Open doors in people's hearts for the Lord. Interview with Archpriest Alexy Aedo (Chile). Do not lose the fullness of being Hieromonk Pavel (Scherbachev) healing of the Gadarin demoniac How we ended up in a horror film
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Continuing the series of materials with the inhabitants of the Sretensky Monastery, dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the revival of monastic life, we are talking today with, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Patriarchal Council for Culture, located within the walls of the monastery.
The Patriarchal Council for Culture was formed in March 2010 by decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Chairman of the Council is the Executive Secretary - the abbot of the Sretensky Monastery, Archimandrite Tikhon. The competence of the Patriarchal Council for Culture includes, according to the Regulations on the Patriarchal Council for Culture, issues of dialogue and interaction of the Russian Orthodox Church and its divisions with state cultural institutions, creative unions, public associations of citizens working in the field of culture, as well as with sports and other similar organizations in the countries of the canonical space of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Culture today is a multifaceted phenomenon, containing many internal contradictions, interpretations, worldviews, if you like. Nevertheless, this is one of the platforms on the basis of which the Church can conduct a constructive dialogue with creative people about the beauty that, according to the word, will save the world, about the ethical values of modern man, about the preservation of our great Christian cultural heritage, about the divine soul as source of true inspiration and true talent.
The collaboration of the Church and the cultural community is fertile ground for preaching the Gospel among people seeking the truth in art. Many of them are tormented by the question of the meaning of existence, they try to comprehend the secrets of human creativity hidden in the depths of the soul, sometimes they are mistaken, carried away, according to the word of the apostle, by empty deception according to human tradition, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ.
These people often lack a person nearby who would show those wandering in the fog, and sometimes, unfortunately, in a frenzy, the path to God, the Giver of grace-filled gifts, all wisdom and bliss. Such a person can be not only a priest appointed by God to this ministry, but every Christian who is ready to give an answer to those who demand an account of his hope with meekness and reverence.
– What projects is the Council working on today?
– The activities of the Patriarchal Council for Culture are very diverse. Folders with correspondence, plans, creative projects, analytical notes, reports, proposals already number more than hundreds of thousands of pages. One of the most important tasks facing the Council is to preserve those valuable objects of cultural heritage that over the past decades have been returned by the state to the Russian Orthodox Church. For this, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', in the near future in many dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church the position of ancient guardian will be introduced, responsible for the preservation and restoration of the priceless property inherited from our pious ancestors. The regulations on the diocesan ancient guardian were prepared by the Patriarchal Council for Culture. To train ancient guardians, the Patriarchal Council for Culture organizes special courses jointly with the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, where Russian museum specialists will give a series of lectures with on-site practical training.
A special Commission for interaction between the Russian Orthodox Church and the museum community has been formed under the Patriarchal Council for Culture. The commission, in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and good cooperation, resolves, together with the counter commission of the Ministry of Culture, controversial issues related to the exploitation of monuments of spiritual culture under the jurisdiction of the state and the Church.
This is just a small part of what it does. The listing of all projects would constitute a whole volume. However, the most significant actions of this synodal institution include such diverse projects as participation in the work of the Council for Culture and Art under the President of the Russian Federation; erection of a monument in the Alexander Garden in Moscow; publication of a manual on the preservation of monuments of church architecture and art; participation in the creation of a textbook on the history of Russia; organization of the exhibition “Orthodox Rus'. The Romanovs”, which took place at the Manege Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow from November 4 to November 24, 2013; a joint project with the State Historical Museum to hold an exhibition dedicated to St. Sergius; revival of ancient Christian churches and monasteries in the North Caucasus; holding days of Russian spiritual culture in the USA and China; participation in the preparation of the Olympics in Sochi and many, many others.
– The Joseph-Volotsky Monastery opened under you. Tell us what kind of event it was.
Gorbachev drafted a resolution containing just two words: help the metropolitan. A week later, the Ministry of Justice reported on the transfer of the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery to the Church.
– Joseph-Volotsky Monastery was returned to the Church 25 years ago. I was then an assistant and was directly involved in the preparation of documents for the transfer of this ancient monastery. All attempts to resolve the issue through correspondence with government agencies did not bring any results. After so many years of persecution of the Church, government officials could not overcome some invisible psychological barrier. It was not fear, but rather some kind of administrative reflex. The situation was resolved in an unexpected way: Bishop Pitirim, having met M.S. at one of the high meetings. Gorbachev, mentioned in a conversation with him about the bureaucratic red tape with the return of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Joseph-Volotsk Monastery. Gorbachev took part in this matter and drew up a resolution containing only two words: help the metropolitan. A week later, the Ministry of Justice reported on the transfer of the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery.
– You knew Lord Pitirim well. What kind of monk was he?
- was an outstanding archpastor. For more than 30 years he headed the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate. It was very difficult to print church books in the context of government policy aimed at suppressing everything that was connected with church education. However, he not only published books, built a new modern building for the Publishing Department, but also educated and helped many young Christians receive spiritual education, who later became outstanding bishops, priests, and church workers.
Bishop Pitirim knew many monks who had gone through the terrible school of Soviet prisons and camps. His spiritual mentor was the Optina elder, canonized as a holy confessor. It was possible to learn monasticism from such people. They testified about Christ more than words with their very lives. Burdened with many labors, the bishop never abandoned the monastic rule of prayer; in critical situations, he was an example of the deepest humility and trust in the all-powerful Providence of God. At the same time, he remained a very simple and approachable person.
He became all things to all, in order to save at least some.. I think this is what the ancient skilled monks taught with their lives, they taught a very difficult matter - the art of sacrificing oneself in one’s service to God and people.
– I would like to ask you one common question, which they probably love to ask monks. Why do people go to a monastery? Can’t they really bring more benefit to society by remaining in the world, applying their talents there?
– The fact is that such a formulation of the question is to some extent incorrect. The life of a Christian in a monastery is not so radically different from the life of a Christian living in the world and in a family, if the latter is guided in his life by Christ’s commandments. The monastery is just a kind of greenhouse where you can grow fragrant and beautiful plants, which in due time bear good fruit. The fruit is valuable and capable of satisfying many who are hungry for spiritual food. The Church is based on monasticism. From time immemorial, monasteries in Rus' and throughout the Eastern Orthodox Church were centers of theology, missionary work, education, social service, and even efficient management.
– How does the obedience of a clergyman in a city monastery differ from obedience in some other place?
– In city monasteries, as a rule, there are a significant number of parishioners and pilgrims. These are very different people. For the spiritual care of such a flock, the priest must at least understand their inner world: not only their problems, experiences, spiritual quests, but also the main factors that influence the souls of these people. This means that the pastor is obliged, in addition to prayer and constant teaching in the word of God, to know well the realities of life around us. Without this knowledge, it will be difficult for him to understand his verbal sheep, and therefore to help them in the matter of saving the soul.
I think that for priests in rural areas, construction and economic development are more typical. Living in a village, these questions cannot be avoided. At the same time, a rural shepherd, as a rule, has more time for prayer and reading, for spiritual self-improvement.
– What place does shepherding occupy in your monastic life? You have to communicate a lot with people and confess to them. Many come with a variety of problems and illnesses. Where do you get your strength from?
- This is the most precious gift of God, introducing a person into close communication with his Creator. Perhaps there is no greater joy, greater happiness, greater bliss on earth than the gift of communication with God. This gift is capable of making a corruptible person a god by grace. It is only bitter to realize one’s sinfulness and imperfection, the inconsistency of one’s spiritual state with high Christian ideals. We can only rely on the mercy of God. And God gives us strength for church service in abundance. You just need to have determination. But it can be difficult.
As for confession, this obedience is joyful for me personally. Especially when those who approach the sacrament of repentance sincerely and deeply repent. This joy, according to the word of the Savior, happens to the Angels of God and about one sinner who repents(Luke 15:10).
– You are probably often asked why there is grief, suffering and death in life...
- Human life is a deplorable vale. In the life of any person, perhaps, there are more sorrows, illnesses, everyday difficulties, mental anguish than high delight and those beautiful moments that, contrary to the well-known popular expression, cannot be stopped. In Christianity, our earthly life is called bearing the cross. Everyone has their own. It is important whether a person is ready to carry it or not. If a person who has been visited by difficulties or illnesses becomes despondent, begins to grumble, become embittered and sad, then he reaches a spiritual impasse. But if he arms himself with a different mood, a different way of thinking and says: “I thank You, Lord, for those sorrows, for those troubles, illnesses that You deigned to send me. Because of my sins, I am worthy of the worst,” then the sorrows, illnesses and troubles that previously seemed unbearable immediately become easier to bear, and soon they dissipate like morning fog. This is the action of a humble disposition of the soul.
There is another side to the matter. The ancient ascetics said that difficulties catch up with a person who tries to run away from them, and those who boldly meet them halfway are frightened by difficulties and run away. The Holy Fathers also have this idea: “Where it is difficult, there is ours, and where it is easy, we must think carefully and be careful.”
Our earthly life is a kind of test. If a person does not want to correct himself, then the merciful Lord, out of love for the human race, sends tests. These tests make a person think that they need to reconsider something in their life, in modern language - reboot the system. Of course, all this is easy to explain in words, but in the experience of each of us, when the Lord visits us with sorrows and illnesses, a wide field for spiritual achievement opens up.
