Filaret Archbishop of Chernigov and Nizhyn (Obituary)

The news of the death of the late Right Reverend was received in Kharkov by telegraph at 10 o'clock in the morning on August 9th. The next day, the funeral liturgy and requiem service were served in the cathedral, in the bishop's monastery and in all the parish churches, and the Magpies are being served in all churches and will continue to be served throughout the year; His Eminence Archbishop Macarius, having returned from a trip to survey the diocese, the next day served the funeral liturgy and requiem mass with honorary clergy. Editorial On August 9, at three o'clock in the morning, His Eminence Philaret, Archbishop of Chernigov and Nizhyn, Doctor of Orthodox Theology, honorary member of the Kyiv, St. Petersburg and Moscow Theological Academies, Kharkov and Moscow Universities and the Russian archaeological society, full member of the Imperial Society of History and Russian Antiquities, author of many very important scientific works in all parts of theological and historical sciences, vice-president of the Kharkov and Chernigov prison committees, member of the Chernigov provincial statistical committee and chairman of the Chernigov provincial presence for improving the life of the clergy and the Chernigov provincial school council. The deceased archpastor in God, the Right Reverend Archbishop Filaret, in the world Dmitry Grigorievich Gumilyovsky, was the son of a priest; born near the town of Shatsk in the village. Konobeev, Tambov province, October 1805, 12 days 1. At an early age, the guardian father of the late Right Reverend sent his son to the Tambov Theological Seminary in 1820, where, with his fortunate abilities and zealous diligence, he was constantly among the best students. Having completed the course of seminary studies, His Eminence Filaret entered the Moscow Theological Academy for further education in 1826. Here the pious feeling that was always inherent in him especially revived, and on January 19, 1830 he was tonsured a monk, on February 3 he was ordained a hierodeacon, and on June 29 a hieromonk. In this rank, His Eminence Filaret graduated from a course of science at the Moscow Academy in 1830 as a second master of the 7th year 2. His Eminence Philaret’s favorite subject throughout his life was historical sciences: the late archpastor’s attention was focused on them at the academy, too, and in these sciences he achieved such mature success that immediately after completing the course, he was awarded a bachelor’s degree in church history. Soon the range of the young bachelor’s activities expanded, and a vast field opened up for his curiosity in the academic library, which was entrusted to his management on June 6, 1831. Here he devoted himself entirely to the study of the works of the holy fathers, the fruit of which was his major work: “The Teaching of the Church Fathers,” which later earned him the high academic degree of Doctor of Orthodox Theology, and served as the head of the establishment of a separate branch of theological sciences in seminaries - patrolology. His Eminence Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, for whom the deceased had deep filial reverence, appreciating the merits and works of the deceased, appointed him in the same year, 1831, on October 19, as one of the cathedral hieromonks of the Moscow stauropegial Don Monastery, and the academic authorities assigned him to the department of theological sciences with the same rank of bachelor, and then 1832 26 Feb. He was elected a full member of his conference, on August 9 he was awarded a gaiter, and a year after that, on May 1, 1833, he was made an inspector and second member of the Moscow committee for censorship of spiritual books, September 18. But he saw more than one modest role as a mentor in the future, and his activities were not limited to the walls of the academy alone. Preparing his chosen one for the highest archpastoral service, according to the degrees of diocesan service, the Moscow High Hierarch appointed him in 1834 as the first member of the Radonezh spiritual board and the construction commission temporarily established at the academy, and the commission of theological schools that was under the Holy Synod entrusted him with the task of inspecting the seminaries: Yaroslavl, Kostroma and Vologda. The clear and successful execution of this assignment earned him the rank of archimandrite, to which he was elevated on January 27, 1835, and the positions of rector and professor of theological sciences at the same academy, which were assigned to him at the end of the same year. With the rank of rector of the academy, he oversaw the seminaries: in 1836, Bethany, in 1837, Vladimir, in 1840, Penza and Tambov, and in 1841, Simbirsk. Thus ascending from strength to strength and from glory to glory, the