And for the sake of edification to posterity ...

Hegumen Kirill (Sakharov):

Here we consider ourselves one of the very best, but I must tell you that we are no match for the Gorodishchensky Old Believer parish - so much their jealousy exceeds ours.

Settlement. I used to come here every time I visited Donbass, but this time I hesitated. The former pastor of the church, Fr. Savely, became Bishop of the Far East, Fr. Patermufiy, who also presided here. Who is now, I don't know. I didn’t want to run into an incident and spoil the impression of this place that was dear to me. In addition, the Old Believers from neighboring Chernukhino called me a heretic. It is somehow uncomfortable to appear here in such a status. Just in case, I took civilian clothes with me so that I would be less visible.

He noted with satisfaction that the worship cross at the entrance to the village survived. With great anxiety I drove into the village, familiar to me for half a century. I was afraid that the local wooden Old Believer church had suffered serious damage. Its shining domes could be an excellent reference point for artillery fire. I thought: "If I see the ruins, my heart may not be able to withstand it."

Fortunately, the temple was not damaged. The new luxurious entrance gates caught my eye (they were made before the last tragic events). A carriage with a woman sitting in it rolls out of the gate, it is moved by an ascetic priest with long hair, white as a harrier. Seeing its transparency from a purely fasting, I thought: “Will it break off from such zealous abstinence, will it last until the Bright Resurrection of Christ?” And one more thing: “Now a more or less strong wind will rise and the priest “like leaves” will be carried.

We met - it turned out that Fr. Vladimir is local, originally from Stakhanov. He has known me for a long time, read my memoirs, some articles, watched videos. He reacted to my desire to communicate as follows: “It would not be right to do this at a time when the Great Compline is being read in the temple.” At the entrance to the temple on the door is the text of Stoglav's formidable decree: "He who is not baptized with two fingers, like Christ, be damned." There is a peaceful silence in the temple, a stream of prayers slowly sounds. Father Vladimir reads the canon to the Theotokos from the wing. Each of his words, resounding from the altar and wing, is heard in all corners of the temple.

After the service, he declares: “I don’t eat anything after the evening, as it should be according to the charter, and I won’t tempt you.” I am waiting for my father to come. The refectory offers kvass. I crumple - it is inconvenient for a monk to “fall face down in the mud”, to give in to a white priest. I still take kvass. A new offer is pieces of dried pumpkin in sugar (“our sweets”). Then nuts with honey. “Maybe soup and potatoes with cucumbers?” Stop, no further, I hasten to deal with the pumpkin and nuts before the arrival of Fr. Vladimir. Did not have time. The father is good-natured and indulgent. It feels intelligence, even some aristocracy in manners. For some reason, he considers me a personal friend of Patriarch Kirill. “Well, you, father. This is, to put it mildly, an exaggeration. At one of the last meetings, the Patriarch even scolded me: “You have to be wiser, Father Kirill.”

“Father, I see that you are a difficult person, please tell us about your life path,” I ask. Fr. Vladimir visibly shied away, his face was clearly reflected in the internal struggle.

- "You called me a difficult person - for me it is distressing to hear, because I strive for simplicity." Slowly, passing every word through his heart, he told about the wondrous Providence of God in his life. “You see, how could it be accidental?” - he often repeated in the course of his narration. At the urgent request of the priest, I will keep silent about this.

I am interested in his latest developments. This is what I heard: “When the disturbing events began, we began to serve daily. I'm just afraid to stop praying lest the nightmare of the last weeks return. Just as a soldier sits in a trench in any weather and vigilantly watches the enemy, so I fear that if we weaken the prayer, then the forces of evil will suddenly attack.

Many of our village have left. Several houses were destroyed, but not a single person died. Someone went to a neighbor, someone went down to the cellar, the guy went for a walk, and at this time shells hit their houses. One woman went to the other half of her house. There was a crash, part of the house collapsed. Suddenly a man appears in front of her. Surprised, she asks him: how did he end up here, because the doors of the house were closed. It turns out that he entered through the destroyed part of the house. Shells flew over the wooden (!) church, but none of them hit the church building itself. And this despite the fact that thanks to the shining domes, it was an excellent target. The walls of the temple, however, trembled from the gaps. While celebrating the Liturgy, I prayed earnestly in order to have time to take communion.

Once, during the shelling of one parishioner, the image of St. John Gardener. The image has been put in place. Arriving home, this woman was horrified by a huge crater from an exploding shell in her garden - precisely in the garden. And the house remained intact. Thus the saint repaid the servant of God for her reverent attitude towards his image.

Assumption Church of the Russian Orthodox Church in the village of Gorodishche

Gorodishchensky temple long-suffering. He was robbed several times. In total, they dragged away about 80 icons. There was such a case - once during the service (!) A healthy man grabbed two icons and rushed out of the temple. The women couldn't do anything about it. One of them fell, and the fleeing thief trampled on it. She died soon after.

For two months, the National Guard stood in Gorodishche. Its units occupied the dominant heights around. Local residents did not say anything bad about the Ukrainian guards - they behaved calmly in Gorodishche. Although in the neighborhood, in another village, there were atrocities on the part of the same units.

Many people in the village are suffering from a severe form of the flu. I don't feel well either. Psalmist in general with pneumonia. Feature of the disease: cured of it, again soon fell ill. There is a suspicion of an artificially provoked epidemic.”

As the conversation approaches midnight, I begin to fidget, knowing that at 3 am Fr. Vladimir is about to start the service. “You have a rest, it will be difficult for you to get up after the road,” he says to me. Whatever I am a monk, but you have to pull yourself up. We had to spend the night, as the militiaman who accompanied us said that we had to return before dark, because at night the “ukrov” groups dispersed after the defeat of the Debaltsevo cauldron could attack.

Even before leaving for Gorodishche, I tensed up and asked with timid hope in my voice: “What about mines? Have the road to Gorodishche and the village itself been cleared of mines?” In response, he heard: “Anything happens. From time to time, animals are blown up by mines in different places, it happens that children die.”

Conclusion after a long conversation with Fr. Vladimir: a kind-hearted person, subtle, tactful, loving. On the one hand, it seems touchingly defenseless, on the other, one feels the core and adherence to principles in it. Wholeheartedly devoted to prayer. He serves slowly and reverently, in some moments of the service there is a lack of experience - but this is something that will come with time. In response to the call of the rector to come to the church for services, the grandmothers reacted like this: “What if we fall under the bombs?”, And he told them: “What if the bomb overtakes you in the basement? If in the temple - then to heaven, but if in the basement?

People who came from Moscow said to the priest: “Just pray, and we will provide you with everything you need.” He asked me a lot of questions about my vision of the situation in the Donbass, about the prospects for its development, and was interested in life in Russia. It so happened that after several tens of hours of communication with the most different people in Donbass, most of all I had a chance to talk with Fr. Vladimir. And this is despite such long services in his parish, with such strict abstinence and health problems. It is amazing: he does not sleep, eats almost nothing and is cheerful. I am almost 100 percent sure that the fact that the church survived and that no one died in the village is a huge merit of the rector of the local church. Upon my return to Moscow, I’ll tell my people: “Here we consider ourselves one of the very best, but I must tell you that we are no match for the Gorodishchensky Old Believer parish - so much their jealousy exceeds ours.”

When I saw a glowing, rapidly moving Fr. Vladimir, again felt embarrassed for his noticeably protruding belly. Our parishioners console me: “Yes, it’s because of heart problems,” etc. Sighing heavily, I readily agree, but at the same time I know that I won’t refuse an extra cabbage pie. I wanted to hug Father Vladimir and say: “Good shepherd, venerable abba, we respect and love you, we bow before your deed of prayer, but we will not be able to follow it in full (99% of the Old Believer clergy and 99.9 percent of the New Believers). Personally, the next night, when you will be awake again, doing a lot of bows to the earth, I honestly plan one bow "to the whole bed."

The mega-volumes of deep prayers that you and a small support group will diligently send to the Almighty will not touch my heart, they will pass by the infirmity and laziness lying on the bed with arteries and veins cracking at the seams after suffering stress, and you will be tempered in more. And it would be foolish of me, at our possible next meeting, to pretend to be a "learned monk" who freely argues on a wide range of topics, both theological and socio-political. This would be unconvincing and inadequate. Your experience of prayerful contemplation, reverent standing before the Creator will eclipse and shame the potential of mental rational cognition that I have accumulated.”

… At the beginning of the fourth, I was already standing at the entrance to the temple. Midnight Office ends, Matins begins. During the double psalm, Fr. Vladimir censes the temple, famously bringing the censer to the third cruciform stroke. I thought: "Doing this, I would have scattered coals and incense a long time ago." By the way, is it not a miracle: incense, candles and calendars run out in the temple - and suddenly, at the most critical moment, all this comes in abundance. The words of the Savior are actually fulfilled: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all the rest will be added to you.” So it was at the end of the service - as soon as it ended, a large batch of boards had already been unloaded in the courtyard of the temple.

... Exapsalms are read penetratingly, with a special proverb. Sometimes whining notes slip through. There was even a fear that the reader would burst into tears. With a light fluff, the rector makes numerous throwings and bows to the ground, sometimes even going off scale for the norm prescribed by the charter. A crazy thought flashed by: “Why don’t I serve here, in this one of the most beloved and dear churches for me? After all, I have been connected with Gorodishche for half a century.” After the kathisma there was a pause. Father Vladimir explains: “Now the canon should begin, the psalmist will not cope on her own, the singers are about to come up. You either sit or go to rest.

I fall out of the temple, it's still dark around. For a good hour, I “pass out” on a modest bed. There is a short chime. I jump up and rush to the temple. They read the first hour - also "with feeling, sense, arrangement." I thought: “With such high-quality, unhurried and meaningful reading and singing, the voices of people who advocate the translation of our liturgical texts into a more understandable language should be silenced.”

The service ended at 12 noon. A sermon about the saint of the day and an interesting story about how they begged for rain. The bottom line was that due to the long absence of rain, they planned to serve a prayer service to the prophet Elijah. At the same time, a meeting of the activists of the entire region was scheduled in Gorodishche to consider current issues. Father Vladimir was asked to give a tour of the temple. Because of the prayer service, he did not give consent, but nevertheless he went out of the church to them during the prayer service. They ask him: “Well, will it rain at 13.00?” Father Vladimir: “God is not bound by time, we cannot dictate to Him.” Exactly at 13.00 it began to rain - light and only for half an hour. At that time, the priest was in the area of ​​​​Bryanka and Stakhanov - there was not a drop there, only over Gorodische. I decided to once again serve a prayer service and it began to rain heavily! The saddest thing for the shepherd was that none of the new people came to the temple to thank God for this mercy. As well as for the fact that no one died, almost none of them came to the temple either.

The grave of the rector of the church in the village of Gorodishche, Father Saveliy Golubyatnikov

Arriving from the temple, from fatigue, he collapsed lifelessly on the bed. The elder, on the other hand, was indefatigable - after the service he had a long conversation with a parishioner from Chernukhino, then he “corrected” someone (that is, communed at home). At dinner, I “gobbled up both cheeks”, but he scooped up 3-4 tablespoons of the first course and “slowed down”.

I talked to him about how he understands the concept of his pastoral ministry, specifically in its missionary aspect. He: “I try to do everything as expected and respond to questions that come to me. Especially to convince someone - I think that this is a waste of work. Man, with the help of God, must come himself. You can't convince him by talking."

Me: “I have a slightly different opinion. I would, if not on the first day of my stay at the parish, then on the second or third day, I would definitely get to know everyone, learn about the surrounding context inside and out. I would praise the rector of the neighboring one, in the village. Maloivanovka, a temple for the installation of a massive, strictly eight-pointed cross, towering over the dome of the restored bell tower. At the same time, I would scold him for the lack of a baptistery in the church so far for immersion baptism of adults. I would have come with congratulations on the occasion of the day of the angel to another neighbor - the rector of the newly built Kazan Church in Zorinsk, I would have handed over to his brothers gathered for the celebration "Rules of pious behavior in the temple." I would invite the employees of the Educational and Educational Center from the city of Alchevsk to my temple for an excursion, while telling about the tragic events of the middle of the 17th century, etc.” Well, to each his own. With all my love for the statutory services and the ability to mobilize for a long service, being with Fr. Vladimir, the very next day I would have asked for mercy and would have flown away under a plausible pretext.

On the way back, I ask the driver to give me a jacket and dark glasses, and he makes a helpless gesture. I told him: “Well, what happens? I asked to do a control inspection of things before leaving, but again you did not. I was at work for so many hours and talked, and you mostly rested and walked - was it really difficult to collect all the things? The driver offers to come back. With a tired sigh, I tell him in response: “Well, no, some other time.”

Father Vladimir has not even been a year old as rector. His mother said: "It's a pity that we were not accustomed from childhood to the ancient piety, like the locals." Despite the fact that she only has one hand, she makes beautiful herbariums from dried flowers. She gave me one of them.

Usually, communicating with people, depending on their intellectual and cultural level, I tune in to the appropriate wave. At the most primitive level - communication at the level of interjections. There is also a simplified level and an intermediate level. Talking with Fr. Vladimir, I tuned in to the highest calm.

Old Believer Intercession Chapel in the village of Gorodishche

I visited the Intercession Chapel in Gorodishe. Once upon a time there was a wooden Church of the Intercession on this place, it was the ancient Assumption Church. I saw her in the 70s and 80s. Then they set her on fire. The slabs on the graves of the Cossacks-Old Believers were not preserved either (“the bandits dragged them away”). An old woman from a neighboring house, seeing me, complained that there were no services with a priest in the chapel for a long time and that the area around was neglected. “And under Pete (Patermufiya) it was different. Some scold him, but he did so much! Pass it on to whoever needs it." I ask her how she survived the war: "The pipe was damaged and the glass flew out."