November 4, 2013 marks 10 years since the death of Metropolitan Pitirim (Nechaev) of Volokolamsk and Yuryev. There is probably not a person in the Russian Church who has not heard about this amazing bishop. He was known as a talented head of the Publishing Department, a brilliant preacher, a reverent altar server, a connoisseur of ancient traditions and their living embodiment. However, it was only while working on a selection of memories about the deceased hierarch that we realized how multifaceted his personality was. I would like you, having read the stories of all these people, among whom are his friends and relatives, colleagues and subordinates, priests and laity, “physicists” and “lyricists”, academicians and mere mortals, to find something valuable for yourself and from the bottom of your heart We prayed for the repose of this wonderful bishop of the Church of Christ.
Most of the stories were written down during a friendly tea party hosted by Archimandrite Tikhon in the Sretensky Monastery.
Metropolitan Gabriel (Dinev) of Lovchansky ,
Bulgarian Orthodox Church
"A ray of light among his contemporaries"
In the ten years that have passed since the death of our beloved Metropolitan Pitirim, we have not only not forgotten Vladyka, but have delved deeper into the spiritual heritage that he left us.
He led an ascetic, monastic life, and was a true Orthodox bishop. He combined the dignity of a bishop and humility, the love of a monk and the feat of prayer, the feat of serving people and caring for Christians and the feat of building churches.
He attracted many people to him. People who themselves had some kind of humility and sincerity were drawn to him. And the more humility and sincerity they had, the more they saw the spiritual wealth of the ruler, the more they strove for it.
The ability to deeply communicate with the ruler depended largely on ourselves, and not only on him. The Lord wants as many people as possible to communicate with Him, but we see that wicked people have closed their door to the Lord. So it is with the real servants of Christ: a person can get closer to them if he tries to fight his passions and weaknesses.
Bishop Pitirim left a bright memory in many people’s hearts. And I think that over time this memory will not weaken, but, on the contrary, will strengthen. People will set the Bishop as an example for themselves - especially we, the bishops. Because he was an example of what a real bishop should be: full of dignity, humility and love.
This man appeared as a ray of light among his contemporaries. Now that Bishop is not with us, we feel his prayers and we ourselves pray for his blessed repose.
Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov)
,
Viceroy of the Moscow Sretensky Monastery,
in 1986–1992 - employee of the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate
“I have never seen such a person in my life.”
I first saw Vladyka in 1980-81, when I was writing a script about Patriarch Nikon at VGIK. I needed a special kind of consultation, and so for the first time I met a priest - Father Leonid Kuzminov, a history teacher at the Moscow Theological Seminary. We sat on a bench in the Novodevichy Convent, and I asked him various stupid questions.
And suddenly, “Victory” stops, some slender bishop comes out and quickly climbs the stairs. I was shocked by both his beauty and some kind of graceful power, inner strength. I realized that I had never seen such a person in my life.
"Who is this?" - I ask. "You do not know? This is Lord Pitirim."
Legacy of Lord Pitirim
The Lord did two great things. First: during the most difficult years, he published church literature. What it cost is known only to him. Second: he created an amazing spiritual community, a brotherhood in the publishing house, headed by himself.
His, so to speak, patient courage extended not only to the enemies of the Church, but also to the people of the Church. We know how unfairly the Bishop was treated in recent years. And we, his employees, were sometimes cruel to him, but he could not escape us, he loved everyone, understood everything, worked and was only responsible for his work. He endured all our whims, condemnations, misunderstandings, of course, as I now understand, with pain, but very condescendingly, truly spiritually. He hired young people to the Publishing House, but some of them turned out to be Judases, traitors, initiators of his expulsion, accomplices of this black deed. He forgave everyone and outwardly took it calmly.
The Bishop took upon himself enormous responsibility - both for the people and for the cause, and for fulfilling his hierarchal duty even when those around him did not understand, condemned and opposed.
It was lucky for me that when I got from the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery to Moscow, I ended up with him.
How we erected a monument to St. Sergius
In 1987, we erected a monument to St. Sergius in Gorodok. There was a whole story: Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Klykov - the author of the monument, Anatoly Zabolotsky, Vasily Ivanovich Belov, I also took part. It was impossible to obtain permission to install such a monument in those atheistic years, although we submitted an official request. We were refused at all levels and were under constant surveillance, as we later learned about this.
However, we decided to erect the monument at any cost. But it needs to be consecrated - and who will do this? I asked Vladyka, explaining the whole situation, all the risks. He thought and agreed. We arrived at Klykov’s workshop on Ordynka and the bishop consecrated the monument, I still have a photograph.
They began to secretly prepare the installation. Naturally, there is nothing of this kind of secret that will not become obvious to the state security agencies. One day in those days I went into Vladyka’s office, and suddenly he took me out, holding my hand, walked quickly down the corridor and quietly said: “George, you’re under cover.” I didn’t understand anything: “Vladyka, how do you mean “under the hood”?” And he repeated it again - and left. Finally I figured out what it was about. But what could we do? We still took the monument to Radonezh. We were arrested on the way, and the monument too... We were able to erect it only a year later, and again not without incident, but I will never forget that warning from the Lord. He warned, and understood that it was he who was under the hood.
How the Sovereign Icon of the Mother of God was Found Misha Shcherbachev, the current Father Pavel, and I were nunned in the church of St. Joseph of Volotsky in the Publishing Department. The Bishop usually stood in his bishop’s place, read the Creed during the liturgy, and sang along. Served rarely.
One day, it was in the year eighty-eight, I walked into the altar and saw: a new icon was hanging on the wall - the Sovereign Mother of God. I took a closer look - it’s antique... Something is wrong here. I think: “It’s somehow strange: an old copy of the Sovereign Icon of the Mother of God... and the icon itself appeared in 1917, then was lost...” And suddenly I understand that this is the same Sovereign Icon in front of me, because there simply cannot be ancient copies of it! And with this discovery, I fly like a bullet into the bishop’s office and shout from the threshold: “Vladyka! There is a Sovereign Icon! Real!!! Where did we get it from? - “Shh... Then you’ll find out!”
Then he said that the icon was kept in the Historical Museum, and its director, with whom Vladyka was friendly, secretly gave the icon to Vladyka so that it could be kept in the temple. And when the icon was officially returned to the Church, it was transferred not from the museum, but from the house church of the Publishing Department.
How the ruler clashed with the writer Astafiev
In 1987, in Novgorod the Great there was a holiday of Slavic writing. And so we went there - Vladyka took me with him. There was a big dinner coming up at the Novgorod Metropolitan's. And I had already been to such bishop’s dinners a couple of times and knew that this was mortal melancholy.
And here Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin, sculptor Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Klykov, Nikita Ilyich Tolstoy, Anatoly Dmitrievich Zabolotsky - the cameraman of all Vasily Shukshin's films, Viktor Petrovich Astafiev and Vasily Ivanovich Belov - they also came for the holiday - agreed to gather at the Pravda office. As usual, we bought everything necessary for the conversation - then everyone still allowed themselves. And I have a choice: go with them or go to a boring lunch. I approached Vladyka: “Vladyka, I will run away from the bishop’s dinner, bless me. Well, who am I? Some kind of novice." And the ruler suddenly answers:
George, take me with you!
How? - I was scared, - How would it be without you - official guests, metropolitans...
Georgy, how tired of all this!
In general, the bishop and I broke away from the team and arrived at the office. Everyone jumped up when they saw the bishop, and what a bishop! They were shy: a table set by men’s hands, bottles of white meat, sliced sausage, canned fish, cucumbers, tomatoes, some kind of salad... But the bishop was interested in communicating with such interlocutors. There were real people gathered.
Indeed, the communication and conversation went on such that everyone - both the Bishop and the owners - were only glad that everything had turned out this way. But - until we started talking about war. Viktor Petrovich Astafiev suddenly says, out of the blue: “Why are the priests everywhere shouting: they say the Church helped during the war? We didn’t see anyone there, the people were fighting, lying in the trenches, and there was no Church nearby.” The Bishop responded: “You may not have seen or felt the participation of the Church. But this does not mean that there was no enormous material assistance and strength in the creation of the thousand-year-old spirit of the Russian people.” Astafiev was stubborn, a Siberian, and he was attacking the ruler. But the ruler does not give in to him at all, he defends his own. They continue the conversation in this way, and suddenly I see that they both stand up! We rushed between them. Of course, this was unnecessary; the bishop even laughed.
On the way to the hotel, I apologized to Vladyka: “Sorry, it was somehow inconvenient...” And he: “What are you talking about, what good, smart Russian men, golden guys!”
Petrovich, Astafiev, lamented the next day: “What about me yesterday? Lord, what a horror!
Our last meeting
The last time I saw Vladyka was in Diveevo. And before that, he stopped by the Sretensky Monastery. I was told that Bishop Pitirim is in the bookstore. We had just opened it then. And, of course, I rushed there headlong. The Lord is in his winter robe, in a cape. I looked at everything, and it was clear that I was happy: ten years ago, bookstores, as a rule, were completely miserable: some kind of cardboard, plywood. And we built it as the Vladyka was accustomed: if we’re going to do it, then do it well. And so, he saw a beautiful store, a huge number of books, and said something - I don’t remember exactly, but somehow he reservedly praised me. It was obvious that he was happy.