deceased archpastor, as a reward for his labors on the assignments entrusted to him, was awarded, according to the definitions of the Holy Synod: in 1836, the right of primacy in services before all the abbots of second-class monasteries that are part of the Moscow educational district; In 1837, he was appointed rector of the Moscow second-class Epiphany Monastery and a member of the construction committee at the Moscow Theological Academy, and on April 29, 1839, he was most mercifully assigned to the Order of St. Anna 2nd Art. His associates in managing the academy were Archimandrite Polikarp Gaitannikov, from whom he accepted the rectorship, and Hieromonk Eusebius, now Archbishop of Mogilev, to whom he handed over the inspector post. It was a happy time for the academy, which is still remembered today. We were obvious witnesses how, on the day of the burial of His Eminence Archbishop Philaret (August 19), one of the students of the Moscow Theological Academy, who completed the course during the rectorship of the deceased, the current Eminence Agafangel of Volyn, watered the coffin of the deceased with tears of gratitude and honored his memory with a funeral prayer. According to the inscrutable fate of Providence, he passed to this day through Chernigov, following from Vyatka to Zhitomir, to his new flock. We know the following from documents about the flourishing state of the academy at that time: in 1840, the wise and caring high priest of the capital of the capital was pleased to take upon himself the trouble of inspecting the Moscow Theological Academy. Having found order and order in all parts of its administration, His Eminence the Metropolitan spoke with particular praise of the rector of the academy, Archimandrite Philaret, and in the same year, Aug. 21 days, awarded the blessing of St. Governing Synod. At that time in the present diocese of Riga, on the occasion of the accession of the local infidels to Orthodoxy, an unfortunate matter arose that caused grave sorrows to the then vicar of the Pskov archbishop, the Riga bishop Irinarch and some of his associates. His Eminence Bishop Irinarh was suddenly recalled from Riga, and in his place, by the Supreme Decree given to the Holy Synod on October 7, 1841, the late Eminence Archbishop Philaret was appointed vicar of the Pskov diocese with the rank of Bishop of Riga. His consecration as a bishop took place on December 21 of the same year in St. Petersburg, in the Kazan Cathedral. Upon the arrival of the Right Reverend Philaret in Riga, the joining of Latvians and Estonians to Orthodoxy, which had begun under the former Right Reverend, resumed and continued with such success and so quickly that in 2–3 years those who had joined could already be counted in the tens of thousands. In 1845, on the matter of the annexation of the Estonians and Latvians, the highest approved instruction was issued, according to which the Riga bishop for vicariate affairs was granted to refer directly to the Holy Synod - and now the zeal of the late Right Reverend Philaret for the spread of Orthodoxy received even more freedom. Soon after this, this vicariate was organized into a separate independent diocese, and a successor to His Eminence Philaret was being prepared in the person of the Bishop of Kovno, the current Archbishop of Riga Platon, consecrated in 1844 in Vilna. At its dedication, the Holy Governing Synod ordered the late Eminence Philaret to participate. For four more years, the late Right Reverend Archbishop Philaret labored at the see of the Riga diocese in preaching the faith among Gentiles, and during this time, for his constant diligent service to the church, carried out with edifying piety, he was most mercifully numbered on April 5, 1846, in the Order of St. Anna 1st degree. At the same time, he began to publish his literary works, the merits of which were rightly appreciated by the Imperial Society of Russian History and Antiquities, recognizing the Right Reverend Philaret as a full member, on January 25. 1847 In the year following that 1848, the city of Kharkov was destined to lose two of its archpastors at once: on March 1, the famous Russian church leader, His Eminence Archbishop Innokenty; On November 3 and 6, His Eminence Bishop Elpidiphoros: both of them were transferred to other sees, and in the place of the latter on the same day, November 6, the All-Merciful Order of the Supreme Supreme Decree the late Right Reverend Philaret to be Bishop of Kharkov and Akhtyrka. The deceased had to learn a lot here from the life school of lessons of patience and deep submission to the providence of God, who arranges everything for good and knows his righteousness and destiny like noon: and the Supreme Authority did not leave behind to reinforce and encourage with its merciful attention his zealous service and vigilant care