Глава XI

Class origin puts its typical imprint on the spiritual nature of a person, imparting to it those class properties, as a result of which it retains its caste individuality, no matter what situation it is rearranged by the hand of Providence. Some, holistic individuals, retain such class differences in all situations in life, others lose them to a greater or lesser extent, being placed in other environments of society, they are smoothed out by the environment and therefore they get used to it more easily. In Archimandrite Ignatius the class type was clearly defined. His constant desire for independent activity according to his own convictions and thoughts, regardless of outside influence, clearly shows the nature of his actions, which in his native class, in general, was expressed in personal arbitrariness, which constituted a distinctive moral feature of the nobility, contemporary with the archimandrite in education and official activity. Such independence was a natural property of Archimandrite Ignatius, but at the same time it was subordinate to his religious activity and was completely guided by it. Respect for one’s own personality, this indelible feature of tribal origin, was also inherent in his moral nature; it did not at all have the character of egoism in him and was always consistent with monastic humility, excluding only low philanthropy and everything that degraded the dignity of a spiritual person. Due to such moral advantages of his class origin, improved by the patristic teaching, which introduced the practice of the Gospel commandments into his very life, Archimandrite Ignatius stood out from the environment to which he belonged by rank: his developed personality, tempered by self-sacrifice, could not help but manifest itself everywhere and always in its frank simplicity, in its nature that could not change or be adjusted. 110 Because of this class difference, most of the higher clergy, with few exceptions, were alienated from Archimandrite Ignatius. They explained his behavior conjecturally, from the most unseemly side: the spiritual perfections of man were explained by the passionate movements of fallen nature, his spiritual freedom, his frankness were considered pride, moreover, offensive insolence, his external environment, his restrained manner and elegant taste in everything, these visible expressions of class skill, were called vanity and luxury, the strict disciplinarity of orders, this is the legacy of the military school, a strange innovation. Metropolitan Anthony's dislike for Archimandrite Ignatius was no secret to everyone around him. Envy worked to kindle this mood of the St. Petersburg ruler. Forces were formed everywhere, everywhere they sought to darken and tarnish the good name of the archimandrite, which was greatly facilitated by the fact that in addition to the abbot, there were two more Ignatius in the desert at that time, of which the most noticeable was Ignatius, nicknamed “the great” in the monastery, 111 the governor of the desert, later the archimandrite and abbot of the Nikandrova Hermitage in the Pskov province. Possessing a strong tenor, with an unusually handsome appearance, he was very splendid in worship, and, as an intelligent, dexterous, and lively person by nature, he had the ability to gain the favor of people in general. In his new beginning, he bore the obedience of the senior cell attendant under the archimandrite, where he became known to everyone who visited the rector, which later made it easier for him, when he was elevated to the rank of clergyman and vicar, to maintain and spread his acquaintances. People in society were confused and everything said about Ignatius the governor was attributed to Ignatius the archimandrite. The evil rumor worked in its spirit of condemnation and slander, and the worker of the Gospel commandments did not allow himself either actions or words with which it would always be easy for him to justify himself. On the initiative of Metropolitan Anthony, the Synod drew up a protocol on the transfer of the rector of the Sergius Monastery, Archimandrite Ignatius, as rector to the Solovetsky first-class stauropegic monastery, in order, under the guise of elevation, to expel him from St. Petersburg as a person giving rise to temptation. Archbishop Gideon of Pskov, 112 who was then at the Synod, stopped this enterprise, saying: “We want to exile the praise and adornment of our monasticism according to some earthly reports and, like the Sanhedrin, sentence the righteous to execution because he acts towards us in disagreement with our concepts, does not wait for us for several hours in the hallway when he does not find us at home, and does the like an insult to our concept of our dignity, a concept that does not agree with his concepts of his duties towards us.” This protest of the Right Reverend Gideon had an effect, and the decree did not take place. Another reason for the clergy’s dislike of Archimandrite Ignatius was the dissimilarity of scientific education, on which concepts, views, beliefs, way of thinking and the entire structure of both