I answered: “Vladyka, now it’s easy for us to publish, but at the time when you did it... After all, it was you who taught us everything!” - "OK. Let's go and have a look." And we went to look. He's been quiet lately.
And when I met him in Diveevo in the summer, he was tired, tired, emaciated, he was sitting on a bench after service, and it was not very easy for him to even talk. I took his blessing, we said two words to each other, sat next to each other, and that’s it...
“George, I know what Russia will die from”
I will never forget several of his phrases. He said one in 1988, when he was a deputy. Apparently, these words were the fruit of his serious thoughts and premonitions, or maybe it was just very painful: “George, I know what Russia will die from. She will die from amateurs.”
Another phrase was heard when political prisoners were released: Sasha Ogorodnikov, Kolya Blokhin, Viktor Burdyug, and others. I say: “Lord, look how everything changes!” And he answered me: “Oh, wait, - we are shot sparrows, - wait, don’t be happy.”
And one more thing: he usually praised people generously. But when he spoke disapprovingly (at least about the clergy), he spoke almost the same way: “We know our cadres...”
Guardian
This was a heroic man. He bore the obedience that the Church entrusted to him: liturgy, books, preservation of the strict patristic direction, church culture.
Now we are hoping to erect a monument to the Bishop, we are discussing his sculptural image, and now the idea has come to name the monument: “Guardian”. Here stands the lord. He has a staff in one hand and a book in the other. And he looks at us carefully, a little searchingly.
Guardian.
He was, in the highest sense, one of those guardians who saved the church heritage. The Church is saved by the Lord. And the church heritage is people like Bishop Pitirim.
,
cleric of the Church of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called in Lublin,
senior subdeacon of Metropolitan Pitirim in 2000–2003
Lord Pitirim and the KGB I was lucky enough to be a subdeacon and then a senior subdeacon of Metropolitan Pitirim of Volokolamsk and Yuryev from 2000 until his death. I must say that at first I accepted this invitation without much joy. In the 1990s, the media tried to create the image of the bishop as a “metropolitan in uniform,” but for the average parishioner he was a negative character. But when I came to the first service and saw the bishop, I realized that I was mistaken.
A few years later, driving past the famous building on Lubyanka, the bishop told me one story: “After my ordination as a bishop, the phone rang and I was warned that a car would come for me. My memory immediately recalled the arrests and searches of my father, Archpriest Vladimir Nechaev, in the 1920s and 30s. Back then, however, they didn’t warn me. They brought me to the courtyard of the Lubyanka and took me to the office of a general. At the end of the 3-hour conversation, he asked to secretly baptize his grandchildren. A year later I consecrated his dacha. And 5 years later, having retired, he became my parishioner at the Church of the Resurrection of the Word in Bryusov Lane.”
This was the kind of “cooperation” with the KGB.
The main thing in life
Despite all the bishop’s talents as an administrator, builder and diplomat, the main thing in his life was still worship. He told us: “All people work, but the military and the clergy serve.” And he treated his ministry as the greatest thing in life. Raised first by his father, who became a priest long before the revolution of 1917, and then by the Venerable Sebastian of Karaganda and His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I, Vladyka with his life linked the pre-revolutionary Church with the present Church, confirming, in spite of everything, Her apostolic succession. Those who prayed with the bishop in the church will agree that there was no thought as to when the service would end. Clear pronunciation of each exclamation without artificial changes in voice timbre; a lively sermon, devoid of Slavicisms and difficult theological terms - all this attracted to the Bishop not only the regular parishioners of his church, but also those who simply came to light a candle.
“You will serve Easter as a Patriarch”
I would like to remember the last earthly year of the life of Lord Pitirim. This was probably the busiest year of his life. With the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II, Bishop, as part of the official delegation of the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation, attended the descent of the Holy Fire on Easter 2003.
Being next to him in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem and anticipating the appearance of the Fire that does not burn, I remembered the prophetic words of his spiritual father, the Venerable Sebastian of Karaganda: “You will serve Easter as a Patriarch,” spoken to the bishop even before his episcopal consecration. Indeed, due to the illness of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy, Metropolitan Pitirim not only brought the Holy Fire to Moscow, but also led the Easter service in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. This was his last Easter here on earth.
Discovery of the relics of St. Joseph of Volotsk
On October 30, 2001, in the lower church of the Assumption Cathedral of the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery, during an all-night vigil on the eve of the day of remembrance of St. Joseph of Volotsky, human remains were discovered during excavations. Numerous examinations were carried out, and when all doubts disappeared, on June 11, 2003, the bishop announced that the relics of St. Joseph had been found, and that coming night we would have to place them in a special copper ark filled with wax. All night the Metropolitan read the psalter in the altar, and forensic expert V.N. Zvyagin and archaeologist Yu.A. The Smirnovs placed the relics in the position in which they were found. Already in the morning, the bishop covered the relics with monastic robes, and the ark was placed in the shrine. The next day, June 12, during the all-night vigil, the shrine with the relics of the founder of the monastery was solemnly taken out of the altar for veneration by all believers.
“The Lord left us on high”
At the end of June 2003, the bishop underwent surgery, but it turned out that the tumor had metastasized and it was too late to do anything. The doctors reassured the metropolitan and said that everything would gradually return to normal. August 1 was approaching - the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov. Vladyka went straight from the hospital to Diveevo. On July 31, finding himself at the site of the saint’s exploits in Sarov, the bishop stepped aside and prayed for a long time. I think he prayed that the Lord would strengthen him to endure suffering and pain. And when we were walking along the ditch, reading the Mother of God prayer, I decided to tell him the truth about his diagnosis:
Vladyka, you have been found...
“I know,” he interrupted, “pray.”
2 weeks before his departure to eternity, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II came to the hospital to visit Bishop Pitirim. The two of them talked for almost 40 minutes, and after the departure of His Holiness, the Bishop sighed with relief: “Thank God, everything is fine.” These great hierarchs who lived in the same era were different people. Despite this, they were united by Christ and the hope of meeting Him in eternity.
Vladyka left us on a high. Stoically experiencing severe pain, he refused narcotic painkillers. While in the hospital, he did not want his many acquaintances to see him lying in a hospital bed. On the last day of my earthly journey, I approached the already fading ruler and kissed his hand. Miserly tears flowed onto the hand that blessed many thousands of people. I asked him for forgiveness. For everyone, he was a living example of the path that Christ left us. I believe that the Lord accepted him into His Kingdom, and he, standing before the Throne of God, prays for all of us.
Hieromonk Pavel (in the world Mikhail Yaroslavovich Shcherbachev)
,
resident of the Sretensky Monastery,
personal secretary and translator of Metropolitan Pitirim
The story with the monument continued: the tone that Father Tikhon set for this entire undertaking, apparently, inspired the bishop, who had the features of a child in his soul. Moreover, the bishop had great veneration and great faith in St. Sergius. And he decided to go to the opening of the monument.
But how to go? It is clear that the bishop will be detained along the way - there was an instruction not to allow clergy to unveil the monument.
And then a government ZIL was brought to the Bishop from Estonia, and calmly, at high speed, we drove to Radonezh. The entire police saluted us; it never occurred to anyone that Metropolitan Pitirim was sitting in ZIL and was going to do something that was prohibited by all authorities of the Soviet state.
And when they arrived, it was already too late: ZIL stopped, the ruler came out of it, and it became clear that, as the philosopher Zinoviev said, “in this state everything happens according to two scenarios - either by permission of the authorities, or by their oversight.” In this case, the second one worked.
“What forces are fighting for Russia!”
Sometimes in the life of the ruler, that invisible world, which is hidden from most people, openly manifested itself.
I remember 1993, December day, snowstorm, blizzard. It is impossible to walk from the Sportivnaya metro station to Pogodinskaya - everything is covered in snow.
Suddenly a man arrives and visits the Bishop, and by then he had already been subjected to all sorts of deprivations and punishments; he had only one car left - the Oka. Vladyka rode it. And so, this man arrives, and Vladyka suddenly says to me:
Misha, this is a matter of extraordinary importance. I need to travel three hundred kilometers.
Where will you go? On the Oka, in this weather? No jeep will pass.
No, no, it’s such a thing that I definitely need to leave now.
Lord, have mercy, let's find another car.
There is no time, we have to go.
He left. It was in the morning. The day has passed, and late at night he returns. Tired, completely without strength, he sits, as people who knew him well remember, with his head in his hands, and says:
I would never have thought that our changes here on earth are so insignificant compared to what happens in Heaven.
What happened, sir?
I went to the small village of Temkino. Schema-nun Macaria suddenly sent a man to me so that I could come and give her instructions before her death. After this farewell, she died. She told what was happening in the heavenly world, what forces were fighting for Russia, the forces of good and evil, invisible to the vast majority of people.
And this is not a fantasy, I heard this from those spiritual mentors with whom he communicated before. He was under this impression for a long time. She told him something unusual.
