Archpriest P.A. Smirnov. On the fiftieth anniversary of his church and public service

March 29th marks the 50th anniversary of the church and public service of the chairman of the Educational Committee at the Holy Synod and editor of the Church Gazette, Archpriest Pyotr Alekseevich Smirnov 1 . The hero of the day, the son of the cathedral priest of the city of Myshkin, Yaroslavl province, was born on March 11, 1831. He received his secondary theological education at a local theological seminary, and his higher education at the Moscow Theological Academy, from which he graduated in 1854 with a master's degree in theology. The Moscow Theological Academy of that time, when it was headed by such outstanding scientists and wonderful people as F.A. Golubinsky, P.S. Delitsyn, A.V. Gorsky, and her highest leader and inspirer was the wise Moscow Metropolitan Filaret, knew how to cultivate great talents, and, moreover, marked by a lack of vanity, restraint in speech and respect for the personality of others. The course of P. A. Smirnov was also not deprived of talent. Suffice it to say that his comrades at the academy were A.F. Lavrov, later Alexei, Archbishop of Lithuania, the famous canonist, Mikhail Luzin, who died in the rank of Bishop of Kursk, a famous learned theologian, author of an explanatory Gospel and other works on the study of the Holy Scriptures, and D. F. Golubinsky. Together with them, at the end of the course, Pyotr Alekseevich was left at his native academy as a teacher, with the rank of bachelor (currently associate professor) in the department of Jewish language and biblical archeology. But his teaching career at the academy was short-lived. The dry object that fell to his lot did not satisfy the needs of his living and sensitive soul, which required more free, creative activity. Therefore, after 4 years, in 1858, he left the academy and entered the priesthood at the church of the Moscow widow's house. A few years later he was transferred from here to the Church of St. Cosmas and Damian on Malorosseyka, and another 15 years later to the Church of Peter and Paul on Basmannaya. At the very first stages of his priestly ministry, Pyotr Alekseevich declared himself a zealous and skillful preacher. In the notes of S.M. Sukhotin, published in the Russian Archive, mark these first steps of the young preacher, which were sympathetically met and appreciated by his few parishioners at that time. “The priest of the (widow’s) house,” writes S.M. Sukhotin, “gave an excellent sermon on the text: “Open the doors of repentance for me,” where he pointed to the pharisaism that dwells hidden in us and consists of complacency, with observance, apparently, of all moral rules on the part of even good people and the so-called well-intentioned.” On March 19, 1861, people S.M. Sukhotin writes again: “today the priest in the widow’s house again spoke an excellent sermon on the same text against spiritual despair and the gloomy mood of the spirit” 2 . Pyotr Alekseevich delivered sermons, usually without a notebook, but after carefully preparing and writing the teaching. Over time, through constant exercise, he developed his preaching talent to a high degree of perfection. Deeply meaningful, consistent and elegant in style, his words and speeches, as well as the reverent, highly artistic performance of God's service, attracted numerous pilgrims and listeners to his parish church. One needs to see the voluminous bundles of sermons preserved in the papers of the hero of the day in order to appreciate the truly absurd work that he undertook as a preacher of God’s word. Some of the sermons, of course, are small in comparison with what he delivered at different times, and were published in two volumes. Simultaneously with the duties of a parish priest, Archpriest Pyotr Alekseevich served as a teacher of law at the 2nd Moscow Gymnasium and some other educational institutions in Moscow for 25 years (1860–1885). By the way, as a teacher of the law at the 2nd gymnasium, he had the honor of being the mentor of two hierarchs of the Russian Church - Sergius Lanin, who recently reposed in the rank of Archbishop of Yaroslavl, and Peter Drugov, now Bishop of Smolensk. To characterize the activities of Peter Alekseevich as a teacher of the law, the following assessment of his pedagogical techniques made by His Eminence Peter is not without interest. Expressing regret about the unsatisfactory arrangement of teaching the Law of God in high school, the bishop writes: “Thanks be to the Lord that the highly educated and deeply sympathetic personality of our teacher of the law, to our consolation, has so far saved us from the routine assimilation of the lofty truths of Christianity. Physically tired and often exhausted in the end, we rested in the lesson of the Law of God and breathed freely, and our good leader, understanding with his sensitivity the hardship of the school education we were experiencing, with the power of his wondrous word, which flowed like a river from him, encouraged and inspired us. But, after all, such a person is exceptional. I thank God that we were lucky to have such a mentor." 3 This is the student's assessment. And here is another, no less high and authoritative assessment on the part of the bishop appointed to be an observer of the teaching of the Law of God in educational institutions in Moscow - we mean Leonid, Bishop of Dmitrov 4. “I’m going from exam to exam,” the Bishop writes to his friend, His Eminence Savva, “some are excellent, especially where the young Archpriest P.A. teaches. Smirnov" 5. In the writings of the hero of the day, there is a letter he received from the Right Reverend Leonid along with the book: “Memorable tales of the asceticism of the holy and blessed fathers,” published in translation from Greek by the Right Reverend Eusebius, Archbishop of Mogilev. Here's an interesting letter: “The Most Honorable Father Priest, I ask you to accept the book we talked about, but having accepted it, forgive me for giving the book without binding. I want to give it to you today. On the Feast of the Spirit, it is especially appropriate for the spirit-bearing fathers of the desert to come to you, in whose example and life fire breathes and illuminates the light of the Spirit. May this light and fire from this book penetrate into your lessons, and may these lessons penetrate young hearts for the salvation of them, and yours, and many. The grace of the Holy Spirit will be with us all! – May 27–28, 1873 (midnight). Leonid, E.D.” – On the book sent there was an inscription from the saint that he was giving it in memory of “an excellent exam and a friendly conversation” 6. The fruit of Archpriest Pyotr Alekseevich’s teaching