Observing the local Old Believers in worship and in everyday life, I probably looked like Archdeacon Paul of Aleppo, the son of Patriarch Macarius of Antioch. Father Pavel visited Russia with his father and left notes filled with admiration and amazement at the piety of the Russian people of that time.

The temptations that arose within 1 hour from the start of the next trip to the outback foreshadowed that everything would not be easy. The driver "missed" - drove the turn to Tverskaya. Further, instead of turning onto the Leningradskoye shosse, I turned onto Volokolamskoye. Irritated, he declared: “I shouldn’t have listened to you like an oak, but go at my own discretion.” Me: “No, my friend, it won’t work like that. You have recently joined the community, but you no longer consult with anyone, you ignore your elders in obedience.

The idea to invite Bishop Kornily to speak on the People's Radio came about during a conversation with him on the eve of the presentation of a collection of his articles and speeches at the International Fund for Slavic Literature and Culture. The Metropolitan inquired about my opinion on the organization of the radio station of the Metropolis. I replied: “My opinion is that before solving the issue on a global level, we must try to use the opportunities that already exist.”

For the first time, a collection of articles and speeches by Metropolitan Korniliy fell into my hands at the evening in memory of Fr. Evgenia Bobkova at the end of November last year. Vladyka also touches on socially significant things that go beyond the purely ecclesiastical nature. It would be nice to present the book on some neutral solid platform, which would help this event to go beyond the purely religious framework. The International Foundation for Slavic Literature and Culture was the best fit for this event. The head of the Foundation, Alexander Nikolayevich Krutov, is familiar with the Bishop.

On the first day after arrival, I experienced a lot of stress. Servant of God Anatoly to my question: “How are you?” - reacted like this: “What can be done when today the funeral of two residents of our village at once!” Died 48-year-old Igor and 70-year-old Galina from the village of Zabolotye. Anatoly was the only inhabitant of this village. He said: “I will not live in a ghost village!” The situation was aggravated due to the fact that Igor was not baptized. For several years of our acquaintance in the service, he was exactly 5 minutes. I suggested that he go through the first part of baptism, the rite of pronouncement. He refused. He was taken to the hospital when he was already lying with swollen legs and could not talk. An autopsy showed that he had pancreatic cancer with metastases and a microstroke. They said that for more than a year he drank everything and ate almost nothing. On his last journey, he was accompanied by only one person - a cousin. Even their own children did not come, citing financial difficulties. Very dark impression...

The meeting point of the first excursion in which I took part was the Aviamotornaya metro station. Here in 1982 there was a major accident - the largest in the history of the Moscow metro. Officially, 8 dead and 30 wounded were announced. In fact, there were many more victims. The reason was the rupture of the escalator due to the replacement of the rollers in it from metal to plastic (the designer who proposed this replacement went to Israel).

On the next trip, to a village 300 km from Moscow, we decided to go through the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery in order, as it happened more than once, to bow to the relics of St. Joseph, ask him for help in our efforts to revive abandoned rural churches. Moreover, this year marked the 500th anniversary of the repose of this great saint of God, “an outstanding church figure,” as Patriarch Kirill called him.

This time Alexander from Kharkov was with us on the trip, he was born there, but he lived all his life in Luhansk. On the way, Alexander told how he had a chance to fight the nationalists in Kharkov. They underestimated their opponents, and because of this they were the losers. They did not have support from other regions, unlike a small handful of nationalists who were supported by nationalists from all over Ukraine. This ancient misfortune of ours is the inability to lend a shoulder to each other, disorganization, each on his own, poor interaction.

​I was unexpectedly offered to participate in the delivery of a miraculous list of one miraculous icon of the Mother of God to St. George's Meshchovsky Monastery.

Before the revolution, there were about 180 churches in the region. Basically they were dedicated to the Mother of God. There are 2 functioning churches in Meshchovsk itself, and both of them are dedicated to the Annunciation. The city has about 5 thousand inhabitants. A native of Meshchovsk is Evdokia Streshneva, the mother of Mikhail Romanov. A monument was erected to them in front of the entrance to St. George's Monastery. The first wife of Peter I Evdokia Lopukhina was also born here. Meshchovsk confronted Peter: they told him: do not appear in our places, because you offended our maiden. Not far from the monastery in the village of Serebryano, her estate has been preserved. Now it belongs to a wealthy woman. The owner of the Lopukhina estate keeps a menagerie of wolves, bears, ponies and a camel.

​If, after viewing the exhibition dedicated to the Romanovs, I called the abbot of the Sretensky Monastery the shepherd of cultural megaprojects, now that he has become a bishop, he can be called the master of these megaprojects.

Unlike previous exhibitions devoted to the Romanov and Rurik dynasties, I did not get to thoroughly familiarize myself with the exposition, but, nevertheless, after an hour and a half of viewing, I got some idea and impression.

The lack of time was caused by the fact that I had to be on duty at the great shrine - the Sovereign Icon of the Mother of God.

The reason for visiting this church organization was an announcement on the Internet that a conference on church and historical issues would be held in the village of Denezhnikovo, Ramensky District, Moscow Region. The venue of the conference turned out to be not so close - two hours away by car. Here is a whole complex, located on 20 hectares of land - the territory of the former recreation center. Three temples: in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "Resurrection Russia", St. John the Baptist and St. Martyr. George the Victorious (there is a baptistery here). On the site of the proposed large cathedral - a worship cross. There are no more than five sisters in the monastery itself.

The meeting was held on the eve of the 220th anniversary of the city of Lugansk. The date is not very round, but for the long-suffering Lugansk, which has survived, and to a large extent is still experiencing big problems, the holidays are very necessary. The anniversary celebration starts tomorrow. The celebration program includes: opening of the exhibition “Your origins, Lugansk”; sports holiday; literary evening dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of M.L. Matusovsky; holiday fair; book exhibition - dedication "To you, beloved city"; visits to maternity hospitals, congratulations to mothers who gave birth to children on City Day and much more.

From the editor:

Hegumen Kirill (Sakharov)(ROC MP), rector of the St. Nicholas Church on Bersenevskaya Embankment in Moscow, a person known in the Old Believers. It can be found at scientific conferences devoted to the Old Believers, at church and social events organized by both priests and non-priests. Father Cyril can be seen on the paths of Old Believer cemeteries, in the vestibules of Old Believer churches and chapels, where he brings his guests from near and far abroad countries who want to get acquainted with the Old Believer history and tradition.

Fr played a big role. Cyril in organizing the famous disputes that took place between representatives of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church and the now deceased New Believer missionary Fr. Daniil Sysoev.

At the same time, there are people who suspect Fr. Cyril something unkind. There are voices in the Moscow Patriarchate that hegumen Kirill (Sakharov) is promoting the “Old Believer lobby” in the Russian Orthodox Church. In the Old Believer agreements, on the contrary, they express opinions about the supposedly secret espionage activities of the rector of the church of St. Nicholas on Bersenevka. True, without explaining what terrible secrets modern Old Believers can hide.

In today's conversation with the correspondent of the newspaper "Russian Messenger" Fr. Cyril, finally, decided to tell everything about his secrets, connections and acquaintances in the Old Believer environment.

Father Kirill, how true are the assumptions that the hierarchies have finally paid attention to you - have there been intentions to use you for “peaceful purposes”, to use your potential for a breakthrough in the Old Believer direction?

I have always been a peaceful person. I tried to avoid extremes, sweeping criticism, to focus, first of all, on the positive aspects of any person or phenomenon. As for your question about using me as a breakthrough tool, I don't know anything about it. All this is unlikely - my age is approaching the sixtieth mark, a lump of diseases is growing. And in general, for all my commitment to regulation, rhythm, nevertheless, by nature, in a certain sense, I am a “free artist”. I am close and sympathetic to the image of the “watch dog”, about which our wonderful singer Mikhail Ivanovich Nozhkin sings. This mongrel is promised a comfortable kennel, all the benefits, but he wants to be not on a chain, “to rush through the gates” - in this element he feels like a fish in water.

Well, anyway, you have dozens of materials in the media on the topic of the Old Believers, in the Old Believer environment, along with wariness, sympathy also slips towards you. And then, after the reunification with the Church Abroad, a certain euphoria set in - it was, they say, the turn of the Old Believers - it was time for all Russian Orthodoxy to gather together.

Only naive people, superficially knowing the Old Believer environment, can reason like that. It's just some kind of hatred. For some reason, it is believed that the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Korniliy, and his closest associate, Archpriest Leonty Pimenov, are "weak links" through which one can somehow influence the Old Believers in the right direction. The mentioned persons, in my opinion, are tactful and loving people, very inquisitive, reasonable and sociable. Hence such a deceptive impression of their pliability and vulnerability. Illusions about the possibility of their use as a "Trojan horse". I assure you that even the most arch-liberal Old Believer will never agree to perceive as a normal, equivalent phenomenon such things as pouring baptism or partes singing. And since these sad phenomena in the bosom of the Moscow Patriarchate have taken on a large scale, hence the conclusion about the futility of hopes for some kind of reunification.

But didn’t they try to use you as a “Trojan horse”, introduce you to “tame” the Old Believers?

Such judgments do exist. For a certain category of Old Believers, no matter what I say, no matter how I justify myself, everything will be in vain: "spy" - and that's it!

Then what is the meaning of your very noticeable activity in this direction, what drives you?

I am naturally a very inquisitive person - there is nothing I can do about it. Any activity in our suspicious society, especially in such a closed environment, which is the Old Believers, causes tension. Some astute Old Believers, such as, for example, the editor of the Church magazine Alexander Vasilievich Antonov, got to the core of me for a long time: “We thought for a long time: here is a strange person, he comes, asks, is interested,“ sniffs out. And then they realized that this is a harmless, just an inquisitive person.

Good. But this curiosity and sociability are fraught with inevitable troubles. You wrote about some incidents when communicating with the Old Believers.

There were also undescribed ones. Once, one parishioner of our church asked me on the day of remembrance of St. Blessed Princess Anna Kashinskaya, the day of your angel, serve a prayer service for this saint at her dacha. This is in the Moscow region, in the Guslits region. Old Believers live there compactly. It was on Saturday. One of those invited to the prayer service was brought up by the Old Believers. She shared with them about my arrival. Since it was Saturday, I asked permission from an Old Believer priest in a nearby church to attend the all-night vigil.

During the service, several stern bearded men entered the temple (against their background, I looked like a frail intellectual). They carefully examined everything with "gimlets" from under hanging eyebrows and left. I was told that they also came to the dacha of parishioners, asked about the purpose of my visit: should I agitate? Did you come to entice? Etc. On another Old Believer website, they were indignant: here, they say, he travels around the Old Believer parishes near Moscow, courting them ...

Why such suspicion?

And we have a generally suspicious society. Decades of denunciation have not been in vain. I once confessed in the famous House on the embankment, located next to our church, an ancient old woman - a prisoner of the Gulag for many years. So, she took my natural leading questions with hostility, suspiciously. What do you think he's figuring out? Right now, the Patriarch has initiated the reconstruction of the communal model of parish life. Try to make a questionnaire for potential members of the community in order to know, for example, the educational level of a person, so as not to put a graduate of MGIMO or the Literary Institute as a janitor, but the head of the Publishing Department of the holder of an eight-year diploma.

I assure you that there will be suspicions that the information is collected only for submission to the FSB. And then they will sing: show me a country where special services hide shoulder straps under a cassock. I once called the members of the community, asked if everyone had their apartments consecrated - well, so that everyone would be full in every respect. Imagine, after that, one parishioner left us, citing the fact that the priest was stuffing himself, trying to enter the apartment under the pretext of consecrating it, but in fact, in order to take possession of her apartment ...

You mentioned Father Leonty Pimenov. Are you still in close contact with him?

From case to case, plus phone consultations on liturgical issues. Not so long ago we saw each other in the Andronikov Monastery on the history of the Old Believers.

They showed a video about the construction of a chapel by the Bezpriests in Pustozersk, at the site of the death of Archpriest Avvakum. The author of the film, editor-in-chief of the Third Rome publishing house, M.E. Pashinin, said before the film: “We built for everyone.” He also lamented that Bishop Jacob, the head of the Naryan-Mar diocese, had sharply taken up arms against the chapel, demanded its demolition, and called Avvakum a state criminal. O. Leonty after an impressive film said:

“We can’t pray together, eating is forbidden… But can we put the log together?” Or hammer a nail together?!

We go with him to the museum. In front of a little girl. Father Leonty:

This is one of my fifteen granddaughters.

- And I have only three (cousins, children of nephews). 5:1 in your favor, Father Leonty. Based on the demographic situation, the future is yours.

Not so long ago I visited the parish of Fr. Leonty in the city of Orekhovo-Zuyevo. He himself is a connoisseur and lover of Znamenny singing, and therefore it is not surprising that everything in this regard is on top of him. However, it seemed to me that the singing was too high-pitched, somehow impetuous, somewhat hysterical. Ours is calmer and more even. The device of the temple is ideal, everything is very harmonious, ascetic, no pretentiousness.

The floors are unique, lined with smalt, each room has its own pattern - you can lead excursions. Looking at the floor in the temple itself, an association arose with multi-colored marshmallows or marshmallows.

Are there any disadvantages? After all, nothing on earth is ideal and, in principle, cannot be.

I noticed that it was a holiday, but there was no bell ringing. To this was the answer: "The bell-ringer did not come." I reacted like this: “And here, if there is no one from the group of bell ringers, any parishioner can climb the bell tower and strike the bell several times at the moments prescribed by the charter.” In the 25 years of our existence, there have been few breakdowns with ringing - for such cases, I have enough fingers of both hands.