He had to see and hear a lot, and probably no bright personalities or events could unsettle him, but for some reason what the old nun told him plunged him into deep thought. For a whole week he walked detached from all reality, thinking about something. This secret went with him to where God forbid we meet and find out.
God's providence in the life of the ruler
A lot of events took place that showed that the Providence of God was at work in the life of the ruler.
The Bishop was relieved of his post as chairman of the publishing department of the Moscow Patriarchate on the day of the 40th anniversary of his priestly ordination. And it is very important to remember how this consecration took place.
As we know, when a deacon is ordained as a priest, he prepares a priestly cross, gives it to the bishop, who places it on the paten on the altar during the liturgy, and then, after the ordination is completed, places it on the protege.
The Bishop, like everyone else, prepared a cross, and suddenly Patriarch Alexy, who ordained him, gives a sign to remove the cross. The Bishop is completely bewildered: what’s the matter?
The moment of consecration comes, and Patriarch Alexy takes off his cross with the inscription “To Protopresbyter Alexander Khotovitsky from loving parishioners” and places it on the future bishop. And Father Alexander is now one of the holy martyrs.
So: when the bishop was relieved of his post, on that day not only did the fortieth anniversary of his priestly ordination take place, but also the Hieromartyr Alexander Khotovitsky, whose cross was taken off and placed on the bishop exactly 40 years ago by Patriarch Alexy, was glorified.
The Bishop said that these manifestations of God’s Providence strengthened him in the belief that all this did not happen by chance and according to the will of God.
Hieromonk Simeon (Tomachinsky)
,
Head of the Sretensky Monastery Publishing House
How the Bishop gave lectures at the military department of the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University
In 1995, training was supposed to take place at the military department of the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University, where I studied, but its then head decided not to make any trips, but to conduct serious lecture training - a course on national security.
An integral part of this experimental course was the fundamentals of spiritual security, and a number of lectures were given to us by Metropolitan Pitirim, who made an indelible impression by his very appearance. We were glad that instead of trenches and army drills we were engaged in intellectual affairs and listening to lectures by such amazing people as Vladyka.
It was impossible not to succumb to his charm, his aristocratic appearance. By his appearance alone, the bishop made a colossal impression. Behind it was visible the two thousand year history of the Church. It was clear that this was not some fashionable preacher or a person trying to please the audience, but the face of the Church, with all its nobility, its majesty and at the same time accessibility to people. Because he was completely democratic - with all his aristocracy, there was no barrier in communicating with him.
Battle for the University Temple
Then I served as an altar boy in the university church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana and told the rector, Father Maxim Kozlov, that we had such a unique opportunity: to listen to Bishop Pitirim, to see him, to communicate with him. And Father Maxim asked me to invite Vladyka to the Tatiana Church. And it was not an easy story.
There were big battles around the Tatiana Church, where the Moscow State University student theater had previously been located. The entire intelligentsia was actually divided into two camps: some took the side of the theater, arguing that it could only be in this place and that one needed to stand behind it like a mountain - and indeed, there were barricades. And others, including such outstanding people as Innokenty Smoktunovsky, university professors, academicians, and, of course, the rector of Moscow State University Viktor Sadovnichy, advocated the revival of the temple on its historical site.
The situation was difficult, and therefore it was not clear whether Bishop Pitirim - at that time he was no longer the head of the Publishing Department, but, nevertheless, was an iconic figure - would want to come to the temple, especially since it was an informal visit.
During a break during one of the lectures, I took a blessing from the bishop and conveyed to him the request of Father Maxim.
Of course, the Tatiana Church was then in disrepair after the student theatrical... I don’t know how to say it - orgies that took place there. And the entrance was not where it is now, but on the opposite side - from Nikitskaya Street. We didn’t know whether the bishop would come, but just in case we opened the door from the journalism department.
The first bishop in the university church
And after the lecture, the bishop in all his bishop's vestments - with a panagia, in a cassock, in a white hood - walked into the Tatiana Church, one might say, from the back entrance. But Father Maxim was prepared, and therefore, as soon as the bishop entered, the Royal Doors were opened in the lower church, and Father Maxim, as expected, met the bishop - he brought him a cross - and this was probably the first visit by the bishop to the university church.
And many years later I learned that the position of rector of the university church also had its own story, and one of the candidates for this position, for whom Sadovnichy stood up, was precisely Metropolitan Pitirim. And one can imagine how difficult it was for him to come to the temple where they would like to see him as rector, but where another priest was appointed. But he stood above insults, above squabbles, above momentary considerations.
Ksenia Olafsson
,
great-niece of Lord Pitirim
The Lord is a poet
It’s difficult for me to tell personal memories - I’m not ready for this psychologically, and maybe I’ll never be ready at all. But after his death, being left alone with his archive, I suddenly realized that Vladyka began to open up to me with some completely unexpected, incredible side.
I knew that he was a great man, that he was a priest, a theologian, an interesting photographer, even a politician in some sense. But I didn’t know that he wrote poetry. I'll give two. The first is early, written, I think, in the fifties, when he was still a young man. My mother wrote on a piece of paper: “Early melancholy.”
In the web of leafless crowns,
In purple smoky colors
The forest cherishes the early morning dream
About blizzard winter tales.
The distance turns blue like a jagged wall,
Like a fighter before the decisive step.
Everything around was filled with silence:
Hidden, thought, stood up.
Just a moment - and peace will explode,
And the boundless greenery will flood
This thin expanse is blue
And the girlish subtlety of the trees.
So is life: a brief moment of purity,
Waiting, patience, excitement.
A dream come true
And it will flood you with a wave of doubts.
The second poem is later, we don’t know exactly when it was written. Vladyka signed it “Moscow - Amsterdam”, which means he was flying on an airplane. He flies and writes:
Lakes are like puddles
Sparkling water,
The sun in sparkles multiplies
The river is like mica.
Down there - abandoned
A swarm of deeds and thoughts,
Here I am for a moment
Before yourself.
Outside the window - immeasurable
The mystery of existence.
Fragile, unfaithful
Below me is a boat.
The day and hour are unknown,
The finger of fate is invisible.
Stretched out over the abyss
Cherub wings.
And also - diaries, epigrams composed during trips - this is so wonderful!
Here is an epigram from the diary of a trip along the Volga with His Holiness Patriarch Alexy, 1949:
To the Dean of the First District (Father John Markov, rector of the Znamensky Church in Moscow):
Executor of ancient covenants
In shaving hair and beard
And the deanery's steward
In the parishes of Mother Moscow
He drooped sadly. With a strict eye
From now on he looks pitifully
And every morning the coffee is black
Silence makes the heart happy.
And there is no end to his silence,
The prophetic lips closed,
But the gaze of the neighbors with hope
Sometimes he looks at them:
Who knows, maybe suddenly a smile
He will illuminate his mournful face
And, as in Moscow, a funny joke
It will conquer your hearts for a moment.
To Seryozha Kolchitsky:
Wide Volga beauty
He neglected, lying in the cabin:
Got carried away with reading and sleeping
Technical student Seryozha.
From carburetor to wines
His knowledge is endless.
And there was no reason yet
Contain a resourceful response.
To Father Alexey Ostapov:
Leaving Moscow astern,
He vowed to forget about razors,
And a respectable beard
Tender cheeks were covered.
Answer - Konstantin Nechaev:
What is my vow!
His oblivion
It will come in Moscow,
And another vow -
wearing your mustache -
Surprises everyone, dear!
Father Alexey Ostapov was always white and ruddy, and Konstantin Nechaev wore a mustache. Further in the diary there is an entry: “We edited it together, put it under the plate for His Holiness, having informed him in advance. Our verses were greeted quite warmly, they copied them.”
Boris Alekseevich Levin
,
Rector of Moscow State Transport University (MIIT),
Chairman of the Board of the Metropolitan Pitirim Heritage Foundation
The Lord is a traveler Bishop Pitirim studied at our university from 1943 to 1946. And although in 1946, when a seminary opened at the Novodevichy Convent, he went there because he could not combine his studies there and here, Vladyka was always proud of the fact that he was a traveler.
I started working closely with him 17 years ago, when I was elected rector. It was necessary to restore the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery, and he, together with Professor Ernest Serafimovich Spiridonov, who was involved in the construction, came up with an idea: students could take part in the reconstruction of the monastery! I, of course, supported this idea. Thus, the MIIT student construction team was revived.
Only believers were selected for the first detachment that went to the monastery, and they worked for free. Then, on their own initiative, they went to the monastery on Saturdays and Sundays to continue their work there.
How the house church was restored at MIIT
Before the revolution, the university had a house church, but in 1917 it was liquidated and the priest was shot. The building was being rebuilt inside, but the bishop said that when he was studying, they knew that there had once been a temple here, they went into the premises where it was located, and tried to imagine what it was like.
I picked up the surviving project of 1895/96 - indeed, in the research part there was a house church. Naturally, the bishop’s desire was to restore this church, and mine was to realize this desire. Let me tell you right away that this was a very difficult question. Because the party was still alive, or, in any case, those who were devoted to the party were alive, so we did not receive the decision for reconstruction right away.
