Vyatka bishop during the war. The role of the clergy during the Great Patriotic War

On January 4 at 22.40, at the age of 74, Metropolitan Chrysanf of Vyatka and Slobodskaya died at the Moscow Medical and Physiological Center. Burnazyan from cardiac arrest. At the beginning of November 2010, Bishop Chrysanthos was taken to one of the city hospitals in serious condition. The Metropolitan lost consciousness at an event where he was giving a speech.

Vladyka headed the Kirov and subsequently the Vyatka department for 33 years. In memory of the Bishop, we publish his interview.

Word from Metropolitan Chrysanthus at the beginning of Lent

Bishop

Vera-Eskom

Vladyka, allow me, first of all, to congratulate you on receiving the rank of metropolitan - we have already informed our readers about this.

Thank you for your congratulations. When did we first meet and talk in this office? Has it been four years?

- Alas, Vladyka, no less than almost nine years have passed... (we published a conversation with Vladyka Chrysanthus in N 199-200, 1995, then five years later there was another meeting, see “The main reward for an Orthodox is to be with God” - I.I.)

My God, how time has flown! But last year it was 25 years since I served at the Vyatka See, and this year I was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy. I never thought that this would happen, because in the entire history of Vyatka there has never been a metropolitan in the local department; for the Vyatka bishop, the rank of archbishop has always been the most honorable.

- It turns out that this decision of the Patriarch was unexpected for you?

The first person to tell me about this by phone was Archbishop Eugene of Vereisky; we once worked together here in Vyatka. I can’t say that I took this event calmly. Thoughts arose: what kind of responsibility is this, and am I worthy of such a title, and what should I do, since I was given such a high rank? And how good it was when I was an archbishop... In a word, I worried for a long time.

You know, this always happens in life: only when something new unexpectedly invades life do you begin to appreciate what came before.

In the end, I reassured myself with this: this award belongs not only to me, but, first of all, to the entire Vyatka land, to all Orthodox people, and through their prayers it was given to me. And everyone made their contribution, because when awarding, both the attitude of the Orthodox people towards the bishop and relations with local authorities are taken into account. This was the only way I could internally accept the reward; I somehow felt better and calmed down.

Will Vyatka forever become a city with metropolitan status? Or is it related specifically to your ministry? Can we say that there is now a metropolis here?

The Lord alone knows everything, knows everything. Of course, life goes on, and another bishop will come for me. It has never happened in the history of our Church that a bishop who found himself in a cathedra where a metropolitan had previously served would immediately receive this rank for this reason - a certain length of service in the Church is required. There are very authoritative ancient dioceses, which were formerly headed by metropolitans, and now young, energetic bishops have come there, such as Bishop George in Nizhny Novgorod. Or such a strong and rich in history diocese as Yekaterinburg, where Archbishop Vikenty is now. Of course, the Vyatka diocese can now be called a metropolis, but there is no need, it would be better to be called in the old way - a diocese.

In that 1995 interview, I asked you about the suffragan bishop - before the revolution they were in Vyatka. I want to ask again: since the diocese is still crowded, do you have a desire now, as a metropolitan, to have a vicar?

I think this is not necessary now. I traveled all over the Vyatka land, last year I visited 40 parishes. The priests who serve on Vyatka land are almost all my proteges; I know thoroughly which parish they serve and how, whether they enjoy authority, or do their job mediocre. In addition, as life shows, sometimes some confusion and conflicts occur between the ruling bishop and the vicar...

- How, sir,How did you feel about your new rank in your homeland?

I haven’t been there for three years, but I want to go, because my mother is buried there.

- With what feelings do you come there?

The village of Berezovka, Rivne region - to this day it is in my memories, like a Garden of Eden. I lived there until I was 11 years old. How beautiful everything was there! Of course, it’s impossible to tell - you had to see it. The very clear waters of the river remain in my memory - how to describe them? During my childhood there were many young people - each family was rich in its children. And the youth did not leave anywhere, because everyone had their own land, which people held on to, although they could sell it and go with that kind of money to any country in the world. And everyone went to church, every single one. Sunday was a big holiday; they wore the most beautiful clothes to church. The temple was the center of all rural life: baptisms, weddings, funerals were held here, during breaks in services the young people got to know each other... Of course, I would not say that all these young people were deeply religious, but she loved her church, it was a part of her life.

I remember how in 1945 many young people came to us from the Oryol region, from Kaluga and Bryansk - there was famine there, and collectivization had not yet begun, and therefore we lived well. About a hundred people settled in Berezovka alone, mostly young people - wonderful guys and girls. They brought with them Russian scarves and all sorts of instruments, but we didn’t have that then. I won’t forget how we played the balalaika, exchanged for food. We had this balalaika for 30 years, but I never learned, unlike my brother, to play it well. They brought so many new traditions to us! These visiting young people did not go to church at first, but then they got used to it and began to attend. And the temple became a part of their life, and our church at that time was the church of youth.

This is all I remember now.

Did the fact that your family was close to the Church, that your aunts were nuns of the Koretsky Monastery, somehow set you apart from your peers?

And the fact that my grandmother was in Jerusalem before the First World War (she was a deeply religious person, a person of prayer, we are all far from her), and that my mother’s two sisters were nuns of the Holy Trinity Koretsky Monastery - it was a great honor for our kind. In most families then, one of the sons either served at the temple or went to study at the seminary. When a person entered the seminary, it raised the authority of the entire family. And it was not only the priest who enjoyed the highest authority in the village, but also his wife, mother - it was customary to kiss her hand.

- Has anyone else, besides you, become a bishop from your area?

Bishop Irinei of Dnepropetrovsk is from the village of Stolpin not far from us, we are even distant relatives with him. But nearby was the Koretsky Monastery, which spiritually nurtured us, and, I think, the monastery educated about ten bishops.

- And now how is it there in Berezovka?

Now this is a village in which there are practically no young people, everyone has left, only the elderly remain. Tractors have torn up the road in the village; the sight of the river can now scare you. And although during “perestroika” a beautiful church was built in Berezovka (before our parish church was located a kilometer from the village, in the village of Ivanovka), now there is a church, but there are few people.

- Do you still have childhood friends?

There were friends. But when I come now, I can no longer find my peers. Many died, some drank themselves to death. And they were such smart guys!

Why then was the church the center of life for people, and then suddenly everything collapsed? Why didn’t they stay near the church, because it could have saved them from the same drunkenness...

In 1948, collectivization began. Everything that had been accumulated over centuries - traditions, property, the foundations of life - everything began to be taken away and destroyed. Then everyone saved themselves as best they could. I remember how they brought equipment into the village, which, of course, helped, but it was used, as is usual on collective farms, unreasonably, illiterately, and all nature wilted. This is how a person is: he cannot treat someone else’s things – whether it’s technology or land – the same way as his own. This is how the Lord made man.