mental life and external activity itself depend. Having received his education in a secular educational institution and then moving on to independent study of the patristic writings in monastic solitude during an active monastic life, Archimandrite Ignatius separated himself from his fellow scholars in the clergy by his theological scholarship. It was entirely based on his experimental knowledge of ascetic life and was partly imbued with the principles of secular learning, namely physics and mathematics. Neither physics nor mathematics were included in the programs of religious educational institutions back then. Strictly adhering to the Orthodox direction, Archimandrite Ignatius firmly confessed that the Word of God, written at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, must be explained by people renewed by the effective grace of the Holy Spirit, such as the holy fathers of the Orthodox East, and therefore completely rejected the unauthorized interpretations emanating from the spiritual mind of all heterodox writers on theological subjects. Moreover, his concepts about some religious subjects, borrowed from the experimental ascetic teachings of the holy fathers of the East, were distinguished by the materialism characteristic of a mind developed in the study of natural sciences and enlightened by its own ascetic experience, and alien to the mind of an idealist dreamer who was not accustomed to testing his concepts about objects or subordinating them to the laws indicated by positive, exact science. This is where the hostile relationship that exists between natural scientific views and abstract philosophical ones comes from. Comparing both, the compiler of “Ascetic Experiments” says: “The natural sciences constantly rely on material experience, they prove the correctness of the theories they accept, which without this proof have no place in science. Philosophy is deprived of a decisive means of constant persuasion by experience... What scope is given in philosophy to arbitrariness, dreaminess, fiction, grandiloquent delirium, intolerant of exact, definite science! With all this, philosophy is usually very satisfied with itself.” 113 Therefore, if a theologian-mathematician takes, for example, geometric axioms as the basis for his judgment, then his mind builds his system, as if according to drawings, in accordance with all scientific truths, and his provisions and conclusions, as a whole, are identical with their principles - otherwise he cannot reason, while extraneous judgments refuting such conclusions, due to the seeming inconsistency with arbitrary, dreamy concepts, will always be inaccurate, erroneous against scientific truths. Controversial opinions here arise mainly from the inconvenience of mathematical truths for those unfamiliar with mathematics. As a result of such dissimilarity in scientific education in general and in theological education in particular, there was a distrust among a significant mass of the learned clergy towards the works of Archimandrite Ignatius as not consonant with the spirit of academic education, despite their purely Orthodox character. By order of the highest officials of the clergy, spiritual censors were ordered to correct the works that Archimandrite Ignatius would present in such a way as to discourage him from submitting his spiritual creations to print. This order was made regarding his published brochure “The Chalice of Christ” 114. It sold out instantly - in the end they paid ten rubles per copy, but it was no longer possible to make a second edition due to censorship corrections that distorted the article beyond recognition. The censor Archimandrite Avvakum spoke about this order of the spiritual authorities in an intimate circle, justifying himself in response to the reproaches caused on this occasion. With difficulty, with Senkovsky’s personal efforts, two articles published in his magazine “Library for Reading” were published: “Joseph the Beautiful” and “Valaam Monastery 115. Then, for a long time, all the works of Archimandrite Ignatius circulated in manuscripts among persons who used his spiritual advice. Describing his youth, the author of “Ascetic Experiences” says that “the mind was burning with the desire to find out where the true faith and the true teaching about it lie, alien to dogmatic and moral errors.” With such a thirst for acquiring knowledge of the true faith, he went to them on a separate path, combining his spiritual education in the independent work of studying the patristic writings in monastic solitude during an active monastic life. Therefore, his spiritual writings differ significantly from the writings of persons who were educated in Theological Academies. Not to mention the ascetic articles themselves, the content of his church sermons themselves was drawn from experienced asceticism and can be clearly understood only by those who themselves have experienced that inner spiritual revival, in the spirit of which his “Ascetic Sermon” was written. When one elder, who labored in the seclusion of the Svyatogorsk Monastery, Hieroschemamonk John, was