I.The relevance of research.

In connection with the announcement of 2012 as the year of Russian history, the study of the role of Orthodoxy and the Russian Orthodox Church in the victory of Russian weapons in the most difficult and dramatic periods is of particular importance. Russian history.

The purpose of our study is to study the spiritual and moral feat of the Orthodox Russian army, accomplished in different historical periods, when the fate of the existence of the Russian statehood itself, the people, their culture and faith, as the main spiritual component of human life, was being decided.

The objectives of the study are to present in chronological order the actions of the Russian Orthodox Church to unite the spiritual and moral forces of the Russian people in countering the forces that are trying to change the very course of our history, to erase the name of the largest and most recalcitrant country from political maps, destroy the world's greatest culture and its bearer - the Great Russian people.

Research methods. The limited time frame and the predicted volume of the study as a result of this made it possible to apply the following methods:

Analysis of legal documents on the research topic;

Use of digital educational resources of the Internet;

Analysis and systematization of the material;

Presentation of material on the topic of the conference "New Martyrs of Russia" in the form of an electronic presentation, text support and a message on the topic of the study.

II. The role of the Orthodox Russian clergy in the victory of Russian weapons on the Kulikovo field.

The history of Ancient Russia of the 14th century is the history of a hard and bloody struggle for the realization of oneself as an integral independent state.

The day of September 8, 1380 will be the beginning of the liberation of Russia from the Mongol yoke. The great Russian historian Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky assesses the significance of the battle as follows: “The political results of the victory on the Kulikovo field can hardly be overestimated. The success of Russian weapons destroyed the former belief in the invincibility of the Golden Horde, increased the number of supporters of the unification process and informed the Moscow prince of the importance of the national leader of Northern Russia.

Historical documents brought to us a description of the events preceding the battle. On the eve of the battle, on August 18, 1380, the Right-Believing Prince Dimitry of Moscow asked St. Sergius of Radonezh for a blessing for the Battle of Kulikovo and also asked for two soldiers, the brothers Peresvet and Oslyabya, to reinforce him. The vocation of warrior monks was primarily of spiritual significance. Saint Sergius gave them "instead of a corruptible weapon an incorruptible one - the cross of Christ, sewn on the schemas, and ordered them to put on themselves instead of gilded helmets." Parting words to the monk soldiers, St. Sergius said to them: “Peace be with you, my brothers, fight hard against the filthy Tatars as good warriors for the faith of Christ and for all Orthodox Christianity. dedicated to the highest bon of the sect of warriors - ”bon(g)-pon”. According to legend, he was invincible: he withstood 300 battles, and in all the enemy was defeated! Therefore, not just a warrior could cope with him, but a warrior of Christ, clothed with spiritual, God's strength.

After the victory, Prince Dmitry spoke to Sergius of Radonezh: “With your, father, favorites, and with my servants, he defeated his enemies. Your father, armourer, called Peresvet, defeated his like. And if, father, it were not for your armour, then, father, many Christians would have to drink a bitter cup from that! Since then, monk Peresvet has been canonized as a saint, and they serve for him and all those killed on the Kulikovo field a memorial Great Panikhida from year to year, as long as Russia stands!

(Holy warriors Rev. Alexander Peresvet and Andrei Oslyabya (of Radonezh). (ikonodel.ru/ikonograf/ikonografia/peresvet_i_oslyabya.htm)

III. The feat of the people and the Orthodox Russian clergy in the Patriotic War of 1812.

In the tenth chapter of A.S. Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" contains the lines:

"The storm of the twelfth year has come,

who helped us here - the frenzy of the people,

Barclay, winter or Russian God?

A partial answer to the writer's question about the role of the Orthodox faith and its ministers can be an analysis of documentary information about the participation of the Russian clergy in the Patriotic War of 1812.

In response to the tsar's manifesto, regimental priests began to serve in all the newly formed regiments of the Russian regular army and regiments of the people's militia. According to the archives of the Synod, in 1812 the department of the army clergy consisted of 240 people, about 200 of them participated in the Patriotic War. 14 regimental priests were wounded and shell-shocked during the war. The priest of the Chernigov Dragoon Regiment Zabuzhenkov died in the Battle of Borodino.

The priest of the 19th Jaeger Regiment - Vasily Vasilkovsky - a participant in the Vitebsk and Maloyaroslavets battles. He became the first Knight of St. George, receiving the Order of St. George 4th class as a reward. He died in France in 1813, during a campaign abroad.

The material values ​​of the Russian Orthodox Church were also sacrificed on the altar of the Fatherland. The archives of the Holy Synod contain reports from the bishops of 32 dioceses on donations for the needs of the people's militia, according to which 2,405,076 rubles were collected. 60 kop. banknotes, 20761 rubles. 89 kop. silver.

As for the Russian soldier, with God's help and led by wise military leaders, he not only liberated Russia from the enemy, but once again became the liberator of Europe, thus earning the respect and memory of his descendants!

(Yu.A. Kobyakov "The Russian Orthodox Church in the War of 1812". topwar.ru)

(Vyacheslav Kotkov "Military Clergy of Russia".

IV. The unity of church and state during the Great Patriotic War 1941 - 1945.

Relations between the Soviet state and the Russian Orthodox Church in the prewar years were complex and contradictory.
It is impossible to deny the persecution and repression against the Russian clergy and the destruction of churches, the holding of mass anti-church actions and the confiscation of church property in the interests of the state.

At the same time, it cannot be denied that the population Soviet Union for the most part remained religious! With the beginning of the war, the common threat forced them to forget mutual grievances and consolidate the forces of the people to repulse the enemy. Appeals of Patriarchal Locum Tenens Sergius to the faithful and I.V. Stalin to the citizens of the Soviet Union have a common spiritual message - the unity of all forces to defeat the enemy. This natural, understandable duality of the spiritual and moral choice of an ordinary person is reflected in K. Simonov's poem "Do you remember, Alyosha, the roads of the Smolensk region", written in the most bitter days of the autumn of 1941.

As if behind every Russian outskirts,

Protecting the living with the cross of their hands,

Having come together with the whole world, our great-grandfathers pray

For their unbelieving grandchildren in God.

In addition to these trembling prayers, there were other church deeds that brought closer the Great Victory, common for atheists and believers.

The Church immediately drew the attention of believers to the fact that Hitler's propaganda hypocritically promised to restore religious freedom to our people. On the contrary, fascism aims to destroy all religious confessions on the territory of the USSR and replace them with sectarian, pagan and occult organizations. Therefore, while defending the territory of our Motherland, we are also defending the right to preserve our traditional faith. “Not the swastika, but the Cross is called to lead our Christian culture, our Christian life,” Metropolitan Sergius wrote in his Easter message on April 2, 1942.

Fundraising begins to help the front among believers for gifts to soldiers, for the maintenance of wounded, orphaned children.

At the initiative of the Church, funds are being raised to create a tank column named after. Dmitry Donskoy, then - to an aviation squadron. In total, during the war years, more than 300 million rubles were contributed from the Russian Orthodox Church to the Defense Fund.

The active role of the Russian Orthodox Church in resisting the invaders was highly appreciated by the leadership of the party and the state. In a telegram to the Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Sergius dated February 25, 1943, I.V. Stalin wrote: “I ask you to convey to the Orthodox clergy and believers who have collected 6 million rubles, gold and silver things for the construction of a tank column named after Dmitry Donskoy, my sincere greetings and gratitude to the Red Army ".

The patriotic activity of the Russian Orthodox Church and its leadership in the first years of the war played an important, if not decisive, role in the abrupt change by the authorities in their attitude towards the Church for the better.

Previously closed parishes are beginning to open throughout the country (only from January to November 1944, more than 200 churches were opened; clergymen are ordained, spiritual education is resumed - the Theological Institute opens in Moscow, clergymen return from prisons, camps and exiles).

The Orthodox Church begins to gradually revive. This is evidenced by the following facts: from 1941 to 1951. in the Russian Orthodox Church, the number of registered parishes increased by almost 5 times and amounted to approximately 14.5 thousand, the number of monasteries reached 89 (out of 4.6 thousand monastics).

