on February 28, 1932, Fr. Varlaam described the last years of the brotherhood’s existence as follows: “After the arrest of Guriy Egorov and his subsequent deportation, the leadership of the remnants of the “brotherhood” fell on me. The total number of brothers and sisters by that time, i.e. by 1929, was no more than 50 people.. The activities of the “brotherhood” during this period consisted of organizing choral rehearsals and organizing a choir in the Fedorov Cathedral. In addition, assistance was provided to the expelled clergy by collecting money, things and sending parcels... All the activities of the “brotherhood” were known to Lev Egorov, who is the rector of the cathedral, and without his blessing nothing could be done in the temple. However, my instructions and Guria Egorov’s methods of educating believers differ from Lev’s in that our method with Guria is monastic, while Lev Egorov, without fundamentally objecting to monasticism, finds it possible for it to exist without leaving modern secular life, that is, without changing its secular appearance. Since 1929. “To this day, the activities of our “brotherhood” have basically remained unchanged” (9).
Brother A.S. Borisova, during interrogation, confirmed the existing difference in the leadership methods of Archimandrites Leo and Varlaam. According to her, Fr. Leo called on the members of the brotherhood to engage in broad social activities “aimed at introducing Christianity,” therefore he proposed increasing the level of secular education and “taught to combine cultural life with loyalty to Christianity”: “This explains the fact that the members of the brotherhood are the children of Fr. Leo, the majority are either intelligent people or students.” And o. Varlaam, according to Borisova, taught inner piety (that is, he did not call for secular and missionary work) and charitable activities (10).
Thus, the difference in the approaches of Fathers Leo and Varlaam lay primarily in the fact that the first of them considered it necessary, in external conditions that had changed for the worse, to prepare educated young people to take secret monastic vows, so that while living in a secular environment and working in civil institutions, fought for the Church and brought the word of God to the masses. The second leader of the brotherhood believed that it was still necessary to create semi-legal communities of sisters and brothers with a charter of internal life close to that of the monastery, and a gradual distancing of community members from Soviet reality and the secular environment in general (11).
In 1930-1932, Archimandrite Leo already cared for most of the brothers (at the reception he gave them white scarves). At this time he had more than 50 spiritual children. At the same time, the archimandrite considered it necessary to exercise a certain caution and prudence, realizing that the OGPU could at any moment approach the brotherhood and defeat it. That is why he actively contributed to the development of the institution of secret monasticism. Many arrested clergymen noted this later in their testimonies. Yes, Archbishop. Gabriel (Voevodin) said during interrogation: “The leaders considered secret monasticism to be one of the ways to strengthen the church, which, in their opinion, was supposed to raise persistent, intelligent and determined fighters for the faith. Accordingly, the circle of people grouped around Lev Egorov consists mainly of the intelligentsia and students” (12).
An important contribution to Fr. Lev was that he tirelessly sought to expand the ranks of the brotherhood, attracting educated youth to it. The young people who joined the brotherhood were in constant close communication, supporting each other in various situations. The “new kids” were entrusted to the “older” brothers. Material assistance was widely provided to students. The leadership of the theological education of young members of the brotherhood was carried out by Archimandrites Lev (Egorov), Varlaam (Sacerdote) and other fraternal fathers.
Despite its virtually illegal existence, the brotherhood continued social and charitable activities strictly prohibited by Soviet laws (helping the poor, prisoners, diocesan monasteries, teaching children the Law of God). The ranks of the brothers in the late 1920s - early 1930s were noticeably replenished with educated and active young people, and some of them - Hieromonk Seraphim (Sutorikhin), Hierodeacons Afanasy (Karasevich), Nektary (Panin) and others - took monastic vows.
The history of the brotherhood, full of tragedy and sacrificial service to the Almighty, ended in 1932. His fate was predetermined by an extensive campaign of mass arrests of clergy and, above all, monastics. On the night of February 17–18, the total number of those arrested was about 500 people, including more than 40 members of the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood. The investigation into all those arrested was divided into several separate investigative cases, with an average of 50 people in each. And only in relation to the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood did the OGPU authorities make an exception, fabricating a huge case for almost 100 people. It was divided into two parts, each of which received its own indictment. The first was compiled for 41 people arrested in Leningrad, and the second - for 51 people from the “branches” of the brotherhood in the periphery.
The investigation was carried out in an expedited manner. The “counter-revolutionary activities” of the brotherhood members seemed obvious to the investigators, without the need to obtain any serious evidence. Therefore, interrogations of those arrested were most often carried out only once or twice. The entire investigation lasted only about a month, and on March 15, 1932, an indictment was approved against the first group of monastics arrested in the region, and on March 19, against the main activists of the brotherhood, numbering 41 people. The essence of the accusation boiled down to the desire to present the brotherhood as a mythical counter-revolutionary organization, which supposedly, since its creation in 1918, had continuously waged an active struggle against the Soviet regime. There was no open trial. On March 22, 1932, the OGPU Collegium handed down sentences to the defendants - from deprivation of the right to reside in Leningrad and the Leningrad region for three years to ten years in the camps (13).
Fr. was also sentenced to the maximum sentence. Lion. Later, on September 20, 1937, he was shot in the camp. On May 8, 2003, Hieromartyr Leo and two other members of the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood - Ekaterina Arskaya and Kira Obolenskaya - were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church. Both of them had been members of the brotherhood since the early 1920s, and Ekaterina Ivanovna Arskaya was a member of the parish council of the Feodorovsky Cathedral and Fr. Leo. She was first arrested on February 18, 1932 in connection with the brotherhood case and sentenced to three years in a concentration camp. After her liberation, E. Arskaya settled in the city of Borovichi (now Novgorod region), since living in Leningrad was prohibited for her. By this time, Princess Kira Ivanovna Obolenskaya, who had been arrested and sentenced to five years in the camps back in 1930, was already living in Borovichi. Borovichi was then a place of exile for the clergy and lay church activists of Leningrad. All these persons, including E. Arskaya and K. Obolenskaya, together with the Borovichi clergy, were arrested in the fall of 1937 (about 60 people in total) and declared members of a counter-revolutionary organization. Those arrested were subjected to many hours of interrogation and torture, which only two women were able to withstand - Ekaterina Arskaya and Kira Obolenskaya. They denied their guilt to the end and refused to give false testimony. On December 17, 1937, both saints (along with 50 other people convicted in the Borovichi case) were shot.
Almost all the leaders of the brotherhood - Archbishop Innokenty (Tikhonov), Archimandrite Lev (Egorov), Archimandrite Varlaam (Sacerdote), Hieromonk Veniamin (Essen), Hieromonk Sergius (Lyapunov), except for the future Metropolitan Guria (Egorov) - died in 1936-1938. In fact, the first generation of young monks who took monastic vows before 1932 was completely destroyed, with the exception of Archimandrite Seraphim (Sutorikhin). Mostly those brothers who survived were still teenagers at the time of the defeat. It was from among them that four future prominent bishops emerged - Metropolitan John (Wendland), Metropolitan Leonid (Polyakov), Archbishop Nikon (Fomichev), Archbishop Mikhei (Kharkharov). To a certain extent, they can also include Archbishop Mikhail (Mudyugin), whose mother, Vera Nikolaevna, was an active member of the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood and was even arrested for this, as well as the now living Metropolitan of Volgograd and Kamyshin German - the spiritual son of Vladyka Gury (Egorov ), from childhood he grew up among members of the brotherhood who moved to Central Asia. Several young brothers later became priests. The seeds sown by the fraternal fathers bore fruitful fruit. If it were not for the terrible repressions of the 1930s, there would have been many more such “shoots.”
Even after the defeat of 1932, the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood did not disappear completely. When Archimandrite Guria (Egorov) settled in Central Asia after his liberation in 1933, a community of his spiritual children arose - former brothers and sisters, numbering about 20 people and lasting until the mid-1940s. Most of them later took monastic vows.
The members of the brotherhood who escaped repression and remained in Leningrad no longer gathered together and did not engage in organized charity, although individually they continued to help those arrested for their faith, as well as teach children the Law of God. They supported each other morally and financially, tried to remain faithful to fraternal rules and cherished the memory of their spiritual fathers who died in the camps. The last of the active members of the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood passed away: in 1993 in St. Petersburg - Lydia Aleksandrovna Meyer, the daughter of the famous philosopher who headed the secret religious and philosophical society "Resurrection" in the 1920s, and in 2005 - the Archbishop of Yaroslavl Micah (Kharkharov), who sacredly preserved the memory of brotherhood until the end of his days.
Despite the fact that more than 80 years have passed since the activities of the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood, the study of its history is not only of scientific importance. It is extremely important to perpetuate the memory of innocent victims for their faith - those who were shot, tortured, imprisoned in camps and prisons, sent into exile, expelled from their places of residence, from work, etc. In addition, now, during the period of a new flourishing of fraternal affairs in Russia, the experience of the work of previously existing Orthodox brotherhoods, including one of the most significant of them - Alexander Nevsky, can be taken into account and used.
This experience acquires particular significance in connection with the re-establishment of the brotherhood at the Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Lavra. An initiative group for its revival was formed on July 11-13, 2008 at the forum of compatriots “Russian Constantinople”. On November 18 of the same year, the Diocesan Council of the St. Petersburg Diocese approved the petition of the Lavra's abbot, Archimandrite Nazarius, to revive the activities of the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood, and on the same day, Metropolitan Vladimir of St. Petersburg and Ladoga blessed its re-establishment. Official registration took place in December 2009.