What else did you remember while communicating with Fr. Leonty? What did you gain by watching the service?

As for the service, then, for example, when a priest incense is singing “My soul magnifies the Lord”, a surplice goes ahead with a candle. That at the 1st hour the priest does not completely undress, but only takes off his phelonion, and a number of other nuances. And from stories about. Leonty remembered two things. The first, as one day two so-called homeless people approached him. One asks, obviously cunningly, for daily bread, while the other speaks more frankly (“you need to hangover”) and at the same time refers to St. John Chrysostom, they say, you should not refuse me: "give to the one who asks." I thought:

- If the homeless are already beginning to quote the holy fathers, it means that the process of churching our people has made significant progress.

And the second. Approached about. Leonty Pimenov, an Old Believer priest, two visiting military men to talk. Wanting to win him over, they began to “water” Nikonianism. O. Leonty asks:

“And why did it annoy you so much?”

One of them replied:

- They excommunicated Leo Tolstoy, and he is my idol ...

In conclusion, I would like to ask you directly: are you a pessimist regarding the prospects for dialogue with the Old Believers and a possible unification with them?

By and large, yes. An improvement in the climate and a further easing of tension are, of course, possible. But no more. I don't see any bright prospects. And what do you want? Even a more complete service in the ordinary rank is a “short chain mail” for many priests, but what can we say about more? Try to offer to read the kathisma not in 5-10 verses on each "Glory", but in full; read at the first hour not one psalm “I will sing mercy and judgment to you, Lord”, but three, laid down according to the charter. Or invite the director of the right choir to sing not a third of the 1st antiphon “Bless the Lord, my soul”, but in full ...

I once served the Liturgy in one monastery and asked the hierodeacon to insert a petition for a special litany, either “for travelers”, or “before the start of every good deed”, and he grimaced with displeasure, dragging on, they say, there will be a service. I remember how I, a young monk, the steward of the newly opened Danilov Monastery, enthusiastically shared with one priest about the revival of the statutory service in our country, in particular, about the reading of sermons. To which he skeptically remarked: “And it’s not easy for a priest to drag out the all-night service for a few minutes, it will drag out the service.” So, if these things are an unbearable burden, then what can we say about a long service in the old order with a banner chant and numerous bows.

And yet, what attracts you in this area, what drives you?

Lawless Heart. I like sincere services, strong foundations of life, strict morals, which have always distinguished the Old Believers. And, probably, a sense of guilt: why did they reject such a large array of not the worst Russian people, “broke the bones” of many of them ?! I would be very glad if my modest activity served to reduce the evil in this world, even a little.

I never thought of myself outside the monastery at the parish. But now, after my election in 1991 as the chairman of the Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods, the question arose about the organization of the center of St. Petersburg, preferably with a church in the central part of the capital. The choice fell on the church of St. Nicholas on Bersenevka. Then it housed the Research Institute of Culture. In the central altar there was a department of parks, in the right altar - in the name of St. Feodosia - an archive, in the left Nikolsky - a toilet ... The temple was returned around the room. I remember how religious processions were held, demanding the return of the temple in full.

Icons were hung in the temple, and on the doors of the offices there was an appeal: "Stop defiling the temple." An important tactic was the permanent singing of akathists in a singsong voice. The staff of the Institute was initially skeptical about this. But one group of singers replaced another and so on throughout the day. A particularly weighty argument for the employees of the research institute was the promise that a stream of funerals for the dead would soon begin ...

Milestones of history.

The official name of the church on Bersenevskaya Embankment is in honor of the Life-Giving Trinity, with aisles in the name of St. Nikola and St. Theodosius the Great Cenobiarch. But it is more known to Muscovites as the temple of "Nikola on Bersenevka".

The history of our church is inextricably linked with the history of our city, and the land on which it stands has been chosen by Muscovites for prayer service since ancient times. As early as 1389, a monastery was founded on this site. It was located, as the chronicler reports, "on the right, gently sloping bank of the Moskva River opposite the tributary of the Chertoryya stream." This area was nicknamed Sands, where a pine forest grew on dry sandy soil. The chronicle of 1475 mentions the "Church of St. Nicholas on Peska, called Borisov", which indicates that the church belonged to a wealthy patrimony. The remains of the discovered white-stone basement confirm the nobility and wealth of the owner. However, another name has come down to us - Bersenevka. The name of this corner of Zamoskvorechye comes from the word bersen - gooseberry. In ancient times, palace gardens were located here, in which the berry, beloved by Russian people, grew - "northern grapes".

Under the Grand Duke John Vasilyevich III in 1493, a fire started from the church on Bersenevka, then wooden, which, spreading across the river, devastated the Kremlin (the grand-ducal and metropolitan courts and some other buildings burned down). As a warning for the future of such cases, the Grand Duke in 1495 ordered the demolition of buildings across the river opposite the Kremlin and "repair a garden in those places." So the vast territory changed its appearance. Bersen grew in the garden - gooseberries, which gives the right to the existence of one of the versions about the name of the area.

There is another version.

Here was the so-called Berseneva lattice. As you know, in 1504, by decree of Grand Duke John Vasilyevich III, Moscow was divided into sections protected "from fire and any theft", separated from each other by bars or gates with lattice shutters, "so that in the evening or at night no one could pass through them, no way to get through - except perhaps by acquaintance with the watchman," an eyewitness testified.

The position of the round head of each of these sections was honorary and honored boyars were appointed to it. I.N. Bersen-Beklemishchev performed various responsible assignments under the Grand Duke John Vasilyevich III: he was a bailiff under the German after Delator, who came to Moscow on a mission from Emperor Maximilian (to seek the hands of the daughter of John III and an alliance with Russia against the Polish king), was appointed ambassador to Casimir IV in 1493-1494. Participated in receptions and negotiations with Lithuanian diplomats, in 1502. negotiated with the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey, was a bed-keeper with John III. Perhaps I.N. Bersenya-Beklemishchev and was assigned to go around the head of one of the sites closest to the Kremlin.

By the time of the fire in 1493, Governor Bersen was already a well-deserved boyar. His name was known to many for his obstinate disposition. This character trait cost him his life in the end. For insolence, on the orders of Vasily III, he was deprived of his head. Probably, the memory of him was preserved in the name of this area.

On the plan of Moscow from the time of Godunov, the royal garden occupies almost the entire space between the Moskva River and the current Vodootvodny Canal and from the Stone Bridge to Moskvoretsky.

Gardeners settled near the sovereign's garden, who, in turn, had their own gardens and orchards. Three garden settlements (Sadovniki) arose: Upper Sadovniki (Bersenevka), Middle Sadovniki (Balchug) and Lower Sadovniki (from Balchug to Zemlyanoy Val).

Like most Moscow churches, the Church of St. Nicholas has a rich history, including several building periods associated with the consistent development of the surrounding land.

The first documentary evidence of the existence of the Nikolsky Monastery on this site dates back to the 14th century. In 1475, while the pine trees were being cut down and the gardens were being planted, the monastery was abolished and the wooden St. Nicholas Church was erected in its place. In 1566, according to documents, the church already existed.

In the winter of 1624, in the salary book of the Moscow diocese, the clerk wrote: "The Church of the great Wonderworker Nikola, behind the Bersenev lattice, was given a loan of 11 altyn 2 money, which on November 20 the priest Vikula returned in full." Consequently, in November 1624, the wooden church of St. Nicholas already stood on this site. It was dismantled, and in the summer of the following year a new five-domed stone church was laid in the name of the Holy Trinity with a chapel of St. Nicholas.

Exactly two centuries the Tsar's Gardens were in bloom, until a fire destroyed them in 1701. And behind the settlement "Upper Sadovniki" the name Bersenevka was firmly entrenched.

When Bersenevka became the property of the family of the sovereign's gardeners, it is not exactly determined. From the entry in the Stole Book, it is only known that in the 17th century Cyril and his two sons, Philip and Stefan, lived here. Then the grandson became the owner - Averky Stefanov Kirillov, who received the position of head of the gardeners of the royal gardens in Zamoskvorechye.

The mention of the church land testifies to the independence of the temple, which did not exclude the construction of the Kirillov house church and the Nikolsky aisle, connected to the chambers by stone passages. The Kirillovs were the builders and customers of the temple. In addition, the family gave away part of their land for the churchyard.

In the 1650s, Averky Kirillov erected two stone buildings - a church and residential chambers, which to this day form the estate complex.

Then the church was connected with the chambers by a gallery on the arcades. The building was decorated with colored tiles patterned in blue tones on a white background. Inside, most of the rooms are planned according to the old mansion principle around the front “cross chamber” extended into the depths, in the lock of which a stone is laid with an inscription carved around the cross: “This saint and life-giving cross in the summer of 7165, the same summer, and the chamber was corrected ", which serves as the basis for dating the resumption of the building in 1657. A year later, Averky Kirillov donated to the temple an altar cross-reliquary adorned with precious stones. Since 1667 he has been a Moscow trading guest, and for a decade later - Duma clerk, head of affairs of the Novgorod order and the order of the Grand Parish, a prominent figure in the public life of the country.He was rich, his estates were in Moscow and other counties.

Patriarch Joachim visited the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity, more than once blessed the clergy with icons, and came to visit the rector with a birthday cake. A year before the Streltsy rebellion, Evfemia Leontievna Kirillova, the wife of Averky Stefanovich, died, and His Holiness the Patriarch was present at her burial. She was buried in St. Nicholas Church.

Averky Kirillov did not enjoy the love of Muscovites and especially archers. Strong discontent was aroused by the high taxes of the order of the Great Parish on salt and food supplies. In addition, after the death of Tsar Fedor Alekseevich, Averky Kirillov took the side of the Naryshkins, which played a decisive role during the Streltsy revolt of 1682.

On May 16, Averky Stefanovich Kirillov was killed by archers in the Kremlin along with other supporters of the Naryshkins, prominent boyars and royal entourage. He was thrown from the Red Porch to the ground and chopped up with reeds. Averky Kirillov was buried by Patriarch Joachim. Both Averky and his wife Euphemia were 60 years old when they died.

Averky Kirillov was buried in the same place where his wife Evfimiya Leontievna was buried a year earlier.

On the left side of the ancient porch of the temple, in the wall, two stone slabs with inscriptions have been preserved: "By the glory and praise of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the servant of God, the duma clerk Averky Stefanovich Kirillov, from the birth of his life 60 years and from the beginning of the world on May 7190 on the 16th day died as a martyr in memory of our reverend father Theodore the Sanctified" and "Summer from the beginning of the world on October 7190, on the 13th day, on the memory of the holy martyrs Karp and Papilla, the servant of God, the duma clerk Averky Stefanovich Kirillov, his wife, Evfemia Leontyevna, live from birth 60 years, reposed."

After the tragic death of his father, the property passed to his son Jacob, who soon accepted the monastic rank and was tonsured in the Donskoy Monastery. His wife Irina Semyonovna, having become the heiress, added a chapel to the Trinity Church in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, which was consecrated on January 16, 1694 by Patriarch Adrian. On the contribution of Irina Simeonovna, a bell tower was placed on the embankment, under which there were ancient stone two-story chambers of the church clergy and a hospice. This building was dismantled only in 1871 and replaced by an inconspicuous two-story stone building.

Irina Semyonovna built the fence of the Donskoy Monastery, made contributions to Moscow churches. When her husband, in the schema Job, died, Irina Simeonovna donated a large bell for the bell tower, on which images of the icons of the Holy Trinity, the Kazan Mother of God and the inscription were cast: “September 1, 7204, on the first day, this bell was given by the duma clerk Jacob Averkiev Kirillov, his wife, his widow Irina Simeonovna to the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity and to the chapel of the Kazan Mother of God, which is in Verkhnye Sadovniki, below in Bersenevka, for remembrance after her husband Jacob Averkievich, and in the schema Job, his parents Averky, the murdered and Euphemia and their relatives lying at the church. . Lil this bell of Ivan Motor. It weighs 200 pounds. "

Then, in 1696, five more bells were granted: weighing from 115 poods to 1 pood 35 1/4 pounds. Unfortunately, in the late 1920s, the bell tower was destroyed, and the bells donated by it were melted down.

In 1703, Irina Simeonovna married L.F. Kurbatov, the head of the Moscow magistrate of the Armory, who actually led the construction of the Arsenal in the Kremlin (1701-1736). Having become the owner of the chambers, he separated the church property from the house with a stone fence, which especially emphasized the unity of the architectural ensemble. By the middle of the 18th century, the Bersenevskaya estate of the Kirillovs becomes a nightmare and goes into the state treasury.

The chambers housed: Land Survey Office, Office of Confiscations, Senate Archive. Since Senate couriers lived in the estate, the chambers were called the Courier House.

After the flood of 1786, the quarter began to be built up mainly with stone buildings. But even this did not save from the devastating fire of 1812. Its consequences were finally eliminated only by the 1830s.

The fire of 1812 significantly damaged the church property. The nearby chambers of Averky Kirillov were not damaged, but the ancient refectory of the temple burned out completely, and the upper tiers of the bell tower had to be dismantled. In 1817-1827, the burnt side-altars of St. Nicholas and St. Theodosius of the Caves were rebuilt. After the repair, the temple was decorated with a carved iconostasis in the Empire style, a molded cornice was made in the quadrangle, and the vaults and walls of the temple were painted anew.

In the 1830s began to restore the building of the church property, the dominant of which was the temple. In 1840 the architect Borisov designed the bell tower, but it was built only in 1854-55. in Russian style. In connection with the enlargement of the development of the courtyards of the clergy, the territory of the church graveyard disappeared.