So, in a time of difficult trials for the country, the Church, by its disinterested patriotic service, convinced the authorities not only of its loyalty to it, but also of devotion to its country and people, fidelity to its vocation - to be the spiritual shepherd of the Orthodox people.

"Russian Orthodox Church during the Great Patriotic War"

(http://voinstvo.com/528.html)

( S.G. Kryukov. "ROC during the Great Patriotic War" svoim.info)

VI. Test of Spiritual Strength: modern Russia in the confrontation with religious fanaticism and international terrorism.

The collapse of the Soviet Union became another fateful milestone on the path of the peoples of Russia.

The bloody fratricidal Chechen military campaigns have become another severe test of faith and loyalty - the loyalty of the Russian soldier to the military oath and the Orthodox faith - the constant companion of the Russian Christ-loving army for centuries.

On December 11, 1994, on the basis of the decree of the President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin “On measures to suppress the activities of illegal armed groups on the territory of the Chechen Republic”, units of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia entered the territory of Chechnya. A new series of Caucasian wars began, started by Tsarist Russia.

One of the soldiers of this war was the border guard Yevgeny Rodionov. While performing his military duty, he was captured by Chechen separatist fighters, where he was subjected to humiliation and torture for a hundred days. In response to the offer of the leader of the bandits to save his life at the cost of renouncing the Orthodox faith, Yevgeny refused to convert to Islam and remove the Orthodox cross. The strength of the spirit of the Russian soldier turned out to be stronger than the strength of the religious fanaticism of his tormentors.

In a rage, the bandits beheaded the warrior-martyr, who to the end fulfilled his military and spiritual and moral duty to God and the Motherland.

Perhaps the feat of Yevgeny Rodionov largely contributed to the decision of the President of the country and the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to revive the institution of military priests in the Army!

Download presentation "For the Faith of the Tsar and Fatherland"

http://www.blagovest-moskva.ru/item13598.html
To say that I was surprised by the new book of Archpriest Nikolai Agafonov " Feats of arms of the Orthodox clergy ' is to say nothing. What does the imagination draw when you hear "regimental priest"? A hero from a long-forgotten past... he probably sat in a tent during the war, served prayers and requiems, preached, took communion. In which case, especially brave priests, perhaps, could carry the wounded from the battlefield ... It turns out - nothing like that! They did not sit in any tent in the rear. They went to the place where the most cruel battle flared up, where the border between life and death lay. They confessed and communed the dying, strengthened the morale of those who fought ... But that's not all!

What do we even know about warriors from the clergy? Yeah, we know Peresvet and Oslyabya, the monks whom St. Sergius himself sent to fight on the Kulikovo field. Someone probably heard something about the heroic defense of the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery from the troops of Stefan Batory and about how the monks of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra defended themselves from the Poles. These stories open the book of Fr. Nicholas. But the semi-epic heroes Peresvet and Oslyabya personally always seemed to me an exception to the rule. Can you imagine a priest or a monk hitting the enemy with a grenade launcher or leading a regiment on the attack? I am with difficulty. And, it turns out, history knows many such examples! Priest Trofim Kutsinsky, during the capture of the Turkish fortress of Izmail, for example, led a regiment to attack instead of a mortally wounded officer. During the Crimean War, Hieromonk Ioanniky (Savinov) forced the sailors retreating during heavy hand-to-hand combat to again rush into battle with the French, during the battle he himself was mortally wounded.

Priests participated in battles not only on land, but also at sea. It turns out that according to the tradition that was established back in the time of Peter I, before the battle, the ship's priest put on an Easter red vestment to remind the sailors before the battle that there was no death, because Christ had risen. Hieromonk Nicodemus, who served during Russo-Japanese War on the battleship Pobeda, organized a patch on a hole when the ship hit a mine, and after the battleship crashed, he dived deep for two days in a row until he got Antimins and a chest with Holy Gifts. Remember the song “Our proud Varyag does not surrender to the enemy”? So, on this famous cruiser there was a priest-hero, who during the battle stood in the most visible and most dangerous place, holding over him the icon of St. Alexander Nevsky. For military exploits, priests received special military awards - pectoral crosses on the St. George ribbon and even honorary orders of St. George. But what awaited these heroes after the revolution? Yes, many of them were shot.

Okay, we already somehow represent the priest in the minefield. And now imagine that the patriarch himself is running against the Nazis with a machine gun, and even in the rank of major! Do you think it's a joke? Nothing like this! The future Patriarch Pimen fought in the Great Patriotic War, and he was then not a layman, but already a hieromonk. It is surprising that the priests even participated in the partisan movement: they were liaison, conducted reconnaissance, helped the partisans with food, carried out agitation to fight the Nazis ... Father Boris Kirik, being a paramedic by education, even organized an underground (in the truest sense of the word - he dug a huge secret basement under his house) a hospital for partisans. And even in Soviet time hero-priests received state awards.

The last part of the book is devoted to a very recent war - the Chechen one. Father Anatoly Chistousov, a former Air Force officer, remained the only priest in Grozny after the fighting began. Let us note that in peaceful Stavropol he had a wife and two children… but the priest refused to be evacuated, choosing not a family, but a flock. In February 1996, after long and painful torture, he was shot by militants. In the frontline zone, not far from the federal highway, another selfless priest, Archpriest Pyotr Sukhonosov, served. Being in old age, he refused to leave his place of service, saying that "the captain should be the last to leave his ship." 70-year-old Father Peter was seized by militants in the altar of the temple. After several months of brutal torture in captivity, he was killed. The place of his burial is still unknown.

It is difficult to say what genre this book belongs to: an encyclopedia? Patericon? Memorial book? Historical research? This is a huge work covering more than half a millennium (from the 14th to the 20th centuries), which, of course, deserves high praise and, it seems to me, should be read by everyone.

Posted on Dec. 12th, 2013 at 05:52 pm |

Department of Education and Science of the Tambov Region

TOGBOU SPO "Zherdevsky College of Sugar Industry"

Classroom hour

on the topic

"The feats of arms of the clergy in

Great Patriotic War"

Goals:

To acquaint students with the activities of priests in the military hard times;

To show by examples how the Russian Orthodox clergy during the war against the invaders adequately fulfilled their patriotic and moral duty.

Education of patriotism.

Venue: college spiritual library

Prepared and hosted: Moryakina O.A.

Zherdevka, 2015

Scenario of extracurricular activities on the topic

"Priests and the Great Patriotic War"

Where does memory begin - with birches?

From the river forest?

With rain on the road?

And if with murder!

And if from tears!

And if with an air raid alert!

And if from a screeching saw in the clouds,

From adults prostrate in the dust!

And if from non-childish knowledge - how

Living becomes dead

And at five, and at fifteen, and at twenty-five

Memory begins with war.

K. Simonov

"Your faith and fidelity is proclaimed in the Fatherland »

Introduction.

The Orthodox Church from the very beginning of the emergence of Russian statehood was in the closest connection with the authorities, based on the proximity of tasks and goals. During the war against foreign invaders, the Russian Orthodox clergy adequately fulfilled their patriotic and moral duty. Many of the clergy with their blood imprinted love and loyalty to the Fatherland on the battlefield.

So it was during the Great Patriotic War, on the battlefield the priest served a prayer service and with the Holy Cross and holy water went around the trenches and blessed the defenders. Immortal glory and eternal memory to the shepherds-heroes who were drawn to the truth and served it, sacredly fulfilling the greatest commandment of God's law: "Lay down your souls for your friends." Our soldiers were kept not only by the prayers of their wives and mothers, but also by the daily church prayer for the granting of Victory.”

The Church during the War: Ministry and Struggle in the Occupied Territories

The Russian Orthodox Church, which for centuries has been building single state, deprived of all its property after the Bolsheviks came to power, but considered it a duty during the years of severe trials to ascend the all-Russian Golgotha.

In Soviet times, the question of the role of the Orthodox Church in achieving the Great Victory was hushed up. The question of the real losses suffered by the Russian Church in the Great Patriotic War, for obvious reasons, until recently could not be the subject of serious analysis. Attempts to raise this topic appeared only in the most recent years. Now the assimilation of materials on the church-military theme is beginning, even from such large collections as the State Archives of the Russian Federation, the Central State Archives of St. Petersburg and the Federal Archives in Berlin.