From the very beginning of its work, the revived brotherhood participated in preparations for the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Lavra and the 800th anniversary of the birth of the Holy Blessed Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky, and launched active spiritual, educational and social activities.
Notes:
(1) Metropolitan John (Wendland). Metropolitan Gury (Egorov). Memories. Yaroslavl, 1980-1981. Manuscript. P. 10.
(2) Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA). F. 815, op. 11-1918, no. 70, l. 16, op. 14, no. 98, l. 10-11, d. 163, l. 34-36.
(3) Archive of the Directorate of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region (AUFSB SPb LO), no. P-88399. T. 2, l. 50.
(4) RGIA, f. 815, op. 14, d. 114, l. 4. 5 AUFSB SPb LO, no. P-88399. T. 2, l. 517-529;
(5) Antonov V.V. Parish Orthodox brotherhoods in Petrograd (1920s) // The Past. Vol. 15. M.-SPb., 1993. P. 427.
(6) Antonov V.V. decree. op. P. 431.
(7) AUFSB SPb LO, no. P-88399. T. 1, l. 29. T. 2, l. 150, 154, 525-527.
(8) Ibid. D. P-24095, l. 89, 117-118, 214, 226.
(9) Ibid. D. P-68567. T. 2, l. 24-25.
(10) Ibid. T. 4, l. 340-341.
(11) Meshchersky N. A. In my old age I live again: the past passes before me... L., 1982. Manuscript. P. 23.
(12) AUFSB SPb LO, no. P-68567. T. 2, l. 8. T. 4, l. 281-282.
(13) Ibid. T. 2, l. 212, 440-455.
Magazine "Believing Mind" No. 2(2)
The published selected letters of Archbishop Micah of Yaroslavl and Rostov, written at the time when he was an archimandrite, give a vivid idea of the generation of people who were born after the revolution or shortly before it and who came to the Church during the difficult years of persecution. The letters were sent to us by their addressee, Galina Aleksandrovna Pylneva; below are her memories.
For some years we knew nothing about Father Micah, and we didn’t try to find out, because we didn’t know each other personally. Glinskaya Hermitage was closed in 1961. After that, I don’t remember exactly what year, we decided to go to Zhirovitsy. There they learned that Father Mikhey was the abbot of the monastery. How we were suddenly able to talk, remember the Glinsk Hermitage - now I’m surprised myself, since I don’t have qualities that “penetrate” everything, preferring to be everywhere in a corner, in the shadows. From that time on, they began to correspond occasionally, but then, when Father Micah, without explaining the reason (and there was one, but it was impossible to talk about it out loud: he treated Bishop Ermogen (Golubev) “too softly” and tried to help with everything he could) simply “relieved from their position.” They were released, but where to go? He had to look for a place for himself. He turned to John (Wendland), who had become metropolitan, and an acquaintance from St. Petersburg (where they were both introduced to Bishop Gury (Egorov)). Metropolitan John headed the Yaroslavl diocese and found a place for Father Micah in some village of his diocese. That's when we started corresponding.
Letters from those years have not survived. Later, Father Micah began to serve in Yaroslavl. Those letters that have survived were written by him before his episcopal consecration. He wrote while he was a bishop, but it became difficult for him to do so: his health was deteriorating, he had more and more worries, and less strength. I was simply ashamed to bring him unnecessary trouble... and gradually the correspondence stopped. I was sorry, but it’s difficult for a person... especially one of advanced age and in such a position.
There were more letters. I’m not sure that there will be others... But even those that exist still speak quite well about the person, of which there are fewer and fewer... at least among friends...
Archbishop of Yaroslavl and Rostov MIKHEI (Kharkharov; 03/6/1921, Petrograd - 10/22/2005, Yaroslavl) was born into the family of an artisan. From childhood he served in the Transfiguration Cathedral, and later in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. He served in the Signal Corps during the Great Patriotic War and was awarded medals. Since May 1946, he was a novice of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, whose vicar was Archimandrite Gury (Egorov), who became his spiritual father even before the war. In 1946, after the consecration of his spiritual father, he went with him to the Tashkent diocese, where he was tonsured a monk. Since 1949 - hieromonk. Graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary (1951). In 1953, together with Archbishop Gury, he moved to Saratov, where he was appointed keymaster of the Trinity Cathedral and treasurer of the Diocesan Administration. In September 1955, he followed Bishop Gury to serve in the Dnepropetrovsk diocese, then in Minsk. When the latter was appointed Metropolitan of Leningrad and Ladoga in 1960, Father Micah remained in Minsk. In October 1963, Abbot Micah was elevated to the rank of archimandrite and appointed abbot of the Zhirovitsky Holy Dormition Monastery. After refusing to report to the civil authorities the passport details of visitors to the retired Archbishop Hermogenes (Golubev), Father Micah was removed from the post of archimandrite and from 1969 he served in the Yaroslavl diocese, first in remote parishes, from 1982 - rector of the Feodorovsky Cathedral in Yaroslavl . On December 17, 1993, the consecration of Archimandrite Micah as Bishop of Yaroslavl took place. On February 25, 1995, he was elevated to the rank of archbishop. For his work for the good of the Church, Archbishop Micah was awarded six church orders, including the Order of Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, 1st degree, the highest award of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as the Order of Honor. He managed the diocese until 2002. For the last three years he lived in retirement in the Kazan Monastery in Yaroslavl, performing divine services until his death.
Letters
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I received your letter. Thank you for your attention and memory. I couldn’t answer it right away. I just returned from Leningrad. I went to the graves of my father and mother (they were buried in different places), and also to offer unction and communion to my sick and old cousin. I also visited my sisters. Both sisters received me with exceptional warmth and attention, very cordially. I spent only 4 days in Leningrad. I spent all my days traveling from one end of the city to the other. However, I was pleased with the trip, I was able to accomplish everything I had planned, and I didn’t particularly burden or burden anyone. As soon as I returned home, I immediately got down to business, on the very first day I had both requirements and services.<…>
I really knew Bishop Veniamin, and closely. True, our acquaintance did not last long. (I met him at the Lavra at its opening, when he was appointed there as one of the brethren immediately upon returning from distant places). He immediately impressed me as a strong personality and a very spiritually minded person. Then he met his spiritual children, who were close to him from the Intercession Monastery. I learned a lot from them. Nun Alexia and her friends also went to the Intercession Monastery. When I came to the Lavra from Tashkent, Bishop Benjamin always invited me to serve with him. Then I got to know him even better in Saratov, when he was appointed bishop in Saratov, where I also served in the cathedral at that time. Bishop Benjamin very often invited me to confession, treated me with exceptional warmth, and to this day I always remember him with the warmest feeling.
Outwardly, he was a stern ascetic. In the temple he was unapproachably strict, but those who knew him closely knew that he was a warm-hearted and gentle person. However, you probably read his diary? I received it from his close spiritual children. If not, write. Vladyka Benjamin left me the manuscripts of all his works, he was in a hurry to give them to me, and when I asked why he was in such a hurry, he answered that he was in a hurry because of his death. And indeed, as soon as the last manuscript was reprinted for him, and he sent printed copies to the Academy, a few days later he literally died.
I asked Bishop Anthony Melnikov, editor of Theological Works, to print something from the works of Bishop Veniamin, he refused, he found nothing in them suitable for publication.
Among others, his spiritual son and admirer was the late Archimandrite Theodoret of Lavra.
Vladika Benjamin was a gifted preacher. In Saratov, when he just uttered the words of address: “Dear, beloved, children given to me by God...”, spoken with such warmth and cordiality that from these initial words the parishioners began to cry. He always spoke with great feeling. He had a wonderful strong voice, a bass, which he used exceptionally well and skillfully. In his sermons, he always used both the intonation of his voice and touching examples from the lives of saints and others. To this day (for 19 years), his grave is always visited by Saratov residents and his memory is revered.
How are you and your aunt's health? I bow to her and invoke God’s blessing on her.
Sorry.
Ned[ostoyny] archim[andrite] Micah
P.S. I greet you on the holiday in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. I earnestly wish for the grace-filled help, intercession and protection of the Queen of Heaven.
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I sincerely thank you for your congratulations and holiday gifts for the Transfiguration [of the Lord] and for the Dormition of the Mother of God. Both holidays are very dear to me. Since childhood, I served at the Transfiguration Cathedral in Leningrad, began going to this particular church, and then much of my life was connected with the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God and with churches dedicated to this holiday.
The first temple opened in the Lavra was the Assumption Cathedral. On the day of the Dormition of the Mother of God, I was ordained hieromonk in the Assumption Cathedral in Tashkent, then served in several Assumption churches (Zhirovitsky Monastery, in Rybinsk), and your gift for this holiday was especially pleasant. Thank you.
I was going to write to you somehow about the opening of the Lavra (I think that you have long known everything about this event thirty-five years ago, and during our long acquaintance I have more than once told you about those special “coincidences of circumstances,” or better yet, simply - the miraculous circumstances associated with these events); That’s why I never mentioned them, so as not to repeat myself.
But you wrote that you know little about this. I am already an old man, the direct participants (Vladyka Gury, Archimandrite Hilarion and others) are no longer alive, others did not know the details, and Vladyka Gury did not reveal everything to everyone, and so, fearing that I would die and no one would know what, what we experienced at that moment and is known for certain, I now do not hide, but tell my friends and relatives. “It is fitting to keep a king’s secret, but to preach the works of God” - this seems to be the ancient wisdom.