By the end of the 19th century, craft establishments appeared in the quarter: the Einem confectionery factory, the vodka factory of I.A. .

Chambers of the Duma clerk Averky Kirillov in late XIX centuries belonged to the Moscow Archaeological Society (MAO), founded by c. A.S. Uvarov in 1864.

In 1868, Emperor Alexander II ordered that the chambers be transferred to the Moscow Archaeological Society. Shortly before this, a new bell tower was rebuilt. In 1913, a marble iconostasis was built in the Feodosievsky chapel, marble icon cases were placed in the passage between the refectory and the temple.

Until the mid-1920s, everything remained unchanged at Bersenevka. However, during the campaign to seize church valuables in 1923, the altar cross-reliquary was seized - the contribution of the Duma clerk Averky Kirillov. In 1931, on the site of the former Salt Yard, a residential complex of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars (architect B.M. Iofan) was erected, and the attendants of the Government House were settled in the embankment chambers. The houses of the clergy, which stood on the church territory, were adapted for communal housing.

The construction in 1929 in the northern part of the quarter, on the site of the Wine and Salt Yard, a huge complex of the Government House, a variety theater and the Udarnik cinema, turned out to be disastrous for the architectural appearance of Bersenevka. The historical silhouette of Bersenevskaya embankment and its proportions have changed. The reduction of the dominant role of the temple and the chambers of Averky Kirillov was also facilitated by the new buildings of the Krasny Oktyabr factory.

From the windows of the Government House there was a marvelous view of the little church. Apparently, therefore, in 1933 the church was closed, and all church utensils were irretrievably lost. At that time Father John Tsvetkov was the rector.

After closing, a garage was arranged in the temple for official cars of officials who lived in the Government House. The slabs of tombstones, preserved next to the temple of burials, were used as curbstones for the sidewalk in the courtyard of the House on the Embankment. During the Great Patriotic War, the exposition of the local history museum from the New Ierosalim Monastery was placed in the temple. There were also restoration workshops, a warehouse, newspaper editorial offices and other organizations that erected partitions in the temple and equipped it as they wanted. In the 1960s, the remains of the Duma clerk Averky Kirillov, his father Stepan and his wife Evfimiya were taken along with the slabs to Historical Museum. It is believed that from there they were transported to the cellars of the Novodevichy Convent.

In 1960, the entire complex was taken under state protection as a monument of history and culture. At this time, the territory of the monument again became united and the historical borders were returned to it. In accordance with the existing legislation on the protection and use of cultural monuments, monument buildings are protected together with the territory that historically belonged to them. In possession, work was carried out to adapt the buildings of the temple and chambers for institutions. At the same time, the demolition of the former buildings of the clergy houses was carried out. Then they dismantled two houses from the southern part of the property, and then a house from the eastern border of the site.

The temple gained a new life when, at the end of 1991, prayers began to be performed on its territory, which were attended by members of the brotherhood of "All Saints, Who Resplendent in the Russian Land." On January 1, 1991, the community was established, and already in May, on the patronal feast of St. Nikola, the first vigil, mass service, prayer service and procession were served. Divine services were performed without abbreviations, the choir sang in a znamenny chant. In June, by decree of the Patriarch, I was appointed rector of the temple, leaving among the brethren of the St. Danilov Monastery. The doors to the temple often turned out to be closed, as the watchman with the keys disappeared before the service. Quite quickly managed to achieve the release of the ancient part of the temple. It turned out to be more difficult with the refectory: the employees began to assert that, they say, the temple was a brownie and therefore allegedly did not belong to the Church, and in general the refectory is not a temple, etc. Suddenly, there was an explosion when we learned that video cassettes of pornographic content were stored in the refectory of the temple. We seized on this and already by Easter achieved the complete liberation of the temple.

Thanks to the Government Decree on the return of churches to the Church and the fervent prayers of the parishioners, the church was completely handed over to the faithful. Already in February 1993, a small consecration of the throne of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity took place by the priestly rank. The consecration was led by Archpriest Boris Guznyakov, Dean of the Moskvoretsky District. During the year, we broke the partitions, laid a rough floor. During these works, the marble iconostasis of the chapel of St. Theodosius the Great, disguised as a wall by someone's caring hands. Archbishop Sergius of Solnechnogorsk was invited for the small consecration of the chapel dedicated to St. Theodosius the Great, which took place on December 10, 1994. On August 16, 1996, he consecrated the gilded eight-pointed crosses, which were then installed on the domes of the temple. On December 14 of the same year, I performed a small consecration of the chapel of St. Nikola.

Active work on the restoration of the temple, its polychrome painting, did not go unnoticed. On the eve of Easter April 26, 1997. the parish was visited by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II. Following this, in May, the polychrome painting of the temple was awarded the Diploma of the Government of Moscow. In 2000, the exposition of the Armory Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin managed to discover the altar cross of Averky Kirillov, which is kept there as an example of ancient jewelry art. A full-size photograph of him was pasted onto a specially made cross. The past years were marked by several hierarchical services. On the patronal feasts of St. Theodosius the Great and St. Nikola was served by the abbot of the Novospassky Monastery, Bishop (now Archbishop) of Orekhovo-Zuevsky Alexy, the abbot of the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery, Metropolitan Pitirim, Bishop Alexander of Dmitrov. The head of the Russian Church Abroad, Metropolitan Laurus, also came to visit us. Everyone noted the originality of the community, its ancient Russian appearance: sundresses, lestovka, assistants, caftans, kosovorotkas. Even the chandeliers illuminate the temple with candles and lamps, as in the old days.

The beginning of the new millennium has prepared for us an event that has affected every inhabitant of the Russian state - this is the introduction of TIN and OGRN, as well as other significant measures. The community categorically refused to accept the numbers, which caused dissatisfaction with those in power and led to a serious confrontation. The community firmly refuses to use the number instead of the name of the Saint, which is the temple. By the grace of God, we are still preserved. To strengthen the prayer feat, the community switched to full accomplishment divine services according to the ancient order. Our financial resources are limited, almost all work is carried out charitably, we had to tighten our belts. Well, a Christian must be a warrior, and history teaches us this.

From the annals of the temple:

The first all-night.

In the Trinity-Nikolsky Church on Bersenevka, for the first time after its closure in the 30s, on May 22, 1992, a Mass was served with a prayer service and a procession on the day of memory of the transfer of the relics of St. Nicholas, Archbishop of the World of Lycia, and the evening before.

The temple has not yet been handed over to the parish, it houses the Research Institute of Culture, the ancient part of the temple has been turned into a conference room, on the door leading to the altar there is a sign "Parks Department" (it was covered with white paper). The service was officiated by Hieromonk of the Holy Danilov Monastery KIRILL (Sakharov). The Znamenny chant choir sang under the direction of A.N. Sokolov. The parishioners are mainly from the Brotherhood "In the name of all the Saints who shone in the Russian Land."

The Vespers reminds of the creation of the world. And here - as if everything started all over again, from nothing, for the first time - the sound of a bell from silence. What bell?! The bell weighing 3200 kg, ordered by Irina Kirillova in memory of her husband Jacob Averkievich, who was killed by archers, and his father Averky Kirillov (next to the temple is the famous "monument of architecture" - the Chambers of the Duma Clerk Averky Kirillov) has long been gone, a small one is hung on a nail in the porch a bell that is struck with a piece of iron, at first quietly, measuredly and sadly on one note (one of the parishioners), and suddenly the trills of the bell ringing crumble, it is even amazing how one small bell can talk flowery and cheerfully, with its own voice - with God , with the world, with us. Blagovest, reminiscent of another, unearthly world.

First, a sound was born in the temple, then candles were lit - long, dark, waxy with the smell of flower honey and bitter heather, and the faces on the old icons shone (they were brought with them and placed on the table near the altar wall); Father Kirill sprinkled the walls with holy water. The caskets with incense were opened, the censer was kindled with charcoal, there was a smell of pine and resin, and the priest walked slowly with bows along the white empty walls, and the censer rang with an openwork ringing, like a scythe, cutting through all the evil spirits that had accumulated in the temple over the dashing years. And now the space has been cleansed of filth and reproach, and a space has been created for prayer. And the Angel of the temple descends to us (the Angel preserves the invisible throne of even the most destroyed, empty temple and waits in the wings for many years and centuries)...

The mystical meaning of the All-Night Vigil is a reminder of the creation of the world, bliss in Paradise, the fall into sin, expulsion from Paradise and repentance. The parallel meaning is the fall of Russia and the fall of each of us. And the world was not at all what it has become now (God "did not spare the first world" / 2 Peter 2: /), and our country was not as miserable and ruined as it is now, but prosperous, pious and hardworking; and man was not conceived at the Trinity Council as each of us became ...

The symbolic meaning of incense is an indication of the Old Testament sacrifices depicting the suffering and death of the Savior. Parallel symbolic - modern meaning this evening - a remembrance of the victims of the totalitarian regime: in the neighborhood in the courtyard - a gloomy gray House on the embankment ... "I", renounce it...

Before the beginning of Vespers, small Vespers and Small Vespers are served - services that precede the Vespers, which were provided for by the Charter, but then somehow “fell out” of it, and now they are not served not only in parish churches, but even not in all monasteries.

... The service is long, according to the full order, without abbreviations, the rhythm is slow and sedate, the prayer is intense and earnest, the singing is strict, impassive, in unison, from the sheet along the hooks: 4 voices, but the sound is so powerful, as if the whole temple is singing "as one mouth and one heart." The voices of the choir and the priest are surprisingly close - in timbre, in spirit ... an amazing prayerful coherence, which manifests itself even outwardly: the strokes of the censer, short and frequent, become long, long, smooth when the choir sings fites (when on one vowel, on one syllable sing from 20 to 50 sounds). According to B.P. Kutuzov, regent of the Cathedral of the Savior Not Made by Hands of the Spaso-Andronnikov Monastery, "the fites are the most beautiful elements of the Znamenny chant, which are completely absent in the Western partess singing that is now flourishing in our Church. The fites convey a state of mystical admiration."

Almost all of us hear the znamenny chant in church for the first time, and the first impression is shock and fear, as before an ancient icon, because too many layers and growths must be torn off from our soul in order for it to rejoice and soar in this imperishable and angelic prayer.

Everyone stands in several strict rows, bows all at the same time, like one wave: the priest, the choir, the parishioners - everything is like a single body of Christ - this is how our pious ancestors prayed.

We are accustomed to partesnoe, soulful, almost operatic singing in parish churches and even in monasteries, to hired choirs with singers who talk when they are not singing, who go out to smoke at the Six Psalms, who do not hide their ambitious claims to solo, thereby frustrating the conciliar prayer of the brethren and parishioners. . Partes singing in a monastery—what a perversion of patristic traditions!

In the church on Bersenevka that evening, an “ideal model” cleansed of Western influences arose for us: monastic liturgy was combined with znamenny chant, which came out of monastic feat. Spiritual work of the same high, transcendental level, incorporeality and otherworldliness. Model of angelic ministry in Heaven or approach to it…

In the cycle of lectures "God in Russian history", which was read for members of the brotherhood by the church writer, philosopher and mathematician V.N. rest".

We all tasted at Bersenevka this heavenly honey, unearthly grace and love, which spills over the walls of the monastery and pours out into the world for all of us. After all, there are two lines of monastic behavior: to leave the world with its temptations and temptations in the raging sea of ​​\u200b\u200blife and engage in inner work, thus saving everyone else around you, or to descend into the world and sanctify and enlighten it with an unearthly light. It all depends on the heavenly patron. Hieromonk Kirill was prepared by Saints Cyril and Methodius for a second path...

That evening, the soul of the temple woke up after a sixty-year sleep. The lost sounding beauty of Holy Russia was revealed to us, for us the voice with which Holy Russia had prayerfully communicated with God for several centuries has risen from non-existence.

What happened to Russia if it lost its powerful monophony, if even in the monasteries the many-voiced partes singing that came from the West took root? How does it differ from the famous one, which Russia has forgotten, lost? Did she lose with him the most important thing - her soul, the basis of being and the inner essence?

The issue of restoring the ancient liturgical singing is an eschatological issue, - considers V.I. Martynov, composer, chanter, teacher of the Moscow Theological Academy. Here is his position: “Now in our Church there is polyphonic harmonic singing, which was given to us according to our sins. All the first millennium Orthodox singing was unanimous. In polyphony, prayer is clothed with matter, while monophonic singing is not material. A single voice is a series of sounds that form a line, which in our perception inevitably evokes the image of pure duration, not associated with any material object. And at the same time sounding sounds evoke spatial, bodily-material associations. Any polyphony is fraught with corporality. Partesnoe (poly-voiced) singing arose as a result of church disorders, schisms, when first the Catholic and then the Protestant Church broke away from the fullness of the Ecumenical Church. Subsequently, this Western influence penetrated through Ukraine into Russia. Partes singing is a spiritual, not a spiritual level, like monophonic singing. In partes singing, the melody follows the emotion. Such an image of prayer - sensually dreamy, exalted - is condemned by the Holy Fathers and leads to delusion"...

“Znamenny chant is a spiritual deed, very healthy in a mystical sense, there is a minimal opportunity to fall into charm,” Boris Pavlovich Kutuzov explained to us at lectures. “Znamenny chant eliminates everything connected with physicality. a person on the path of transformation, cleanse from affects, passions Znamenny chant is courageous, without chromaticism, strictly diatonic, with a comfortable tessitura - so it is convenient to sing for all voices Unlike partes singing, where there is constant rivalry and conflicts between the tenor, soprano, bass, which the regent must dampen, setting a height at which it would be convenient for one of the voices to sing and at which the rest must inevitably break themselves and break their voices. What a prayer! This is no longer church singing. because everyone wants to be a soloist. e cathedral singing "...