On June 22, 1941, Metropolitan Sergius, in a message to the “Pastors and Flocks of the Orthodox Church of Christ,” called on the Orthodox Russian people “to serve the Fatherland in a difficult hour of trial with everything that everyone can” in order to “dispel the fascist enemy force into dust.”

In January 1942, in a message to the flock in the occupied territories, the Patriarch called:“Let your local partisans be for you not only an example and approval, but also the subject of unceasing care. Remember that any service rendered to the partisans is a service to the Motherland and an extra step towards our own liberation from fascist captivity.

This call received a very wide response among the clergy and ordinary believers. And the Germans responded to the patriotism of the priests with merciless cruelty.

History reference: By 1939, the structure of the Russian Orthodox Church was destroyed as a result of the most severe terror. From78 thousand temples and chapels operating in Russia by this time remained from121 (according to Vasilyeva O.Yu.) to 350-400 (according to the calculations of Shkarovsky M.V.). Most of the clergy were repressed. Too much grief and blood was brought by the Soviet government to the Church.

Helping the armed forces, the Moscow Patriarchate forced Soviet authorities at least to a small extent to recognize its full-fledged presence in the life of society. On January 5, 1943, the Patriarchal Locum Tenens took an important step towards the actual legalization of the Church, using the collections for the defense of the country. He sent a telegram to I. Stalin, asking for his permission to open a bank account for the Patriarchate, where all the money donated for the needs of the war would be deposited. On February 5, the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars gave his written consent.

Fundraising priests for the Victory.

Already from the first months of the war, almost all the Orthodox parishes of the country spontaneously began raising funds for the created defense fund. Believers donated not only money and bonds, but also products made of precious and non-ferrous metals, things, shoes, linen, wool and much more. By the summer of 1945, the total amount of cash contributions for these purposes alone amounted to more than 300 million rubles. - excluding jewelry, clothing and food. Funds for the victory over the Nazis were collected even in the occupied territory, which was associated with real heroism. So, the Pskov priest Fedor Puzanov managed to collect about 500 thousand rubles at the side of the fascist authorities. donations and transfer them to the "mainland". A particularly significant church act was the construction of a column of 40 T-34 Dimitry Donskoy tanks and the Alexander Nevsky squadron at the expense of Orthodox believers.

Historical information about the tank column "Dmitry Donskoy"

On December 30, 1942, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Sergius, appealed to the archpastors, pastors and parish communities to raise funds for the construction of a tank column named after Dmitry Donskoy. This call was accepted by the whole Church.

Over 8 million rubles, a large amount of gold and silver items were collected for the construction of 40 tanks. About 2 million rubles were donated by believers in Moscow and the Moscow Region. 1 million rubles were received from believers in Leningrad.The memoirs of Archpriest I. V. Ivlev are filled with evidence of deep patriotism:“There was no money in the church cash desk, but it was necessary to get it ... I blessed two 75-year-old old women for this great deed. Let their names be known to people: Kovrigina Maria Maksimovna and Gorbenko Matrena Maksimovna. And they went, they went after all the people had already made their contribution through the village council. Two Maksimovnas went to ask in the name of Christ to protect their dear Motherland from rapists. They went around the entire parish - villages, farms and towns, located 5-20 kilometers from the village and as a result - 10 thousand rubles, a significant amount in our places devastated by German monsters " . That's how those millions were going. Sergius - Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia:“I am very glad that a small beginning has been made. We do not doubt and did not doubt for a moment that all ordinary people who love our Motherland, of course, will not hesitate to give their lives in order to fulfill their military duty. Thus, in the struggle for common ideals during the Great Patriotic War, the patriotic aspirations of Russian believers and the clergy merged with the heroism and valor of the soldiers of the Red Army.

The price of ruins and sacrilege

The true scale of the damage inflicted on the Russian Orthodox Church by the German invaders cannot be accurately assessed. On November 2, 1942, by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, an Emergency State Commission for detecting and investigating atrocities Nazi German invaders and their accomplices and the damage caused by them to citizens, collective farms (collective farms), public organizations, state enterprises and institutions of the USSR (ChGK). A representative from the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) of Kyiv and Galicia, was also introduced to the Commission. The Commission's staff developed an approximate scheme and a list of crimes against cultural and religious institutions. The Instructions for the Accounting and Protection of Art Monuments noted that damage reports should record cases of robbery, removal of artistic and religious monuments, damage to iconostases, church utensils, icons, etc. Testimonies, inventory lists, and photographs should have been attached to the acts. A special price tag was developed for church utensils and equipment, approved by Metropolitan Nikolai on August 9, 1943. The data appeared at the Nuremberg trials as documentary evidence of the prosecution. In the annexes to the transcript of the meeting of the International Military Tribunal dated February 21, 1946, documents appear under Nos. USSR-35 and USSR-246. They give the total amount of "damage for religious cults", which amounted to6 billion 24 million rubles. In the RSFSR, 588 churches and 23 chapels were damaged, in Belarus - 206 churches and 3 chapels, in Latvia - 104 churches and 5 chapels, in Moldova - 66 churches and 2 chapels, in Estonia - 31 churches and 10 chapels, in Lithuania - 15 churches. and 8 chapels and in the Karelo-Finnish SSR - 6 churches.

History reference : Gigantic damage was caused by German shelling of the famous Sophia Cathedral (XI century), St. George's Cathedral of the St. George's Monastery - a unique monument of Russian architecture of the XII century. - received many large holes, due to which through cracks appeared in the walls. Other ancient monasteries of Novgorod also suffered greatly from German air bombs and shells: Antoniev, Khutynsky, Zverin, etc. The famous Church of the Savior-Nereditsa of the XII century was turned into ruins. The buildings included in the ensemble of the Novgorod Kremlin were destroyed and badly damaged, including the church of St. Andrew Stratilates of the XIV-XV centuries, the Church of the Intercession of the XIV century, the belfry of the St. Sophia Cathedral of the XVI century. and others. In the vicinity of Novgorod, the Cathedral of the Kirillov Monastery (XII century), the Church of St. Nicholas on Lipna (XIII century), the Church of the Annunciation on Gorodische (XIII century), the Savior on Kovalev (XIV century), the Assumption on Volotovo field (XIV century), Michael the Archangel in the Skovorodinsky monastery (XIV century), St. Andrew on Sitka (XIVin.).

Military feats of Orthodox priests

Priests shared during the war the fate of parishioners. Priests - participants in the Great Patriotic War, here are the names of some of them:

An example of service to God and neighbor

Borodin Alexander Ivanovich

On the Life of Hieroschemamonk Pitirim (Borodin)

Alexander was born in 1914 in the family of a peasant in the village of Shmarovka, Mordovskiy district, Tambov region.

Adolescence, the future, young Alexander, met with the old woman Augusta, who said that a war would begin, and he would fight, but he would not kill anyone and he would return alive, and then become a priest.

A few years later, Borodin again visited Kyiv, intending to become a monk, but to his great chagrin, the elders blessed him to return home, where God showed him another way: to marry the pious girl Agrippina and they had seven children.

War.

When the war began, Alexander Ivanovich Borodin, together with his fellow villagers, went to the front. He restored the roads broken by the Nazis.

The fellow soldiers respected him very much. In the unit where he served, the storekeeper of the food warehouse was killed. When the question arose of who would become a storekeeper, fellow soldiers, knowing the wisdom inherent in Alexander, pointed to him. By the middle of the war, with a 4th grade education, he was in charge of the central warehouse. The head of the food service wanted this place for his man and tried to get rid of him. Once he sent him at night under fire with an unimportant report to the division headquarters.

Alexander Ilyich later recalled: “When I was driving, I sang all the prayers I knew out loud. There is fire all around, and I ride a horse and pray.” When the report was opened and read at headquarters, the commander was deeply indignant at how trifling the package was delivered at such a risk.