And in 1958, under Khrushchev, they began to close churches. Our priest’s house was taken away, supposedly for the benefit of the people, and they made a medical center there. How people cried! The whole village was in motion. Even now I can’t talk about it.

- It turns out that the foundations of this pious patriarchal life were destroyed right off the ground?

Yes, with the beginning of collectivization. Work on one's own land, life in the church, family foundations - everything was connected. You cannot destroy one thing and leave the rest intact.

Can a bishop have friends? I mean the special way of life of a bishop, when the rank itself implies a certain distance from the flock.

I have very good friends. Maybe this word is not entirely correct - “friends”... There are people whom I trust and treat with love.

Writers Leskov and Nilus in the 19th century explored the life of a Russian bishop and noted that his life was complicated by many restrictions. In conversations, the bishops complained that they could not easily walk down the street - they had to ride only in a carriage, in general, many things seemed to be not allowed by status... Is this still the case now?

It is there, of course. Before becoming a bishop, I was the rector of a church in Petrozavodsk and dean of Karelia for eight years. The region is harsh, in the sense that great importance was attached to atheistic work there. I went to the temple where I served by bus. It’s cold at the bus stop - I’m still not used to such frosts, all the buses are crowded, everyone on the bus is jammed - one leg hangs, and you just ride. Then there was no thought as to why there was no car, everything was natural. Now a car meets me everywhere, that’s how it’s supposed to be. I understand and am used to it. On the other hand, everything is learned by comparison; without going through something, you will not be able to appreciate what you lost. I often remember how good it was to travel on the bus...

- Maybe just because they were younger?

May be. But, besides youth, there was something else very important then: they discussed something, told each other about many things on the same bus, life was filled with communication. These memories are very dear to me now.

The current Primate of the Greek Church, Archbishop Christodoulus, as they say about him, does not hesitate to walk the streets of the Greek capital, enters a cafe and can easily start a conversation with young people on modern topics. For this he is highly respected there. But we still have a different tradition of attitude towards the bishop - believers are unlikely to understand such behavior, they will decide that the bishop has decided to become a populist or something like that...

The bishop is indeed a ruler, but he is not an angel at all, and God forbid he should think so about himself. Like any person, he is endowed with shortcomings and must, having committed a sin, repent. Every person has something they have to struggle with. Moreover, if a person has some kind of sin, but suffers from it and hates this sin, even if the sin turns out to be stronger than him, this is not as scary as if a person, especially a clergyman, considers his sins not such an important matter, he believes , that rank allows him to exalt himself above others.

Often Orthodox Christians, when talking with people of high rank, seem to become stupefied; even educated people cannot clearly express their thoughts and begin to weave something absurd. Have you ever encountered this?

I had to, and moreover, I was like that myself. At the age of 12-14, I practically lived at the Koretsky monastery, and when a bishop came to serve there, and they took me to become a subdeacon, I could probably die of fear. I cried, my aunts hugged my head, wiped away my tears, said: “We have to go...” So I went through it myself, and when someone hesitates in front of me, I think: My God, I’m from a simple peasant family, I have so much I had to live through it! Of course, I try to help people somehow relieve tension, maybe with a joke, or something else. In general, I am by no means a supporter of putting on airs. You can always find an opportunity to talk to a person in an accessible way.

Recently, your diocese released a very interesting album with portraits of all the bishops who have ever served in the Vyatka See; in it you are the 40th bishop, and, as it turns out, you have served at the Vyatka See longer than any of your predecessors. So, your portrait is now in the gallery of your Vyatka predecessors, at the same time, your photograph is in the gallery of the annual church calendar of the Moscow Patriarchate, among the portraits of the current bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church. Which portrait feels more organic?

Not an easy question. One should not think that before 1917 it was easier for the bishops than now, that then there was only grace. But what has always been dear to me about my Vyatka bishop predecessors is that they were raised in the Church from childhood. This is extremely important! The rules and laws of church life were the laws of their life. Over the past 70 years, the tradition of growth and education in the Church has been so lost that probably another 70 years must pass before the connection of times is at least somewhat restored.

Of course, I also joined the army at one time, served in a construction battalion for three and a half years, and at that time I was sort of cut off from the Church. This, of course, could not but affect me at all. But the fact that I was raised in the faith from childhood saved me from a lot, and when there was nothing to feed spiritually, my faith did not weaken, but even strengthened.

In 2001, a church court was elected everywhere in the dioceses, in particular, and in the Vyatka diocese it was headed by the abbot of the Trifonov Monastery, Abbot Job. However, life has shown that the prerogative of the most important decisions still remains with the ruling bishop. Are you a supporter of collegial management or do you prefer to independently resolve all the most important and controversial issues of the diocese?

I am a proponent of the idea that if there is the slightest doubt, one should seek advice. And if I am absolutely sure of something, then I believe that in exceptional cases I can make a decision myself. It’s always useful to get advice, even if you already have a solution ready internally. Even when I was setting up my office after renovation, I invited my employees to listen to their opinions. It can't get any worse, maybe they'll say something I don't see. Not to mention other, more serious issues. And often it doesn’t matter whether the advice is from a specialist or a simple grandmother-parishioner, because an outside perspective is important here.

Should a bishop in his diocese be, so to speak, a spiritual leader, or is it enough for him to be a good manager?

Bishops have different talents - one can be a good builder, another a good manager, a third a preacher, and someone has a special talent for clergy. But if the bishop is not a good builder, a specialist can be found in the diocese for this role. But no one and nothing can replace the priesthood of a bishop, even if he does not have a very great talent for this from the Lord. A bishop must be a spiritual father, because his ministry is, first of all, service to God and people.

***

Archpastor of the land of Vyatka

Oleg Chetverikov, Vyatka (Kirov) 06/29/2007 Blagovest

To the 70th anniversary of the birth of Metropolitan Chrysanthus of Vyatka and Sloboda

Bishop Chrysanthus (in the world Yakov Antonovich Chepil) was born on June 24, 1937 in the village of Berezovka, Koretsky district, Rivne region. His father Anton Dmitrievich Chepil died in 1941 at the front of the Great Patriotic War. Throughout her life, Vladyka’s mother Daria Petrovna was, like no one else, close to her son, helping him with deed, word and advice.

Corner of Holy Rus'

The village of Berezovka in Western Ukraine is very small, about a hundred households. But, as they say, small is the spool, but expensive. This was a corner of Holy Rus', which remained intact until 1949, when Soviet power was finally established in Western Ukraine. Here every girl dreamed of marrying a future priest. And if a young man entered the seminary, this raised the authority of the whole family.