Russia has lost catholicity in church singing: in most churches and monasteries they sing in batches, as in the world, only sometimes they sing individual chants in a znamenny chant, like plug-in numbers.

This is where the root of many troubles! The Russian people have long ago upset the primordial way of their life under the influence of the West, which has also touched the core of spiritual life - prayer. Znamenny chant is not just an ancient chant, it is a concept of life: an organic concept in which a person does not exist by himself, like an atomized individual in the West, but is connected by family ties with the world, God and his own kind.

In the Znamenny chant, the singers "brotherly support each other," and the Lord admonishes and instructs them. The singers become co-workers with God and the Angels: a real-sounding hierarchical ladder is restored, which elevates a person to Heaven. In the church on Bersenevka, we heard how the earthly and heavenly choirs merge during the divine service. We understood what “angel-like singing” is: when Angels sing along with the choirs, and the world acquires a long-lost wholeness during the Divine Service, the world becomes a single Cathedral, connecting all those living on earth with all those living in Heaven. For the first time we heard a choir that did not sing, but prayed: earnestly, impassively, sternly...

Russia has lost the conciliar organic tradition - as a concept of life, as a worldview, and distorted it with partess singing in Divine services.

Who are we if we can pray to the singing of the partes? At the level of the nation, we have long since fallen out of the medieval organic tradition on which Holy Russia rested, we have severed the kinship-hierarchical ties of love between God, the world and people. At the turn of the century, Russia was not able, fortunately, to change its universal organic worldview to an atomistic Western one - liberalism did not take root. Then, for more than 70 years, Russia tried to develop a false organic (totalitarian) worldview and create a new one - forced catholicity: faceless and average collectivism, which rested on the violence of the Dictator, who put himself in the place of God.

What paths open before Russia after the fall of the totalitarian regime? Do we really want to follow the path of the West and turn into atomized individuals who are in conflict-consensus relations between themselves and the world around them and establish a relationship with God according to their own will? Why then are we not Catholics and Protestants? In the field of church singing, we are already approaching them: where is our primordial monophony? We can only be proud of the absence of an organ in our temples.

Do we Orthodox know how to properly praise God? Correct - spiritual singing grows out of the correct order of life. For Orthodoxy, this is catholicity, but then Russia cannot follow the path of imitation of Western liberalism, to which the democratic authorities and the democratic press are pushing it. And the matrix of catholicity is a znamenny chant (cathedral in essence) and a "small flock" - a small community in the world.

But what is happening now in our churches and most monasteries: partes singing (rival parties of different voices) and individual standing before God, the transition from the category of an isolated subject (in which we all ended up by misunderstanding, having fallen out of false vertical totalitarian structures and not wanting to fit in into horizontal western ones) into a higher undivided state of vertical and horizontal lines that hold everyone together with invisible spiritual threads of love - for God and among themselves.

We have to re-weave this spiritual system of coordinates and take our place in it; to restore the true hierarchical order of life, which has always been inherent in Russia, after 70 years of false totalitarian hierarchism based on violence and fear. From fear of the all-powerful state to "the fear of God."

…This evening, we are praying at the same time as the external – architectural – temple of our soul, which has long been used as a warehouse, storage and accumulation of sins. Help us, Saint Father Nicholas!

The service lasts from five in the evening until half past eleven. It is already dark, the candles are almost burned out, the choristers have them attached to wooden spoons to illuminate books, it never occurs to anyone to turn on the light (it has not yet been invented). Something incredible happens, a complete loss of time, heavenly bliss and lightness.

Triple symbolism of what is happening:

1) the return to the temple of life after a long godless period; 2) a return to the origins of ancient Russian culture - Znamenny chant, a unique phenomenon that is not found anywhere else in the world; 3) the return of each to his prototype - the image and likeness of God in himself.

Very complex layering and combination: the first layer opens the gate to invisible world and breaks the seals; the second - leads deep into the horizontal - into the bowels of Holy Russia; the third - raises vertically to God from the point at which they reached horizontally.

The first meaning is clear to everyone; the second - to many, although the habit of the beauties of polyphonic partes singing interferes; the third - who is not afraid to scrape his soul from all layers.

The soul seems to recognize something and remembers, as if somewhere she prayed like that ...

Znamenny chant is the living voice of the Middle Ages, a symbol and a lost key to the proper organization of the spiritual and social life of a Russian person and Russia, if it overcomes the temptation of the West and turns to its origins, if each of us overcomes this temptation on an individual level and we are all together fraternal.

From the annals of the temple:

Feast of the Holy Trinity in the church on Bersenevka.

We came to the evening service - the temple is closed (Saturday: the institution located in the temple does not work, the watchman has disappeared). Temptation, which, as St. fathers, precedes or follows every good work.

Father Kirill congratulates everyone on the holiday, asks us not to lose heart: despite all the trials, the church will soon be ours. Where there are many trials, there will be the special grace of God.

You will have to serve on the street, on the porch, under a canopy of a roof with a white weight. We quickly place the icons on the upper three steps, on the ledges of the walls, scatter grass and flowers on the floor and on the steps, each one picks a burdock for himself - there will be a rug for prostrations; we turn the barrel into a lectern, covering it with a purple brocade cover with gold fringe, we light candles. The singers bring paint goats from somewhere, cover them with napkins and lay out their books. We are ready.

Someone is holding a bell, it seems that it is hanging in the air: after each of the 12 strokes, calling for the beginning of the service, the 50th psalm is read.

How difficult it is to pray in the street! How the world interferes with all its physical and technical means: crows, planes, dogs, motor ships, the sun; again planes, crows, dogs, wind, the sky - invisible, bright, blue, physical - like a barrier that extinguishes everything. Rampant material elements and complete vulnerability from them. The invisible one who does not let us into the temple wants to stifle, break, trample on our prayer. Will we stand?

We are behind the walls of the temple, around which natural elements are raging. Many, especially those who are older, liked the service on the street - you can sit on a log in the middle of grass and nettles, in the sun (they would not have endured so much in the temple), you can understand them - the service lasts from 4 to 11 pm.

Some people from neighboring institutions and houses have already joined us, standing and praying with candles.

The first culmination is the rite of forgiveness at the end of the Companion, when the priest bows to us and asks: "Bless me, holy fathers and brethren, and forgive me a sinner, for I have sinned all the days of my life in soul and body, in word and deed and thought, and with all my feelings" . We all flatten ourselves in prostration: some on the ground, some on mugs ...

The second climax is when the choir sings in a znamenny chant a very special chant, preserved only in the hook manuscripts: "Ai-ne-ne"! ("Aineneki" from the Greek "A-ni-na," B.P. Kutuzov explained to us at lectures). These are ecstatic exclamations preserved by every nation in antiquity. There is an opinion that these are archaisms, and it is not necessary to sing them. Version about. Cyril, which he expounded to us long ago, after the first vigil in this church: these are exclamations and delight from the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, when everyone laughed at them and said that they had drunk sweet wine:

"And tongues appeared to them, as if of fire, and they rested, one in each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."

The third climax - 6 bows, already at dusk, on the porch in front of the lectern. Everyone comes out in pairs, first men, and makes two bows with the sign of the cross, then they kiss the Gospel and make another bow with the sign of the cross; they make one more bow before the priest (without the sign of the cross), bow before each other (also without the sign of the cross), and the last bow before all the parishioners who bow in response. After these 6 bows, all pride and arrogance flies! Feeling of silent cleansing, as after confession.

The fourth culmination - for those who made it to the end - "The Great Doxology" - already in the dark by candlelight. Then - deep and some kind of non-urban silence. The world with devilish rattles, squeaks and temptations finally recedes, falls silent, surrenders. The physical space has been transformed into an ideal one. "I conquered the world"...

The service ends. A stunned watchman appears from somewhere, opens the temple, and we drag icons from the street. I just want to cling to the walls and not go anywhere ...

Midnight. We turn off Bersenevskaya Embankment onto Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge - what a strange life it is! .. O. Kirill recalls his culminations and sings them. For some, this is no less a strong impression than from the Vespers: a monk walks through the crazy city at night and sings "Hallelujah" in an undertone ... And this holds the world together.

The next morning - at 7.30 - a prayer service with a procession, in the white walls of the temple - birch greens. Victor stands on the porch and rings the bell. The procession encircles the temple, the procession closes the singing choir. The physical boundaries and signs of this world are being erased: we are, as it were, moving from the world of phenomena into the world of entities. Great silence within. We do not walk, but we step slowly, slowly - not on tiles, grass and nettles, but inside our soul. This can be seen even in the photo - light, with blurry borders. The whole set of objects and actors is real (a stone temple, living people), but it is perceived as completely otherworldly - this enlightened soul of the temple and the souls of those praying and walking; these slightly inclined figures in headscarves are not us, but our primary beings, as after the first communion - a great feeling of merging with our prototype.

Returning to the temple, how much more grace can we accommodate? In the porch Cyril rings the bell. We all come to the door... If liturgical singing leads to God, and music and musical instruments from God, then where is the place for the bell? He is a tool and seemingly quite simple, but who dares to call him a tool? The sounding bell is a sounding heart, expanded to the size of the Universe to contain God, to erase the boundaries between heaven and earth, being and being, sound and silence, to weave a sounding ladder for angels. Victor beats on the edge of the bell measuredly and slowly with one piece of iron, and Father Kirill - with two - on the sides and shoulders of the bell and at different angles: this gives the impression that the bell is multilingual, and the ringing is scattered in clusters.

After the prayer service, Father Kirill invites everyone to the Danilov Monastery for a fraternal meal. We hardly return to "this" reality. After everything that we experienced in the past evening and morning, a completely different attitude to food appeared - to eat exactly as much as needed to sustain life, how to throw firewood into the stove without pleasing the womb and larynx, without chatting about various subjects over food. At fraternal meals, all this worldly fuss disappears: Father Kirill imperiously blocks all spiritual channels and directs our energy into a spiritual channel: this is how we listen to the Lives of the Saints at the meal in the monastery; on this day - about God - the Trinity from the Orthodox catechism: "Divine grace opens the way to the unification of people and the growth of love between them, in the image of the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity" ...

With spiritual saturation, bodily hunger disappears, and one wants not to eat oneself, but to give one's own to a neighbor, brother.

How we are changing!

"It is worthy and righteous to worship the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity Consubstantial and Inseparable"...

The struggle for the Embankment Chambers, the home of the clergy, was also tense. The entire territory of the temple was littered with garbage. The House of the clergy was a frame from the newsreel of the war years: without a roof, with empty eye sockets of windows and gaping doorways. And opposite is a small white temple, merging with the same white snow around "White Churches, Strongholds of the Universe ..." Soon we learn that our house is being given to the Moscow Chamber Ballet. This was Great Lent. A struggle began, they stood with posters at the City Hall, wrote letters to all authorities, and in the temple the whole fast was prayer standing.

As soon as, on the advice of a familiar priest, a cross was installed over the arch, a turning point immediately occurred in our favor.

For a long time I walked in circles around this house, not knowing where to start. One evening after the service, a handful of parishioners sealed up all the window openings. They used whatever came to hand: plywood, pieces of roofing felts, some kind of wooden shields. This is where the restoration began. Soon a temporary roof was installed. Gradually, they began to methodically master the building ...

Now it houses: the Kazan gate chapel, an icon-painting workshop, a prosphora shop, an office, a Sunday school, a library, a refectory and other office premises. From the first days, life on Bersenevka was placed on a firm prayer basis, and from the fullness of church life - God's blessing on all worldly affairs. Gradually, the territory was cleared, the gilded domes and the temple itself are burning like candles.

Today Bersenevka is a unique oasis with a temple of unearthly beauty. The undying silence is striking here, how much has been experienced here, suffered, how many tearful prayers have been lifted up - God alone knows. We know little about the former life of the House of the clergy, since the annalistic data store only the history of the temple. However, the Lord lifts the veil for us, sending people whose memory keeps precious memories. One day, on a warm July day in 1999, an elderly woman, Tyurina Tamara Anatolyevna, who was baptized in the church on Bersenevka and lived in apartment No. Her grandfather Nikolai Nikolaevich was a goldsmith, decorated churches and monasteries. Tamara Anatolyevna said that there were 8 apartments in the House, and from generation to generation the residents worked for the good of the Church. So, on the 2nd floor the singer Stepanovs lived. The head of the family was the headman of the temple, and his wife Agrippina had a wonderful voice. The bell ringer lived in the 1st apartment, the Pochitalovs and Gardinins in the 3rd and 5th trustees, and Shitov in the 4th sexton. In 1908, there was a flood, boats drove up to the house, and Easter was celebrated on the roof of the House of the clergy. In this House, not only apartments were inherited, but also obediences. It is not surprising that the enemy took up arms against the pious inhabitants, scattered them, devastated their dwelling, even tried to completely destroy it. On our small plot of land, you experience how hard it is, having regained faith, to overcome sin in yourself and work for the Lord with the best of all your strength. It is easy to destroy everything, it is much more difficult to revive. And it is not the walls that are reborn here - our souls. But the Merciful Lord "will not be completely angry, nor will he be at enmity forever." And the reward for everything is a strong community of like-minded people and for it a new-old House of the clergy under a solid roof. On November 7, 2002, a lot of work on the construction and roofing was completed. In the temple on this day, a prayer service was performed to our heavenly patron - St. Nicholas. At the end of it, we warmly said goodbye to the workers. By unanimous decision of the community, Brigadier Anatoly Arkadevich Vasilevich was awarded the title of honorary trustee of the temple. The brigade painstakingly completed a huge amount of work. There were some temptations: they did not immediately discover that they had brought defective bricks, but the work was already in full swing, the old roof was removed, and the rooms were dripping in a rainy autumn. I had to dismantle the new masonry, take away the marriage, and after downtime, start all over again from high-quality material. I would like to convey especially warm words of gratitude to the leaders of the Krasny Oktyabr factory, who paid for all the work on the roof. All the years we have been bound by ties of friendship, good neighborliness and cooperation in the revival of the temple.