Prayer, which the warrior Alexander never left, and the fulfillment of God's commandments about mercy and love for neighbors, did their job. Example:

Once, during a raid by enemy aircraft, everyone hurried to the bomb shelter. Suddenly he saw a little girl running down the street crying in search of her mother. He ran to the baby, fell to the ground with her, praying for salvation, and not a single bomb exploded nearby. When her mother ran out of hiding, she saw her daughter in the hands of a soldier, alive and well.

Strong faith and prayer with an invisible wall protected him from mortal danger. And at home, Agrippina's wife and children prayed for their father.

At the end of the war, when our troops entered Berlin, on the initiative of A. Borodin, hot food was organized for the starving local population - women, children and the elderly. And it was like that. Alexander Ivanovich, driven by compassion for the people, went to his commander and reported that they had accumulated a lot of trophy products in the food warehouse, and asked permission to distribute them. Permission was obtained, and he stood for long hours, giving out food to hungry people.

Alexander Borodin was awarded medals "For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945", "For the capture of Berlin", "For the liberation of Warsaw".

He returned to his native village only in October 1945, because. I had to leave the warehouse.

From October 1945 to September 1946 he worked on a collective farm, then became a psalm reader. In February 1950, he was ordained a deacon. On February 15, 1951, Bishop Joasaph (Zhurmanov) of Tambov and Michurinsk was ordained to the priesthood. He became a full-time priest of the Mikhailo-Arkhangelsk Church in the village of Mordovo, and in January 1954 he was appointed rector of the church. Having accepted the abbotship, Father Alexander remained in this post until his death. (He was the rector of this temple for 20 years).

Archimandrite Macarius (Remorov) (1907-1998)
Archimandrite Macarius was born on March 23, old style, 1907, in the village of Syademka, Zemechensky district, Tambov province.
In baptism, he received the name Igor. His father, Priest Nikolai Remorov, came from an ancient priestly family. Igor Remorov began to study at the Tambov Theological School, and after the revolution he continued his studies at a secular school. He graduated from nine. In 1927, Igor Nikolaevich married Valentina Mikhailovna Mstislavskaya, whose father was a dean, served in one of the Mordovian villages and was awarded a medal for active missionary work.
In July 1941 he was mobilized and sent to the front. Initially, he fought near Moscow, and then the engineer-sapper battalion, where Father Igor served, was transferred to Leningrad. Until 1944, part of it provided the "road of life" through Ladoga. Priest Igor Remorov ended the war in East Prussia in Königsberg. He was awarded the medals "For Courage", "For the Defense of Moscow", "For the Defense of Leningrad", "For the Capture of Königsberg", "For the Victory over Germany".
In the fall of 1945, Father Igor returned to Biysk, where he continued to work as an accountant. In 1956, Metropolitan Nestor of Novosibirsk and Barnaul blessed Father Igor to continue his priestly service. Until 1973, Father Igor served in the villages of Bolshoi Ului and Novo-Berezovka, Krasnoyarsk Territory. In 1970 he was widowed.
Then Archpriest Igor Remorov served in the village of Kolyvan Novosibirsk region. In 1980 he was tonsured a monk by Archbishop Gideon of Novosibirsk and Barnaul in honor of St. Macarius the Great...

Archpriest Kosma Rain.

At dawn on October 9, 1943, the Nazis broke into the parish church of the Belarusian village of Khoino.

to the priest Cosma Raine ordered to undress, he was taken to the police station, searched. The officer gave the documents and watch to the translator. "You won't need them anymore," he said. And two Czech soldiers took the priest to be shot.

Archpriest Kosma Raina was a hereditary priest. His father sailed on Russian warships and died from wounds received in the Battle of Port Arthur.

The German occupation found him with a large family (he had seven children) in the Pinsk district of the Brest region. In the occupied territories, with the assistance of the German authorities, autocephalous churches independent of Moscow were created.
The occupying authorities demanded to pray "for the liberation of the Russian country and the victorious German army." But Father Kosma every time read a prayer for the Russian army. And when they denounced him, he said that he forgot, read by inertia. He did not serve the Bolsheviks, but his flock, the Orthodox people. The people that day and night went east along forest and field roads - refugees, wounded, encircled ... Mother gave them bread, boiled potatoes, clothes, shoes, medicines. The wounded received communion, many asked for prayers for their fallen comrades, for themselves and their loved ones. The people went to the partisans. After the Easter service, Father Kosma announced the collection of gifts for children, the wounded and partisans. And a few days later, shedding tears, he buried the executed and burned residents of the village of Nevel. Then he went to the remote village of Semikhovichi - to the base of the partisans - and in a small church, which, having lost heart (God be his judge), the young priest abandoned, communed the sick and wounded, baptized children, buried the dead and the dead.

On October 9, 1943, two Czech soldiers led Archpriest Kosma Raina to execution. Near the church, he fell on his knees and began to pray fervently. How much time has passed, he does not remember, but when he got up from his knees, he did not see anyone near him. Having crossed himself, the priest with a prayer moved towards the bushes, and then rushed headlong into the forest.
He came to the partisan camp, where he met with his sons. Together they won back their mother from the Germans, who, along with other partisan wives and children, they wanted to be sent to a concentration camp. The family of the parish priest managed to gather at the festive table only in 1946. Father Kosma spent the last years of his life in the village of Olgino near St. Petersburg, together with his mother and daughter Angelina, who worked here as a district doctor. He was buried here, in the Serafim Church, at the altar.

Priest Nikolai Pyzhevich , helped the wounded Red Army soldiers, was on good terms with the partisans and even distributed leaflets. Reported. In September 1943, punishers raided Staroe Selo. Batiushka jumped out the window and almost disappeared into the forest, but, looking around, he saw that his house, where his wife and five daughters remained, was being boarded up and lined with straw. "I'm here," he shouted, "take me, I ask God, have pity on the innocent children ...". The officer threw him to the ground with a kick of his boot and shot him point-blank, and the soldiers threw the body of the priest into the already burning house. After some time, the whole village was completely destroyed, its inhabitants were burned in the temple.

Archpriest Alexander Romanushko

In the summer of 1943, to the commander of the partisan formation, Major General V.Z. Korzh was contacted by the relatives of the deceased ... policeman. No one, they say, agrees to bury the dead, will you send your partisan priest? Served in the detachment thenArchpriest Alexander Romanushko . Accompanied by two partisan submachine gunners, he appeared at the cemetery. Armed policemen were already there. He got dressed and was silent for a bit. And suddenly he said:
- Brothers and sisters! I understand the great grief of the mother and father of the murdered. But the one present in the tomb did not deserve our prayers. He is a traitor to the Motherland and a murderer of innocent old people and children. Instead of eternal memory, we all, - he raised his head high and raised his voice, - say: "anathema"!
The assembled were dumbfounded. And the priest, approaching the policemen, continued:
“I appeal to you, the erring ones: before it’s too late, atone for your guilt before God and people and turn your weapons against those who destroy our people, bury living people in such graves, and burn believers and priests alive in churches ...
Father Alexander led almost a whole detachment to the partisans and was awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" of the 1st degree.

Archpriest Vasily Kopychko, rector of the Odrizhskaya Holy Assumption Church in the Ivanovo district of the Brest region. From the beginning of the war until its victorious end, Father Vasily did not weaken in the spiritual strengthening of his flock, performing divine services at night, without lighting, so as not to be noticed. Almost all the inhabitants of the surrounding villages came to the service. The brave shepherd told the believers about the situation on the fronts, urged them to resist the invaders, reproduced and passed on reports from the Soviet Information Bureau, partisan leaflets. Father Vasily collected food for the wounded partisans, sent them weapons.