In 1945, Patriarch Alexy from Tashkent summoned Archimandrite Gury, whom he knew from Leningrad, and 8 months before the opening of the Lavra, he appointed him governor of the Lavra, which was supposed to be opened. In the meantime, he was appointed honorary rector of the Elias Church in the city of Zagorsk. The local clergy did not receive him very warmly, but Father Gury began to serve an akathist to St. Sergius every Sunday morning and evening and always held a conversation. He served on all major holidays and often on minor holidays and invariably preached. Both the service itself and the sermon of Bishop Guria so endeared the people to him that believers came to his services from Moscow and other places.
Every Tuesday, Father Gury went to see the Patriarch. In 1946, on Holy Tuesday, he also appeared to the Patriarch, and His Holiness the Patriarch informed him that the next day they would give him the keys to the Dormition Lavra Cathedral and it was necessary that there should be a service on Easter.
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The Lavra was closed in 1920. Over the 26 years during which the cathedral was closed and not cleaned, you can imagine how much dust and dirt accumulated. We entered the cathedral. The glass in the drums was broken, there was snow and ice on the floor, and incredible cold. The cathedral was not heated; Easter was early that year. In the cathedral there was a carriage of Elizaveta Petrovna, on the porch there was a stuffed bear, etc. However, the museum workers soon removed all this unnecessary stuff.
Thanks to the fact that Father Gury was known and loved by all the parishioners of the Elias Church, they responded to his call and many people came: some with a bucket, some with rags. They began to wipe down the iconostasis, clean the chandeliers, and wash the floors.
The throne there was made of brick and stone, but it stood exposed. There is an urgent need to sew clothes for the throne and the altar. Olga Pavlovna (daughter of Father Pavel Florensky) took upon herself the labor of sewing vestments, lower and upper for the throne and altar (the brocade was given by the Patriarch, and the rest of the material was donated by believers).
The Shroud and vessels were given out from the museum's sacristy. The Patriarchate gave something, and some of the utensils from the Elias Church - vestments, censers, the altar Gospel, crosses, etc. The Patriarch appointed Archimandrite Hilarion temporarily to serve in aid of Father Guria (this elder was of high spiritual life. He was on Athos and during imyaslavsky troubles in 1913, he was exiled among many of the brethren to Russia, settled in Moscow, was appointed rector of the Passionate Monastery, and then served in the village of Vinogradovo, at the Dolgoprudnaya station, in the Church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God together with his brother, a celibate priest). Hegumen Daniel and hierodeacon Innocent (who had a loud and beautiful voice) were appointed as the second priest.
On Maundy Thursday in the evening they were able to serve Matins with the reading of the 12 Gospels; on Good Friday they carried out the Shroud during the day and in the evening - the rite of burial and all subsequent services.
But here are some wonderful details: to organize a ministry so quickly, a lot is needed, which for an ignorant person completely escapes attention. We need a choir, we need people [who can] be placed behind the candle box, we need the candles themselves, the prosphora, who bakes them, we need church cleaners, etc. It was truly a miracle that they were able to organize everything in one day!
There was an amateur choir in the Elias Church, led by Sergei Mikhailovich Boskin. Sergei Mikhailovich Boskin himself was a novice in Zosimova Hermitage in his youth, a very musical person who knew well the traditions and melodies of the Sergius Lavra. It was his amateur choir that became the first Lavra choir.
Shortly before the opening, a woman came to Vladyka Gury and brought a stationery folder and said that the last governor of the Lavra after its closure, Archimandrite Kronid, lived with her and gave her this folder for safekeeping with the words: “You will pass it on to the next governor.” When Father Gury opened it, it contained the antimension of the Assumption Cathedral.
During the war, the main cross from the Assumption Cathedral was blown away by a hurricane. Even before the opening of the Lavra, the museum restored the cross. And so, on the eve of the raising of the cross, the senior worker Barinov comes to Father Gury and says to Father Gury: “I am an old man, I remember with what triumph in the old days they put the cross at the top of the temple and performed a prayer service. You dedicate the icon to me and give it to me, and I will embed it in the cross.” Bishop Gury performed the rite of placing a cross in front of the small icon of St. Sergius, consecrated it and gave it to Barinov, who embedded it in the middle of the cross and thus the Assumption Cathedral was crowned with a consecrated cross.
At another time, a certain Konstantin Ivanovich came to Father Gury. He asked Father Gury this: “I,” he says, “was the last one to ring in the Lavra before it closed, so allow me to start ringing.” (Thus, the bell-ringer turned out to be.)
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About the relics of St. Sergius. In 1916, newspapers published a report about a fire in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, during which the relics of St. Sergius were burned. It was like this: until 1916 the relics were incorruptible. They were covered with cotton wool, which was distributed to believers as a blessing. It so happened that the grave hieromonk did not notice how a spark from a candle got into the reliquary, and, leaving for lunch, he closed the reliquary with a lid. This spark hit the cotton wool, and with little air access, the cotton wool slowly smoldered. When the grave hieromonk came from lunch and opened the lid, with a large influx of air, the cotton wool flared up and caught fire, the clothes burned and the flesh itself burned, only bones remained. It was providential.
In 1918, by decree of Lenin, a commission was organized to examine and remove the relics. Eyewitnesses said: when the commission arrived to examine and seize the relics of St. Sergius, the commission discovered a discrepancy between the bones of the skull and the skeleton. They belonged to different people. At rallies on the square in front of the Lavra, anti-religious agitators spoke and presented this fact as arguments for “deceiving the monks.” The relics of St. Sergius were taken to Moscow more than once and were exhibited in the Refectory Church, where a club was set up with songs and dances and other things that happen in clubs.
You probably remember that St. Sergius, who appeared to Elder Zacharias (Schiarchimandrite Zosima), told him to leave the Lavra, and when Father Zacharias asked: “What about the relics?”, St. Sergius told him that the relics would remain here, but grace will depart. In his memoirs, Sergei Iosifovich Fudel mentions that the Monk Sergius appeared to the elder Father Alexy Zosimovsky, who lived in Zagorsk during the last days of his life. And the Monk Sergius told him that the will of God is such that his relics remain in desecration. Just before the war, the relics of St. Sergius were again placed in the Trinity Cathedral in a shrine.
On Holy Saturday 1946, the relics of St. Sergius were transferred to the newly opened Lavra.
In Moscow there is a custom to bless Easter cakes and Easter on the eve of the Holy Resurrection of Christ. Usually, immediately after the Liturgy on Holy Saturday, their consecration begins and until Christ’s Matins there is a continuous flow.
It must be said that the news of the opening of the Lavra spread with lightning speed, and believers went to the Lavra from Moscow and from surrounding places in such numbers that every day the huge Assumption Cathedral on Strastnaya was more than full.
When it was reported that the relics could be taken and transferred to the Assumption Cathedral from the Trinity Cathedral, which remained under the jurisdiction of the museum, after the Liturgy the access of people with Easter cakes and Easter cakes to the Lavra was stopped. They were sent to the Elias Church. The police closed the gates and removed everyone from the territory of the Lavra. The people were wary and expected something unusual, and they hid in all directions. Father Gury and all the clergy with him, taking 10 workers, went to the Trinity Cathedral for the relics. The relics of St. Sergius rest in a silver shrine donated by Tsar Ivan the Terrible, and it weighs 60 pounds, which is why workers were needed. Father Gury sent Igor to take stoles for the clergy. Ivan Sergeevich and I remained in the cathedral. And then a procession appeared from the Trinity Cathedral: workers carrying shrines, deacons and priests walked. Ivan Sergeevich lit an armful of candles. And as soon as this procession appeared, people suddenly poured out of the nooks and crannies. The police were unable to keep the people at the gates, and the entire square was filled with people. Ivan Sergeevich and I began handing out armfuls of candles, and the people powerfully sang: “We bless you, Reverend Our Father Sergius...”, and with this singing and with burning candles they carried [the shrine with the relics of the Venerable] into the Assumption Cathedral, and served immediately prayer service to St. Sergius. The cathedral was completely filled with people. The reliquary was placed on the steps from the right southern wall of the cathedral. The priests left, and for the sake of order, I had to stand at the shrine instead of the grave hieromonk.
During the transfer of the relics, it turned out that the hinges on the lid of the tomb were torn off - one was completely missing, the other was torn off. How providential it was that Archimandrite Hilarion was appointed at that moment. He was an excellent metal craftsman (let us remember that Archimandrite Hilarion on Athos was obedient to a blacksmith - Ed.), and he made the hinges for the reliquary with his own hands. Subsequently, the Patriarch donated crimson and gold brocade for the canopy and two artistic columns from the Royal Doors of the 16th century, from which the canopy was initially built at the right column in front, then moved to the right choir.
After some time, Father Hilarion says to Father Gury: “Father Gury, the authentic skull of St. Sergius is kept in my church in the Sergius chapel under the altar.” - “How so?” And Father Hilarion said that in 1918, before the arrival of the commission, the skull was replaced, the original skull of St. Sergius was transferred to his temple for storage. This temple has never been closed. Father Gury reported to the Patriarch, the Patriarch gave a new schema and blessed the real skull of St. Sergius to be placed in its place in the shrine, and the fake one to be buried. This is what they did during the re-vetting of the holy relics.