Life was not without temptations.

On April 1, 2001, on the eve of the Week of the Cross, near the building of the Research Institute of Cultural Studies, in the immediate vicinity of our church, a satanic action was carried out that offended the feelings of believers.

Under the pretext of creative self-expression, blasphemous actions took place with the crucifixion of a man, on whose back was written "I am not the son of God." These actions are very similar to what happened in the Manezh, where Ter-Oganyan desecrated the icons. When performing these actions, the participants of the action turned to the children of the parishioners with an insistent request to give an interview.

Blasphemous leaflets with a blasphemous parody of the crucifix were left on the notice board of the temple.

Several dozen people took part in the action, among which there were many young strong men with bizarre hairstyles. It is possible that there was a calculation that the community would be indignant, that it would be provoked into opposition. The action was filmed by NTV.

Models that were used for the action were brought into the building of the research institute in advance. To the question of the chief engineer of the institute - what was happening at the institute building, she replied that they were shooting for the film, and at the request of the filmers, she allowed them to connect to electricity, and the fact that after the shooting some manipulations were made with the crucifixion, then, according to her words, it was "hochma". According to eyewitnesses, the man who was crucified was later taken to the hospital in a semi-conscious state. The community protested to the leadership of the Scientific Research Institute of Cultural Studies.

But there were more joys.

On January 28, the parishioners and guests of Bersenevka witnessed a solemn and joyful event - particles of the relics of the holy saints of God were transferred to our church: schmch. Clement, Pope of Rome, New Martyr Vladimir of Russia, Met. Kievsky, St. Lawrence of Chernigov and St. Theodore Kaliki Zverinsky. Priest Alexy from Ukraine presented them as a gift to our church.

Late in the evening, under the reading of the Psalter, the particles of the holy relics were separated. A troparion was read to each saint, and a magnificence was sung.

I sincerely thanked Father Alexy for the priceless gift, noting the symbolism of this event, since on that day the annual report was submitted to the Patriarchate, in connection with which there were many experiences.

From the annals of the temple:

Our service is Metropolitan Pitirim.

It seems that in Bersenevka you are developing a good tradition of inviting a bishop to perform divine services on the patronal feast. Last year, on Memorial Day, Rev. Theodosius the Great, the abbot of the Novospassky Monastery, Bishop Alexy of Orekhovo-Zuevsky, came to visit us. And in this, on the feast day of St. Nicholas, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy blessed Metropolitan Pitirim to us on the patronal feast day, who worked hard for the good of the Church. For more than 3 decades, Vladyka led the publishing activities of our Church, in 1971 he participated in the preparation of a decision to remove oaths from the old rites, which the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church approved, recognizing their equality and equal salvation with the rites commonly used. In 1989, when Vladyka was a People's Deputy of the USSR, he wrote a letter to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU with a request to return the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery to the Church, and the request was granted. Since then, Metropolitan Pitirim has been creating ascetic activity in the monastery, fulfilling the mandate of its founder, St. Joseph Volotsky: "To be the center of the monastery in the world." Our headman Vladimir Nikanorovich has been observing the activities of Vladyka for more than 40 years and characterizes him as a multifaceted person, a musician and a campanologist, a man about whom there are legends. It is clear that all our parishioners, led by the rector, were very worried, expecting such an important guest. Everyone already knew where he should be when meeting the Metropolitan.

Vladimir Nikanorovich greeted Vladyka with bread and salt, the girls with flowers, the priest gave a cross on a tray for blessing, Viktor Vasilievich led the bell ringing, the singers, led by Alexander, accompanied Vladyka to the temple with singing. As Father Kirill later said, the excitement passed, and we were at peace as soon as Vladyka's service began: majestic and heartfelt. According to the observations of the priest, the special style of service of Metropolitan Pitirim, the absence of fuss, always greatly affects the souls and hearts of the people who pray with him.

At the end of the festive hierarchal service, Fr Kirill presented Vladyka with a bell and gifts from our benefactors from the KROK factory and its director A. Daursky. Metropolitan Pitirim said in his speech that he received great spiritual consolation in this ancient Moscow church in Zamoskvorechye. He especially noted the znamenny tunes of our choir and the appearance of the parishioners, reminding us that St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, having become a bishop, was everything to everyone. There was no such pain, no need, no sorrow, no joy in which he would not have taken the most lively pastoral, fatherly participation. Vladyka said: “If we want to glorify the Saint with our wondrous tunes and our piety and our holy Orthodox faith, we will bring him a special gift if we think with all the heartache about how many people are waiting for our participation. The world is one. As the apostle Paul said, "We are one body, and our head is Jesus Christ." And not a single part of this body can say to another - I don't need you. Whether one particle hurts, the whole body suffers with it. in the depths of our souls about all the troubles that are happening in the world, and we must share each of them in our prayer, asking God for mercy, St. Nicholas for intercession. but also beyond the threshold of our earthly life.

After the sermon, to our joy, despite the late hour, Vladyka proceeded to the Embankment Chambers, where he shared a festive meal with us. During the meal, Abbot Kirill shared his memories of meetings with Vladyka during the years of his studies at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Batiushka recalled how once, in the process of inspecting the Theological Seminary after repairs, Vladyka took off his klobuk and let the priest hold it. At the same time, the novice Alexander (that was the name of the priest before the tonsure) was overwhelmed with feelings of excitement and joy for the fact that he was worthy of this. These same feelings arose again when Metropolitan Pitirim met at Bersenevka. It also surfaced in my memory how, during the years of study, the priest bombarded Vladyka with questions, tried to make the most of the rare time when Vladyka escaped from his responsible obedience to the Holy Church into the walls of the Theological Seminary in order to be enriched by his thoughts and observations. And this, according to the abbot, remained for life.

It turned out that Metropolitan Pitirim remembers Father Kirill well. He remembers him from his student years, remembers well the first brotherhood. According to Vladyka, the priest is dear to him precisely because from his student years he was a zealot of ancient Russian piety, because in this way we carry through the centuries the uninterrupted tradition of Russian piety. Vladyka found our Russian image a useful example of how Russia was, is and will be. Inviting everyone to visit the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery, Vladyka said: "I raise the cup for all of you: for blouses, for kerchiefs, for banner singing, for your community and for our further cooperation, sympathy to help each other!"

Hegumen Kirill, on behalf of all those present, thanked Vladyka for the invitation and added that such a warm reaction to our community is dear and joyful to us, and the invitation is the priceless mercy of God, and we will direct our steps next Saturday to pray in this great shrine. After all, from the very beginning we put prayer at the forefront, everything is built on the yeast of prayer. We also love guests, we often go on missionary trips, we try to enrich ourselves spiritually. We have long dreamed of visiting the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery, about which Vladyka spoke so interestingly over the meal.

Unfortunately, it's time to part ways. Having taken a picture with Metropolitan Pitirim on the ancient porch of the temple, we saw him off to the singing of "Christ is Risen ..."

The story of this event would be incomplete if we did not learn about him the impression of a neutral person, a priest, as if from the outside, who came to Moscow for a short time from the outback and ended up at our holiday. He said: "Those words that were spoken today are long, but not boring, lengthy, but intelligible. I saw more smiles and shining eyes here than in any other parish. You have bright minds and joyful faces. And the peculiarity of our faith is an endless joy." Thus, let us all rejoice that the Orthodox faith is still strong, that the traditions of our Church are alive.

From the annals of the temple:

About our honorary trustees.

I would like to mention some of our Honorary Trustees. Among them is the recently deceased First Hierarch of the ROCOR, Metropolitan Laurus.

On May 28, 2004, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, Metropolitan Laurus, and his entourage visited our church. Vladyka was warmly welcomed by the parishioners of the church and members of the Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods, according to the Russian custom, with bread and salt. After venerating the myrrh-streaming icon of the Holy Royal Martyrs, the primate of ROCOR entered the church to the sound of bells.

In my welcoming speech, I noted that as a result of the visit of the ROCOR delegation to Russia, ""a big step has been taken towards the joyful reunion around a single Eucharistic chalice of the two parts of the Russian Orthodox Church, divided by the storm of historical hard times of the 20th century. The great providential mission of your Church consists not only in the spiritual care of millions of Orthodox immigrants from Russia, but also in the preaching of Orthodoxy in different parts of our planet. I would like that in the future the confessional voice of the Russian Orthodox diaspora would be just as loudly heard in the world, so that its testimony of the enduring beauty and grace of patristic Orthodoxy would be even more powerful.

God grant that collectively, without sinning against the Truth, the mediastinum between us is a thing of the past." During the singing of many years, Metropolitan Laurus was presented with a letter of election as an honorary trustee of the church of St. Nicholas on Bersenevka.

The Metropolitan venerated the shrines of the temple, in particular the icon of St. Sergius with a particle of relics, which abundantly streamed myrrh on the day the temple community refused the TIN.

On June 9, 2006, Metropolitan Amfilohiy of Montenegro and Primorye had a conversation with the leadership of the Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods and the Union of Orthodox Banner Bearers at the President Hotel. Vladyka was informed about the latest activities carried out by these organizations and answered a number of questions regarding the situation of the Orthodox Church in Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia, about the past IV All-Diaspora Council. Members of the Council of the Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods told Vladyka about the prayer services held in the church in 2006 in defense of Kosovo and reported on the unanimous decision of the community to elect him as an honorary trustee of our church. Vladyka replied: "It is a great honor for me to become an honorary trustee of the church of St. Nicholas on Bersenevka, which is dear to me," and gave the community a large bouquet of flowers as a token of his love. Earlier, Vladyka Amfilohiy repeatedly communicated with members of the Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods and the Union of Orthodox Banner Bearers and visited our church.

A little more about our two honorary trustees.

Director of the Russian Press House G.S. Musaelyan

Last year we celebrated his 70th birthday.

The anniversary fell on September 20 - the canon of the feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God. Our parishioners were the first to congratulate the hero of the day. Musaelyan G.S. is not just a parishioner of the temple, but also its honorary trustee. Among his gifts, a large icon of St. Blessed Princess Anna Kashinskaya.

The House of the Russian Press, located in the famous House on the Embankment, includes more than 30 different publications, mainly of a social orientation - the Social Protection magazine, the newspapers Russian Invalid, Nadezhda, New Youth, Nostalgia, Kanal TV3. Practically all the leading politicians of Russia, many ministers of the Moscow Government spoke in the conference hall of the House of the Russian Press.

In the past Musaelyan G.S. was the editor-in-chief of the "Moscow Journal" (in Russian and English), the journal "Journey to the USSR", head. International Department "Soviet Russia", head. International relations Union of Journalists of the USSR. As a correspondent, he has been to hot spots many times, in particular, 14 times in Afghanistan and 8 times in the Iran-Iraq theater of operations.

During the reception, which took place after prayers for the hero of the day, the House of the Russian Press planned a program to help the temple in connection with its approaching 350th anniversary.

For special merits in the revival of the church of St. Nikola on Bersenevka and, especially, for repeated speeches in defense of the church community, which categorically did not accept the TIN, the well-known patriotic figure V.N. Numerous worshipers, approaching the anointing with holy oil at the 1st hour, warmly congratulated Vladimir Nikolaevich.

Speaking at the meal, at the end of the Vespers, V.N. Osipov emphasized the importance of the Bersenev community for our Church and people.

This is, first of all, the strictly statutory performance of daily services, a huge spiritual and educational work, the revival of communal life, the traditions of "strong-willed Orthodoxy", inherent in Muscovite Russia of the 15th-17th centuries, and, finally, the uncompromising position in relation to anti-Christian globalism.
Due to the fact that the pressure on the community is intensifying, and the threats of liquidation are heard more and more often, V.N. Osipov informed those present that Orthodox patriotic organizations are currently holding consultations on the possibility of holding an all-Russian action of civil disobedience, in the event that the situation communities will become critical.

Temple elder.

A very colorful figure is our headman, the oldest church headman of Moscow, Kuznetsov Vladimir Nikolaevich.

This is not just a devoted and faithful person with indomitable energy, but also a well-known specialist in bells ("Campan" is a Latin root; a word derived from the name of the Roman province of Campania, where the bells that came to us from Western Europe were first cast.)

I have known Vladimir Nikanorovich for more than 20 years and call him at home " Nikanorych " or "grandfather". When we arrive in a city, we immediately go to look for a temple and a bell tower: one rushes to ring, the other - to measure the bells and record the data in his catalog.

Vladimir Nikanorovich has been making bells for 25 years. His main profession is a design engineer. Due to the nature of his activity, he often went on business trips around the country, which made it possible to inspect many local history museums, funds and belfries along the way.

He himself climbed the bell towers, made measurements; How many times have you fallen from there? Sometimes it is dark and the ascent is difficult, twisted steps. He made a discovery a long time ago that the view from the bell tower is extraordinary and incomparable to anything - even with a high-rise building: "When you appear on the belfry of the bell tower, it's a completely different feeling, despite the fact that high-rise buildings are much higher."

Vladimir Nikanorovich stood at the origins of the revival of the bell-casting art. How many archives rummaged through! He examined the bells, found out from which temple, which plant, the composition of the metal, the melting process, acoustic properties and other data. And this at a time when the occupation of the bells was considered sedition!