At the end of 1943, the Gestapo found out about his active connection with the partisans. The special punitive detachment received an order for the public execution of Father Vasily and his family. On the same night, Father Vasily was transported to the partisan zone, and at dawn, punishers arrived at his house and set fire to the temple and the parish house. Here is how the brigade commander of the Pinsk partisan brigade I. Shubitidze describes the activities of Father Vasily and his first meeting with him: “... We called him our agitator and once invited him to a partisan camp. He willingly came accompanied by partisans. Kopychko took a long look at our life, at our order, walked around a dozen dugouts and over dinner, which was prepared especially for him at the headquarters, got into a conversation: "So believe these Germans! Deceivers, atheists, bandits! I see that you are all Orthodox, give God bless you! That's what I told my parishioners..." From that time on, Kopychko became our contact. He kept his word, helped not only with prayers, but financially: he collected food for the wounded, and sometimes sent weapons. For services to the Motherland, Archpriest Vasily Kopychko was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War II degree, medals "Partisan of the Great Patriotic War" 1st degree, "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War", "For Victory over Germany" and others.

The partisans, through their contacts, distributed leaflets in churches: appeals from Patriarch Sergius calling for prayers for the victory of the Soviet army.

Ivan Ivanovich Rozhanovich Father John.

House of the rector of the church, archpriestIvan Ivanovich Rozhanovich , which was about 70 years old by the beginning of the war, became a meeting place for underground fighters with partisan intelligence officers. Father John was a kind and valuable assistant to the partisans, he performed difficult tasks and assignments, and was accepted as a member of the anti-fascist committee. With the personal participation of Father John, risky steps of “shuttle diplomacy” were taken between the burgomaster of the city of Vysotsk Tkhorzhevsky, the commandant of the police, Colonel Fomin, and the partisan command. And this deadly game bore fruit: fifteen partisan hostages of the village of Veluni were released, an armed detachment of Cossacks from the troops of the ROA of Vysotsk and parts of the police garrison led by Colonel Fomin went over to the side of the partisans. In January 1943, during the offensive of one of the punitive expeditions, when the entire partisan region was already on fire, there was a real threat of complete destruction of the village of Svartsevichi. The partisan headquarters discussed various options for the upcoming battle. But nevertheless, it was decided to go for a military trick: to send a church delegation to meet the punishers with a “complaint” about the partisans and a request for “protection”, since Father John had experience in this matter. The purpose of the delegation is to convince the fascists that large forces of partisans armed with machine guns, machine guns and guns are gathered in Svartsevichi, and the roads around are mined. During a conversation with an SS colonel, Father John was so able to convince him of the strength of the partisans that the officer ordered his detachment to retreat.

Fedor Ivanovich Dmitryuk.

Before the war the priestFedor Ivanovich Dmitryuk (later - Archbishop Flavian of Gorky and Arzamas) served in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in the city of Pruzhany, Brest Region. During the occupation, Father Fyodor and his entire family participated in the work of the patriotic underground in the city of Pruzhany and had direct contact with the Belarusian partisans operating in the area. After the defeat of the Pruzhany underground by the Nazis, most of its members died in the dungeons of the Gestapo. Father Fyodor escaped by a miracle, but his wife, eldest daughter, son-in-law and other close relatives were shot, and the youngest daughter was seriously wounded.

PriestGrigory Chaus.

Priest of the churchGrigory Chaus together with believers, he did a lot of work to collect money and valuables for the construction of tanks and aircraft for the Red Army. This money was transferred through the partisans to Moscow. For a partisan hospitalFather Gregory collected food and cloth for dressings every Sunday.

Archpriest Vyacheslav Novrotsky.

His pastoral ministry, the dean archpriestVyacheslav Novrotsky performed in the district center of Morochno, Rivne region. When at the beginning of 1943was the Nazi garrison was defeated and the city of Morochno was liberated, Father Vyacheslav greeted the partisans with an Easter chime. In honor of the liberation, a solemn rally was held, and on the podium next to the generals and commanders of the partisan detachments stood Dean Father Vyacheslav and the partisan liaison fatherMikhail Grebenko. In the word given to him, Father Vyacheslav, on behalf of the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church, addressed the partisans with words of gratitude, assuring that "we, believing people, will always help and pray for your fallen comrades and for you."

Archpriest Nikolai Petrovich Gordeev

Archpriest Nikolai Petrovich Gordeev, actively helped the partisans in the fight against the invaders. Archpriest Vladimir Mikhailovich Tomashevich "during the years of the Great Patriotic War inspired the flock to labor and feat in the name of our speedy Victory over the hated invaders, collected valuable information about the enemy troops and transferred them to the headquarters of the partisan detachment."

Priest John Loiko publicly blessed the sons of Vladimir, George and Alexander to go to the partisans. "My weapon is to defeat the holy cross, desecrated by adversaries, and the word of God, and you be protected by God and honestly serve the Fatherland."In February 1943 Khorostovo was surrounded by Nazi punitive detachments. The headquarters of the partisan command decided to leave this region without a fight and leave the encirclement with most of the population, but Father John remained with those who did not have the opportunity to retreat in order to help the sick, crippled, helpless old people. He was burned by the Nazis on February 15, along with 300 parishioners in the church, where he celebrated the Divine Liturgy. From the church engulfed in flames, the punishers heard the nationwide singing of prayers.After the war, an obelisk was erected on the site of that terrible conflagration, where at first there was also the name of the priest, but then it disappeared.

Ivan Tsub.

Member of the same churchIvan Tsub on the demand of the fascist officer to show where the partisans had gone, he led the punishers into the quagmire of an impenetrable swamp. Of these, only one translator escaped, who fell into the hands of the people's avengers half-dead. He told about the feat of Ivan Tsuba. The body of the hero was buried according to the Orthodox order with military honors next to the church, of which he had been a parishioner all his life.

Hegumen Pavel

Pskov-Caves Monastery secretly assisted Soviet prisoners of war. Although the abbot of the monasteryAbbot Pavel participated in the preparation of anti-Soviet documents, signed official greetings to the fascist authorities, at the same time he maintained a secret relationship with the partisans. Through a resident of Pskov, an ardent zealot of the monastery A.I. Rubtsov, the hegumen sent them whole cartloads of food. Rubtsova was arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and shot. During interrogations, she behaved with surprising stamina and did not betray the governor. According to other testimonies (inhabitants of Pechory), Abbot Pavel hid a walkie-talkie in the monastery premises, through which information about the fascists, collected by hieromonks in parishes, was transmitted across the front line. On August 24, 1941, hegumen Pavel received a note of thanks: “The sick, wounded prisoners of war and the staff of the hospital at camp point 134 in the city of Pskov are deeply grateful for the food sent - flour, bread, eggs and other donations.”

Many shepherds, despite the danger to their own lives, found an opportunity to help the Soviet partisans, avoid the export of young people to Germany, and saved Jewish families from imminent death. Until now, local residents with gratitude remember the priests I. Chubinskoro (Varovichi village in the Kiev region), I. Shmygol (Stanislav village, Kherson region), F. Samuylyk, E. Geyrokh, M. Rybchinsky (Rivne region), archpriests K. Omelyanovsky , S. Ozhegovsky, M. Gerasimov (Kherson) and dozens of others who saved the lives of their relatives and friends. Kiev archpriest A. Glagolev, together with his wife Tatyana and foreman A. Gorbovsky, saved several Jewish families from destruction.

Archpriest Vasily Braga. (Odessa)

Odessa archpriest Vasily Braga, cooperating with the Soviet foreign intelligence, passed on a lot of valuable information. In his sermons, he called to pray for the Motherland, victory. Father helped the partisans with food, financially. For this he was awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War."

V.I. Turbin. (Eagle)

In the city of Orel, during the entire period of German occupation, an underground hospital successfully operated, one of the leaders of which was a doctorV.I.Turbin , in the 1930s. secretly became a monk. Thanks to his personal courage and the dedication of the medical staff in this hospital, several soldiers of the Red Army who were captured were rescued. After being cured, they were transported across the front line.

In Orel, a united patronage of churches was created, headed by N.F. Lokshin. It provided free assistance to the sick and elderly people, monthly deducting money from the earnings of the clergy for the needs of the poor.

A member of the guardianship, Dr. I.M. Varushkin, who treated them for free.