Young people from a very early age absorbed all Orthodox traditions. During the fasts, there was no fast food in the houses: every single one of them fasted. They prepared for the holiday of the Nativity of Christ for a whole month. 14-15 year old teenagers made a doll nativity scene, created figurines of the Magi, King Herod, and soldiers with sabers. They gathered for rehearsals, and then walked around the village with a nativity scene to please their fellow villagers with a Christmas performance. More than a dozen children took part in it. It happened that they took the nativity scene to neighboring villages, and the local youth came to Berezovka with their performance. Often three or four people walked with the Star of Bethlehem on a wooden pole to glorify Christ. Without carols, without a Christmas nativity scene, people simply could not imagine this holiday. And on Christmas itself it seemed to everyone that the stars were shining differently, and the earth was rejoicing at the Born Savior.

When the authorities tried to close the church in Berezovka under Khrushchev, both old and young came running to its defense. People with small children came, old people hobbled, and surrounded the temple like a solid wall. Seeing such a unanimous impulse of the people, the authorities abandoned their intention.

The love of the residents of Berezovka for their temple was simply amazing. They wore their best, festive clothes to church. And for major church holidays, even older people tried to sew new clothes for themselves. It was considered a duty to help a poor family make beautiful clothes for the temple. The church choir consisted of more than thirty people. But the love for church singing was universal: the main hymns and all the holiday troparia at Divine services were sung by the entire parish.

Bishop Chrysanthos carried this love for church singing and divine services throughout his life: both when he served as a psalm-reader and regent in the village of Novoselitsa, Stavropol diocese, and when he led the student church choir at the Moscow Theological Seminary, and when, while studying at the Moscow Theological Academy, he served as regent’s obedience. in Moscow churches. And now, when the Bishop performs Divine Services, the harmonious singing of the priests serving him magnificently alternates with the singing of the bishop’s choir, imitating the heavenly harmony of angelic singing.

Three sisters

Blessed is the family that has at least one monk. According to church tradition, he can beg his family to the seventh generation. The family of Bishop Chrysanthus raised three sisters in the older generation, who, like fragrant lilies, adorned the Church of Christ. Two of the sisters were nuns, and the third was the Bishop’s mother.

Nun Angelina labored in the Holy City of Jerusalem even before the First World War. Having come home to visit Ukraine, she was unable to return due to the outbreak of hostilities. She had to complete her earthly journey in the Florovsky Monastery in Kyiv. Vladyka’s second aunt, nun Manefa, spent her entire life in the Koretsky monastery in the Rivne region. She was an excellent needlewoman, sewed miters and founded a gold-embroidery school in the monastery. The Koretsky Monastery never closed and therefore retained the spirit of the former country. The yard was well-groomed, there were vineyards everywhere, horses grazed in the meadow, and a beautiful monastery apiary was in operation. There was also an orphanage in the monastery for girls who lived there until the age of seventeen, and then remained in the monastery or got married.

The Lord determined for the future Master to live in this amazing place for some time. And it turned out like this. At the age of twelve he became seriously ill with pneumonia, which at that time was difficult to treat. Mom Daria Petrovna brought her son to his aunt at the monastery. And in almost three weeks the nuns got him back on his feet. For the rest of his life, the caring attitude of the nuns of the monastery and their fervent prayer for his health remained in his heart. Having remained here for some time after his recovery, the future Bishop fell in love with the beauty and splendor of the monastic services and the strict image of monastic life. Here a burning desire to serve God arose in the young man’s heart.

This desire of his son was supported by his mother Daria Petrovna with all the strength of her soul. The love for the Church was passed on to him with his mother's milk. His mother accompanied him throughout the entire path of his episcopal service. Together with him, she went from Leningrad to the distant Vyatka diocese, where there was the only functioning church in the entire regional center. But she loved the Vyatka religious people with all her heart. Vladyka often recalls his mother’s words that at his first bishop’s service in Kirov, the candles on the candlesticks burned like bonfires.

It was only by the Providence of God that the maternal feat of Daria Petrovna was captured on a par with the service of her son - in the image of the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, after whom they were named.

Leave... to church

The choice of the life path of the future Bishop coincided with the beginning of Khrushchev’s persecution of the Church. The Kyiv Theological Seminary was on the verge of closure. Seminarian Yakov Chepil, who was called up for military service in the Stavropol construction battalion, was also not allowed to graduate.

The head of the political unit and the head of the special department immediately took aim at the believing soldier. At first, ideological conversations were held with him; he was offered to renounce God, promising in return various earthly blessings and assistance in a secular career. The future shepherd did not break down and did not renounce Christ. Then they began to test him in hard work. They were alerted at night to unload the wagons with cement. Several disgraced soldiers accounted for sixty tons of cement, which was often unloaded without respiratory protection. Cement dust corroded the eyes and clogged the airways. This “procedure” undermined his physical health, and since then Vladyka, having excellent singing abilities, often suffers from pulmonary diseases.

In order to “re-educate” a religiously minded soldier, he was enrolled in an army amateur performance group. But soon the authorities didn’t like the fact that “this soldier was singing like he was on the choir,” and he was removed from the stage. However, the rank and file loved the seminarian in uniform for his cordial attitude towards people, warmth and responsiveness. And they even stood up for the officers, but they were accused of falling under the influence of an alien ideology.

Most of all, the army authorities did not like the fact that during his leave, soldier Yakov went to church. They could not forgive him for this and he was transferred to another military unit. Thus, three years of military service passed through difficult trials. The army did not harden the young man, but further strengthened him in his intention to devote his life to serving the Church.

However, the Kiev Theological Seminary, where Yakov studied before the army, was already closed, and Zagorskaya was on the verge of closure. It would seem that under these conditions it is pointless to receive spiritual education. Some people in Zagorsk broke windows in the seminary building, and on Easter they threw stones at the religious procession. The police did not respond to such calls. During these difficult years, Yakov was able to complete his studies at the Zagorsk Theological Seminary and entered the Theological Academy. Soon Khrushchev was removed from power in the USSR, and the persecution of the Church became less fierce.

Good Shepherd

Years of study at Moscow Theological schools taught the future pastor to live in the interests of the Church. After severe persecution, the Russian Church was sorely short of priests and bishops. And the future Vladyka was seriously preparing to bear the burden of shepherding. At that moment, the then rector of the Theological Academy, and now Metropolitan of Minsk and Slutsk Filaret (Vakhromeev) played a huge role in his life. He convinced him to take monasticism in the future and ordained him to the rank of deacon. The ordination took place on July 18, 1967, on the feast of St. Sergius of Radonezh.