We based the reconstruction on the very projects that were approved by Tsar Nicholas II - there is his corresponding visa. They began to restore the celebration hall - it was redone under Stalin. A layer of concrete 22 cm thick, healthy reinforcement, no ceiling, no intermediate supports... They brought in scientists - they said: “This is impossible to remove: the walls will go in different directions, and if the facade wall goes away, then nothing will hold it. Leave it as it was."
“Vladyka, what should we do?” I ask. He says:
What is your opinion?
You know, I'm not a builder.
And the soul - what does it tell you?
Since I am somewhat of an adventurer, I would take the risk.
He simply told me: “Try it.” And that “try” was enough: I took it as a blessing. Vladyka was very attentive to all the construction and came often. And with God’s help, everything worked out for us - I invite those who were not there; those who were, saw what splendor we have restored.
Grigory Stepanovich Sobolev
,
Vice-Rector of Moscow State University M.V. Lomonosov,
Head of the Moscow State University Foundation for Scientific and Business Cooperation
“Well, do you understand now how difficult it can be for me?” I'll tell you a story that happened to us in Italy. The international congress “Five Economies - Five Religions” was held there. We were supposed to have a press conference in one of the banks, we were waiting for Vladyka, but he was delayed by Cardinal Milan and did not make it in time for the beginning. We call: “Vladyka, should we wait for you?” And he answers:
People gathered there - go, I’ll come later. Just don't forget to get dressed!
That's how we dress!
No, no: be sure to wear robes!
We all had to be in professorial robes at this conference. Well, we put on our robes, drove up to the bank, and there was a huge crowd of people standing there: everyone was waiting for the “Russian Pope.” And among them there are many women. And Catholics - you know - are all beardless. And we have no beards. We get out of the cars in these robes, and women rush to us to kiss our hands. We walked along the wall, along the wall, and quickly made our way into the bank. When they told the bishop, he smiled: “Well, do you understand now how difficult it can be for me?”
Cross of Admiral Nakhimov At one time, the great-great-granddaughter of Admiral Nakhimov visited Vladyka and gave him a family heirloom - the cross of Admiral Nakhimov. This cross is more than 400 years old. This relic is kept by us, at the Moscow State University Foundation for International Cooperation.
It was extremely important for Vladyka that the education of our youth, our compatriots, take place in the traditions of Russian Orthodoxy and patriotism. And so, with the blessing of the Bishop, we made such a project - awarding the Nakhimov Cross to individuals and legal entities in 3 areas: for strengthening the traditions of the Russian military and Orthodoxy, for strengthening the country’s defense capability, for patriotic education. We presented this award in Sevastopol - to the cruiser "Moscow", the Marine Corps regiment, individual officers, and sailors.
I am grateful to Vladyka that he initiated this program; today it lives not only in memory of him, but also serves the interests of our Fatherland.
How Vladyka opposed the adoption of children from Russia
Representatives of organizations from Italy, Switzerland and Austria contacted the Foundation for the Survival and Development of Humanity with the aim of creating an international association for the adoption of children from Russia. They prepared all the documents and came and brought these documents for signature, including for Vladyka. We sat for three hours, discussing all this, arguing. Many of the living leaders were interested in a positive decision. There were a lot of calls, they were rushing us. Suddenly Vladyka stood up and said: “Grigory Stepanovich, whatever you want, I won’t sign these papers. And I don’t advise you, I even forbid you. We are called the Foundation for the Survival of Humanity. How can we send our Russian boys and girls abroad? This is impossible".
You yourself know how sadly the adoptions of our children ended, and how many international scandals are associated with this. The Lord, foreseeing this, did not allow the matter to proceed.
How, thanks to Vladyka, children enlightened their parents
The Bishops collected children's Bibles. He had a whole collection of them. And this is what he came up with. He once asked: “Find 10 people who have small children.” They found it, and then the Bishop suggested: “Let’s find a girl who will send these children letters every week, and we’ll force the parents to buy the most beautiful and expensive binding so that their children can make a book.” That's what they did. And so each of these children received a letter every week. Let's say, with the letter "A": "Who is an angel?" Then with the letter “B”: “Who is God?” And all this with pictures and written in a clear, childlike way. And the children made a book out of these letters. I now visit these families, and this book, collected by the hands of a child, is the most valuable heirloom in the house.
Mikhail Vasilievich Kulakov
,
Professor, Faculty of Economics, Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov
Catholics applauded him
I was already quite an adult, a mature person - I held the post of vice-rector of Moscow University - when I met Vladyka. Thanks to him, the idea arose to hold an international conference in Milan “Five Economies - Five Religions”. It was the mid-90s, when it was unclear what was going on in our country. Of course, there was enormous interest from the West, but all the talk boiled down to the fact that in Russia there is now wild capitalism and something terrible is happening. But Vladyka set a completely different tone with his speeches: yes, economic relations are economic relations. But they must necessarily contain an element of moral purity. And this affected everyone at the conference. He had practically no free time: everyone wanted to meet with him, requests came in one after another. The meeting at the Rotary Club was interesting. You can’t imagine how he was received there! Italian millionaires and billionaires are sitting. Catholics. But after each speech of the Bishop, after almost every phrase, they applauded him, tried to approach him, ask or say something.
I believe that the Bishop’s social activities abroad played a huge role at that moment in changing the attitude of representatives of European big business towards our country.
How we fought for Tatyana's Church
We had a life-and-death struggle for the return of the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana to the University. It so happened that the rector’s office instructed me to do this. It would seem that everything is clear: there, on Mokhovaya, in the old University building, before the revolution, the university’s home church was located. We need to return it to the Church. But it wasn't that simple! By this time, a student theater was located there. And then such forces rebelled - especially artists - that, behold, we are almost destroying Russian culture! We destroy it. But the theater is not the worst thing yet. When they started doing business there, and even organized a dog show... I had to speak about this several times on television and radio, and have a tough debate with opponents of the restoration of the temple. It was hard. And, having met with the bishop, I complained to him: “Vladyka, such forces attacked that no human strength is enough!” And he calmly replied: “You are doing a work pleasing to God - you must endure it.” And we survived! And we opened our church, and now every Tatiana’s day is a holiday.
Nikolai Afanasyevich Reznikov
,
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Pitirim Heritage Foundation
How the achievements of civilization turn into ruins When Vladyka and I were in Italy, we went on an excursion to Pompeii. Looking around the excavations, the Bishop said that everything that Rome was famous for, all these greatest achievements: a modern water supply system, sewerage, and beautiful mosaics in the courtyards of houses, all of this, due to the lack of faith and the sinfulness of life, turned into ruins. And he added that this always happens.
For me, Vladyka was a model
His services in the temple on Bryusov Lane were solemn and majestic. Vladyka served in such a way that even without understanding the Church Slavonic language, you were immersed in this prayerful atmosphere and renounced everything. For me, he was a model both in serving God and in communicating with people of different levels and ranks.
Oncology is a special path to God
When the disease was discovered and he lived with it for some time, he said that oncology is a special path to God. “This is the road of the chosen,” he said.
I saw him after Patriarch Alexy II came to him. They talked, and the next day we visited him. And he said: “Nikolai Afanasyevich, don’t come again.” He said he didn't want to be remembered the way he would be in a few days. "Remember me as I am." Now I say this, and I get goosebumps.
Valentin Arsenievich Nikitin
,
employee of the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1977–1992
"He was an editor by the grace of God" I had the good fortune to work for 17 years under the leadership of Bishop Pitirim as one of the editors of the Publishing Department.
For me, Vladyka Pitirim is a man of exceptional talents, charismatic, and patriot. Especially dear to me are the memories of how Vladyka celebrated the Liturgy. During Holy Week, I remember he read the Gospel with tears in his eyes. He served so amazingly. No one can probably compare with him now.
He was an editor by the grace of God. I remember him with a feeling of admiration and deepest gratitude.
The Lord always took the blow upon himself. Remembering now the years when there was strict censorship, I understand that we lived as if behind a stone wall, he protected us, a shore. You know, there is a sonnet by Valery Bryusov, it’s called “Sonnet to Form”:
There are subtle power connections
Between the contour and the smell of a flower
So we don’t see the diamond yet
Its edges will not sparkle in a diamond.
Now each of us said something that allowed us to see a new facet. Vladyka was, of course, a diamond, an amazing person, he deserves to be talked about with gratitude, admiration and with tears in his eyes.
Irina Dmitrievna Ulyanova
,
employee of the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1966–1994
“Ready to become an obscurantist” I joined the publishing department in 1966. Behind me was the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University and a short period of work in the military publishing house of the Ministry of Defense.
When I was still studying, the “Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate” was quietly distributed at our philology department. I read it from the 3rd year and realized that I would only work in this magazine. And in 1966, I learned that the Publishing Department was located in the Novodevichy Convent, in the Assumption Cathedral, and I came there at my own peril and risk. Vladyka was not there that day, and I ended up with the executive secretary, Evgeniy Alekseevich Karmanov. At the end of the conversation, he asked me: “Aren’t you afraid?” I was surprised. He clarified: “Well, we are obscurantists...” And then I said that I, too, was ready to become an obscurantist.