Priest John Karbovanets

Priest John Karbovanets and the abbesses of the Dombas Monastery near the town of Mukachevo, risking their lives, saved 180 children doomed to imminent starvation, taken by the German invaders in August 1943 from the Oryol orphanage. In the spring of 1942, the Gestapo revealed many cases when persons of Jewish nationality turned to Orthodox churches with a request to perform the rite of baptism on their children and give them a certificate of this. The Church accepted them, hoping to save them from death. Despite this, everythingrevealingJews captured by the Nazis, including children, were shot.

John Krashanovsky.

Archpriest of the Church of the Annunciation in SimferopolJohn Krashanovsky, a former senior naval priest, did not compromise himself by treason and enjoyed the ardent love and deep respect of believers. When the Red Army expelled the German invaders from the Crimea, Archpriest John, with the permission of General Vetrov, called all the believers of the city of Simferopol to the cathedral, dilapidated by the Germans, performed a prayer of thanksgiving. Military units were present for the prayer service for the granting of victory. John Krashanovsky received gratitude from the command for patriotic activities and material assistance to wounded soldiers.

Vladimir Sokolov.

Priest Vladimir Sokolov at the beginning of 1942 he was appointed to the village. Mandush of the Bakhchisaray region. This village changed hands many times. Priest Sokolov, who had a house and 16 hives, kept in touch with the partisans all the time. When the Soviet paratroopers descended into the village, he received newspapers from them and distributed them, with danger to himself he went to listen to the transmission of the radio center through a secret receiver. Finally, the Germans burned the house and beehives of the priest they did not like and issued an order to shoot the entire male population of the village. Fortunately, Sokolov and his son managed to escape and make their way to Simferopol. Here the priest Sokolov met Smirnov, whose son and grandson organized a partisan detachment, in the amount of 200 people, and went into the forest. Sokolov and Smirnov again listened to radio broadcasts from Moscow and disseminated the information received. Priest Sokolov suffered severely from the Germans: his two daughters, aged 17 and 20, were driven into German penal servitude.

Pavel Andreevich Govorov.

In the Kursk region, the priest of the village of GlebovaPavel Andreevich Govorov hid the pilots who had fled from Nazi captivity and helped them go to their own, and Archpriest Semykin not only helped the captured Red Army soldiers, but after the arrival of Soviet troops, he mobilized the local population to be on duty and care for the wounded in a field hospital.

OUTPUT:

Many clerics of the Russian Orthodox Church received state awards during the war years. But among the clergy who heroically proved themselves during the war years, there are names that remained unknown. The time of voluntarism and stagnation played a significant role in their oblivion. We hope that through the joint work of historians, local historians, and journalists, over time, it will be possible to restore the names of all the servants of the Church and the laity - those who worked for the Victory during the hardest war years. The pure light of this feat will not go out in the coming ages.

For connections with the partisan movement, dozens of clergy were shot or burned by the Nazis, among them priests Nikolai Ivanovich Pyzhevich, Alexander Novik, Pavel Shcherba, Pavel Sosnovsky, Nazorevsky and many others.

The Germans used repression against patriotic clergy. The Germans forced one of them to read sermons glorifying the invaders. But instead, he told the people about Dmitry Donskoy, Alexander Nevsky, Sergius of Radonezh, about how they defended Russia. For this the priestwas shot

The best representatives of the Orthodox clergy remained faithful to the basic principles and commandments of Christianity. They provided assistance, and often saved people from death, regardless of their faith and nationality.

Did faith in God help to survive and win this terrible war?!

To draw conclusions for each of us, and we will read the verse of the unknown soldier, found in the pocket of the tunic of the killed soldier ... eternal glory and memory to him!

soldier verse,

found in the pocket of the tunic of a dead soldier

Listen God...
Never before in my life
I didn't talk to you, but today
I want to greet you.
You know, since childhood I was told
That there is no You. And I, the fool, believed.
I have never beheld your creations.
And so tonight I watched
From the crater that knocked out a grenade
To the starry sky that was above me.
I suddenly realized, admiring the universe,
How cruel deceit can be.
I don't know, God, will you give me your hand,
But I will tell you, and you will understand me:
Isn't it strange that in the midst of a terrifying hell
I suddenly opened the light, and I recognized You?
And besides that, I have nothing to say
It's just that I'm glad I got to know you.
At midnight we are scheduled to attack,
But I'm not afraid: You're looking at us...
Signal. Well? I must go.
I felt good with you. I also want to say
That, as you know, the battle will be evil,
And maybe at night I will knock on You.
And so, even though until now I have not been your friend,
Will you let me in when I come?
But I think I'm crying. My God, you see
What happened to me is that today I have seen the light.
Farewell, my God, I'm going. And I probably won't be back.
How strange, but now I'm not afraid of death.

Mother Sofia

«
Destiny leads the one who wants it, but drags the unwilling one.

A hardworking humble person. Nun Sophia ended her earthly life in 2008, but she will be remembered for a long time not only in the Raifa Monastery, but also in the small cozy town of Zelenodolsk...

Ekaterina Mikhailovna Osharina was engaged in landscaping the city.

A wonderful master, fame and pride of the ornamental gardening of Zelenodolsk. A certified agronomist, a graduate of the Alma-Ata Agricultural Institute, she had the soul of an artist and golden hands ...

Ekaterina Mikhailovna was a master, a purposeful, strong-willed person with a broad outlook. Enthusiasm, erudition, sociable character helped her earn the sincere respect of flower growers and the love of numerous students.

Reflecting on her life, I remember the wise Latin saying: “Fate leads the one who wants it, but drags the unwilling one.” Here Ekaterina Mikhailovna truly led the way. A person of a generous soul, in love with the beauty of nature since childhood, she always surrounded her house, city with flowers; interacted with fellow hobbyists.

Ekaterina Mikhailovna - a participant in the Second World War and was awarded many government awards.

She devoted the last years of her life to Orthodoxy and became a nun Sophia.

Mother Sophia: about herself and about the war

From the very beginning of the revival of the monastery, her skillful hands create that wonderful beauty that amazes everyone who enters the Raifa Monastery. Matushka Sophia went from Moscow to Berlin, fighting for her native land...

Was the war scary?

- When the Great Patriotic War began, I completed four courses at the Alma-Ata Institute. From the first year we were already being prepared for war: some for a nurse, some for a radio operator ... I got into radio operators. Before we were sent to the front, we studied for another month to become gunners-radio operators. But I had only 12 sorties... At the beginning of 1942, our unit got into combat conditions, near Moscow.

They worked more at night, for 6-8 hours. There are thousands of radio stations on the air, and among all this you need to find your own voice. If you make a mistake - that's all ... The Germans took direction finding and tried to destroy the radio operators. Therefore, stations often stopped in the forest. And they had to be protected. You stand, the forest is noisy around ... Like extraneous noise - you shout: "Stop, who is coming!" But there is no one, no one answers, and you just wait: now, now - once with a knife from behind! What's not scary? And how!

And only to myself all the time: “Lord, save me. God help me. Lord, save ... "They wore crosses on their chests. And during the entire war, churches were not found anywhere except in Orel. In the villages they were all burned.

The eagle will never forget: a big temple on the mountain. Below the station, all broken, everything around is in ruins, but the church survived. I also remember the priest: small in stature, with extraordinary, somehow radiant eyes ... We stood, prayed as best we could - over the months of military existence, we had already forgotten everything. And there were no churches anywhere else.

And what happened when they crossed the Dnieper! In Mogilev, after the crossing, there were corpses all around - it was impossible to walk, thousands of them were lying ... here, here, here! Someone is still alive, grabs you from below, from the ground - “sister, help!” And you are with the radio station, you need to move forward faster, to establish communication. And they remained there, without help ... In our unit, out of 25 people, only two survived. It's hard to remember.

How did you live? In tents, dugouts. Only one part will leave, after it - solid lice. There was no place to wash most of the time. In Gzhatsk we were surrounded, we could not get out for a week. Around the Germans, there was, there was nothing. Removed and welded belts. It was with difficulty that we got out of there.