And on March 15, 1970, Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) of Leningrad and Novgorod, he was ordained a priest and a few months later appointed rector of the Holy Cross Cathedral in the city of Petrozavodsk and dean of the Olonets district. A year later, the young priest took monastic vows with the name Chrysanthus. Through his efforts, the cathedral in Petrozavodsk was repaired and a wonderful church choir was created. More people began to go to the churches of the Olonets deanery. People felt the pastoral care of their dean. And therefore, when, in the ninth year of his service in Karelia, Archimandrite Chrysanthos was appointed to the Kirov See, there was a commotion among the believers. They were sorry to part with their father. Young and old came to see him off at the station. The whole platform was in flowers. Everyone wanted to receive a fatherly blessing and say goodbye words of gratitude. “I just couldn’t help but cry,” Vladyka recalls about this day of his life.

Fortieth Bishop

The young Bishop arrived in the city with the revolutionary name Kirov by plane immediately after his consecration. His naming as Bishop of Kirov and Slobodsky took place in the academic church of the Leningrad Theological Academy on April 23, 1978, and his consecration took place in the Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. The young Bishop Chrysanthos became the fortieth Bishop of the Vyatka diocese. He knew that this was one of the oldest departments in the Russian Orthodox Church. And as soon as the opportunity presented itself, the Lord immediately returned it to its historical name. But he had no idea about the deplorable state of his diocese...

The bishop's house turned out to be a small hut with through cracks in the walls. The only one in the entire regional center, the Seraphim Cathedral (and in fact, a small temple with two altars) had a neglected appearance. The church was terribly crowded and stuffy, but there could be no talk of opening a second church in the city. Only 32 churches out of 866 that were in the diocese before the revolution operated in the huge diocese. During the years of Soviet power, the Kirov region was turned into an experimental testing ground for the complete destruction of Orthodoxy.

There was an acute shortage of priests in the diocese, and the authorities did not allow the ordination of new pastors. Vladyka recalls that at that time there were only six priests in Kirov, and not a single one in the city of Slobodskoye. In 1982, the first ordinations of the Vladyka’s young proteges began.

At that time, Vladyka traveled especially a lot throughout the diocese, considering it his duty to provide spiritual care to the parishes. He performed divine services in the farthest corners of the diocese: within the walls of ancient churches and in cramped houses of worship. At the end of the Brezhnev era, there were almost no paved roads in the Kirov region. A little rain turned the roads into an impassable mess. Cars were towed by tractors to the nearest village. Any trip around the region could last a week or more. In August 1979, Vladyka was in a car accident near the city of Sovetsky, after which he could not serve until the winter.

On these trips around the diocese, Vladyka Chrysanthus was accompanied by two constant companions - subdeacons Alexander and Eugene, both natives of the Vyatka land, and now - Bishops of the Russian Church. With the appointment of the Bishop to the Kirov See, Alexander left his studies at the Leningrad Theological Academy and came to Kirov to assist the young Bishop. Through their efforts, a “lower temple” appeared in the St. Seraphim Church, converted from a former basement. Over time, a whole town grew up around the church with buildings for a Sunday school, a refectory, a sewing workshop and a garage.

The first sign of church revival in Vyatka was the Trinity Church in the trans-river part of the city of Kirov. It was this temple that became the first registered new church parish in the USSR. Rumors of this amazing event reached the US Congress. And in the year of the Millennium of the Baptism of Rus', a delegation of the American Congress specially visited Kirov in order to make sure that the church was really open.

And the spiritual friendship between the three Bishops has not ceased to this day. And today, Archbishop of Kostroma and Galich Alexander (Mogilev) and the rector of Moscow theological schools, Archbishop of Vereisky Evgeniy (Reshetnikov) often come to Vyatka and, together with Vladyka Chrysanthus, perform the bishop’s service in the Assumption Cathedral of the Trifonov Monastery, the return of which they once could only dream of.

First Vyatka Metropolitan

Vladyka Chrysanthos has been performing his archpastoral service on the Vyatka land for almost thirty years. Now he is a leisurely, gray-haired old man. Not paying attention to his physical infirmities, he performs the All-Night Vigil and Liturgy on every Sunday and holiday.

According to his custom, in the altar the Bishop talks very warmly with his proteges, who have just received the grace of the priesthood. As a spiritual father, he tries to warn the inexperienced shepherd from mistakes, gives instructions and advice. After such conversations, young priests glow with happiness.

This is how Metropolitan Chrysanthos himself once admitted in an interview with a newspaper: “Bishops have different talents - one can be a good builder, another a good manager, a third a preacher, and someone has a special talent for clergy. But if the Bishop is not a good builder, a specialist can be found in the diocese for this role. But no one and nothing can replace the clergy of the Bishop.”

Not only priests, but also young couples who want to enter into a church marriage come to the Bishop for advice; conscripts leaving for military service, applicants dreaming of enrolling in a prestigious university. Everyone asks for the Bishop’s prayers. “You ask the Lord to pray,” many admit, “and everything really works out.”

It is not the Bishop who carries stones and kneads mortar during the construction of a temple, but temples are erected through the prayers of the Lord. For many years they built a new beautiful church in Vyatka in the name of the holy martyrs Faith, Nadezhda, Love and their mother Sophia, the foundation stone of which was consecrated by Patriarch Alexy II himself in 1994. Construction progress was difficult. And all these years, Vladyka fervently prayed that the Lord would grant him the privilege of seeing this temple completed. And so, when the day of the solemn consecration of the temple arrived, the Bishop, with tears in his eyes, confessed to all the believers and benefactor guests that he had prayed to God to live to see this day.

Year after year, the Vyatka land is decorated with new churches and monasteries, the Vyatka flock is multiplying, the river of the Velikoretsky Cross Procession, which has become all-Russian, is becoming more and more full-flowing. Considering his numerous merits and such a long period of episcopal service at the department, in 2004, for the first time in the history of the local Church, the Vyatka Bishop was awarded the rank of Metropolitan. Metropolitan Chrysanthos assesses this unprecedented event in the history of the Vyatka land as follows: “God destined me to become a Metropolitan. But this is not my personal reward, but the entire Vyatka land. It was given to all Orthodox people of Vyatka, and everyone contributed to this matter with their prayers and labors.”