The editors were a pitiful sight back then. The Assumption Cathedral is large and spacious, but for the editorial office they separated a small room on the 2nd floor, partitioned it off, and it turned out to be cells made of some kind of wood and glass. When I arrived, Vyacheslav Petrovich Ovsyannikov and the future father Innokenty (Prosvirnin) were already working there. Only then it was Anatoly Ivanovich, who walked around in a jacket and boots - he had recently arrived from Siberia.
Only 24 people worked in the editorial office - typists, editors, proofreaders, expedition... The conditions were terrible, although there was heating. After all, there were communal apartments in Novodevichy, and only after the war people began to move out of there. We laughed then, calling ourselves “children of the dungeon,” because part of the editorial staff generally sat in the basement. First they put me in a basement, on an expedition, then I grew up to a proofreader, then to an editor. And when I left the department, already on Pogodinskaya, there were about one and a half thousand of us, together with freelance employees.
First meeting with the Lord
A few days later, when I felt a little more comfortable, I was told that I needed to go and introduce myself to the Lord. His office was larger than the other cells. I was advised that I needed to take a blessing, and that the Bishop should be called “Your Eminence.” I was trembling all over - I had never seen him.
I remember my feelings - he stood up when I entered, tall, he was then 39 years old, of extraordinary beauty, although he seemed like an old man to me: mustache, beard... I was taken aback, walked up half-bent and honestly said that I had never taken a blessing. He replied: “You can practice on me.”
Vladyka had an interesting property - when he was kind, he spoke “you”, and when he was angry, he spoke “you” and by his first name and patronymic. It was easy to understand what mood he was in.
The Lord and the “catacombs”
Vladyka and I became friends. And gradually he revealed to me the hidden world of the Church.
After all, it was 1966 - the wave of Khrushchev’s persecutions had just subsided, and the attitude towards the Church was terrible. We were all informed that we were not entitled to a pension, although then, of course, we didn’t care. Then, when we moved to Pogodinskaya, Vladyka got us a union. And which! Union of Public Utilities! But, thanks to Vladyka, they still earned a pension.
I would also like to say something about the people towards whom the Vladyka had a special relationship. These are laymen, but in the 1920s and 30s they were “catacombs.” After the war, under Patriarch Alexy I, the situation changed, but Vladyka had a very warm attitude towards them.
A secret nun came to us - a professor at the Institute of Tuberculosis. She was a leading collaborator, but she was a believer all her life, a spiritual child of one of the saints, the elder of Zosima Hermitage. When she arrived, Vladyka did not allow anyone into the office. I wish I could hear what they were talking about now...
Or Ksenia Alekseevna Rozova, editor-in-chief of a medical newspaper in Stalin times. Vladyka knew that she was the spiritual child of Vassian Pyatnitsky and also welcomed her; they talked behind closed doors. These people brought him their memories, their works, what they wrote “on the table” and gave to the Vladyka for safekeeping.
How I got into cinema
It started in 1969. The 1st peace conference “Religions for Peace” was held at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Guests were invited from abroad; Patriarch Alexy I was still alive. The entire editorial staff went there to work, we learned to work at such events, Vladyka trained us to communicate with the world.
Once, when we, terribly tired, spent the night there, in the seminary, late at night - and I was not sleeping - Vladyka came in and put a chocolate bar under each pillow, a big, good one! It was so touching!
The conference was filmed by the Fatherland film studio; I didn’t know then that they had already made several films about the Russian Orthodox Church. Among them there is a rarity - the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1971 - vows were taken there for the old rituals. It turns out that several films already existed, including a film by the wonderful director Boris Leonidovich Karpov, shot in 1968, called “The Russian Orthodox Church Today.” There is a lot of documentary filming in Pechory, there is a moment when Archimandrite Alipiy (Voronov) takes monastic vows.
Vladyka was very interested in cinema, and he gradually led me towards this. Then he said: “Study,” but I, being an “obscurantist,” could not enter VGIK, but there were good courses at the State Cinema Committee of the USSR, it was called, however, for some reason, the University of Marxism-Leninism. We studied there for two years and had first-class specialists working there. There were not many people, but they worked carefully. When I received my diploma with honors and brought it to the Bishop, he blessed me and said that the Church needs a person in documentary films. So I started writing scripts for documentaries.
In 1981, we took our first film - about the Pükhtitsa Monastery - to a festival in Stockholm, and showed it out of competition. I liked him. This is where it all began.
Those first films are infinitely dear to me, because they are the history of the Russian Orthodox Church during the period of persecution. During perestroika, when attitudes towards the Church changed, we filmed the film “Under the Blessed Veil”, for the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of Rus'. There is an episode with the Lord. At this time, he was already beginning to work on the transfer of the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery to the Church. He brought seminarians from the Lavra and served a memorial service over the relics of Joseph Volotsky, his cancer was hidden. And we filmed it all. Now I often think: “What a blessing that we captured all this, and it remained for history.”
How we ended up in a horror movie
In 1983 we went to the Netherlands for a TV week. We watched films from morning to evening, because nothing like this could happen in the Soviet Union, and at night we also went to the cinema opposite to watch foreign films. Vladyka did not come with us - he still had different meetings.
And so, one day, we went to the cinema, based on the pictures we chose some kind of funny comedy, but we mixed up the cinema hall. We sat down in the first row, it started out funny, but after 3 minutes we realized that it was a horror film, absolutely monstrous, it was called “Friday the 13th.”
I was literally paralyzed; my left arm and left leg were paralyzed. We suffered such fear! Returning to Moscow, I learned from the filmmakers that it was an experimental film, with a 25th frame, which created such a state of numbness.
…We go back, we tremble, we see a tram coming, and on the tram is Vladyka (it’s half past two in the morning!). As they ran, they stopped the tram, flew into it, to Vladyka, but did not tell him anything. Then they just repented.
Humility of the Lord When the disaster happened in 1994, I was simply seething with indignation, and immediately, without delay, I wrote a long article. Bold, defiant, about what happened and how - with all the details. Vladyka was at that time in the church in Bryusovo. I came to him. I had already decided to myself who I would go to and who could publish it. I gave him the article. He took her and told her to come back in a week. I came. He praised the work, but did not even bless me to show it to anyone.
Rarity
There was an incident, on the one hand, funny and absurd, on the other, I think, providential. I called and complained that I couldn’t find the script for “Kalina Krasny”; it wasn’t me who needed it, but my youngest son. He was born, by the way, with the blessing of Vladyka. I was 42 years old, I was afraid, but Vladyka said: “And my mother gave birth to me at 44.” And everything was fine.
And this - he was already studying, finishing school, and needed a book, and I knew that Vladyka had a classmate - the head of the library. Vladyka was very attentive to people and even took care of such trifles! He called his friend, called me back, the book was ready. Then I came to Smolenskaya to give it back, put my bag at the entrance, went in, they talked for a long time, I don’t remember what.
And then the following happened - the thieves walked through this house, robbed everything they could, and took my bag. There was nothing there, just this book. I'm so upset! She told Vladyka, and he asked how much money was there. Money - 50 dollars. And about the book, they say, we’ll agree.
He went somewhere behind the curtain, took out a bag - I don’t use it, it’s a rarity, a gift from the Lord - and gave me a hundred dollars.
But he told me to go to the police and write a statement. I didn’t have a passport there, but I had a pension certificate. This was the last meeting with him.
2002 - my eldest son dies, and I fell out of life for a whole year. I knew that Vladyka was sick, but I couldn’t communicate, I wasn’t fit for anything. We met only at the first memorial service.
“Lord is my solar time”
Every person has a sunny time, Lord - this is my sunny time. In our morning rule we have a prayer for bosses, mentors, teachers and benefactors - for me it’s all about the Lord.
The Lord has been gone for ten years, but I pray for him every day, and that’s why we meet with him constantly. This is why we need a prayer for repose, to meet with everyone we love.
Anatoly Innokentievich Shatov
,
Chairman of the Society of Old Russian Musical Culture
The image of a real Russian bishop I remember one of the services in the house church of the Publishing Department. The liturgy is over, but no one leaves. The Bishop retired to his office for a while, and suddenly comes out... in vestments and a Russian miter!
This is a simple brocade hat, flat on top, slightly conical, trimmed with some kind of expensive fur. I will never forget this image of a real Russian bishop, because the “Greek” miters, which are now widely used, do not suit the Russian face well. And this was an image that came from the depths of centuries.
The bishop made an amazing impression during the services! Then the Divine Service begins and everyone fades into the background somewhere. And he dominates so much that you are simply amazed. You feel that the concept of imperishable time is approaching, as if eternity itself exists in this service. Maybe his genetic memory was working in him, because his priestly family is three hundred years old!
I traveled a lot around the country and attended many bishop’s services. I cannot put a single bishop on a par with him. He was a man of a bygone culture.
Evgeniy Pavlovich Velikhov
,
Academician, President of the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute"
Fight for peace I must say that I am generally a non-religious person, a non-believer, but in the 1980s there was still quite active persecution of the faith, and therefore the Church was perceived with a degree of sympathy and sympathy. My parents were deeply religious people. But I was raised by my grandmother, and she was of German origin, rational, like Goethe, that “great atheist.”