read a few lines from “The Lamentation of a Monk,” he exclaimed: “How correctly everything is said here, I can’t just express it in a learned way, in words, but here, in my heart, I feel everything that is said there.” At the same time, it is worth noting that this ascetic, renowned for his holiness, was illiterate. This is the general character of all the spiritual creations of Bishop Ignatius. In the article “On Monasticism: A Conversation between Orthodox Christians, a Layman and a Monk,” 116 the author, expressing his views on the spiritual education provided by spiritual educational institutions and monastic life, clarifies the reason for his course of action, saying, among other things, the following: “There is the greatest difference between the teaching taught in theological schools and the teaching that is taught or should be taught in monasteries, although the subject of both teachings is the same - Christianity. The first teaching is theoretical, the second is practical. The first doctrine can be likened to the foundation of a building, and the second to the building itself, erected on this foundation. Just as it is impossible to build a building without a foundation for it, so a foundation alone will serve no purpose unless a building is erected on it. Theological schools have become an essential need for the Orthodox Church. It is necessary to clearly present to the Orthodox Christian, especially to those who are preparing to be a shepherd, both the true teaching of the Orthodox Church and all its victorious struggle with secret and open enemies, with hidden and open ones, a struggle that lasted 18 centuries, flaring up more and more. The study of theology required a short time in the first times of Christianity, it now requires a long time, previously it could be taught in teachings delivered in the church of God, now it needs systematic teaching over several years. Delivering this study in its full scope is the goal of our theological seminaries and academies: they teach basic, introductory knowledge about Christianity, as St. Mark the Ascetic called it (Homily 4), teach it to youth who have not yet entered into public service, who are prepared for it only theoretically, who are not familiar with the knowledge imparted by the experience of life. Theoretical knowledge about faith must be developed into active, living, grace-filled knowledge. To acquire this knowledge, man was given earthly life. A Christian living in the middle of the world according to the commandments of the Gospel will certainly be enriched with knowledge not only by experience, but also by grace to a certain extent. The one who, abandoning all earthly cares, will use all his time, all the strength of body and soul to please God, that is, a monk, should be incomparably enriched by them. He is called in the Gospel as having the commandments of the Lord, because the commandments of the Lord constitute his entire heritage. For this reason, the most zealous Christians of all centuries, having completed their education in schools, entered and are still entering monasticism in order to acquire the education that monasticism provides. For personal Christian success, there is no need for human learning, which is necessary for teachers of the Church; many illiterate Christians, among others, and the Monk Anthony the Great, having entered monasticism, achieved Christian perfection, shedding spiritual light on their contemporaries by example, oral teaching, and their grace-filled gifts.” 117 Protopresbyter V.B. Bazhanov in 1867 spoke about Bishop Ignatius to his brother Pyotr Aleksandrovich Brianchaninov not entirely in a peaceful spirit: “Yes, your brother is a man of iron will!” – he said, raising the fist of his right hand upward. Archimandrite Ignatius (F. M. Vasiliev, 1806–1870) - tonsured a monk in 1837 in the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage. From June 1847 to June 1848 he ruled the hermitage on the occasion of Archimandrite Ignatius' dismissal. He died in the rank of rector of the Nikandrova Holy Annunciation Hermitage of the Pskov diocese. 45 letters to him by St. have been published. Ignatius, who calls him in his letters “a true, invaluable friend” (Vol. 7. Letters. M., 1993. pp. 224–282). Gideon (G.I. Vishnevsky, 1797–1849) – Archbishop of Poltava and Pereyaslavl (in the manuscript erroneously called Archbishop of Pskov). T. 1. Ascetic. experiments. pp. 555–556. Chalice of Christ. SPb.: type. K. Kraya, 1849. 16 p. A rare edition, not in the National Library of Russia, available in the library of Optina Pustyn. The journal “Library for Reading” published not two, but three articles by Archimandrite. Ignatius, signed with cryptonyms: 1. Valaam Monastery//B-ka for reading. 1847. T. 82. Sciences and arts. pp. 66–90. Sub.: I.I.I.; 2. Memories of the Borodino Monastery” / Ibid. 1847. T. 87. Sciences and arts. pp. 121–122. Sub.: I.; 3. Joseph: Priest. story, borrowed from the book Genesis//Ibid. 1849. T. 96. Rus. literature. pp. 115–156. Sub.: I. T. 1. Ascetic. experiments. pp. 453–494. T. 1. Ascetic. experiments. pp. 460–463.