It has become a good tradition that on the day of remembrance of the Hieromartyr Mikhail Tikhonitsky, glorified as a saint in 2003, his descendants come to the Vyatka land. This year, the great-granddaughter of Father Mikhail Anna Laffont, great-grandson Ivan Drobot with his wife Tatyana and three children came from France. Great-granddaughter Kira Selvinskaya and her daughter Natalya arrived from Moscow. Along with the city of Orlov, where Mikhail Tikhonitsky served as archpriest of the Kazan Cathedral, who in 1918 became one of the first victims of the “red terror” on Vyatka soil, the guests also visited Kirovo-Chepetsk.
Today, their arrival coincided with another memorable date for the Tikhonitsky family - the 50th anniversary of the blessed death of Archbishop of Kirov and Slobodsky Veniamin, the eldest son of Mikhail Tikhonitsky.

Vladyka Benjamin
By the beginning of the 1940s, the Kirov diocese was practically destroyed. Only 6 churches remained operating on its territory, and the diocese itself has not had a ruling bishop since 1937. Only in 1942 did Archbishop Veniamin (Tikhonitsky) take over its management.
He was born in 1869 in Izhevsk into the family of a priest. He received his theological education at the Vyatka Theological Seminary and since 1891 served as a priest in the village. Yuma Kotelnichsky district. Since 1894, Father Veniamin served as a priest in the city of Vyatka for more than 40 years, enjoying the fame of an outstanding and tireless preacher. He also conducted extensive educational and charitable activities. After the October Revolution of 1917, Father Veniamin was one of the closest assistants to the Vyatka Bishop Pavel (Borisovsky).
In 1942, by determination of the Holy Synod, the widowed Archpriest Veniamin Tikhonitsky was elevated to the rank of Bishop of Kirov and Slobodsky. From the first days of his episcopal service, Bishop Benjamin called on the parishes of the diocese to do their best to help the front and rear. In response to this, 355 thousand rubles were collected for the construction of an armored train. Bishop Veniamin gave another 100 thousand rubles to Marshal Konev in March 1944 for gifts to the most distinguished fighters. In April, Vladyka received a message of gratitude from Marshal I. Konev. After the war, Vladyka was awarded the medal “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.” In 1945 he was elevated to the rank of archbishop.
The post-war years were no less difficult for the diocese. And yet, through the diligence of Bishop Veniamin, new churches began to open in the diocese, including in villages. And in the city of Kirov, the Seraphim and Feodorovskaya churches were handed over to the believers. During the years of the archpastoral service of Veniamin Tikhonitsky - from 1942 to 1957 - the number of churches operating in the diocese increased to 75, and the number of clergy - to 118.
Archbishop Benjamin died on April 2, 1957. The body of the saint was buried in the crypt of the St. Seraphim Cathedral.

Man's path to God(from childhood memories)
The first post-war years. A small wooden house on K. Liebknecht Street. A large white beard is very soft and silky. And she always smelled delicious. I felt all this not from the outside, but in direct contact: its owner often took me on his lap. And it felt like I was in a cocoon of warmth, affection and peace.
I remember that every time my grandmother Zinaida Pavlovna Cherepanova and I came to this house, we were seated at a table - large, covered with a white tablecloth. And - candy! The caramel is rectangular in shape with grooved patterns on the sides and has a fruit filling inside. And all this splendor is wrapped in beautiful opaque wrappers, the ends of which are not twisted, but folded into a triangle.
I knew that a priest lived here. Who he is, what his name is, maybe then, in childhood, I knew that too. But the name was erased from memory. All that was left was a feeling of warmth, comfort and security. They lived somewhere in the corners of memory, not floating up, but warming with a constant, unconscious warmth. And only relatively recently, having seen a portrait of Bishop Veniamin Tikhonitsky in the anniversary edition of “Archpastors of the Vyatka Land,” I instantly understood that it was he, the same priest who held me on his knees and baptized me in his house on a quiet Vyatka street. I also remembered his baptismal gift - a blue enamel cross. Where, when, how did he get lost?
What a pity that my grandmother died a long time ago - blessed memory to her! And there is no one to ask: how did she know the bishop? But I am absolutely sure that both Bishop Veniamin and his parishioner, my grandmother, have not left me all these years. And it was Vladyka who directed me to the Church, to everything that I live by now.
Save him, Lord!
Quiz Plotnikova

Both churches that will be discussed were built at the beginning of the twentieth century in Vyatka according to the design of the same architect - Ivan Apollonovich Charushin. Both were designed by him in the neo-Russian style - one of the directions of Art Nouveau. Both churches were closed in the 1930s and then returned to the believers. Then their fates diverged - the Feodorovsky temple was closed, then destroyed; and Serafimovsky for many years became the only functioning church in a city with a population of almost half a million. Only in the late 1980s did the Vyatka diocese manage to resume services in another church within the city - Trinity - in the former settlement of Makarye.

Seraphim Cathedral. View from the southwest.

Church in the name of St. Seraphim of Sarov was originally built for the Edinoverie community of the city of Vyatka. Since 1902, co-religionists have used the Church of the Three Hierarchs of the Assumption Trifonov Monastery for services. But soon the official spiritual authorities, who strongly support Edinoverie, decide to build a new church for the small (about 170 people) Vyatka community of Edinoverists. The foundation stone of the temple took place on June 13, 1904.

Seraphim Church. Postcard beginning XX century. View of the church from the southeast.

The creation of the temple project was entrusted to the provincial architect I.A. Charushin. Ivan Apollonovich developed several building projects (one of them is shown below in the photograph). The first version of the project envisaged the construction of a wooden church, but then the patrons and diocesan authorities decided to build a stone church. The building was erected at the expense of Vyatka merchants Ya.F. Tyryshkina and K.K. Yarunin, the latter donated a small plot of land for the temple in the southern part of the city - at the corner of Orlovskaya and Uspenskaya streets (now Uritsky Street).

Seraphim Cathedral. Amateur photograph from the 1960s (?) View from the southeast.

In 1906, the construction of the temple was completed, and on November 17, 1907, His Grace Filaret, Bishop of Vyatka and Slobodskaya, performed the rite of its consecration. The patron saint of the temple was the Monk Seraphim, the Sarov wonderworker, highly revered among his fellow believers.
The allocated plot of land was very small and was surrounded by houses on all sides except the east. In this situation, Charushin came up with a very original solution to the problem - he placed the entrances to the temple on the eastern side, from Uspenskaya Street, through open galleries that began on both sides of the altar apse. These entrances with two small staircases are clearly visible on a pre-revolutionary postcard (see above). Two more entrances to the galleries were located at their ends. There, in the two western lockers, there were entrances directly to the temple building itself.

Seraphim Cathedral. Amateur photograph from the 1980s. View from the southwest.