About the ringing. In the old days, in the Lavra there was a large bell weighing 4,000 pounds, which was called the Tsar Bell (in the likeness of the Moscow bell, which weighs 12,000 pounds). Its ringing could be heard 25 kilometers away. Before the war this bell was removed. Moreover, a huge wooden flooring was built along which they wanted to lower the bell, but the flooring could not stand it, the bell fell, broke the porch of the bell tower and went into the ground. It was removed in parts (cut with an autogenous machine). The second [bell] - donated by Boris Godunov - 1200 poods, was called Kornoukhy (since one “ear” did not come out when casting it). It was also removed for metal. The third was called Godunov, 900 poods (also a victim of Tsar Boris Godunov). The fourth - the one that is now ringing - is the winch, also donated by Boris Godunov, weighing 625 pounds. This bell was polyeleos, that is, it was rung for polyeleos services (middle holidays). Its such a gentle name is due to the melody of the sound. The metal from which this bell is cast contains a lot of silver, which gives it an exceptionally pleasant sound.
The bell tower remained under the control of the museum. On the bell tower, in addition to the Lebedok, there were 13 more hour bells (they have tongues inside and can be rung, and outside there are hammers that strike the hours).
The Council for Religious Affairs allowed the bell to ring, and when they gave the keys to inspect the bell tower, at night two workers tightened the tongue of the Winch, which had sagged from hanging for a long time without use. It is suspended on a rawhide belt. And so the museum’s management does not allow ringing on the grounds that “you will break the bell.” The blow of the tongue should be in the place of thickening, and the tongue should sag. Father Gury persuaded them and assured them that everything was done as needed, but the director stubbornly refused. And only before matins a telegram was received from the Patriarchate that the issue had been agreed upon and permission to call was allowed. And now, after 26 years, a mighty ringing was heard again from the Lavra bell tower.
When we left the cathedral with the religious procession, the entire square was full of candlelight. And there were such a mass of these lights that it seemed like a sea of fire all around. And the procession began to the solemn, beautiful ringing of bells. Konstantin Ivanovich turned out to be a very skilled bell ringer. He had the honor of starting the ringing, which he himself finished. We were all overcome with such excitement that many cried. They say that even non-believers, residents of Zagorsk, went out into the street to listen to the ringing.
Then the question arose about the brethren. Some by appointment, others, having heard about the opening of the Lavra, asked themselves to be accepted into the ranks of the brethren. Gradually the brethren gathered. On the territory of the Lavra, in the Singing Building, one apartment was purchased, where a refectory was set up. Initially, the brothers lived in apartments in Zagorsk.
Father Gury stayed as vicar for 4 months in the Lavra, and on August 25, 1946, he was consecrated Bishop of Tashkent and Central Asia. We (me and Father Igor) went with him, the first novices of the Lavra.
In the very first days, pilgrimages were organized from Moscow churches. I remember such a pilgrimage trip from Yelokhovsky Cathedral. The trip to Zagorsk was announced in advance at the church. An electric train was specially hired, and here was a whole train of pilgrims led by Father Nikolai Kolchitsky. From the station in Zagorsk everyone walked in rows: in front was Father Nikolai with an icon in his hands. His parishioners followed him in rows and sang all the way to the Lavra. As soon as we entered the Assumption Cathedral, the cathedral was immediately filled with people. Then Father Protopresbyter Nicholas served the Divine Liturgy, prayed to the Reverend and said a word, then a greeting to the governor and his response. Then all this was possible, I can’t even believe it.
The same pilgrimage trip was from the Nikolo-Kuznetsk Church (led by Father Alexander Smirnov), then from Tarasov (led by Father Mikhail Zernov - the current Bishop Cyprian).
The task of Archimandrite Guria was to put the Lavra “on its feet.” Further activity was shown in it by the new governor, Archimandrite John (Razumov) (now Metropolitan of Pskov).
Sorry for the long description, which may not be interesting to you.
My vacation is already over, I’m starting to serve. Once again I sincerely thank you for everything you sent.
I ask for your prayers.
Archim[andrite] Micah.
<Начало письма отсутствует>
You asked if I know anything about Father Seraphim Vyritsky?
I know very little about him: he was very revered by the Leningraders when I was there, but at that time I had my own elder-confessor, to whom I was very attached and did not seek to meet others, and did not appreciate those opportunities at that time what they were like back then.
I heard the following about him.
Alexander Nevsky Lavra was the capital's monastery. The brethren were recruited there mainly based on external characteristics - so that they had a good voice and an appropriate appearance, so there was a majority of Ukrainians there (vocal), the monastery was staffed, that is, the brethren received income from the circle. His very position - in the center of the capital, constant custom services, constant communication with various publics - was not very conducive to a high spiritual life, and the brethren were not distinguished by asceticism. The number of brethren was not large, about 30 people, who were mainly occupied with servicing the churches (there were 17 of them in the Lavra, and at the same time, custom-made masses were going on in many of them). But even in such a monastery there were people of high spiritual life. Such, for example, was the confessor of Metropolitan Veniamin of Petrograd (Kazan), Father Archimandrite Sergius Biryukov. Such ascetics were Father Hieromonk Seraphim, and another father, Hieromonk Seraphim Vyritsky, and his friend Hieromonk Father Gury (the confessor of my Lord Gury). Without a doubt, there were others who were little known to people, for they often hid their exploits with appearances.
Father Seraphim Vyritsky seemed to be one of the merchants. He and his wife took monastic vows. When he lived in the Lavra, comparatively little was said about him (there were also revered spiritual people there besides him). But when the Lavra was closed and he settled in Vyritsa, by that time he was already in the large schema, people began to come to him. The authorities tried to arrest him more than once. They will come for him, and he lies sick. “What,” he will say, “will you bring to the threshold?” - and they left him.
You probably know more about him, and if there is anything written about him, I would really like to read it.
Well, this time in my letter I ranted too much, sorry for the verbosity, maybe I wrote too much.
I also greet you on the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was a monastery holiday in the Glinsk Hermitage, there was also a miraculous icon of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, called the Hermitage-Glinskaya.
I earnestly wish you many mercies of the Most Holy Theotokos and, above all, good rest in soul and body.
Sorry. Say your prayers. Grateful to you
Archim[andrite] Micah.
Dear Galina Alexandrovna!
<…>God bless you for everything you sent.
Excerpts from the letters of Bishop Mikhail Tauride are very interesting. Do you know about him? You probably know that A.P. Chekhov, who wrote the story “The Bishop,” took as the prototype for his character the Bishop of Tauride Mikhail Gribanovsky?
Vladyka Mikhail was a brilliant, gifted rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. But he fell ill with consumption and therefore (for cure) was transferred to the Tauride Department in the Crimea. However, he did not live long and died young.
Bishop Michael was the initiator of the revival of ideas about the restoration of the Patriarchate in Rus'. His idea was adopted by Archbishop Anthony Khrapovitsky. Among his works, the book “Above the Gospel” is remarkable. I had it, but now I don't. You probably know all this without me.<…>
About Mother Euphrosyne. The sister of our Bishop John [Wendland], nun Euphrosyne, was a truly remarkable person. I knew her for almost 50 years.
Their family was of noble origin. His mother was from the Lermontov family, his father was a senior official from the Ministry of Finance, but he died soon after the revolution. Their family (mother, two daughters and son) was supported by the mother’s sister, a prominent scientist in the field of paleontology<неразб>. Their mother was a peculiarly religious person, not at all churchly, recognizing the existence of God, but no rituals or Sacraments. However, all three of her children were not only church people, all three were monastics. The fact that they lived against St. Nicholas Cathedral and the Russian-Estonian Church played a certain role in their upbringing. There was a wonderful rector there, Father Alexander Pakler, and there were Pastoral courses in the building of the Russian-Estonian Church. In those years, Archimandrite Gury (our bishop) was in charge of the Pastoral courses, and when he left for distant lands, Father Alexander Pakler began to head the courses.
In those days, not only men, but also people of the other sex were accepted into the courses to train teachers of the Law of God and church workers (acting as psalm-readers, regents, etc.). Both sisters entered these courses (Kostya was still a student), and when they were closed, one of them, Mother Euphrosyne, entered and graduated from medical institute, the other, Evgenia, went to Moscow, where she graduated from the Agricultural Institute and became the spiritual daughter of Elder Schema-Archimandrite George at the Danilovsky Monastery, and by that time Kostya had entered and graduated from the Geological Institute.