for the good and structure of the flock entrusted to him, counting him on April 14 1854 to the Order of St. Equal to the Apostles Prince Vladimir, 2nd degree of the Grand Cross, with the award of April 7, 1856 to the rank of archbishop. In Kharkov, the late Right Reverend Philaret began to think about the transience of life and the nearness of his death, and he conveyed his sincere thoughts about this to us, his spiritual children, in his spiritual testament, written by him on December 20, 1853. May the memory of the deceased and the attention of those reading these lines not be offended if the writer decides to voice the cherished thoughts of the deceased, very edifying for everyone in general and extremely touching, in which, first of all, a reverent sense of humility before the greatness and truth of the Heavenly Father and a complete consciousness of one’s insignificance and dependence on the Highest Power are expressed. Here are the most remarkable passages from this memorable testament. By Your goodness, Lord, You revealed to man everything necessary for his salvation. According to Your wisdom, You hide from him the day and hour of his death, so that every day and hour we prepare to answer for our deeds. Grateful for Thy goodness and reverent before Thy wisdom, in the event of my death, in full sense and memory I write a will with my hand: 1. Before You, Lord, I am an unpaid debtor. The blessings and mercies poured out by You on me, unworthy, are boundless; and I paid and am paying for your love with the wickedness of my heart. Lamb of God, take away the sins of the world! Cover my debts before the righteousness of Your Father. Intercessor of Christians, good Mother of the Son of God! Do not leave me unworthy, protect me, a sinner, with Your prayer to Your Son and Your God. 2. I ask and pray to everyone who has ever, intentionally or unintentionally, offended or led to sin, forgive me out of Christian love and pray for me, unworthy. If anyone remains in debt to me, no matter what, I pray to the Lord not only not to remember his debt, but also to reward him with bounties of grace. I ask everyone for the love of Christ to remember me in their prayers. 3. My books, which have a catalog written by my hand, should be given to the library of the seminary of the diocese where death will overtake me. If there are no books against the catalogue: no one will be charged for the lack of them, all manuscripts will also go there, including files relating to the Livonian church. For this offering, I ask that a memorial be performed for me on the Saturday before Cheese Week. Next follow three more points of the will, in particular relating: two to the closest relatives of the deceased and one, the last, to the Kharkov school for girls of clergy 4, to which the deceased also granted the right to publish his works and translations for his benefit within the period specified by law. To the Kharkov seminary, he personally donated from his property four paintings depicting the Savior on the throne of glory, the erection of the Holy Cross and the Evangelists Mark and Luke. For this donation, gratitude was expressed to St. Synod by decree of July 15, 1855 But among the deceased’s thoughts about death and orders for church affairs, he was greatly concerned about the then military circumstances. With special cordiality, he received the troops and squads of the Tula militia passing through Kharkov, upon whose entry into Kharkov the deceased blessed squads Nos. 85 and 86 with images, and in 1856 he distributed 150 rubles to the lower wounded ranks at the blessing. At the same time, he proposed to establish a society in Kharkov to care for the wounded and sick in the Kharkov military temporary hospital, and worked hard for the benefit of prisoners in prisons with the rank of vice-president of the Kharkov prison committee. Expressions of the highest gratitude and blessings of the Holy Synod, of which there are many in the deceased’s record, serve as convincing proof of his generous Christian charity. Finally, in the last year of his administration of the Kharkov diocese, the late Archpastor Philaret, by the Highest command on May 19, 1858, was summoned to St. Petersburg to be present at the Holy Synod, for a period of one year, after which, following the dismissal of the late Right Reverend. Chernigov Archbishop Paul from the administration of the diocese, by the Nominal Highest Decree of May 2, 1859, the deceased was ordered to be Archbishop of Chernigov and Nizhyn. Upon the arrival of the late bishop in Chernigov, his main concern was concern for public education and the spread of literacy in the diocese. For this purpose, with the same success and as quickly as in the Riga diocese the unification of non-believers to Orthodoxy took place, he opened up to 800 church schools in the parishes