I met Metropolitan Pitirim at the forum “For a nuclear-free world, for the survival of humanity,” which was held by Gorbachev. Later, when the Foundation “For the Survival and Development of Humanity” appeared, Vladyka joined its Council, and we began to communicate closely. At that time, the main question was how to avoid a nuclear conflict. Reagan said that now I will give the command and a nuclear war will begin. In his first term as president, he openly discussed such things as the neutron bomb, limited nuclear war, and so on.
The Foundation for the Survival and Development of Humanity has formed a whole group of wonderful clergy of different religions. In addition to Metropolitan Pitirim, it included Mother Teresa, Rabbi Steinsaltz, who translated the Babylonian Talmud into Hebrew, Jesuit Hazburg from the University of Notre Dame, Katsumi Shinda from Japan, representatives of Buddhism and many others. We met with the Dalai Lama and found contact with the Pope. This group met and prepared various kinds of appeals, documents, and meetings with political leaders.
In the end, she contributed to the fact that a nuclear disaster was avoided, although she walked on the edge several times. The voice of this group was listened to: politicians are politicians, scientists - they are not always understood what they say, but religious leaders are still listened to.
And during this time I became very close friends with Metropolitan Pitirim, and our relations became friendly.
“He communicated with young people very easily”
And then I organized the first Russian-American summer camp for schoolchildren near Pereslavl Zalessky, in a place called Kukhmar. Dmitry Donskoy came from these places, Sergius of Radonezh walked there. And Lord Pitirim fit in very well.
The opening of this camp will be remembered for the rest of my life. To make it clear to you, a local lady, who was the secretary of the district party committee for ideology, said: “This priest is only over my corpse!” And the Metropolitan took with him the seminary choir from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
And so all of us - Russian and American schoolchildren and seminarians - organized a hike around Pereslavl for one day. Now in Pereslavl some things have been restored, but then there were mostly ruins of ancient monasteries. And in these old churches, monasteries, on the ruins, these guys sang. Moreover, at that time it was generally forbidden to organize joint events between schoolchildren and children from church institutions. I think we were the first to violate this ban. Then we walked through all the temples, and all the temples began to sound. It was something absolutely inimitable! And we installed crosses everywhere.
And Metropolitan Pitirim was present in all this. I remember when we approached the camp, he tied up his beard and went to swim in Lake Pleshcheyevo.
In general, on the one hand, he was modern - he communicated with young people very easily, spoke languages, and knew foreign affairs very well. I have photographs of him playing with the guys in a flying saucer - it had just appeared then.
On the other hand, of course, there was some kind of holiness in him.
"The Man from the Other Side of the Volga"
Vladyka was for me a representative of not just Orthodoxy - I have different attitudes towards Orthodoxy - he was a man “from the other side of the Volga”. There was something sacred about him: in his manner, in his attitude. And, of course, in his appearance. It seemed as if he had stepped out of a Nesterov painting. And it glowed from within.
Maria Doria de Giuliani,
writer, translator, head of the Italian-Russian Center for Cultural Cooperation
We met Metropolitan Pitirim somewhere in the late 1980s through mutual Moscow believing friends.
At that time, I was preparing a large exhibition from the Moscow Historical Museum in Milan's Castello Sforzesco - it was, one might say, the first exhibition of applied art during perestroika. When Bishop Pitirim informed me about his upcoming trip to Italy with his secretary, expressing a desire to meet the Venetian Patriarch, we invited them to our place in Valdagno. The Bishop and the monsignor talked with each other for a long time, and I translated and was the only one who was present at this conversation.
I have a lot of good and even funny memories of the week that Vladyka spent with us; for example, about the day when he and I walked all over Venice in search of an easel for his nephew, or about another day when the bishop went to the temple in Valdagno, and our local priest was so excited about it that he even had difficulty reading the Gospel. I also remember the meeting between the Bishop and the Bishop of Vicenza, when the cook on our estate broke a dozen antique plates.
A year later, I became president of the organizing committee of the Campiello Literary Prize, the award ceremony of which takes place in the courtyard of the Doge's Palace, and invited Metropolitan Pitirim along with the choir of the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate. There are even photos on the Internet that capture this wonderful event.
And in conclusion, I would like to quote one phrase from the Bishop: “Under Soviet rule, we were like sprats: all in one jam-packed jar. And when perestroika began, someone opened this jar, and we immediately came to life. And again they took their place in the world and in the human soul.”
Rustem Ibragimovich Khairov
,
Executive Director of the International Fund for the Survival and Development of Humanity
“Rustam, let’s pray!” The Foundation for the Survival and Development of Humanity, of which I am the director, is the brainchild of Bishop Pitirim. I remember how we sat at the Cosmos Hotel and discussed in a small circle the goals of the foundation, its structure and main tasks. The most active participants at that time were Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, Academician Velikhov and Vladyka Pitirim. Already well after midnight, Vladyka and I went home by car from the Cosmos Hotel, where this discussion took place.
Suddenly the bishop stopped near the church of the martyr Tryphon - and it was already two o’clock in the morning - and said: “Rustam, what we discussed is a wonderful idea. Let’s pray that the martyr Tryphon will help us.”
At 2 o'clock in the morning we knocked on the temple gate for a long, long time, woke up the guard, they opened the doors for us, lit candles...
It's impossible to forget! The bishop served for more than half an hour, and there was no one except me and the watchman. It is very difficult to convey the emotions and feelings that we experienced.
Then we went home, and, saying goodbye to me, Vladyka said: “Now I know that everything will come true, because the martyr Tryphon is the patron saint of Moscow.” And indeed, everything came true! 25 years have already passed, and our fund is the only one that has survived from the times of the Soviet Union. He survived dozens of different social and economic cataclysms.
How the Bishop saved the fund
Our foundation is international, and one of the conditions for its creation was that its director should be a neutral person: neither Soviet nor American. So the Swede Rolf Björnerstedt was invited to this position. I was then deputy director and was responsible for the Soviet part.
Upon his arrival in the USSR, Rolf openly stated: “I am convinced that this Foundation was created by the KGB. Okay, Khairov doesn’t really look like a KGB guy, but the Foundation’s lawyer, as well as this one, this one and this one, definitely do. I'm firing them." And he fired all the guys who worked with me day and night, created the Foundation, wrote its Charter, carried out all this - but how difficult it was! I tried to say something to Rolf, he responded: “Come to me!”, and patted my leg with his hand, as if I were a dog, I swear to you. I said: “I won’t work with you until you bring back the old staff who did all this work.”
And for a long time I did not appear there, until one night again - as if in a fairy tale - the Lord’s call rang. He says:
Don't you go to the Foundation?
Konstantin Vladimirovich, you know, as long as this viper is there, I will not work with him.
And he was already fired.
How: a foreigner?
Call Velikhov, ask when to come, start working.
Well, naturally, I called Velikhov, and from him I heard how it all happened.
There was a board of directors. They said that the Foundation began to work poorly, that there were no active projects, because it was difficult for a Swede to navigate Moscow, especially since he saw everyone as intelligence officers.
Vladyka slept through the entire meeting of the board of directors while sitting, and at the end he woke up and said: “Fire him, he doesn’t know how to work, we need to bring Khairov back.”
Everyone voted and he was fired. Then Vladyka called me. It's like some kind of miracle. I called Evgeniy Pavlovich, he said: “Go to work tomorrow.” Since then I have been working there, and all my employees, naturally, were returned.
Anna Nikolaevna Kuznetsova
,
employee of the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate
“This is a holiday that is always with me” I will say very briefly about Vladika Pitirim, about my work with him: this is a holiday that is always with me, both during the Vladika’s earthly life and now, when the time has come for grateful memories.
You see, I was happy every moment when I worked with him. Thanks to Vladyka, I realized that there is someone to serve: not for a salary or out of vanity, not “because it’s necessary,” but out of love. By his attitude to work, Bishop Pitirim showed all of us, “chicks of Pitirim’s nest,” employees of the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, that even difficult, difficult, tiring work can and should be a service to Christ.
When I first started working, I asked Vladyka what the daily routine was. To which he replied: “This is a matter of your conscience,” thereby giving me almost complete freedom. What ended up happening was that, coming to work at half past seven in the morning, I left at nine or ten in the evening, or even later. How could I let down a man who gave himself completely to his work?
“What else happened to us?” - this was the question Vladyka greeted me with every time I came to his office. I must say that I almost always came with some kind of problem. And there was never a case when at least one of the difficulties was not solved by him.
He delved into all the problems, eliminating them painstakingly and knowledgeably. He was a great spiritual educator, teaching us an example of serving our common cause: we could not publish a book, knowing that it had some shortcomings and errors. And the greatest joy for us was when Vladyka was pleased.
Now that the bishop is away, I am working so that I will not be ashamed in front of him when, God willing, we meet again.
What would be his reaction to this or that question of mine? I try to find the answer, often visiting his grave at the Danilovsky cemetery.
I think the significance of the personality and activities of the ruler, I think, is not yet understood or revealed. I fully admit that later, when they study the 20th century, they will talk about it as the time of Lord Pitirim. Intelligence, kindness, but at the same time simplicity and greatness - these qualities were combined in the Bishop quite naturally, striking his contemporaries, to whom he was both a teacher and a loving father.