Archimandrite Gury, after his first trip to distant lands, was appointed rector of Kinovia (a small cenobitic monastery on the right bank of the Neva River, a former metropolitan dacha, then a penal monastery for the guilty brethren of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, as well as those seeking a more strict cenobitic form of life, since In the Lavra, a regular way of life was established, that is, the monks lived on a circle, a semi-self-sufficient way of living). Father Gury himself chose this remote place for himself. Only 2 monks remained there with him, and when he arrived in Kinovia, a mass of intelligentsia followed him there: these were former members of the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood, his former students in the Pastoral Courses and others who knew him. Services were performed strictly according to the rules, wonderful choirs were formed, and ancient melodies were sung according to square notes. Both the sisters and Kostya himself (our future Bishop John) began to go there. But Father Gury, not of his own free will, again went to distant lands, one of his co-servants died, and the other became so decrepit that he could come to the temple once a year. Two archpriests were appointed, and one of them was my first confessor, Father Nikolai Gronsky, former rector of the Leushinsky Metochion church. The intelligentsia continued to travel and perform services, but on weekdays there was no psalm-reader; Kostya became the psalm-reader. He was left at the Department of Petrology<Петрографии?>, and he arranged it this way: every day he came before the service, rang the bell tower at his own time, then went downstairs, went to the choir and sang the service, and then went to the service at the institute. In the church on weekdays there is one priest, one in the choir, Kostya, and the elder behind the box. There are almost no people praying, but on Saturday and Sunday the choir is full. The priest complained: “We have services from the morning watch until the night.” And Lisa Wendland always came. After graduating from the institute, she was sent to the Arkhangelsk region for three years as a doctor in a remote hospital. Returning to Leningrad, she began to visit Kinovia again, and that’s when I recognized her. She was very kind, she even paid attention to me, then a boy. In those difficult years, the believing intelligentsia had great spiritual uplift, enthusiasm, and burning spirit. Many people went to church every day for early mass, then on the way, somewhere in the front door or in a gateway, they hurriedly ate a sandwich or a piece of bread (it was considered indecent to eat on the street) and went to civilian work. In the evening, they rushed home from work to have a quick snack or dinner and then back to church. First to one, then to the other. In Leningrad, on different days in different churches there were readings of akathists with nationwide singing.
So, Elizaveta Nikolaevna, when she came to Kinovia and met the boy Sasha there, on the way back she always or often gave him her breakfast (or saved it specially for him). Most often it is a sandwich with jam. Now this is a trifle, an insignificance for us, but in those days it meant a lot. The boy was embarrassed and refused, but she knew how to approach so simply that in the end, moving on the Neva steamboat to the other side, he ate this bread with jam, perhaps depriving her of the breakfast she had prepared for herself.
Then, after a while, Kostya disappeared from Kinovia, and then his sister. Then Kinovia was closed too.
And this is what happened. At this time, Father Gury returned from a long trip. He was not allowed to settle in his city, or in many others. Someone advised him to go to Biysk, and he went there. And Kostya, who did not know him, but knew him through his sisters, wrote him a letter asking him to accept him to live under the guidance of Father Gury. Father Gury allowed him to come, and Kostya, leaving his career as a scientist and his position at the institute, went to Biysk, where there was absolutely no work in his specialty. He got a job as a teacher at a school and supported Gury's father. When a teaching position at the Institute of Geology became available in Tashkent, he was invited there, and Kostya and his father Gury moved to Tashkent. After some time, Elizaveta Nikolaevna also came there, and then they bought a house there, and several more people arrived. Elizaveta Nikolaevna got a job as a doctor at the clinic. At that time, there remained in Tashkent only one Renovationist church and a chapel in the cemetery, where Orthodox Christians gathered without a priest. Father Gury established a home church, and those around him lived a monastic way of life.
Every day at 5 o'clock in the morning they began a common prayer, after which they went to work. In the evening there is again general prayer and cell rule. There, Mother Euphrosyne was tonsured into a cassock, and she became a nun. She was highly valued as a doctor and an excellent diagnostician. She didn’t pay any attention to her clothes, or to whether she was full or hungry, she worked two jobs, which meant that every day after her appointment at the clinic she had to go to the addresses, and then, having quickly had lunch, she had to perform services and rules. Life is very stressful, and how only did God give strength and energy? She was constantly sleep deprived and could fall asleep on the move, she was constantly undernourished, and she worked so hard because she had to support Father Gury, and Mother Seraphima, and others. By that time, her mother and sister Evgenia had moved to Tashkent (they settled separately). She needed to help her mother too.
After some time, Father Gury and some of his relatives had to leave Tashkent and settled near the city of Fergana (4 km from the city). They bought a house there, and mother Euphrosyne went with father Gury. Kostya, by that time already hieromonk John, remained in Tashkent and taught. Several people remained with him and continued services in the house.
Then I appeared, having met Father Gury through Father John in Leningrad during his visit. He invited me to move to Fergana. By that time I had not completely finished school and moved in with him. But I hadn’t finished tenth grade yet. Father Gury ordered me to finish the tenth grade, and only Mother Euphrosyne supported us (Father Gury, Mother Seraphim and me). Our routine was the same: at 5 a.m. morning prayers, midnight office, matins. Those who went to work went to work, the rest did five hundred, and then went to work. In the evening, Vespers, Compline with canons, evening prayers and personal classes. Mother Euphrosyne worked two jobs there too, bearing a double load. They took her from the hospital to her apartments on a line (an open carriage, this is on call), and she walked to and from work (4 km one way). Of course, she was exhausted, and only the power of God supported her.
They lived in seclusion, no outsiders visited, they served in a half-whisper. Mother Euphrosyne had a good voice and knew music. She was the regent for the services. There we were exhausted from the heat, and from fatigue, and from stuffiness, we wanted to sleep so much that we constantly had to fight with ourselves, wash your face with cold water, it would be easier, but not for long. Windows and doors are tightly closed to prevent outsiders from hearing. And she never complained about difficulties, she was always in church, and even tried to help Father Gury in the garden. She was afraid to burden another with herself.
Mother Seraphim cooked and washed for us. There were no washing machines or washing powders back then, everything was done by hand. We had a bathhouse built on our site. Mother Euphrosyne will go wash, take off her underwear, wash it (so as not to bother Mother Seraphim), wring it out and put on the wet clothes. Seraphim’s mother asks: “Lisa, where is the linen?” And it will dry on it.
Once in Fergana, she discovered an Uzbek who was sick with leprosy, and she herself had to accompany him to Tashkent and hand him over against signature.
The Uzbeks loved her very much<неразб>. Of course, as a doctor, she was very attentive to her patients and completely selfless.
Such an ascetic life existed before the start of the war. Then she was mobilized as a doctor. Let me also mention that she was sent more than once to outbreaks of plague in remote areas of Central Asia. During the war, she worked as a doctor in a hospital assigned to the Polish Army. In the Polish Army there were military priests who performed masses and services at the request of the soldiers.
After the war, having been demobilized, she moved to Zagorsk, where Father Gury was appointed governor, and then left for Tashkent when Bishop Gury was appointed Bishop of Tashkent. There she worked as a doctor, and then, when Bishop Gury fell ill with diabetes, she left the civil service.
In Tashkent, at the Bishop's House there was a Church of the Cross, in which services and rules were held daily.
Then Vladyka Gury was transferred to Saratov, mother Euphrosyne was a doctor at the Saratov seminary, then Vladyka Gury was transferred to Chernigov. She moved there and treated the sisters of the Chernigov Trinity Monastery. Then she moved to Dnepropetrovsk following the bishop.
But here she had to endure many, many griefs and troubles from the new people who surrounded Vladyka Guria. Apparently, the Lord allowed her these sorrows when Vladyka himself, at the insistence of his new entourage, began to be burdened by both the doctor, who selflessly served him all his life, and his other old spiritual children (including Vladyka John and me), although he called from the Glinsk Hermitage, where I had been living for a year, and in Dnepropetrovsk I was his secretary and rector of the cathedral. It all started not immediately, but towards the end of the Bishop’s stay in Dnepropetrovsk. When he was transferred to Minsk, and Mother Euphrosyne and his new entourage followed him, it was there that they showed themselves especially hostile against Mother Euphrosyne and me.
By that time, Bishop John was already the rector of the Kyiv Seminary, and then he was sent to Damascus, then he was ordained a bishop and after some time he was transferred to Germany. He obtained permission to take his sister, Mother Euphrosyne, with him. Having an excellent command of the German language, she was an indispensable assistant for him there, and, as an older sister, she constantly restrained him. Vladyka John was still a scientist, a secular person, and in an administrative position, and even a diplomatic one, constantly moving in a secular environment, he needed such spiritual support from a close person, a sister. She followed him to America and to Yaroslavl, where she died.
One of her good deeds should also include the fact that she discharged two old men from Siberia. Uncle Kolya Scalop was first married to his mother's aunt Euphrosyne, but the aunt died long ago, he married another - Evgenia Frantsevna. It was not of their own free will that they came to live in Siberia, but they stayed there. By that time they had become completely decrepit and could not live without outside help. Mother Euphrosyne sent them to Pereslavl, settled them on the lower floor, and she lived on the upper floor, not having a separate room for herself. The old men constantly bothered her day and night with their requests and needs, not giving her peace. By that time she herself had a heart problem, but she still watched them to the end and buried them. Shortly before her death, we administered unction (the bishop and 4 priests). Lately, her legs have stopped moving completely. She told me that she was not afraid to die, but it was a pity that Vladika John would be left alone. She felt terribly sorry for him and was worried.
In my memory she remained as a person who completely devoted herself to the Lord and serving her neighbors, and this is, probably, holiness.
Sorry, I wrote very long and not only about Mother Euphrosyne, but also about others, otherwise I can’t tell you why she was a wonderful person.
I am very grateful to you for everything you sent.
Ned[worthy] archim[andrite] Micah.
Glinskaya men's hermitage (Sumy region) was founded in the 16th century. and was closed in 1922. All churches, except the Holy Cross hospital, and the bell tower were blown up, property was stolen. In 1942, the hermitage was reopened, and the tradition of eldership was preserved there. In 1961, the Glinsk Hermitage was closed and the brethren were dispersed. In 1994, the Glinsk Hermitage was returned to the Church.