The building is based on a cube, the hipped roof of which is decorated with two rows of decorative kokoshniks and five small (also decorative) onion domes. The domes of the central volume and the altar apse are raised on cube pedestals. Lockers and a three-tiered bell tower are crowned with tents. All the bases of the domes are also surrounded by kokoshniks. The temple is double-height, originally with two rows of windows from the south and north. The altar apse is pentagonal. In some details, the cathedral resembles traditional wooden Russian churches and stone churches of Moscow Rus' from the pattern era. The building turned out to be very elegant, and compared to the rest of the city churches of Vyatka, the Seraphim Church looked very unusual. Initially, the facades of the church were lined with red facing bricks, and individual decorative elements were made of opoka (white stone). Later the walls were painted over with red lead.

I.A. Charushin. Project of the building of the Seraphim Church. Northern façade.

After the revolution, the authorities intended to close the temple and set up a school in it, but for some reason they changed their minds and forgot about it for a long time. They closed it, almost the last of all the churches in Vyatka, just before the war - in 1940 - and set up a museum of atheism in it. In 1942, Bishop Veniamin (Tikhonitsky) was appointed to the Vyatka See, which had been widowed for five years. He was asked to open any of the city churches that remained intact for worship. His Grace Veniamin chose the Seraphim Church, since its preservation was almost perfect. Since the temple building housed a museum of atheism, icons from some destroyed Vyatka churches were collected there. In addition, for the very small church community at that time, the temple was suitable in size and did not require large heating costs in the winter.

Seraphim Cathedral. View from the south.

In subsequent years, Bishop Veniamin managed to open another church in Kirov - Feodorovsky, which I have yet to talk about. And the Seraphim Church for many years became the cathedral of the Vyatka diocese. Now the chair of the Vyatka bishop has been moved to the Assumption Cathedral of the Trifonov Monastery, but the Seraphim Church has retained its cathedral status.
In the early 1960s, during another persecution, the Fedorovsky Church was closed. The only place of common prayer for Orthodox Vyatchans remained the church of St. Seraphim. Despite numerous requests, until the end of the 80s the authorities did not allow at least one more church to be opened for worship in the city. On major holidays, the church was filled with people praying. In order to somehow solve this problem, St. Seraphim Cathedral was rebuilt twice. At first, the galleries were closed, and the walls of the temple from the south and north were cut through. So the temple was expanded, a chapel was consecrated in one of the former eastern lockers, and a sacristy was located in the other. In the early 80s, Bishop. Chrysanthus (Chepil), in order to somehow get out of the desperate situation of lack of space, decided to build another chapel in the former basement of the cathedral. Enormous efforts and resources were spent, and for some time services had to be performed with a gaping hole in the floor, but the lower church was nevertheless consecrated.

Seraphim Cathedral. View from the southeast.

The interior of the temple is very simple, there are no paintings. The original iconostasis has not survived, but some of the icons of the current iconostasis may belong to the previous one. Until recently, the church housed a revered copy of the miraculous Velikoretsk Icon of St. Nicholas, the main shrine of the Vyatka diocese. The annual multi-day Velikoretsk religious procession to the place of the appearance of the holy icon begins with a liturgy and prayer service in the Seraphim Cathedral.
A parishioner of the St. Seraphim Cathedral was the illustrious ROCOR in the ranks of the new martyrs, Boris Talantov.

The fate of the second temple, which will be discussed, is also very unusual. Its history begins in the spring of 1914, when Nikandr (Phenomenov) was elected Bishop of Vyatka and Slobodsk. The newspaper “Vyatka Speech” on the day of the foundation stone of the new church, June 15, 1915, reported that “Reverend Nikander, upon his arrival at the Vyatka See, paid serious attention to the lack of parish churches in the northern and southern parts of the city of Vyatka. The City Duma, at the request of the Vyatka bishop, gave way in the northern and southern parts of the city for the construction of churches, and the first construction began in the southern part of the city. The Reverend Nikandr made the first contribution to this holy cause, allocating a thousand rubles from his personal funds.” The proposed temple in the northern part of the city was never erected.

View of the bank of the Vyatka River and the Theodore Church from the Alexandrosky Garden. Photo from the 1950s (?)

A very beautiful place was chosen for the new temple - on the steep bank of the Vyatka River, at the beginning of Morozovskaya Street (now Rosa Luxemburg Street). The view of the city of Vyatka from across the river a hundred years ago was a very picturesque sight. Exiled to Vyatka M.E. Saltykov (Shchedrin) described his impressions of the beautiful panorama of the city as follows: “When you approach it on a summer evening, from the side of the river, and from afar your eyes will see the city garden abandoned on the steep bank, public places and this beautiful group of churches that dominates the whole surroundings - you will not take your eyes off this picture" ("Provincial Sketches"). The new temple was supposed to complement this wonderful ensemble of city churches.
In 1913, a solemn nationwide celebration of the 300th anniversary of the reigning dynasty of the Romanovs took place. In memory of this event, it was decided to consecrate the lower altar of the temple construction begun in 1915 in honor of the Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God - a shrine of the Romanov family. So the church received the name Feodorovskaya or Romanovskaya among the people. The sad story of the closure and destruction of the temple may also be connected with this second name. The last rector of the Feodorovsky Church, Archpriest German Dubovtsev, told how in the early 1960s the head of the church community came to a reception at the Kirov City Council. “What issue are you talking about?” the official asked displeasedly. “I’m coming to you about the repair of the Romanov Church,” answered the elder. “What?! What kind of ROMANOV church?” the official became furious. “Do we have a church in honor of the Romanovs in our city? Do we live under Soviet rule or not?!” So, perhaps because of a reservation (the elder could have called the church Feodorovskaya, but out of old habit he said Romanovskaya), the fate of the temple was decided. Soon it was closed for worship and then demolished.

Feodorovskaya Church. View from the west. Photo from the 1950s (?)

The Feodorovsky Church, like the Edinoverie Seraphimovsky Church, was built according to the design of I.A. Charushina. If in the design of the Seraphim Church the architect drew inspiration from the appearance of the churches of Moscow in the 17th century, then in the appearance of the Feodorovskaya Church the influence of Novgorod and Pskov temple architecture is noticeable. I will list only some characteristic details: the austere appearance of the building - stinginess in decor; gable gables; Pskov belfry - instead of a bell tower. It is interesting that Charushin did not abandon multi-domes this time, only the decorative domes received a different form - not onions (as in the appearance of the St. Seraphim Church), but “tongues of flame”. The temple, small in volume, looks tall, reaching into the sky.

Feodorovskaya Church, view from the east, from the river. Photo from the 1950s (?)
Feodorovskaya Church. View from the southwest. Photo from the 1950s (?)