of the Chernigov diocese in the first two years of his administration. The other merits of the late Right Reverend and his labors for the Chernigov flock were much and eloquently expressed in the presence of the archpastor himself in a printed speech spoken by the mentor of the Chernigov Theological Seminary, priest Grigory Dyakonov, at the opening of a school for girls of the clergy in Chernigov 5. Without repeating here in print what is already known, but reverently honoring the memory of the deceased, we can only wish that the execution of the project on the emeritus fund of the diocesan clergy, which had already begun at the will of the late Right Reverend, be postponed until such time as approval by the highest government follows, and the monetary contributions of the clergy will not have a legal guarantee and control under the responsibility of persons elected according to the project by the clergy themselves, and to what was said in the speech of Fr. Dyakonov should add what seemed striking especially in the character of the actions and writings of the late Right Reverend, namely: in the writings - unshakable steadfastness in his convictions, developed by mature reasoning, and fearless publicization of his views, sometimes reaching almost to the point of self-sacrifice; in his actions - extraordinary willpower, according to which in achieving his intentions and desires there were no insurmountable difficulties and obstacles for him, as evidenced by his acquisition of the highly fortified forest Stone Dacha behind the Chernigov bishop's house, 962 dessiatines, and the house of the Chernigov noble assembly for the school for girls of the clergy, and for the Chernigov bishop's houses, for which the Holy Synod expressed gratitude to him in decrees on March 23, 1863, May 15, 1864 and June 26, 1865. The last reward for the deceased archpastor was his inclusion in the Order of St. Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky, for his long-term excellent and zealous service, pastoral experience, the desire to improve the teaching department at the local seminary and scientific works that constitute the decoration of spiritual Russian literature, as stated in the Highest Charter on March 27, 1866. The deceased also showed a lot of kindness to the poor, strange people and people especially close to him. But the Lord did not destined him to enjoy the fruits of his labors in Chernigov for a long time, and frequent thoughts about his last hour began to prevail over all the consolations of this world, as if in fulfillment of the Divine words of eternal truth: one sows, and another reaps. He began to express his thoughts about death more often in his resolutions to the bishop’s household administration. So, in August 1865, the late bishop, from his own money, which he used to establish the Ilya printing house for the purchase of a speed printing machine and fonts, and not paid to him, in the amount of 4520 rubles 98 ½ k., donated 2820 rubles to the Ilya monastery, so that he and his parents would be remembered; - another time, in the present year 1866, he forgave and donated to the bishop’s house the significant debt he owed to his Eminence and bequeathed 2,600 rubles for his memorial. ser. We also remember his words spoken on December 1, 1865, to the Chernigov clergy and seminary mentors, when we greeted him for the last time on the day of his Angel: “God grant that we always remain in love, and in love pass into eternity.” No less memorable is his last farewell to the members of the consistory. On the eve of his departure to the diocese, on August 4, the late archpastor told the secretary of the consistory to announce to the members that they who wish to receive the archpastoral blessing should come to him at 6 o’clock in the afternoon. At the appointed time, those who wished to appear, but they did not find the bishop: he left, as if anticipating his imminent death, to take a last look at the Yelets monastery, visiting the printing house, examined the bishop's house being repaired after the fire, and from there went to the cathedral to receive a parting blessing from St. Theodosius of Uglitz at his incorruptible relics. An hour later he returned, spoke complacently with the members about diocesan affairs, blessed everyone and sent them away in peace; - this was our last kiss from his blessing right hand. The next day, August 5, exactly at 6 o’clock in the morning, the deceased set off on the road to the town of Borzna. On the day of the Transfiguration of the Lord, he served in one of the churches in the city. Borzny Divine Liturgy; On the 7th, he consecrated a newly built stone church in the village of Fastovtsi, Borzen district. Eyewitnesses who were there say that he cried his eyes out for almost the entire liturgy of the faithful here. In a private conversation