Many bells are recorded in his card file. This invaluable data helps to trace the migration of each individual bell and often contributes to the return of the bells to their original place - to the temples. VN Kuznetsov sees this as one of his main tasks. In particular, he indicated the location of the bell of the Old Believer Pokrovskaya community at the Rogozhsky cemetery ... in the Moscow Art Theater, for which he received well-deserved gratitude from the community and the rector. This was written by the Rodina magazine (No. 9, 1990). Vladimir Nikanorovich examined all the theatrical belfries of the country, proving that the reproduction of the bell ringing during the performance is possible with the help of modern acoustic means and that the original, once expropriated bells should be returned to their native places.

V.N. Kuznetsov advised Archimandrite Evlogy on the problems of the belfry in the Danilov Monastery. It was he who discovered materials indicating that the true bells from the Danilov Monastery are located at Harvard University. Maybe Vladimir Nikanorovich will be able to find out something about the Bersenevsky bells?

When he turned 80, after a thanksgiving service, I warmly congratulated the hero of the day. At the festive meal, he congratulated Vladimir Nikanorovich - and State Duma deputy N.V. Kuryanovich, chairman of the society of Russian-Georgian friendship "Dzalisa" Dzhandieri T.I., referent of the Old Believer Metropolis Khrustalev R.I., deputy. Directors of ZIL Sorokin A.V., senior bell ringer of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior Konovalov I.V., honorary trustees of the temple, representatives of neighboring organizations, etc.

Chants and poems written by the hero of the day ("Church in the Name of Christ", "Evening of Bersenevsky", "Balkan March", etc.) were performed. Total Kuznetsov V.N. written more than 100 songs and published three collections of poems.

Vladimir Nikanorovich was born near the Epiphany Cathedral in Yelokhovo, and has been a parishioner since the 1930s. As a child, he often talked with the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne, Metropolitan Sergius (Stargorodsky), who lived nearby. After graduating from the Institute of Chemical Engineering, he worked for 40 years at the State Union Design Institute of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building. He was a leading engineer for the design of defense industry plants.

After his retirement, he worked as an assistant secretary to the governor of the Danilov Monastery, and then as the head of the monastery's excursion bureau.

Kuznetsov V.N. known as an explorer and collector of bells. In 1991, by decision of the organizing committee for the celebration of the 250th anniversary of Orthodoxy in America, as a senior bell specialist, he was sent to the United States to transfer 2 bronze bells to ROCOR and the Old Believer Church, for which he was awarded the Order of St. Herman of Alaska.

For participation and victory in the competition for the best belfry of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and for the implementation of the project, which took 1st place, he was awarded the order. Prince Daniel of Moscow.

He was awarded 9 medals, including a medal for the defense of Moscow.

Largely thanks to the work of Vladimir Nikanorovich, the Church of St. Nikola on Bersenevka received in 1996 the Moscow government award for the best church restoration. Continuing to work as a headman of the temple, Vladimir Nikanorovich writes memoirs based on his daily diary entries, which he has been keeping since 1936.

Great friendship connects the community with the society of Russian-Georgian friendship.

The 20th anniversary of the Russian-Georgian friendship society "Dzalisa", as well as the 15th anniversary of the Orthodox Georgian brotherhood in the name of St. equal to ap. Nina and St. vmch. George the Victorious and the 65th anniversary of their leader - a member of the community of the church of St. Nicholas on Bersenevka Dzhandieri Tamaz Ilyich, were celebrated in our church on May 20, 2006.

The speakers spoke about the huge contribution of the hero of the day to the strengthening of ties between the fraternal Russian and Georgian peoples. T. Jandieri was the initiator of the opening of the Georgian church in Moscow, the organizer of several religious processions Moscow-Tbilisi. An evening dedicated to anniversaries was held next to the temple in the club of the factory "Red October".

Many representatives of the Georgian diaspora in Moscow came to the evening: figures of science, culture and art. The evening was hosted by the President of the International Academy of People's Diplomacy, Honorary Trustee of the Church of St. Nicholas on Bersenevka Frolov V.A., who had just returned from Tbilisi from a meeting of representatives of the Georgian diaspora of the world.

Dzhandieri Tamaz Ilyich was awarded the Order of the International Academy of Spiritual Unity of the Peoples of the World.

On January 27, 2007, on the day of St. Nina Equal-to-the-Apostles, numerous representatives of the Georgian diaspora of Moscow gathered for a prayer service to the holy enlightener Iberia in our church.

A significant part of the chants and exclamations at the prayer service were performed in Georgian. Along with the church choir, the vocal ensemble of the Russian-Georgian Friendship Society "Dzalisa" sang. The prayer service was followed by the awarding of the Order of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Nina to well-known figures of Russian and Georgian culture. For the contribution to the strengthening of friendship between the Russian and Georgian peoples, the rector of the Trinity Church of the Life-Giving Archpriest John Kolyada was also awarded, along with the headman and others.

The festive meal was accompanied by a concert at which Georgian church and folk chants sounded.

There were a lot of meetings on Bersenevka with the leaders of the Russian communities of Tajikistan and Chechnya - they were provided with humanitarian assistance, with the spiritual writer and well-known Orthodox publicist V. Semenko and many others.

This year, the Bersenevites met with Ch. editor of the magazine "Russian House" A.N. Krutov.

I said that for several years, when the Russian House TV program was on, members of the community gathered together to watch and discuss it.

At the communal meal, articles from the Russian House magazine are constantly read. Editor-in-Chief A.N. Krutov spoke about his path to God and called on Orthodox believers to have an active life position, to be warriors of Christ, to fight evil in all its manifestations.

In the speech of A.N. Krutov, a wide range of topics was touched upon: alcoholism, an acute demographic crisis, problems of the patriotic movement, the media and morality, Russophobia, the death of the village, ecumenism, the threat of church autocephaly in Ukraine, reunification with the Church Abroad, etc.

Here are some quotes from his speech:

"We must humble ourselves before God, and not before evil."

"They are trying to drive us into the ghetto."

"We cannot be politically correct and tolerant of those who blaspheme the Name of God."

"We cannot agree with the position that all religions are equal. The priority of Orthodoxy is undeniable."

"The main task is to be faithful to Holy Orthodoxy."

Members of the community, many of whom are members of the Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods, told the guest about their many years of struggle against anti-Christian globalization and about the work to revive ruined churches in dying villages in different regions of Russia. Examples were given of repressions against those clergymen who raised their voice against apostasy processes in church life.

So recently, the confessor of St. Petersburg, Fr. Pavel Povalyaev lost his parish in Yelets and was sent to serve in a remote rural parish.

At the end of the meeting, the community members presented the guest, who spoke so much about the need to revive national traditions, with a shirt-shirt and a flyer, as well as a donation to the publishing house of the magazine.

On March 19, members of the community of St. Nicholas on Bersenevka congratulated their sister in Christ, icon painter Tatiana Kosolapova, who painted more than 150 icons for our church. On this day she turned 60 years old. Many warm, kind words, wishes of health, salvation, and success in future work were said.

A group of icon painters arrived, headed by Igor Drozhdin, under whom Tatiana learned to paint icons. Igor congratulated her on her birthday and presented her with the book "History of Icon Painting" - an album containing photographs of more than 250 of the best icons.

In conclusion, the headman of the temple, Vladimir Nikanorovich, spoke. He read out a congratulatory address from members of the community. Read a poem dedicated to the hero of the day:

"Painting an icon is not a joke.
This is a talent from God.
Sometimes it's creepy
When strictly from the canvas
The Lord looks into the soul
And then with great force
Words spill out:
Lord, forgive and have mercy!
Sixty years is not a toy
Someone, and you - eighteen years old,
Bersenevskaya Cinderella-Tanyushka,
Our radiant light.
Everything you have is from God:
Beauty, simplicity, talent.
He does not look strictly at you,
You yourself are His tome.
So always be Cinderella dear.
Simplicity is your talent and strength!"

Hospital temple.

Separately, it should be said about our care of the 83rd City Clinical Hospital

During the days of Peter's Lent, June 29, 2001, the Lord sent us a real holiday: His Holiness Patriarch Alexy consecrated the temple in honor of St. great martyr and healer Panteleimon in the 83rd hospital, which we have been taking care of for seven years.

In 1994, while being treated in the hospital, I suggested that the head physician Gennady Nikolayevich Matveev open a prayer room in it, which was warmly supported by the administration. On the first floor, behind the winter garden, a room was allocated for the believers. Parishioners from Bersenevka began to come here regularly to perform the lay prayers prescribed by the charter. The first person in charge of Divine Services in the hospital was Valery Gaponov, now Hieromonk Sergius. Then the prayer relay, with my blessing, was taken over by women, among whom were: Nadezhda Eremina, Valentina Dudkina and Tamara Korotkova. Appeared in the hospital new position on duty at the chapel, to which Marker A.N. was appointed, who later became our parishioner.

I regularly came to the hospital to perform prayers, to confess. communion and unction of the sick. Several times the area around the hospital was walked around with religious processions with banners and icons. At least 200 people were spiritually nourished here every month. There were cases when, after the fervent prayers of parishioners and communion, the diagnosis was changed, and there was no need for a serious operation.

According to Gennady Nikolaevich, patients began to turn to him with a request to allocate a larger room, because. not everyone had enough space in the prayer room, they had to stand in the corridor. And he walked towards. Repairs began, walls collapsed, and this was repeated several times. Finally, as a result of complex capital works, the premises were transformed into a well-decorated temple. When it came to the consecration of the hospital church, G.N. Matveev appealed to the Patriarchate with a request that His Holiness Patriarch Alexy himself perform this sacrament. This ardent request was granted, and we became witnesses and participants in an event that can happen only once in a lifetime.

A lot of people took part in the preparation for this event, from the Minister of Health Shevchenko to the abbess of the courtyard of the Pukhtitsky monastery in Moscow, Abbess Filareta. At the epicenter of the training were the staff of the hospital Fedorov A.G. and Bugrova E.V., and Gennady Nikolaevich noted that everyone contributed.

In those days, the weather did not please us, it rained incessantly, but on the day of consecration the sun came out, it was warm and dry.

His Holiness the Patriarch was greeted with bells, bread and salt and flowers. Hospital staff in white coats, our parishioners in shirts-kosovorotki and parishioners in sundresses and white headscarves, members of scientific medical societies and correspondents came out to meet us. And from the windows and from the balconies, the Patriarch was greeted by people who were in the hospital for treatment. The choir from the St. Danilov Monastery, under the direction of Georgy Safonov, struck out "Ispol esi the despot", then, to the singing of the troparion to the Great Martyr Panteleimon, they went through the winter garden to the temple, and its consecration began. Since everyone who wanted to stay in the temple was not able to, people were given the opportunity to watch what was happening in the temple on TV through a live broadcast in the conference room and on the floors of the hospital. Patriarchal worship is distinguished by special solemnity, and those who were directly in the temple felt it. After the consecration of the temple, everyone proceeded to the conference hall, where the Deputy Minister of Health Petrov G.M., from the Russian Medical Society Mikhailov L.A. made a welcoming speech. and others. In the presence of His Holiness the Patriarch, a Cooperation Agreement was signed between Hospital No. 83 and the Moscow Compound of the Pyukhtitsky Monastery. It was signed by the head physician Matveev G.N. and Abbess Philaret.

His Holiness the Patriarch began his speech with a story about a trip to Belarus, from where he returned the day before. Patriarch Alexy visited the regions affected by the Chernobyl accident and, since his visit coincided with the day of memory of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he consecrated a temple in Brest, built in memory of those who died defending the Fatherland. His Holiness noted that temples of God are being built everywhere, and this process is demanded from below, that today people need it, because they find spiritual solace in the temple, return to enduring spiritual values. He also said: "There were many experiences in the past 20th century. Our people showed amazing patience and for this deserves a better share in the 21st century, which will be a century of peace, creation and prosperity. Traditions are being revived when there was a temple at every hospital ". It is also no coincidence that the first and so far the only Ministry consecrated by the Patriarch is the Ministry of Health. The first temple in honor of the great martyr and healer Panteleimon was consecrated by His Holiness the Patriarch at the MPS hospital. Our temple has become another hospital temple, where, according to His Holiness, there is a harmonious healing of the soul and body, which will help the recovery of those who come here. Undoubtedly, the appearance of these temples at hospitals is due to the fact that the holy relics of the great martyr and healer Panteleimon visited Moscow twice, to which huge streams of people went to pray for their mental and physical illnesses. The patriarch noted the works of G.N. Matveev in the creation of the temple, presenting him with the Order of St. Sergius of Radonezh III degree.

Medals of St. Sergius of Radonezh were awarded to the head of the department for the operation of the hospital Fedorov A.G., the former head of the same department Gurenko A.P., the specialist of CJSC "Luch" Ermakov I.G. and General Director of Nekropol LLC Toropkin M.V. Gennady Nikolayevich said in response that the thoughts and wishes expressed by His Holiness the Patriarch would work for many years, these words would be heard by all physicians and they would be put into action.

At the end of the solemn part, a meal was held, at which the famous singer Tatyana Petrova sang the songs beloved by the Patriarch. After the meal, we saw off His Holiness the Patriarch to the sound of bells and returned to the already consecrated, transfigured church. Yes, everyone made their contribution: some built and equipped the walls, others instilled a prayerful spirit in them and helped turn these walls into a shrine. Thus, all together showed concern for the suffering, because the Orthodox Church unites and builds. We have become witnesses of what prayer can do, how through prayer the Lord sends everything people need. As our parishioner Alexandra said, the visit of the Patriarch to the hospital is a reward... And therefore, glory and thanksgiving to our God for the fact that we sinners also served for His glory!

Last year we celebrated 350th anniversary of the temple.