I remember Koenigsberg. He was very difficult. Powerful fortifications connected by the subway, large German forces, every house is a fortress. How many of our soldiers died!.. They took Koenigsberg with God's help. The monks, priests, a hundred or more people gathered. They stood up with banners, carried out the icon of the Kazan Mother of God ... And around the battle goes on, the soldiers chuckle: "Well, fathers, let's go, now it will be!" And as soon as the monks began to sing, everything fell silent. Ours came to their senses, broke through in a quarter of an hour ... When the captured German was asked why they stopped shooting, he replied: the weapon failed. That's the power of prayer!

from the archive of the newspaper "Raifsky Vestnik"
Dmitry KATARGIN

Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov)

AND
van Dmitrievich Pavlov was born on September 8, 1919 in the village of Makovskie Vyselki, now the Mikhailovsky district of the Ryazan region, into a believing peasant family. From the age of twelve, he "lived in an unbelieving environment, with his brother, and lost his spirituality." After graduating from a technical school, he worked as a technologist at a metallurgical plant. He was drafted into the Red Army. However, a turning point occurred in the life of Ivan Dmitrievich.

From his memoirs: “After the liberation of Stalingrad, our unit was left to carry out guard duty in the city. There was not a single house here. One day, among the ruins of a house, I picked up a book from the garbage. I began to read it and felt something so dear, sweet for the soul. It was the gospel. I found such a treasure for myself, such a consolation! .. "

With his military unit, the future father, Kirill Pavlov, fought as far as Austria. Sergeant Ivan Pavlov was awarded the Order of Glory and medals. In 1946 he was demobilized in Hungary and came to Moscow to serve God.

In 1953, while graduating from the Moscow Theological Seminary (the IBC first opened in the Novodevichy Convent), Elder Kirill Pavlov took monastic vows at the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra. Thus began the long-term prayerful monastic feat of Archimandrite Kirill. At first he was a sacristan, and in 1970 he was appointed treasurer of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra and brother confessor.

Archimandrite Kirill spiritually ministered to (was confessor to) His Holiness Patriarchs Alexy I, Pimen and Alexy II.

Archpriest Nikolai (Agafonov)- an outstanding Orthodox writer, priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, missionary, preacher. Rector of the Church of the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women in Samara. Member of the Union of Writers of Russia.

Batiushka was born in 1955 in the tiny village of Usva in the Perm Territory. Then the family moved to the Volga, where he spent his childhood. He graduated from school in Tolyatti, followed by military service. In 1976 he was enrolled in the Moscow Theological Seminary. A year later he was ordained a deacon, in 1979 a presbyter. The priest serves in small rural churches, then he was assigned to Volgograd. In 1992 he graduated from the Leningrad Theological Academy. By decree of the Holy Synod, Priest Nikolai Agafonov is appointed to the responsible position of rector of the newly created Saratov Theological Seminary. In 1997 he moved to Volgograd, where he held the post of rector of the church in honor of the Great Martyr Paraskeva, and also became the head of the Volgograd diocese. Under his direct supervision, two missionary churches were built afloat. For this, Patriarch Alexy II will honor Father Nicholas with the Order of St. Innocent III degree.

In 2002, the first two stories of Archpriest Nikolai Agafonov were published. Thus began his literary journey. Today he has written such well-known collections of short stories as Uninvented Stories, Light of the Golden Moon, Overcoming Gravity, A Very Important Deed, The Restless Foolishness of Simple Stories, etc. He is the author of the remarkable historical novel The Myrrh-Bearing Women ”, dedicated to the great and modest feat of quiet, inconspicuous women who followed Christ. They are for each of us a model of worthy service to God and people. In the preface to the book, the author himself writes that it is difficult to overestimate the feat of the myrrh-bearing women. They have always been an example for Christians. And also for Russian women, who in the dashing years of the beginning of the 20th century, when they killed priests, burned churches, kept the faith and saved many shrines from desecration. Perhaps it is thanks to such modest Russian women that faith in our country has not died out. The father also wrote an outstanding novel "". The author managed to create a living image of the great educator, unique poet, writer of the 8th century - St. John of Damascus. The action of the novel takes place against the backdrop of a brutal war between Christians and Muslims.

Priest Nikolai Agafonov also writes for children. So very much the little readers like his story "Puppy Sleepy." He teaches kindness and sincere sympathy. After all, even an adult is not easy to give something that is very dear to him. And some little boy, whose most important dream came true - he was given a puppy. And suddenly it should be given away?

For his work, Archpriest Nikolai Agafonov was awarded the Victor Rozov Crystal Rose Prize in 2005, the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky Prize in 2007, and the Patriarchal Literary Prize in 2014.

Hundreds of priests heroically defended their Motherland during the Great Patriotic War

Hundreds of priests heroically defended their Motherland during the Great Patriotic War

In Russia, it is not customary to talk about the contribution of the clergy to the Victory. Some church leaders consider traitors those priests who prayed for the victory of the Red Army and for the success of their persecutors - the communists. Instead of a story about the real exploits of the clergy, we are being fed the movie "Pop". Officially, Alexei IONOV, a Vlasovite priest who draped with the Germans, was named the prototype of the protagonist. He is impudently credited with the heroic deeds of those priests who shared with their people all the horror of the war and were faithful to their Motherland. Our story is about them.

The feat of the priests in the Great Patriotic War cannot be understood by the market mind. Judge for yourself. They defended the Motherland, which, it would seem, betrayed them and ruthlessly destroyed them until the war.

In 1937 alone, 136,900 Orthodox priests and clergymen were arrested, of which 85,300 were shot. In 1938, 28,300 clerics were arrested, and 21,500 were shot. shot - 3000.

And now, miraculously, the survivors, who served time in camps, prisons and exiles, deprived of their parishes in August 1941, are called by the Motherland to the ranks. But can a clergyman, even if deprived of a parish, take up arms and go to kill?

Holy war

The offended priests only needed to lie low when the military registration and enlistment offices were attacked by volunteers rushing to the front. Or surrender. What others did. And then, as a prototype of the hero of the film "Pop", a Vlasov priest Alexey Ionov, evacuate with his family to Germany, then move to the USA, join the ranks of the ROCOR and today, with the help of cinema, pass for a righteous man in Russia, allegedly sent to the Gulag. But no matter how diligently the actor Sergey Makovetsky, portraying a rural father, the film failed miserably at the box office.

Real Russian clergy did not indulge the enemy and were not hypocrites, hiding behind the Old Testament commandment "Thou shalt not kill", but were guided by another commandment Christ“There is no greater love than a man who lays down his life for his friends.” And they prayed for their communist persecutors, just as Jesus prayed for the Jews who crucified him and the Romans who “washed their hands”: “They don’t know what they are doing.”

Our Orthodox Church has always shared the fate of the people. Together with him, she carried trials, and consoled herself with his successes. She will not leave her people even now. She blesses with a heavenly blessing the upcoming nationwide feat, - on the very first day of the war, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), now criticized for promoting "red demons". - And if the shepherd's silence, his indifference to what his flock is experiencing, is also explained by crafty considerations about possible benefits on the other side of the border, then this will be a direct betrayal of the Motherland and his pastoral duty.

Priests, deacons, choristers, psalmists, as once the heroes of the Battle of Kulikovo, monks-bogatyrs Peresvet And Oslyabya, stood up for the Russian people, knowing full well why for the Germans we were all Russians, regardless of nationality and religion.

No one kept a separate account of this replenishment of the Red Army and his exploits. Archpriest Nikolay Agafonov, the author of the book "The feats of arms of the Orthodox clergy", collecting evidence bit by bit, claims that "many hundreds of clergymen who served their terms in the army became tankers, artillerymen, infantrymen." More than a hundred were awarded medals and orders. 40 priests were awarded medals "For the Defense of Leningrad" and "For the Defense of Moscow". More than 50 were awarded medals "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War." Several dozen received medals "Partisan of the Great Patriotic War." And how many heroic soldiers and military officers, having given such a word to God in a difficult moment, after the war became priests or monks. And proudly on May 9, orders and medals were pinned to the cassocks.

Scouts and partisans

In October 1943, for the first time in the history of the Soviet Union, 12 clergy were awarded high state awards at once. By this time for assistance partisan movement only in the Polessky diocese in the territories of present-day Western Ukraine and the lands ceded to Poland, the Nazis brutally tortured and shot every second Orthodox priest. The special cruelty of the Nazis to the Russian clergy was a frightening countermeasure.

