Детство и юность

Having lost his mother in childhood, Vladimir Troitsky experienced this loss for a long time and acutely: "You, my dear, know,” Archimandrite Hilarion wrote in 1916 in “Letters on the West,” “that I lost my mother almost twenty years ago. At that time I felt my orphanhood, so to speak, practically, in an everyday sense, and now sometimes I painfully feel my orphanhood mystically" 57 . Perhaps this is why, since childhood, the Bishop has had a particularly warm feeling for the Mother of God: “The Most Holy Theotokos is our common Mother” 58 - and, to an even greater extent, for the Church of Christ, in relation to which he liked to quote the words of the Hieromartyr Cyprian of Carthage: “He can no longer have God as a father who does not have the Church as a mother” 59 One must think that this higher motherhood has fully compensated, if not. everyday, then “mystical” orphanhood of Archbishop Hilarion. Having mastered reading and writing early, Vladimir, at the age of five, already takes part in church services, reads the hours and the Six Psalms. If Vladimir Troitsky’s senior contemporary, writer A.P. Chekhov, recalled that he and his brothers sang in the choir as children, but “at that time they felt like little convicts” 60, then the future martyr from childhood treated divine services with love, which he carried throughout his life: “Once he told me,” a former student of the Moscow Theological Academy (MDA) recalled about Archimandrite Hilarion. Sergei Volkov, “that church services, performed according to the rules, with love and care, are more beautiful than the best opera with its “absurd roulades and often mediocre meaning”... This beauty of church services, which attracted me to the academy, was strongly and deeply felt by Hilarion” 61. At the same age of five, Volodya, in the company of his younger brother, made an attempt to go to Moscow to “study,” but soon the strength of the young Dimitri dried up. “Well, remain unlearned,” was Vladimir’s stern answer to the complaints of his tear-stained brother, tired from the long journey 62 . In response to his father's reproaches, the eldest of the fugitives cites the example of Lomonosov, who went to Moscow on foot from Arkhangelsk for the sake of studying. N. Krivosheeva, in her biography of Bishop Hilarion, notes with sad irony: “Thirty years later he will go to ‘continue his education’ from Moscow to Arkhangelsk” 63. In the clergy registers for the city of Kashira and the district for 1900 (Vladimir Troitsky was 14 years old at that time) you can find notes about the contents of the library of the Lipitsa church: “The church has a library that contains books with anti-schism content, namely: the magazine “Brotherly Word” from 1886 to 1890, as well as for 1894, 1895, 1897 and 1898; magazine “Missionary Review” for 1896; works of Archimandrite Paul in 2 volumes; “Extracts from early printed books” by Ozersky in 2 parts; “On the making of the sign of the cross” by the Most Reverend Nikander; “True Ancient and the True Orthodox Church" by Metropolitan Gregory; two books about the priestless confession of Professor Ivanovsky; missionary articles "Truth" and "Uvetnik" - Panova" 64. It is natural to assume that the future theologian, with his love for enlightenment, did not miss the opportunity to familiarize himself with the listed works, which subsequently helped him in polemics with sectarian and heretical ideas. Thus, Vladimir’s main life interests were determined already from the first years of his life. They can be briefly defined in two words – Church and science. However, the second interest, that is, science, was for him a derivative of the first, since science makes sense only when it, one way or another, serves the Church: “science must be ancilla Ecclesiae” 65. And if Archbishop Hilarion always remembered science as “his first and only love,” 66 then not only almost all of his theological works, but also his entire life were dedicated to the Church. At the age of 10, Vladimir entered the Tula Theological School, after which in 1900 he continued his education at the Tula Theological Seminary, where he studied with constant success. In 1906, Vladimir Troitsky entered the Moscow Theological Academy on public account. In addition, he was awarded a private scholarship named after Professor V.D. Kudryavtsev-Platonov. Hilarion, (Archbishop of Vereisky), schmch. Without the Church there is no salvation / entry. Art. mon. Sofia: Life of Sschmch. Hilarion (Troitsky). – M.; St. Petersburg: Sretensky Monastery, Sign, 2000. P. 550. Hilarion (Troitsky), archimandrite. There is no Christianity without the Church // He. There is no Christianity without the Church. – M.: Orthodox conversation, 1992. P. 31. Gitovich N.I. Chronicle of the life and work of A.P. Chekhov. – M.: State. publishing house Literary, 1955. P. 14. Volkov Sergey. Last at the Trinity: Memories of the Moscow Theological Academy. – M., St. Petersburg: Dmitry Bulanin, 1995. P. 116, 117. John (Snychev), Metropolitan. St. Petersburg and Ladoga. Hieromartyr Hilarion, Archbishop of Verei: Life and Testimonies. – M.: Sretensky Monastery Publishing House, 1999. P. 3. Krivosheeva Natalia. Blessed are the immaculate ones who walk on the path: Biography of Archbishop Hilarion (Troitsky) [beginning] //Moscow (magazine). 1998. No. 1. P. 211. Clearance records for the city of Kashira and the district. For 1900. – GAUTO, f. 3. op. 17. d. 623. l. 172. Church maid (lat.). See: Hilarion, (Archbishop of Vereisky), schmch. Without the Church there is no salvation. P. 373. Hilarion (Troitsky), Archbishop. Letter from L.P. Arkhangelskaya dated February 3. 1926 – Archive of A.V. Nikitsky.