The divine service on the day of the holiday ended with a grand procession around the territory of the temple. For special merits in the revival of the temple, a letter of election as an honorary trustee was presented to the head of the Yakimanka administration, S. I. Kuznetsov. During a meal on the church estate, the community was congratulated by the International Union of Lawyers, school No. "Red October", House of the Russian Press, Medical Center of the Ministry of Justice, etc.

For almost twenty years of work on the revival of rural churches in different regions of Russia, the installation of several dozen worship crosses on the sites of destroyed churches, the Agrarian Party of Russia awarded me a gold medal. The Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods of Ukraine awarded the community with a letter of thanks for many years of work in helping the Orthodox of Ukraine. On behalf of the Russian Church Abroad, the congregation was congratulated by Archpriest Viktor Potapov and Monk Vsevolod (Filipyev). The Primate of the Russian Old Believer Church, Metropolitan Kornily, sent a welcome address to the community, which, in particular, said: “I highly appreciate your spiritual contribution to the re-creation of Divine services according to the ancient rite, in accordance with the Charter and canons of the Holy Church. I very much hope that the island of ancient piety, which you so selflessly and reverently create in your community, will serve as a role model for other parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The meal ended with a big concert, during which the parishioners of the temple performed: People's Artist of Russia Litvinenko A.P. and People's Artist of Georgia, Chairman of the Russian-Georgian Friendship Society "Dzalisa" Jandieri T.I. The author of the march "We are Russians! God is with us!" A. Poznakharev and the ensemble "Cossack Circle".

During the celebratory meal, statements were unanimously adopted against the draft law aimed at legislatively fixing the presence of NATO troops on Russian territory and against the perverts' intention to hold their "parade".

After the thanksgiving service, there was a warm congratulation from the rector of the Trinity Church on Shabolovka, Archpriest Georgy Vakhromeev. The congratulations continued in the cultural center of the Krasny Oktyabr factory.

Among the congratulators: Archimandrite John (Ekonomtsev), chairman for religious education and catechesis, writer A. N. Artsibashev, O. A. Platonov, publisher of the Russian Civilization encyclopedia, A. A. Senin, editors of Russky Vestnik and Derzhavnoy Rus N. Pechersky; churches of the Moscow region about. Leonty Pimenov, President of the Congress of Nationalities of Russia Khomeriki V.K., Head of the Commission for the Comprehensive Study of the Russian Nation Professor V.N. Troitsky, General Georgadze P.I., Chairman of the RONS Artemov I.V., Chairman of the Eurasian Movement Dugin A.G., editor-in-chief of the magazine "Young Guard" poet V. N. Khatyushin, poetess N. V. Kartasheva, honorary trustees of the church of st. Nicholas on Bersenevka, members of the Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods and other Orthodox patriotic organizations, leaders of neighboring organizations.

Ataman of the Union of Cossacks of places of non-traditional residence Kononov I. A. presented the order sign "For Love and Loyalty to the Fatherland" of the 3rd degree and read out the order on conferring the title of Yesaul.

The International Union of Lawyers awarded the Badge of Honor, and the Seraphim of Sarov Encyclopedia Charitable Foundation awarded the Reverend Seraphim Medal.

The Order "For Service and Valor" (gold cross) was presented by the President of the "Public Award" Foundation, Academician O. N. Popenkov.

According to the traditions that have developed on Bersenevka, problems of the public plan were also considered at the festive event. Much was said about the troubles of the Russian village, about the inadmissibility of marking shrines with bar codes.

On the opposite bank of the Moscow River from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior- temple of another building. It was erected for centuries, and in atheistic times, someone's prayer saved from destruction. Even now he seems to be hiding in the shadows, as if he had not come to his senses from hard times. (In the lower photo, the temple is depicted against the backdrop of the famous "House on the Embankment", built in Stalin's time for the top leaders of the USSR - ed.)

(And this landscape sketch "The chambers of the Duma clerk Averky Kirillov and the Church of St. Nicholas on Bersenevka. 1656." 1956. Museum of the History and Reconstruction of Moscow - ed.)

We talked with Abbot Kirill after a common meal. A large man by nature, the rector of the temple seemed to me at times almost weightless: some kind of airy, perhaps spiritual substance seemed to replace the flesh at times.

The living room was quiet and majestic, like a museum. Patriarch Kirill, like a shepherd, seems to be about to leave his portrait on the wall. Another wall is occupied by photographs of the leaders of the White movement and photographs of the family of the last king. In a small frame on the table is an expressive portrait of the guardsman Skuratov: even after almost five centuries you will not look at him without fear.

- Father Kirill, please tell us about yourself, about your family roots.

- I am a native of Donbass, Luhansk region, I was born in a small mining town of Artemovsk, in 1957. Father, Sergei Yakovlevich, from a peasant family, finished only four classes and, after serving in the army, came to the Luhansk region to work. He worked in a mine. Mom, Evdokia Ivanovna, worked in the dining room.

- Were they believers?

- My father had a fear of some higher powers, but he was not a church person, of course, and did not go to church.

My mother baptized me at night, there were Easter and Easter cakes in the house, but she left the church for later, when she retired. Well, indeed, then she diligently attended the temple.

- What brought you to church?

- At school I loved history. In the history books there were many photographs with views of temples, and they fascinated me, resonated in my soul, sounded like heavenly music to me.

The church seemed to me mysterious, a window to another world, it attracted me, and as a teenager I was drawn to the temple.

The temple was located in a neighboring town, now it is called Alchevsk, and the otherworldliness of the temple sunk into my soul. I traveled by bus, tried not to catch anyone's eye, and for a long time it was my secret. But one day, which, of course, was inevitable, the secret was revealed anyway.

The father was alarmed. He went to the director of the school and he said that he also drew attention to me. The next day, when we were reviewing our written works in social studies, and it was my turn to present them, the director raised his voice in surprise: “Can you imagine, there is a student in our class who writes the word God with a capital letter?!” - And they all laughed. The director was supposed to respond according to his position and called me for a conversation. It was already in tenth grade.

- Did your peers bully you at school or tease you?

- No, it didn't. Father only good-naturedly, but not without irritation, called me "deacon."

- What happened after school?

- After school, he entered the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute named after Lenin, the Faculty of History.

The lack of spirituality oppressed the institute, there was already a time of late Brezhnevism, decay was already underway and there was no ideological fortress. During his studies, he actively visited Moscow churches.

After the institute, by distribution, he ended up in the Belgorod region, in a rural school. I literally worked for two weeks, it became known that I was visiting the temple. There was a rumor. I was called to the district education department and offered to resign of my own free will. I paid off, tore up my Komsomol ticket and went home. He lived at home for about a month and then went to the Pochaev Lavra. At first they hired me as a laborer, but soon they gave me a cassock, and I became a novice.

I spent less than a year in the Lavra. A commission from Kyiv arrived, they began to wool the young, and the dean advised me not to go for an interview. I packed my things, went to the bus station, on the way decided to enter the seminary, returned back to the Lavra, asked for blessings, and the confessor blessed me.

- What was required to enter the seminary?

- It was necessary to pass an interview and know the basic prayers. After the seminary in Zagorsk, as Sergiev Posad was then called, I found myself among the inhabitants of the Danilov Monastery. This is the first monastery, which was opened during perestroika, and the oldest monastery in Moscow. Prince Daniel, son of Alexander Nevsky, founded this monastery in the 13th century.

- Are you a monk?

- Yes, I took the tonsure in 1984 and combined my stay in the monastery with my studies at the Theological Academy.

- You have been living under a strict vow for 33 years. Has monasticism ever been a burden?

- My father was against the fact that I went to monasticism, but my mother did not say anything. Well, then, of course, they reconciled.

The point is that monasticism- it's a calling. “You didn’t choose me, but I chose you,” the Lord said. There is something hidden in monasticism, but, of course, if God does not give strength, if God does not lead and protect, then monasticism will look very pitiful.

- Monks, as you know, do not celebrate birthdays, but anyway, please tell me who you are according to the horoscope and do you believe in the connection of a person’s fate with the place and time of his birth?

- In general, and for ordinary Christians, the day of the angel is a priority over the birthday. We honor members of the community on this day. At the monks- this is the day of the saint whose name they received at the tonsure.

We shy away from horoscopes because it is contrary to the principles of the Christian faith. For Christians, it is clear that nothing happens by chance in life, but the will of God is decisive, and not the location of the stars.

- How long have you been a pastor?

- I've been here since 1991. Church of St. Nicholas on Bersenevka- this is ancient temple Zamoskvorechye. This place was originally a monastery. The current building of the temple was built in 1657 and it was the house temple of Malyuta Skuratov.

- That's it! And I'm scratching my head why his portrait is on the table.

- Portrait- it's a tribute to history. I won’t say for sure who the author of the portrait is, but the estate where we are located was the estate of Malyuta Skuratov, and, as you know, he himself died during the Livonian War, on the battlefield under the walls of one of the fortresses in the Baltic states.

- The rector of the temple, hegumen Kirill... How is this to be understood? Explain, perhaps, for people far from church life.

- Temple rector- this is an administrative position, and hegumen- spiritual title. It roughly corresponds to the rank of major in the army. Hieromonk- lieutenant, hegumen- major, archimandrite- Colonel, and the hierarchal ranks go further- these are general ranks, and, therefore, the Patriarch, by this analogy- marshal.

- Were your parents in the temple?

- Yes. They have come here many times. My father used to say that it is easier to throw over a car of coal than to survive one service in our church. The most difficult- it is to pray to God and take care of elderly parents. My father worked hard and actively here, he planted a garden with his own hands. Mother lived for several weeks. She came to the service earlier than everyone else and left later than others. She died a year before her father. Both are buried in Artemovsk.

- Do you have a spiritual father?

- Of course. This is one of the inhabitants of the Danilov Monastery. And so, ideally, it should be for every Christian, and at all levels: a layman, a priest, a bishop, and a Patriarch should have a confessor. The Holy Fathers compare a confessor to a ship's captain and teach that with an experienced captain, a ship will bypass the reefs and reach the shore.

- Your temple is a parish of the Russian Orthodox Church, but you conduct services according to the old rite.

- As for us and in general for everyone who wants to practice the old rites, there are all canonical grounds for this. The Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1971 recognized the old and new rites as equally honorable and equally salvific. There are those in the bosom of the Church who aspire to a more rigorous model of service, to the roots, and we need to provide these people with a niche in our Church so that they do not go anywhere. So reasoned the late Patriarch Alexy II.

For 25 years now, services have been held in our church according to the old rite. This was the wish of our parishioners. Donikon's liturgical order- it is the living voice of the Middle Ages. Russia has lost catholicity in church singing; in parish churches and monasteries they are accustomed to partesque, almost operatic singing, they sing in "parties", as in the world. And in the Znamenny chant we hear a choir that does not sing, but prays: earnestly and sternly.

As regards the sign of the fingers, the two-fingered sign of the cross expresses the same truth as the three-fingered, only in a different combination of fingers. But the two-fingered is more ancient and deeper in content.

In our church, basically, everyone is baptized with two fingers, but when they come, we don’t force newcomers to immediately switch to old rite. In the presence of internal dogmatic unity, some diversity in the external ritual form is quite acceptable, such is the official position.

- What a pity that such a reasonable and simple solution did not come in the 17th century, when the church split occurred.

- In a number of cases, the Church, represented by hierarchs, is involved in the bloody persecutions of the Old Believers that took place, and the first thing that comes to mind- it is the need to repent for the insults that were inflicted on the Old Believers in the past.

The Russian Church Abroad has set an example of this. The oaths that were imposed on the old rite in the 17th century have been removed, and the next step should be repentance. This is my position. And my main task is how I see and feel it,- it is to influence the ROC in terms of its return to the old rite, to the original charters and traditions.

- Is it possible that after repentance there will be a unification of the Churches?

- As a human being, I think it's impossible and unlikely that it will happen. Repentance will not lead to unity, but it will serve as a relaxation in our relations. And when I communicate with the Old Believers, I try to ask for their forgiveness.

- Are there many churches in the Russian Orthodox Church today where services are held according to the old rite?

- Now there are three such churches in Moscow and about thirty parishes around the country.

- Are you a member of the Writers' Union of Russia?

- I was accepted four years ago. I have published five books, these are memoirs, and now the sixth volume is on its way.

- Which of the writers do you single out among others?

- Of spiritual writers, I am impressed by Archimandrite Raphael (Karelin), he lives in Georgia, he has a very figurative language. And from secular- they are Valentin Rasputin and Vladimir Krupin.

- You are accustomed to the address: father, father Kirill. Does anyone call you by your first name, by your first name-fatherland?

- Alexander Sergeevich- this is my civil name, it, of course, appears very rarely. For example, when I go to the hospital for treatment, they usually address me there by my first name and patronymic, but this rarely happens, and I have lost the habit of this name. True, the deceased father told me this: “As I called you Sasha, I will call you that, even if you kill me.”

- How do you feel about people who do not believe in God?

- Well, first of all, with bewilderment. It seems to me that the logic of reasoning should lead directly to the recognition of the Creator. And the second- it is a pity, a pity that they are deprived of this knowledge.

The knowledge of God presupposes the presence of purity of heart. God reveals himself to people who live in simplicity, in purity, in spiritual experience, and thinking about God over a cup of coffee and with a cigarette in hand- this is a false path.

A believer has much more incentive to do good deeds. The memory of posthumous retribution, according to John Chrysostom, is like a bridle that keeps a person from sin.

We are created by God in His image and likeness, we are called to glorify the Creator, thank Him, turn to Him with requests, and if we do not do this, then we show ingratitude.

- Thanks for the conversation…

I almost burst out: Alexander Sergeevich, but bit his tongue in time.

Thank you for the conversation, Father Kirill.

- Save me, God.

Vladimir Smirnov, member of the Writers' Union of Russia.