activities were textbooks on the subject of the Law of God and the history of the Church. A significant part of them has been translated into foreign languages ​​- Swedish, English, French; There are also translations into Slavic dialects and into Georgian. The troublesome and complex parish and teaching activities did not, however, completely absorb the attention of Pyotr Alekseevich and did not eliminate him from participation in other areas of church and social activity. He took an active part in the work of the Moscow Commission on the organization of public readings, was the leader of the teaching of the Law of God in courses for teachers of public schools and the leader of theological readings in the Moscow City Duma. As an experienced teacher, he was repeatedly summoned to St. Petersburg to participate in a commission formed under the Ministry of Public Education to discuss the best ways to organize the teaching of the Law of God in teachers' seminaries, as well as in meetings of the School Council at the Holy Synod on the issue of organizing the parochial school, which was then called to revive; Subsequently, while still remaining a Moscow priest, Pyotr Alekseevich was appointed a member of the School Council under the Holy Synod. With his transfer to St. Petersburg, in 1886 he had the opportunity to take an even more active and constant part in the activities of the School Council as its member, and from 1896, as an assistant to the chairman of the School Council. In these positions, Archpriest Pyotr Alekseevich worked hard to develop programs, explanatory notes for them, and, in general, to organize the parochial school, especially as far as it concerned strengthening the religious and moral direction of the school and the teaching of the Law of God in it. On the other hand, he was responsible for part of the popularization and clarification through publication of the tasks and significance of the parochial school, which in the early stages of its revival seemed to many in society and even in the clergy to be something artificial, forcibly imposed on the Russian people. Archpriest Peter Alekseevich passionately and convincingly fought against such prejudice, clarifying the historical basis of the parochial school, the moral, and not just external, obligation for the clergy to work on its organization and the reviving, life-giving significance of this work for the clergy themselves. His numerous articles on issues of public education and parish schools were subsequently collected by the author and published in a book entitled: “Public education and parochial schools.” In 1886, Archpriest Pyotr Alekseevich left Moscow, having been appointed rector of St. Petersburg St. Isaac's Cathedral, a position he held for almost 12 years until October 4, 1897. As a new person in the northern capital, at first he was met here not without some prejudice. But his sincerity, benevolence, calm, peace-loving and at the same time strong character soon dispelled this prejudice and earned him the respect and trust of his colleagues - close and distant - and parishioners. A monument to his service in the cathedral church of the capital is the St. Isaac's parish brotherhood established by him, of which he is still the chairman, thus maintaining his former spiritual ties with St. Isaac's parish. Placed on solid ground by its founder, the St. Isaac's Brotherhood now owns a capital of up to 50 thousand rubles, maintains a canteen for the poor, has a parochial school, etc. The establishment of several other charitable societies also belongs to his enlightened initiative. Thus, he is one of the founding members of the Yaroslavl Benevolent Society, the first compatriot union in the northern capital, which set the task of supporting and helping Yaroslavl residents who come to the capital to work or study and who have not had time to find a job or have been knocked out of the rut in life, a society of historical education in memory of Emperor Alexander III and some others. In many other charitable and educational societies, he was and is an active member and useful employee. With the establishment in 1888 at the Holy Synod of a special printed organ “Church Gazette”, Archpriest Pyotr Alekseevich was appointed its editor. Anyone who is familiar with the conditions of printing will easily understand what a responsible and complex job it is, what attention, what effort, what sensitivity of mind and heart it requires. Due to the special conditions of the new publication, as the body of the highest Russian church administration, these requirements, naturally, were aggravated. The task ahead was to put the new edition in accordance with the demands of real life and at the same time maintain such caution and importance in the word so as not to give rise to any ambiguous interpretations, complaints or false rumors. And thanks to the tact and attention to the matter on the part of Archpriest Pyotr Alekseevich, as an editor, this task, one might say, has been sufficiently achieved. During the editorship of Archpriest Pyotr Alekseevich, Tserkovnye Vedomosti published many articles on various issues of church life and thought. Most of these articles and other literary works were collected by him and made up 5 separate issues of his works. On October 4, 1897, he was appointed chairman of the educational committee at the Holy Synod, head of theological and educational institutions of Russia. In this position, Archpriest Pyotr Alekseevich is the third chairman of the committee since the founding of the committee, after Archpriests I.V. Vasiliev and A.I. Parvova. The time has not yet come to evaluate his performance in this responsible and important position. But it is impossible not to point out that this activity from the height of the throne, in the Highest Charter on the occasion of conferring on him the Order of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky, is called “zealous and excellently zealous.” For his work in the field of spiritual education and literature, Archpriest Peter Alekseevich was elected an honorary member of all 4 wind academies. Due to the alarming conditions of the time and state of health, the hero of the day avoided any honor. Prot. P. A. began his service on October 9, 1854. But there was a break in his career, between leaving the academy and entering the priesthood. March 29th is the day of his ordination to the priesthood. See N.P. Barsukov. “The life and works of Pogodin.” Vol. XVIII, pp. 80–81. Smolensk Eparch. Ved., 1904, No. 8. Died in the rank of Archbishop of Yaroslavl See the memoirs of the Most Reverend Leonid Savva, Bishop of Kharkov. Kharkov 1877, p. 269. Works by Rev. P. Smirnova. Vol. 2nd, p. 218.