Continuing the series of materials with the inhabitants of the Sretensky Monastery, dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the revival of monastic life, we are talking today with Hieromonk Pavel (Shcherbachev), Deputy Executive Secretary of the Patriarchal Council for Culture, located within the walls of the monastery.
- Father Pavel, what is the Patriarchal Council for Culture? How important is his existence for the Church?The Patriarchal Council for Culture was formed in March 2010 by decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Chairman of the Council is His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill, the executive secretary is the abbot of the Sretensky Monastery, Archimandrite Tikhon. The competence of the Patriarchal Council for Culture includes, according to the Regulations on the Patriarchal Council for Culture, issues of dialogue and interaction of the Russian Orthodox Church and its divisions with state cultural institutions, creative unions, public associations of citizens working in the field of culture, as well as with sports and other similar organizations in the countries of the canonical space of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Culture today is a multifaceted phenomenon, containing many internal contradictions, interpretations, worldviews, if you like. Nevertheless, this is one of the platforms on the basis of which the Church can conduct a constructive dialogue with creative people about the beauty that, according to the word, will save the world, about the ethical values of modern man, about the preservation of our great Christian cultural heritage, about the divine soul as source of true inspiration and true talent.
The collaboration of the Church and the cultural community is fertile ground for preaching the Gospel among people seeking the truth in art. Many of them are tormented by the question of the meaning of existence, they try to comprehend the secrets of human creativity hidden in the depths of the soul, sometimes they are mistaken, carried away, according to the word of the apostle, by empty deception according to human tradition, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ.
These people often lack a person nearby who would show those wandering in the fog, and sometimes, unfortunately, in a frenzy, the path to God, the Giver of grace-filled gifts, all wisdom and bliss. Such a person can be not only a priest appointed by God to this ministry, but every Christian who is ready to give an answer to those who demand an account of his hope with meekness and reverence.
- What projects is the Council working on today?
The activities of the Patriarchal Council for Culture are very diverse. Folders with correspondence, plans, creative projects, analytical notes, reports, proposals already number more than hundreds of thousands of pages. One of the most important tasks facing the Council is to preserve those valuable objects of cultural heritage that over the past decades have been returned by the state to the Russian Orthodox Church. For this, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', in the near future in many dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church the position of ancient guardian will be introduced, responsible for the preservation and restoration of the priceless property inherited from our pious ancestors. The regulations on the diocesan ancient guardian were prepared by the Patriarchal Council for Culture. To train ancient guardians, the Patriarchal Council for Culture organizes special courses jointly with the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, where Russian museum specialists will give a series of lectures with on-site practical training.
A special Commission for interaction between the Russian Orthodox Church and the museum community has been formed under the Patriarchal Council for Culture. The commission, in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and good cooperation, resolves, together with the counter commission of the Ministry of Culture, controversial issues related to the exploitation of monuments of spiritual culture under the jurisdiction of the state and the Church.
This is just a small part of what it does. The listing of all projects would constitute a whole volume. However, the most significant actions of this synodal institution include such diverse projects as participation in the work of the Council for Culture and Art under the President of the Russian Federation; erection of a monument in the Alexander Garden in Moscow; publication of a manual on the preservation of monuments of church architecture and art; participation in the creation of a textbook on the history of Russia; organization of the exhibition “Orthodox Rus'. The Romanovs”, which took place at the Manege Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow from November 4 to November 24, 2013; a joint project with the State Historical Museum to hold an exhibition dedicated to St. Sergius; revival of ancient Christian churches and monasteries in the North Caucasus; holding days of Russian spiritual culture in the USA and China; participation in the preparation of the Olympics in Sochi and many, many others.
- The Joseph-Volotsky Monastery opened under you. Tell us what kind of event it was.
Gorbachev drafted a resolution containing just two words: help the metropolitan. A week later, the Ministry of Justice reported on the transfer of the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery to the Church.
Joseph-Volotsky Monastery was returned to the Church 25 years ago. I was an assistant then Metropolitan of Volokolamsk and Yuryev Pitirim and was directly involved in the preparation of documents for the transfer of this ancient monastery. All attempts to resolve the issue through correspondence with government agencies did not bring any results. After so many years of persecution of the Church, government officials could not overcome some invisible psychological barrier. It was not fear, but rather some kind of administrative reflex. The situation was resolved in an unexpected way: Bishop Pitirim, having met M.S. at one of the high meetings. Gorbachev, mentioned in a conversation with him about the bureaucratic red tape with the return of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Joseph-Volotsk Monastery. Gorbachev took part in this matter and drew up a resolution containing only two words: help the metropolitan. A week later, the Ministry of Justice reported on the transfer of the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery.
-You knew Lord Pitirim well. What kind of monk was he?
He was an outstanding archpastor. For more than 30 years he headed the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate. It was very difficult to print church books in the context of government policy aimed at suppressing everything that was connected with church education. However, he not only published books, built a new modern building for the Publishing Department, but also educated and helped many young Christians receive spiritual education, who later became outstanding bishops, priests, and church workers.
Bishop Pitirim knew many monks who had gone through the terrible school of Soviet prisons and camps. His spiritual mentor was the Optina elder, canonized as a holy confessor. It was possible to learn monasticism from such people. They testified about Christ more than words with their very lives. Burdened with many labors, the bishop never abandoned the monastic rule of prayer; in critical situations, he was an example of the deepest humility and trust in the all-powerful Providence of God. At the same time, he remained a very simple and approachable person.
He became all things to all, in order to save at least some.. I think this is what the ancient skilled monks taught with their lives, they taught a very difficult matter - the art of sacrificing oneself in one’s service to God and people.
I would like to ask you one common question, which they probably love to ask monks. Why do people go to a monastery? Can’t they really bring more benefit to society by remaining in the world, applying their talents there?
The fact is that this formulation of the question is to some extent incorrect. The life of a Christian in a monastery is not so radically different from the life of a Christian living in the world and in a family, if the latter is guided in his life by Christ’s commandments. The monastery is just a kind of greenhouse where you can grow fragrant and beautiful plants, which in due time bear good fruit. The fruit is valuable and capable of satisfying many who are hungry for spiritual food. The Church is based on monasticism. From time immemorial, monasteries in Rus' and throughout the Eastern Orthodox Church were centers of theology, missionary work, education, social service, and even efficient management.
- How does the obedience of a clergyman in a city monastery differ from obedience in some other place?
Urban monasteries usually have a significant number of parishioners and pilgrims. These are very different people. For the spiritual care of such a flock, the priest must at least understand their inner world: not only their problems, experiences, spiritual quests, but also the main factors that influence the souls of these people. This means that the pastor is obliged, in addition to prayer and constant teaching in the word of God, to know well the realities of life around us. Without this knowledge, it will be difficult for him to understand his verbal sheep, and therefore to help them in the matter of saving the soul.
I think that for priests in rural areas, construction and economic development are more typical. Living in a village, these questions cannot be avoided. At the same time, a rural shepherd, as a rule, has more time for prayer and reading, for spiritual self-improvement.
What place does shepherding have in your monastic life? You have to communicate a lot with people and confess to them. Many come with a variety of problems and illnesses. Where do you get your strength from?
This is the most precious gift of God, bringing man into close communion with his Creator. Perhaps there is no greater joy, greater happiness, greater bliss on earth than the gift of communication with God. This gift is capable of making a corruptible person a god by grace. It is only bitter to realize one’s sinfulness and imperfection, the inconsistency of one’s spiritual state with high Christian ideals. We can only rely on the mercy of God. And God gives us strength for church service in abundance. You just need to have determination. But it can be difficult.
As for confession, this obedience is joyful for me personally. Especially when those who approach the sacrament of repentance sincerely and deeply repent. This joy, according to the word of the Savior, happens to the Angels of God and about one sinner who repents(Luke 15:10).
- You are probably often asked about why there is grief, suffering and death in life...
Human life is a deplorable vale. In the life of any person, perhaps, there are more sorrows, illnesses, everyday difficulties, mental anguish than high delight and those beautiful moments that, contrary to the well-known popular expression, cannot be stopped. In Christianity, our earthly life is called bearing the cross. Everyone has their own. It is important whether a person is ready to carry it or not. If a person who has been visited by difficulties or illnesses becomes despondent, begins to grumble, become embittered and sad, then he reaches a spiritual impasse. But if he arms himself with a different mood, a different way of thinking and says: “I thank You, Lord, for those sorrows, for those troubles, illnesses that You deigned to send me. Because of my sins, I am worthy of the worst,” then the sorrows, illnesses and troubles that previously seemed unbearable immediately become easier to bear, and soon they dissipate like morning fog. This is the action of a humble disposition of the soul.
There is another side to the matter. The ancient ascetics said that difficulties catch up with a person who tries to run away from them, and those who boldly meet them halfway are frightened by difficulties and run away. The Holy Fathers also have this idea: “Where it is difficult, there is ours, and where it is easy, we must think carefully and be careful.”
Our earthly life is a kind of test. If a person does not want to correct himself, then the merciful Lord, out of love for the human race, sends tests. These tests make a person think that they need to reconsider something in their life, in modern language - reboot the system. Of course, all this is easy to explain in words, but in the experience of each of us, when the Lord visits us with sorrows and illnesses, a wide field for spiritual achievement opens up.
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