Schema-Archimandrite Seraphim (Romantsov; 1885–1976). In the Glinsk Hermitage since 1910. After the closure of the hermitage, he settled in the Sukhumi diocese. In 1930 he was arrested and sent to work on the construction of the White Sea Canal. In 1947 he returned to Glinskaya and was the confessor of the monastery. After the monastery closed, he moved to Sukhumi, where he lived until his death. In 2010, he was canonized as a locally revered saint by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Zhirovitsky Holy Dormition Monastery (Grodno diocese). Founded in the second half of the 16th century. The monastery was never closed, as it was located on territory that was not part of the USSR until 1939. During the years of the viceroy of Archimandrite Micah (1963–1969), many churches were repaired; he managed to save the monastery from closure and preserve the seminary building.
Archbishop of Kaluga and Borovsk Ermogen (Golubev; 1896–1978). In 1926–1931 he was rector of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. Arrested in 1931, in camps until 1939. After his release, he served in the Astrakhan region, then in Samarkand. For active defense of the rights of believers in November 1965 he was exiled to the Zhirovitsky monastery.
Metropolitan John (Wendland; 1909–1989). While still a student, he was a freelance psalm-reader for the cenobium of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, where Archimandrite Gury (Egorov) served before his arrest. Upon the latter’s return from the White Sea Canal, he went with him to Tashkent, where Father Gury secretly tonsured him as a monk and ordained him as a hieromonk. Since 1946 he became secretary of the Archbishop of Tashkent Guria. He followed him to Saratov, where he was rector of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, inspector and confessor of the seminary. In the spring of 1958, he was appointed representative of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Patriarch of Antioch. Later he served abroad, in Europe and the USA. Since 1967 - Metropolitan of Yaroslavl and Rostov. Famous geologist.
Metropolitan Gury (Egorov; 1891–1965). In 1915 he was ordained hieromonk. Together with brother Lev, also a monk, and a group of like-minded people, he carried out active missionary work among working people and declassed elements (the circle of the Yegorov brothers later became known as the “Brotherhood of St. Alexander Nevsky”). In 1922 he was arrested and sentenced to exile to Turkmenistan. Upon returning to Leningrad in 1925, he was appointed rector of the cinema of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. In 1928 he was arrested and sent to the White Sea Canal, then exiled to Central Asia. Lived in Tashkent and Fergana. In 1945–1946 he was the governor of the newly opened Trinity-Sergius Lavra. In 1946 he was consecrated Bishop of Tashkent and Central Asia, and since 1952 he has been an archbishop. From 01/28/1953 to 07/31/1954 - Archbishop of Saratov and Stalingrad. Since 1959 - Metropolitan of Minsk and Belarus, since 1960 - Metropolitan of Leningrad and Ladoga, since 1961 - Metropolitan of Simferopol and Crimea.
The only thing that Bishop John could do for his old friend was to appoint Archimandrite Mikhei to the most remote parish of his diocese in the village of Baburino, 17 km from the railway.
Bishop Veniamin (Milov) was born in 1897 into the family of a priest. In 1920, he took monastic vows at the Moscow Danilov Monastery. Since 1923 - abbot of the Intercession Monastery. In 1929 he was arrested and sentenced to three years in the camps. In 1937 there was a new arrest. After his liberation in 1946, he lived in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. In 1949 he was exiled to Kazakhstan. Shortly after his liberation on 02/04/1955, he was consecrated Bishop of Saratov and Balashov. Died 08/02/1955. Currently, the Saratov diocese is preparing materials for the glorification of Bishop Benjamin as a saint.
Metropolitan Anthony of Leningrad and Novgorod (Melnikov; 1924–1986). In 1967, he was appointed by the Holy Synod to the position of chairman of the editorial board of the annual collection “Theological Works”.
Archimandrite Theodorit (Vorobiev; 1899–1973), monk of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
Schema-Archimandrite Hilarion (Udodov; 1863–1951). For 20 years he became a monk on Mount Athos, serving as a blacksmith. See more about it later in the text of the letter.
According to other sources, he, together with his elder Abbot Kirill, was sent to Russia in 1905 to collect donations for the monastery and was unable to return to Athos due to political events.
Hieromonk Innocent (Kolyada; 1905–1982). In 1925 he was tonsured a monk, and in 1926 he was ordained a hierodeacon. Participant of the Great Patriotic War. After demobilization, he was in the brotherhood of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. In 1953 he was ordained hieromonk.
Boskin Sergey Mikhailovich. Artist. Regent and read at the first services after the opening of the Lavra. Subsequently protodeacon.
Venerable Martyr Archimandrite Kronid (Lyubimov; 1858–1937). Viceroy of the Lavra in 1915–1919. After its closure, he was left as head of the guard until January 26, 1920. Shot in Butovo. In 2000 he was canonized as the New Martyrs of Russia. Memory November 27/December 10.
According to the memoirs of S.M. Boskin, who also witnessed this event, the antimension of the Assumption Cathedral, preserved by Archimandrite Kronid, was handed over to Archimandrite Gury T.T. Pelikh is the future Archpriest Tikhon (1895–1983), who, while living in Zagorsk, was spiritually close to the Venerable Martyr Kronid.
Konstantin Ivanovich Rodionov was born in Rostov the Great, and from his youth he learned to ring the bells of Rostov and the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
Schema-Abbess Maria (c. 1880–1961). She was an abbess in the Vladimir Monastery in the city of Volsk, Saratov province. After the revolution she lived in Zagorsk. See about her: Dosithea (Verzhblovskaya), mon. About Mother Maria // Vasilevskaya V.Ya. Catacombs of the 20th century: Memoirs. M., 2001. pp. 279–306.
Native of Zagorsk; like Alexander Kharkharov, a demobilized officer, one of the first novices of the Lavra; later - subdeacon of Bishop Guria.
Fudel Sergey Iosifovich (1900–1977) - Orthodox theologian, philosopher, spiritual writer. He took an active part in the life of the Church in the post-revolutionary years, for which he was repeatedly subjected to repression (his first arrest was in 1922).
Reverend Alexy (Soloviev; 1846–1928), elder of the Smolensk Zosima Hermitage. He became famous for his spiritual exploits and foresight. At the All-Russian Local Council of 1917, it was he who was entrusted with drawing lots with the name of the Patriarch. Canonized in 2000. Commemorated September 19/October 2.
“At the same time as His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon and hundreds of believing Orthodox communities of Sergiev Posad were waging an unequal struggle with the state for the preservation of the relics of St. Sergius, priest Pavel Florensky and Count Yuri Aleksandrovich Olsufiev, with the blessing of Patriarch Tikhon, secretly hid the honest head of the Reverend from everyone.” Andronik (Trubachev), abbot. Closing of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and the fate of the relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh in 1918-1946. M., 2008. P. 198. About the same: Andronik (Trubachev), abbot. The fate of the head of St. Sergius // ZhMP. 2001. No. 4. pp. 33–53. In the temple of Vinograd’s head of the Venerable One was kept in 1941–1945. In 1920–1928 - in the Olsufievs’ house, then P.A. Golubtsov (future Archbishop Sergius of Novgorod and Staraya Rus) moved the head to Lyubertsy. In 1945–1946 the chapter was kept in Moscow.
Kolchitsky Nikolai Fedorovich (1890–1961), protopresbyter. Since 1941, he has been the manager of the affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate, the closest collaborator of Patriarchs Sergius and Alexy I. After Father Nikolai gathered almost a whole train of pilgrims to the Lavra, he was made to understand that there was no need to do this anymore.
Archbishop Cyprian (Zernov; 1911–1987). Since 1922, he served as a bell ringer, sexton, sacristan, and reader. In 1944 he was ordained a deacon (celibate), then a priest. Since 1948, rector of the Church of All Who Sorrow Joy on Bolshaya Ordynka. In 1961 he took monastic vows at the Lavra and was ordained a bishop. Since 1963 - archbishop.
Metropolitan John (Razumov; 1898–1990), second governor of the Lavra (1946–1953). In 1916–1923 - novice of the Smolensk Zosimova Hermitage; in 1924 he was transferred to the Moscow Epiphany Monastery, tonsured a monk, ordained a hierodeacon; in 1942 - hieromonk, abbot, archimandrite. Since 1954 - Bishop of Kostroma and Galich, since 1972 - Metropolitan of Pskov and Porkhov.
Reverend Seraphim Vyritsky (Muravyov) was born in 1866 in the Yaroslavl province into a peasant family. He was a successful businessman. From his youth he decided to become a monk, but he followed the instructions he received from the elder: get married, live in the world and do good deeds, and then, with the consent of his wife, accept monasticism. In 1920 he took monastic vows (like his wife Olga, in the schema of Seraphim). Since 1930 he lived in Vyritsa. Resigned to the Lord in 1949. Canonized in 2000. Comm. March 21/April 3.
Hieromartyr Benjamin, Metropolitan of Petrograd and Gdov (Kazan; 1873–1922). Shot on charges of obstructing the seizure of church valuables. In fact, the reason for the arrest was his principled position regarding the “renovationists” and loyalty to Patriarch Tikhon. At the trial he behaved courageously and did not admit guilt. Canonized in 1992. Commemorated July 31/August 13.
Bishop Mikhail (Gribanovsky; 1856–1898), famous theologian, teacher, and then inspector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. From 1890 he was rector of the embassy church in Athens. In 1894 he was consecrated Bishop of Priluki. Since 1897 - Bishop of Tauride and Simferopol.