Having received the blessing of Metropolitan Sergius in the summer of 1942 for any help to the partisans, the priests not only became liaisons and scouts, but also left for the detachments or sent their sons and daughters to serve in them. They organized interaction with the city underground, delivered fake documents and clothes to the participants in the operations, took the wounded to hospitals or to the homes of reliable people, brought food and medicine.

Priest Vasily Kopychko managed to perform almost all of the listed functions. And he was nicknamed Politinformator by the partisans for the regular delivery of Sovinformburo reports and bringing their essence to parishioners at sermons. For which the Nazis burned both the church and his house. The family was saved by parishioners. He was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War II degree, as well as the medals "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War" and "For the Victory over Germany".

hereditary priest Cosma Raina came to the partisan camp to his sons for help. Their mother, along with other partisan wives and children, was taken by the Germans to a concentration camp. Without hesitation, Father Cosmas took up arms and, together with the detachment, went to recapture the women and children. The family survived and came together in 1946 when the sons returned from military service.

Hero of two world wars - peasant Fedor Puzanov He knew the letter poorly, but the psalms well. For bravery in the First World War, he was awarded three St. George's crosses and the St. George medal of the II degree, the Soviet medal "For Courage" will become its analogue. In the late 1920s he became a deacon and was arrested. According to the logic of the Germans, such as he, the "tsarist warriors" should have fervently prayed for the victory of German weapons. And the Pskov mission, where after the execution of the priests, first by the Reds, then by the Nazis, such prayers were already served, sent Father Fyodor to offer many years to the leaders of the Reich in the temple of the village of Khokhlovy Gorki in the Pskov region.

But the father did not confuse good and evil, he gained confidence in the Germans and became a partisan intelligence officer. He did not pray for the Nazis, referring to his lack of education and formal knowledge of the canonical service. In a word, he mowed down under the fool, and he himself supplied the partisans with valuable information. And by cunning, he saved more than 300 villagers, gathered by the Nazis in a convoy for hijacking to Germany. Having caught up with her outside the village, Father Fyodor "warned" the Germans that partisans were ahead, and "agreed" to guard the countrymen while the motorcycle convoy checked the situation. And he took people to the partisan detachment. He was awarded the medal "Partisan of the Great Patriotic War". But the local hierarchs and the authorities did not forget the manifested willfulness. Soon after the Victory, the dean was relieved of his duties.

Turned the cops

The feat of the archpriest Alexandra Romanushko, in fact, is reflected in the film "Pop". The difference is that since the summer of 1942, Father Alexander served not in the temple, but as a partisan priest in the Pinsk formation under the command of the legendary Vasily Korzh. His partisans spent 1119 days behind enemy lines, destroyed more than 26 thousand Nazis, defeated 60 German garrisons and 5 railway stations, derailed 468 echelons, destroyed 519 km of telephone and telegraph lines. Father Alexander participated in many military and reconnaissance operations.

In the summer of 1943, local residents, the parents of the murdered policeman, came to Korzh with a request to “send the priest” to the funeral service. The general left the decision to the priest. Father Alexander arrived at the cemetery, where armed policemen of dozens of villages, accompanied by two submachine gunners, were waiting for him, dressed, shook his head, and suddenly said: “Brothers and sisters, I understand the grief of the mother and father of the murdered. But not our prayers and "With the saints rest in peace" deserved lying in the tomb. He is a traitor to the Motherland and a murderer of innocent children and the elderly. Let's anathematize him!"

The policemen were dumbfounded, and the priest continued:

To you who have gone astray, my last request: atone for your guilt before God and people and turn your weapons against those who destroy our people.

Part of the policemen left the cemetery with the priest, and the rest did not dare to shoot at them. For this feat, Father Alexander was awarded the medal "Partisan of the Great Patriotic War" I degree.

Calvary in Babi Yar

[show]Ancestors of the Master of Theology Archimandrite Alexandra Vishnyakova three centuries were churchmen. One of them served as a priest while still in the army Ivan the Terrible on a trip to Kazan. For the feat in the First World War, Father Alexander, as an exception, was awarded the soldier's St. George's Cross. When the company commander was killed and the soldiers began to retreat, the regimental priest raised his pectoral cross over his head and led the people to attack.

I almost joined the Civil Denikin. But it was not God's will for that - he fell ill with typhus. Then prisons, exiles, camps began. Released in 1940, he received a parish in Kyiv, where the Germans entered already on September 19, 1941. And with them are Uniates and self-styled autocephalists, as well as Bandera and other nationalists, for whom Father Alexander was a “damned Muscovite” who baptized Jews. At the risk of his life at every service, the priest read the message of Metropolitan Sergius to the Russian people. This was reported to the Nazis, and he ended up in the Gestapo. Saved erudition, brilliant German and biography of the repeatedly repressed. The Germans released Vishnyakov in the hope of using him.

On September 29, 1941, when the shootings began at Babi Yar, a neighbor, a Magyar Jew, whose family the priest had baptized before the war, ran to Father Alexander for help. And he begged to save his wife and three children, the Germans took them away to be shot. Putting on the St. George Cross on his cassock, the priest went to Babi Yar. He showed the officers the certificate of baptism of the family and obtained permission to find her. But he did not find one child until the night.

And the next morning, his anti-Nazi sermon sounded in the church. The Gestapo did not forgive this. For more than a month they tortured him, in vain knocking out the names of baptized Jews and consent to cooperation. And on November 9, in a column of prisoners of war, Red Army soldiers, underground workers, priests and Jews were taken to be shot. They took 30 meters away from the column, shot the archpriest before his eyes Paul (Ostrensky) and a schema nun Esther, and then they forced him to strip naked, tied his arms and legs with barbed wire to two crossed logs, doused him with gasoline and set him on fire. The policemen did not notice that the priest, undressing, put his pectoral cross in his mouth.

The priest burned without parting his lips. His silence shocked even the Gestapo.

Mother of God saved the regiment

Future Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Pimen (Izvekov) in August 1941 he was drafted into the army in Uzbekistan, where he served a link. As part of the 702nd Infantry Regiment, he fought on the Southern and Steppe fronts. He commanded a company, rose to the rank of major. Everyone knew that he was a former pop. In 1943, the regiment was surrounded, and the soldiers asked, they say, "pray for us, father." Sergei Izvekov took out a small icon of the Mother of God, prayed and suggested to the staff officers the direction of the breakthrough. The regiment was saved.

But the rumor that the Mother of God herself showed Izvekov the way ended for him with a sentence of two years in prison. However, he miraculously escaped her, having ended up in the hospital with tuberculosis of the spine. A document was found in the archive of the Ministry of Defense, stating that Izvekov “on June 28, 1943 was missing, excluded (from the list of the unit. - E.K.) by order of the GUK NVS No. 01464 dated June 17, 1946.

They found him in the Annunciation Monastery of Murom at the request of the service that calculated pensions for the Red Army soldiers who were amnestied in connection with the Victory over Germany. After legalization, he went through all the steps of the church hierarchy, and on May 30, 1971 he was elected head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Why Hitler opened churches

The all-Union population census, conducted in January 1937, showed that, despite atheistic propaganda and the mass closing of churches, two-thirds rural population and one third of the townspeople consider themselves believers.

We know from reliable sources that the believing Russian people, groaning under the yoke of slavery and waiting for their liberator, wrote Hitler member of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad Metropolitan Anastasy June 12, 1938 - constantly raises prayers to God that He saves you, guides you and grants you his all-powerful help. Your feat for the German people and the greatness of the German Empire made you an example worthy of imitation, and a model of how to love your people and your homeland, how to stand up for your national treasures and eternal values.

By the summer of 1941, there were 3732 churches in the USSR, including Catholic, Uniate, Protestant and others. Of these, 3350, that is, almost all, accounted for the territory of Western Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and the Baltic states.

Believing Anastasia, Hitler relied on the opening of churches to win the trust of Russian believers and clergy who went through repressions.

But he miscalculated.

Having conquered, they went into monks