It is interesting to note that in the book by B.V. Zyrina "Architect Charushin" there is not a word about the Feodorovsky Church. The author writes: “After 1914, due to the World War, construction in the province almost stopped…” (Kirov. 1989, p.48). In the preface to the book, B. Zyrin notes: “Only the main, so to speak, landmark works known to this day are considered here, although the total number of capital structures completed by Charushin only within the former Vyatka province, according to his personal statement, reaches 500. In connection with Due to the limited space of the book, it was not possible to list them here" (Ibid. P.5). What do these words mean - “limited volume of the book”? Not enough paper? Or maybe the reason is different - if this list were published, it would turn out that a very significant part of Charushin’s buildings are temples? And in many items on the list one would have to write: “the church is destroyed” or “abandoned, in a ruined state.” Maybe this is exactly what the publishers of a small book with a volume of 96 pages and a circulation of 4,000 copies were afraid of?

Feodorovskaya Church, view from across the river. Photo from the 1950s (?) (from the website of Theodore Church).

According to Charushin's design, the church was supposed to be two-story. By the fall of 1915, the construction and decoration of the lower church was completed, and its consecration took place on November 15. A year later, in October 1916, an independent parish was opened. It is interesting that the construction of the upper church continued after October 1917 and was completed (presumably) at the end of 1918. In 1930, the Feodorovskaya Church was closed, and military warehouses were located in the building. The former temple became the object of strict protection.
During the Great Patriotic War, a collection point was located in the temple building. Another legend from the history of Theodore Church is connected with this time. In July 1941, Lenin's body was evacuated from the mausoleum in Moscow to Tyumen. The secret train was traveling through Kirov. For several days and nights, the mummy of the leader of the world proletariat was kept in the building of the former Feodorovskaya Church.

Feodorovskaya Church. Photos from the 1950s (?) View from the south.

After the war, the church building was vacant. And so, in the spring of 1946, after repeated petitions from believers, the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR allowed the church to be opened for worship. The Vyatka diocese was slowly restored. If by the fall of 1941 only 6(!) churches remained operational throughout the region (not a single one in the city of Kirov), then by the end of the 50s almost 70 churches had already been opened.
In the early 1960s, the campaign against religion in the USSR gained a “second wind.” As elsewhere, church communities began to be deregistered in the Kirov region; and then the temples assigned to them were closed and transferred to local authorities for various needs or were demolished. One of the churches operating in the city of Kirov, Feodorovskaya, did not escape this fate. Only on the second attempt, in the fall of 1962, the Council for Religious Affairs under the USSR Council of Ministers allowed the Kirov Regional Executive Committee to deregister the church community, which was done. It was decided to demolish the church building. It was blown up and then broken down using tractor tanks.

In 1974, during the celebration of the 600th anniversary of the city of Kirov, local authorities decided to erect a monument dedicated to the city on the site of the bombed church. It was founded on the so-called “time capsule” - a steel cylinder in which samples of products from Kirov enterprises and so on were placed, but the main artifact of the capsule was a “message to descendants.” The capsule was to be opened in 2074 on the 700th anniversary of the city. There are two curious things to note here. The first - in 1957, the city authorities celebrated the 500th anniversary of the city, but then changed their minds and decided that the city was not 500, but 600 years old, and the year of its “foundation” was 1374, and they celebrated the new anniversary with pomp. The second curiosity is not a secret with what words the “message to descendants” began: “We envy you who built communism...”. All this would be funny if only it weren’t for the memory of the destroyed temple.

Interior of Theodore Church. Photo from 1960 (?) (from the GASPIKO funds).

To complete the picture, mention should be made of the events of recent years. In 2002, the city administration allowed the Vyatka diocese to begin work on the restoration of the Feodorovskaya Church. At the design stage, it became clear that the embankment would not support the heavy stone building - landslides would begin. It was decided to abandon the original plan to restore the church according to Charushin’s design. In 2006, the Vyatka diocese proposed to build a small wooden temple on this site - a copy of the Vladimir Church at the residence of the President of the Russian Federation in Valdai, which was done - on August 25, 2007, the new Feodorovsky Church was consecrated.