Nun Euphrosyne (in the world Elizaveta Nikolaevna Wendland; 1899–1970).
Nun Evgenia (in the world Evgenia Nikolaevna Wendland; 1903–1943).
Archpriest Nikolai Gronsky (1876–1942) accepted the priesthood with the blessing of the holy righteous John of Kronstadt. After the closure of the Leushinsky Monastery in 1931, he served in the Transfiguration Cathedral in Petrograd.
^ ALEXANDRO-NEVSKY LAVRAI was hastily evacuated to Tikhvin, to a military hospital; In order to save us, the wounded, from the hands of the White Guards, we were evacuated. I ended up in a mobile hospital. He spent a year in the refectory and abbot's chambers in the Tikhvin Monastery. I calmly lay there and completed my treatment. To my happiness and joy, I, in slippers and a robe, went every day to mass and to the all-night vigil, to matins and the midnight office. I lived there until I was discharged from there.
I stayed in Tikhvin to live and work - as a lecturer in military hospitals. There were three hospitals there. I gave general education lectures to comfort the wounded.
It was there that I met the future His Holiness Patriarch Alexy (Simansky). There I became his subdeacon, in Tikhvin. So I combined: both a lecturer and a subdeacon with the Bishop of Tikhvin. He came here twice a year and gave me instructions from Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow (top secret, that is, I traveled to the imprisoned bishops and maintained contact between these bishops with the Patriarch and with the Novgorod Metropolitan, and with the Leningrad Metropolitan),
I was well dressed. He behaved very well. I was trusted with big secrets. Then I entered the prison where Novgorod Bishop Arseny was sitting. I met him. This was the educator and benefactor of Patriarch Alexy. He was a head taller than me, with such hair, a huge beard, an arm twice the size of mine." Father first saw the Alexander Nevsky Lavra when he was 15 years old. It was Sunday, the liturgy was going on. The bishop's choir - 80 boys - sang. There was no limit to amazement. Father could not forget this beauty: “Can you imagine?! These are thin bells - the youths' prayer! They lived in a special building behind the laurel.
And so the Lord fulfills his heart’s desire and desire. Vladyka Alexy directs him to St. Petersburg: “We need to really get settled.” Vladyka Alexy loved Father very much. Father enthusiastically recounted his impressions of the Lavra and St. Petersburg.
“And so, then I was honored to participate in the procession of the Cross on Sunday, being a subdeacon with the future His Holiness Patriarch Alexy: from the Kazan Cathedral to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. This means that I walked the entire Nevsky on foot as a subdeacon, that is, with candles. I walked with a trikirium , I was the eldest. And he was in a red vestment, in a red miter. He was a charming man, with black curls. And we gathered all the religious processions to our monastery, walked along Nevsky for three hours. There were religious processions with icons from all the streets. This is the custom - in the monastery. And in the monastery the metropolitan and the brethren met us. We poured into the cathedral.
I saw - it was the first triumph in my life - I saw all this beauty of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Again I saw the monastery. We need to get ready. It was 1921, the month of May. I found a cart like this, on four wheels, put my suitcase, rolled up the mattress and pillow and drove along Nevsky Prospekt from the apartment to the Lavra. In black patent leather boots, in a black suit."
Why on foot? Was there no transport?
How did the brigade commanders walk? “Horse brigade commanders”... And I solemnly walked on foot...
Hieromonk Gury (he died a metropolitan) took me through the entire Lavra.
How did you meet him?
And then, on Sunday, when they were walking in the procession of the Cross. He (Gury) came up to me and got acquainted. Your cart, suitcase - straight to his Krestovaya, to his chambers. I lived there for six months with them. He was a novice in the Church of the Cross on the territory of the Lavra, from the metropolis. And then I got tired of it. There was the famous St. John the Theologian brotherhood, and in it there were up to 80 girls - future nuns. We gathered and read our reports. Lossky, the famous theologian, came. Great theologians came.
The girls sang the all-night vigil and mass in the monastery. There they started a women's monastery. I'm tired of this. I went to the future Bishop Nikolai (Yarushevich), the governor of the Lavra: “I’m tired of it, Father Viceroy, take me to your Lavra as a novice.” He was delighted. The commotion was terrible. Vladika Benjamin was offended that I did this. Well then! He realized that this environment of girls, this brotherhood, I didn’t need it. The future Bishop Nicholas immediately gave him a separate cell. We lived under the cathedral. They cleaned the lamps and walked to the Small Entrance with a candle. And the owners in my cell were rats. There was hunger, we saw bread once a month, we ate frozen potatoes."
At the Lavra, Father was the cell attendant of Hieroschemamonk Simeon, a recluse who was the last confessor of the Lavra. This was a great old man. Like the Monk Seraphim of Sarov, he stood on his knees for a thousand days and nights and prayed for the salvation of the people and the Russian country at that terrible time. He predicted to Alexei (Simansky) that he would be the Patriarch.
“When my mother found out that I was already in the Church of the Cross as a novice, she came: “So, you will stay here?!” I said: “Yes.” I came out in a cassock already. “Still, I need to give you the suit, father’s watch , rings." I said: “I don’t need them.” I put them neatly in a bag and gave them away. And we parted. We didn’t see each other for a whole year. “Know that you insulted us all, insulted our family, and we are crossing you out from the list of the living and the dead." But this didn’t bother me at all, I said: “Please, I don’t care. I don’t understand you." But I, of course, excused them. I had nothing - no sadness, no resentment, nothing. A different world. I left the world, I dream of becoming a monk and giving my life precisely on this path of complete renunciation peace. I didn’t even hope to be a hieromonk, because my hand didn’t work, I had it in a sling, I wrote with my left hand.
Then I became a drawing and drawing teacher at a high school. There was nothing to eat. Lavra didn’t give me a penny, there was no meal, there was nothing. And so I drew, drew, and gave lessons with my left hand at the age of ten. I looked such that they didn’t even think that I was a future monk. "Where do you live?" I gave some approximate address, and they calmed down until they gradually learned who I was. "Don't come to us again." - I handed in my work and that's it. - “It turns out you are a future pop?” - I say: “Yes.” - “Get your rations and goodbye!”
Then he was forced to become a teacher in a dormitory for juvenile delinquents. I was taken to the building of the Academy, the former Theological Academy, behind the monastery. I went there in the mornings. I had three classes of these little animals. I stayed there for five days, I couldn’t stand it anymore, I saw all this horror of the criminal world. These were children of unknown parents who were picked up on the street - “urkachi”.
^
TRANSMISSION TO A MONK
In 1921, Father went to Father Mikhail, to Karpovka, for a blessing to take monastic vows. After the liturgy, he himself approached Father: “The future monk has come, the monk has come! But I remember you well. Remember, I asked you: “Hallowed be Thy Name,” and you didn’t tell me anything, and now you want to become a monk? Go become a monk, you will become a monk." I started crying. He blessed him twice: “Go become a monk, you will be a monk!”
“I was called to be tonsured as a monk. And on the eve of tonsure, I went to confession and signed all the oaths: not to cut my hair, not to shave, not to cut my hair ever, not to take off my clerical dress, not to go to the cinema, not to a restaurant - anywhere. Three papers - written oaths. Therefore, it was a crime for a monk to shave or have a haircut. To wear some kind of civilian costume? Did it mean to laugh at the robe!
On March 25, 1922, Father was tonsured into a mantle with the name Simeon, in honor of Simeon the Receiver of God.
“I received tonsure into the mantle from Vladyka Nikolai (Yarushevich) on March 25, with the name Simeon. When tonsured into monasticism, Vladyka delivered a welcoming speech for 45 minutes, explaining what righteousness is. And as a guarantee that I will remember this word, he brought out an icon John the Theologian. And the Theologian is Love! Without love there can be neither piety nor righteousness. Love for God, love for people - this love gives both righteousness and piety.
Righteousness is a state of the heart, the assimilation of Christ's law into the heart, that is, humility, meekness, long-suffering, chastity, confession - this is righteousness. Piety - fulfillment of the prescribed rites and regulations established by the Church; fasting, going to Church, all your behavior.
That is why the righteous Simeon the God-Receiver had two properties: he was righteous and pious. First there was piety, which then gave righteousness." In the same year, Father was ordained by Patriarch Tikhon as a hierodeacon.
^
THE BEGINNING OF OLD AGE
The beauty of the lavra and the strength of the spirit of the lavra conquered Father’s heart more and more. Here he truly took up the eldership. I listened to people a lot. He answered many questions in writing. I began to thoroughly study the Jesus Prayer.
In the Alexander Nevsky Lavra there was one schema-monk who was in the cemetery day and night and practiced the Jesus Prayer. Father watched him pray and secretly learned Jesus from him.
"The Alexander Nevsky Lavra! The monks are handsome; amazingly well-crafted diction, unsurpassed readers! Collected from all over Russia. Very rare voices, absolute octaves! And Abraham!.. He is a hieromartyr - the archdeacon of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra! It was amazing beauty. He was famous with his voice, he was taller than Chaliapin. And when he read the Gospel, it was something unearthly: Abraham’s velvety bass and diction made him a bishop. He died in Solovki...