with the owner, the priest spoke a lot of edifying things about the need, importance and benefits of prayer for the dead, and commanded that the former wooden church be moved to the cemetery; On the 10th, he planned to consecrate another church in the town of Dubovichi, Glukhovsky district. On the way to Konotop on the 8th, the deceased felt the first cholera attacks; but continued on his way without stopping. At 7 o'clock in the afternoon, with a visible loss of strength, he arrived in Konotop and looked around two churches; in the apartment of the local dean, Archpriest Stefan Ivashutich, he went to bed and there, after unsuccessful medical treatments, having received spiritual healing in the sacraments of repentance and consecration of oil, on the 9th at 3 o’clock in the morning, in the struggle of Christian patience with painful suffering, he died following the seventh gospel of consecration of anointing. At 11 o'clock in the evening the news of the death of the Right Reverend reached Chernigov. After taking the necessary legal measures to protect the property of the deceased - cell, sacristy and monastery, members of the consistory reported by telegraph to the Holy Synod about the sad event of the death of the Right Reverend. On the 10th, news was received from St. Petersburg about the appointment of His Eminence Porfiry, Bishop of Chigirin, to Chernigov for the burial of the deceased archpastor. The funeral of the body of the deceased was carried out according to a program drawn up by the Chernigov governor, in agreement with the spiritual authorities, printed in a significant number of copies in the printing houses of the provincial government and the Ilyinsky monastery. For the funeral service, His Grace Bishop Porfiry of Chigirin arrived in Chernigov from Kyiv on August 13. The burial place of the deceased is prepared under the Trinity Cathedral Church of the bishop's house in the tomb of the Chernigov archpastors Irakli and Victor, after whom, 63 years later, the deceased Archbishop Philaret the first was laid here on August 19. Peace be upon your ashes, wise and vigorous worker of the grapes of Christ! You left us! But without parting from you with the spirit of Faith, we bless with grateful hearts, with this last kiss, your memory that is always inherent in us. With tears of heartfelt love, commanded to us by you according to the teachings of Christ, with our most sincere well-wishers, with the very life-giving blood of our Savior, we beg the ineffable goodness and mercy of the Heavenly Father, to forgive the deceased all his sins that he committed in life as a man, and may he plunge them into the abyss of his goodness and consume them at the table of the Lamb of God, slain from the creation of the world, let them not rise in memory of it. Let us forgive him from our hearts if anyone has reproach against him: just as Christ also forgave us to eat (Colossians 3:13), and in our prayers we will create an eternal memory for him. Here is a list of the deceased’s scholarly works: 1) Dogmatic Theology, 2 volumes. 2) History of the Russian Church, 5 parts 3) Words and Conversations, 4 parts 4) Spiritual meadow, blessed. John Moschus. 5) Conversations about the suffering of the Savior, 2 parts. 6) Description of the Kharkov diocese, in 5 sections. 7) Review of Russian spiritual literature, 2 parts. 8) Historical and statistical description of Chernigov. 9) Explanation of the message of St. Paul to the Galatians. 10) Historical teaching about the fathers of the church (an extensive course in patrolology), 3 volumes. 11) The doctrine of the Church Fathers in abbreviation (textbook). 12) Historical overview of the hymns and hymns of the Greek church. 13) Russian saints, for the whole year. 14) Saints of the South Slavs, 2 hours, for the whole year. 15) Holy Ascetics of the Eastern Church - a work of which the deceased managed to publish only two sheets, sent out with the Chernigov diocesan news - a publication also founded by Rev. Filaret, who constantly filled it with his articles and notes. (Prot. Andrey Stradomsky). Selected reprints from the Spiritual Messenger of 1866. From a cell conversation with the Eminence, heard and recorded by me on August 19, 1865. The village of Konobeevo gained gloomy fame in the history of the Russian church due to the painful death in it of the enlightener of the Tambov and Shatsk Mordovians and Kasimov Tatars, His Eminence Misail, Archbishop of Ryazan (†1655) In this course (1830), the first master to graduate was Alexander Nechaev, later the archpriest of the parish church in Moscow on Ovrazhka. His Grace Innocent died while ruling the Kherson diocese. This school was founded and opened by the late Rev. in 1854. See Spiritual. News. Vol. 14 pp. 453–473 (July 1866). Chernigovsk. diocesan News of 1866 No. 4, part OFFIT. pp. 58–63.