Orthodoxy came to the Vyatka land at the end of the 12th century, when the Novgorod Ushkuiniki founded several fortified settlements on the Vyatka River, displacing the local tribes of Votyaks and Cheremis. In memory of God's gracious help that accompanied the first Vyatka residents, the Boriso-Gleb Religious Procession to the village of Nikulchino, the first Orthodox settlement on the Vyatka land, was established and continues to this day.
The official date of foundation of the center of the Vyatka land - the city of Vyatka (Khlynov) is considered to be 1374, although the oldest local chronicle - “The Tale of the Vyatka Country” mentions the founding of the city around 1174. There is an assumption that in the first years of its existence the Vyatka land, not which had its own episcopal see, was canonically subordinate to the Rostov diocese, one of the cities of which - Ustyug the Great - was the center of Russian colonization of the northeastern lands.
At the same time, at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, the most ancient Orthodox tradition of the Vyatka land arose - the procession to the Velikaya River to the site of the appearance in 1383 of the miraculous image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, which has since been unacceptably performed by the Vyatchans in the period from June 3 to June 8 (n ./st.) and collected up to 25 thousand pilgrims. After the entry of the Vyatka land into the Moscow state (1489), the Velikoretsk icon of St. Nicholas twice visited the capital of Russia - Moscow. The first time was in 1555 at the invitation of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, when one of the chapels of St. Basil's Cathedral was consecrated in honor of the Velikoretsk shrine, the other time was in 1614 during the reign of Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich. In 1657, the capital city was visited by another Vyatka shrine - the miraculous Image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, after which the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin received its name.
In the pre-diocesan period, up to 20 monasteries were founded within the Vyatka land, among which over time the Monastery of the Dormition of the Mother of God (now the Assumption Trifonov Monastery), founded in 1580 in Khlynov by a native of the Arkhangelsk land, the Monk Tryphon of Vyatka (+1612), acquired particular importance. . A younger contemporary and student of St. Tryphon was St. blzh. Procopius (+1628), who with his life showed the Vyatchans an example of meekness and non-covetousness. Their glorification as saints of the Russian Orthodox Church was prepared by the works of the first Vyatka bishops - Bishop Alexander (1657-1674) and Archbishop Jonah (Baranova, 1675-1699), who carefully examined local traditions and approved those of them that did not contradict the canons of Holy Orthodoxy. A contemporary of St. Tryphon of Vyatka was also St. Leonid of Ustnedumsky (+1654), who enlightened the northern regions of the Vyatka land with evangelical preaching.
With the establishment of the diocese, the first stone churches were built on Vyatka land. Among them are the Assumption Cathedral, the Preobrazhenskaya, Predtechenskaya, Nikolskaya, and Trekhsvyatitelskaya churches in Vyatka, the Catherine Cathedral in Slobodsky, the Annunciation Church in Yaransk, and the Trinity Church in the city of Vyatka, which have survived to this day. Kstinino, Znamenskaya Church village. Pasegovo - built at the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries.
Speaking about the bishops who ruled the Vyatka diocese for a significant time, one cannot fail to mention Bishop Bartholomew (Lyubarsky, 1758-1774) and his successor Bishop Lavrentiy (Baranovich, 1776-1796), who zealously cared for the development of spiritual education in Vyatka. Realizing the importance of spiritual enlightenment, Bishop Bartholomew founded the Vyatka Theological Seminary, which later became the spiritual and educational center of the Vyatka land. Located on the border with the “foreigners,” the Vyatka diocese was a stronghold of the Orthodox mission among the Votyaks (Udmurts), Cheremis (Mari) and Tatars. Among the bishop-preachers is Archbishop Apollos (Belyaev, 1864-1885), whose works, words, and speeches were widely known to the Vyatka flock.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Vyatka diocese had 866 parish churches, staffed by 1,853 clergy. In 13 monasteries of the diocese, more than 200 monastics and 1,300 novices and novices labored. The cathedral was the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Vyatka, in which the miraculous Velikoretsky image of St. Nicholas resided. Every year, in a “grassroots” religious procession, this shrine, together with a copy of the miraculous Image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, visited all the parishes of the diocese located on the Vyatka River, downstream from the provincial center. In total, in the city of Vyatka, for 56 thousand inhabitants there were more than 50 churches, including home and hospital churches.
The seeds of evangelical preaching, sown by Vyatka bishops and priests on the good soil of parish life, bore abundant fruit at the end of the 19th - first half of the 20th century, when the Vyatka land was adorned with a host of saints and devotees of piety. Among them are the locally revered saints of the Vyatka diocese, St. Stephen of Philei (+1890), known for his spiritual writings, and his disciple St. Matthew of Yaransky (+1927), as well as the new martyrs and confessors of Russia - Hieroconfessor Victor, Bishop of Glazov and the Hieromartyrs Presbyter Michael ( Tikhonitsky), Nikolai (Podyakov), Victor (Usov) and Prokopiy (Popov), holy martyr Nina (Kuznetsova).
The 1930s became a time of severe trials for the Vyatka diocese. In December 1937, in the internal prison of the NKVD of Kirov, the administrator of the diocese, Archbishop of Kirov and Slobodskaya Kiprian (Komarovsky), was shot. By the beginning of 1941, only 9 churches remained operating on the territory of the diocese. Many ancient churches were destroyed after the renaming of Vyatka to Kirov in 1934, including the blowing up of the unique Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, in which its author, architect A.L. Vitberg, embodied his project for the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
The revival of the diocese began during the Great Patriotic War with the appointment of Archbishop Veniamin (Tikhonitsky) to the dowager see, under which the number of operating churches increased to 80. However, in 1958 this church revival was interrupted by Khrushchev’s persecutions, as a result of which by the end of 1964 more 45 Vyatka churches were again closed and destroyed.
A new stage of church revival began in the late 1980s and is associated with Metropolitan Chrysanthus of Vyatka and Sloboda. Over the years, divine services have been revived in more than 120 Vyatka churches. The main shrine of the diocese has been restored - the Assumption Trifonov Monastery, which in 1994, for the first time in the history of the Vyatka land, was visited by His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II.
Today in the Vyatka diocese there are 9 monasteries and 175 parishes, where more than 200 clergy serve. Divine services are held in 165 churches, 14 houses of worship and 11 chapels. There are 17 churches operating within the regional center.
Since 1991, the activities of the Vyatka Theological School have been resumed.

From the book: “Belov V.N. (compiled) Archpastors of Vyatka and Sarapul on the Elabuga land. Series “The spiritual life of Elabuga - according to the pages of the Vyatka Diocesan Gazette of 1867-1916.” Elabuga, Publication of the Elabuga Branch of the Russian Geographical Society, 2015. – p. 192"

Bishop of Vyatka Nil. In the world Nikolai Fedorovich Isakovich. Born in 1799 in the village of Orekhi, Orsha district, Mogilev province.

Archbishop Neil (Isakovich) went down in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church as one of the most enlightened and active archpastors of the 19th century. He was appointed to the Vyatka See on December 8, 1835, by transfer from Yaroslavl, where for five years in the rank of archimandrite he headed the local seminary, paying special attention to overcoming the schism and the Orthodox mission among the pagans. The Vyatka See, to which he was consecrated on December 8, 1835, became the first in the life of the young bishop, who was barely 36 years old. Here Vladyka Nile met the heir to the throne - the future Emperor Alexander II, and took part in the opening of the Vyatka Public Library by A. I. Herzen. During the two and a half years that the young bishop spent in the city of Vyatka, up to 6 thousand Old Believers returned to the fold of Orthodoxy. On April 23, 1838, Bishop Nil was transferred to the city of Irkutsk, where his missionary activities covered all of Siberia and the Far East. Moreover, the support for this was the local seminary, the graduates of which Bishop Nil actively involved in the affairs of the mission. As a result, during the 15 years of his archpastorship, he founded more than 70 churches, including in the tundra of Yakutia and Kamchatka. At the end of 1853, Bishop Nil, in the rank of archbishop, was transferred to his native Yaroslavl. Here he completed his work “On Buddhism” and was elected an honorary member of St. Petersburg University. Archbishop Neil reposed peacefully in the Lord on June 21, 1874.

He was a holder of the Order of St. Anne, 2nd class. (1835), St. Anne 1 st. (1838), St. Vladimir 2 tbsp. Grand Cross (1842) and Alexander Nevsky (1852), was awarded panagias with diamonds (1847, 1856), a gold 2nd class badge of St. Nina Equal to the Apostles (1870), a bronze pectoral cross in memory of the war of 1853-1856, a diamond cross for wearing on a hood (1858).

It is known that it was Bishop Nil who became the prototype for the main character of N.S. Leskov’s story “At the End of the World,” at the beginning of which the bishop recalls his labors at the Vyatka cathedra.

In the very first year of his bishopric in Vyatka, the young archbishop undertakes a journey through the diocese entrusted to him, which lasts a relatively short time - from June 7 to June 25, 1836, i.e. only 18 days. However, during this period he manages to visit 33 parish villages and 3 district cities - Glazov, Elabuga and Malmyzh. Brief descriptions of the parishes visited, compiled by the Bishop himself, were published in the “Vyatka Diocesan Gazette” in 1908, and in this edition their fragment, relating directly to the Yelabuga region, is republished for the first time.