And what singing there was in the Lavra! There was no such thing anywhere. What talents have gathered! Who was there? How many perspicacious elders and saints there were there! It was as if all the power of the monastic spirit that was then in Russia had gathered in the monastery. Very many in the monastery ended their lives as martyrdom." Then there was famine throughout the country, and there was almost nothing to eat in the monastery. It was cold and hungry. And Father and many of the monks were often sick. Father said: "One day I became very ill, and they overcome demons. The front door opens, and a whole crowd pours into the cell: goats, kids, cats of different breeds, dogs, monkeys, and a lot of gypsies. They wanted to scare me so that I would die, but they helped me get out of the disease - I became terribly angry. Cats, roosters, monkeys, and they are getting closer and closer to me. What's happened? Or am I imagining it, or is it really like this? But when animal fear attacked me, I realized that it was demons. Only they can inspire such animal fear. I got angry at the demons, jumped onto the icy floor on my bare feet and ran out of the cell. They saw me, found out that I was sick, brought me food, told my mother, she brought a doctor, after that I began to get better."
After the murder of Metropolitan Benjamin (Kazan), the monastery was soon captured by renovationists, and almost the entire brethren fell into renovationism. Bishop Alexy (Simansky), Bishop Nikolai (Yarushevich) and Bishop Gregory (Lebedev) steadfastly opposed these new heretics. At their petition, in 1925, on January 19, on the feast of the Epiphany, at an early liturgy, Father was ordained as a hieromonk by Archbishop Vassian. At the same time, he was appointed treasurer of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Father loved to serve very much. Liturgy was served daily. He cried a lot that he was not growing spiritually. But the Lord consoled him. Bishop Gregory (Lebedev), rector of the monastery, took only Father with him to services; he liked Father’s manner of serving - on sharps and flats.
Due to renovationism, unrest began to arise. Many could not understand where the truth was preserved? One merchant-Old Believer was shown: at the Annunciation, on Cherubimskaya, a tiny Baby was transferred from the altar, who was sitting on a paten on a throne. The priests moved mechanically and did not see anything, but the merchant-Old Believer saw it. After that, he approached the governor, told everything and submitted a request to be tonsured a monk. He was accepted into the brethren. Then he accepted the schema and died as a schema monk.
After the revolution, many of the rich people gave up their craft, took monasticism and blissfully ended their lives. So, for example, Hieroschemamonk Seraphim is a former furrier, schema-abbot Guriy (Komissarov) is a millionaire. They lived together in the same cell and worked together. How many tears for yourself! They spoke the same language and involuntarily separated from the brethren. They had nothing in common with everyone else, but they didn’t adapt to others either. "They were afraid of offending the Omnipresent Lord. It was a confessional state. And who does not have this feelings of confession - he is not yet a Christian,” said Father.
“Renovationism was not accepted by the people. Therefore, it lasted only two years, and they themselves were forced to repent. The Renovationists, in their composition, were the worst people from the clergy, stained: either by unbelief, or by their own lack of faith, or by nasty sins, or by the obvious appropriation of someone else’s property. One one of the leaders of the renovationists was the famous Archpriest Boyarsky. He made a noise with his great theological knowledge, he was an amazing preacher. And then he fell into renovationism for his great self. And instead of repenting, he appropriated a precious robe from the miraculous icon of God. Mother and replaced these diamonds and precious stones with glass. And for this he went to prison and died in prison...
Belkov publicly removed his rank. Vvedensky did not repent. Refused to repent to His Holiness the Patriarch himself! And Krasnitsky - he died in prison for some criminal case. This whole five, the basis of renovationism, they all perished.
But the people, he did not accept renovationism. The priests served in empty churches, sold carpets, chandeliers, icons in order to live on something, and then the churches were closed. All the churches belonged to the Renovationists, Orthodox people prayed in the “catacombs.” And we know that the Renovationists did not receive Holy Communion with the Body and Blood of the Lord. They received communion with bread and wine. The sacrament was not performed. A sacrament is a sacred act of the Holy Spirit. Incomprehensible, inexplicable for the human mind... the secret action... of the Grace of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. Therefore, the slightest insult to him is a mortal sin. This is why mortal priests, deacons, and bishops who fall into sin, if they forget to repent (i.e., renounce sin and stop serving it), they will not inherit the Kingdom of God. There is even an instruction that only with blood can you atone for your guilt."
In the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, Father met with many spiritual people. He lived in the Lavra for ten years. During Father’s stay in the Lavra, many different miracles and incidents happened to him. Father himself said this: “Once I was honored to see Meat and Blood in the chalice. Bishop Stefan served. I was a hierodeacon. I took out the chalice in the Assumption Metropolitan Church. He read: “I believe, Lord, and I confess...” - the cover opened after reading the prayer, he was stupefied! Then he turns to me: “See, father, what should I do?” - He turned over his left shoulder, and I with the cup over my right, entered the altar, placed him on the throne and began to pray that the Lord would show mercy. And he prayed for about 15 minutes with his hands raised. But the way Bishop Stefan prayed when I returned and set the cup down was terrible!
Then, after his prayer, they looked - again it was created in the form of bread and wine. Then he went out and gave communion to the people. Metropolitan Gury, Metropolitan Lev and Barsanuphius knew this case. They witnessed this amazing event. This was shown to us so that we would be confirmed, and also for my consolation. At that time I absolutely believed and confessed that it was truly the original Body and Blood, but in order to establish myself, perhaps tell people and write it down, so that people would benefit and be happy from it. And then, of course, for our humility, because no matter how much we prepare to celebrate the liturgy, we still must recognize our absolute unworthiness.”
“One day before the Liturgy, I fell asleep and woke up from a knock on the window of my cell. It turned out that Saint Pitirim of Tambov knocked on my window so that I would prepare for the service:
Get up, hieromonk, it's time for the proskomedia!
It is known that the Saint appeared at the same time to one of my future spiritual children. He told her:
The hieromonk will serve there, you must meet him.
We met after the service."
Living in the monastery, Father did not have a specific mentor. God preserved and raised Father through great struggles and labors, invisible from people. Severe loneliness fostered courage. At the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, Father prepared lectures on the topic “Psychology of Orthodox Christianity” (based on Theophan the Recluse). It was a huge amount of work. Unfortunately, all lectures were lost in 1932.
Father was the treasurer of the Lavra. Both the security officers and the renovationists knew that Father Simeon had hidden somewhere the keys to the storerooms where the Lavra’s treasury was kept. One day the renovationists caught him and handed him over to the Cheka. They demanded that he give everything to them, but he refused. Then he was placed on a "tram". “Tram” is a terrible invention, which consisted of the following: a lot of people were placed in a cell, so that they stood closely pressed together, unable to even move. The cell was closed for almost three weeks. They defecated right there. The corpses, already smelling foul, stood with people still alive... Father survived this and remained alive. He did not give the keys to the storerooms to anyone.
The Alexander Nevsky Lavra was for Father the foundation of his clergy and eldership.
Years in the town of Opechensky Posad, Borovichi district, Novgorod province.
Orphaned early. Mother Catherine died of tuberculosis and he practically did not remember her. He lost his father in early childhood: he died suddenly (after the bath he drank cold beer, got into the sleigh and died on the way home).
Five children were sheltered by childless uncle Yakov Stepanovich and his wife Olga Aleksandrovna Selyukhin.
Awards
- Order of St. Vladimir 1st degree (1963)
Essays
- "Patriarch Sergius as a theologian."
- Collection "Patriarch Sergius and his spiritual heritage." Moscow, 1947, p. 99-134.
- Article: "Literary works of Patriarch Sergius."
- ZhMP, 1954, No. 5, p. 24-30.
- ZhMP, 1954, No. 7, p. 42-47.
- "From the liturgical heritage of St. Patriarch Sergius." ZhMP, 1964, No. 5, p. 73-75.
Literature and archival materials
- MP Archive. Personal matter
- RGIA. F. 815. Op. 14. D. 159-165
- GARF. F. 6991. Op. 7. D. 145
- Archive of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. D. P-24095, P-88399, P-81782. T. 1. L. 312-317
- Archive Inform. center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic Karelia. F. personal. business D. 228/9355. L. 17.
- ZhMP 1946, No. 5, p. 10, 13.
- - " - 1946, No. 9, p. 18.
- - " - 1952, No. 3, p. 31.
- - " - 1953, No. 3, p. 13.
- - " - 1954, No. 5, pp. 24-30.
- - " - 1954, No. 7, pp. 44-47.
- - " - 1954, No. 8, p. 3.
- - " - 1955, No. 11, p. 3.
- - " - 1959, No. 1, p. 14.
- - " - 1959, No. 6, p. 28.
- - " - 1960, No. 6, p. 28.
- - " - 1960, No. 7, p. 17.
- - " - 1960, No. 10, pp. 4, 8, 19, 20, 22.
- - " - 1960, No. 12, pp. 17-19, 21.
- - " - 1960, № 1.
- - " - 1961, No. 8, p. 8.
- Resolution of the Holy Synod of November 14, 1961, No. 23.
- Journal of meetings of the Holy Synod No. 2 dated January 28, 1953.
- Journal of meetings of the Holy Synod No. 13 dated July 31, 1954.
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- Obituary Died July 12, 1965.
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- He was a prisoner on the Solovetsky Islands.
- M. Polsky New Martyrs, P, 15.
- Joh. Chrysostomus, Kirchengeschichte II, 237, III, 79.
- A. Levitin-Krasnov, Die Glut deiner Hande, 268.
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