Letters to His Eminence Leonid (Krasnopevkov)

Letter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Most beloved Father Archimandrite in the Lord! The all-merciful Lord, who rewards His creatures with corruptible and imperishable blessings, has given me, a sinner, an imperishable treasure - Your Love, may I be comforted and strengthened by this spiritual gift during my sorrowful earthly journey. You brought this treasure to me in the Sergius Hermitage. In 1847, I witnessed my treasure in the Sergius Lavra and found it not only preserved, but also worsened. Now, with such an examination, I saw the treasure again and again as it grew. You could see such an inner consciousness of my soul in the frankness that poured out of my heart when talking with you. I consider my arrival to you at the same time as your arrival to me: for such a calculation of love for the Lord is characteristic, alien to calculations according to the customs of this age. In those calculations where the Infinite Lord appears, numbers disappear according to the law of mathematics and theology known to you, which recognizes that the actions of numbers and their very rules are destroyed when the Infinite enters into competition or, what is the same, into copulation with them. On my upcoming visit to Moscow, I must certainly stay, according to the word given back in St. Petersburg, with those people who helped me with financial assistance for the journey. But, now intending to stay in Moscow for three or four days, I intend, for the good of the Lord, to be with you, and to stay with you as long as possible, enjoying your Love in the Lord. Requesting Your Holy Prayers Your most devoted unworthy Archimandrite Ignatius, 1856, June 17. It was with true consolation that I read your letter of July 17th. You are not guilty of anything before me, except for the abundance of your love, which I am unworthy of. On your instructions, I wrote to Fr. Yuvenaly Polovtsev 1, so that when he is in Moscow, he would visit you and act towards you in a brotherly manner, that is, he would come straight to you and stay with you. This man is a rarity in our time: he lives, undoubtedly, for the sake of God, bearing a burden beyond his strength. During my current wandering, the Lord gave me two similar consolations: I saw you and Fr. Juvenalia; with you and with him my poor soul poured out freely. May the merciful Lord add mercy to your mercies and complete them with all-perfect mercy: the gift of salvation and eternal bliss. Requesting your blessing and committing myself to your holy prayers, with feelings of sincere devotion and respect, I have the honor to be your most humble novice Archimandrite Ignatius 1856 July 23rd. Your Reverence, Most Beloved in the Lord! I have not yet seen Prince Nikolai Sergeevich Golitsyn upon his return to St. Petersburg; but for me it was especially pleasant to see from your letter that you became acquainted with this soul seeking Christ and therefore guided by Divine Providence to the most graceful goal of humanity wandering on earth - most of all through thorns. Beware of anyone who wants to enter your Abode 2. The insightful Saint of Moscow gave you the most apt review on this subject. I ask for your Holy Prayers! Unworthy Archimandrite Ignatius November 16, 1856. Most beloved Father in the Lord! I sincerely thank you for your letter of December 11th. It was very pleasant for me to see from him the disposition of the Saint of Moscow towards me. I believe that as a result of his relationship with the Most Reverend Gregory of Petersburg, a representation about me followed from this latter to the Holy Synod. But God alone knows what is useful to man and human society and therefore arranges the fate of people according to his wise Providence. I don’t know why, when the Metropolitan’s wish for me did not come true, I felt inexplicable joy? Wouldn’t I be deprived of the dignity of those activities in solitude with which I have become accustomed and which are so necessary for eternity? Wouldn’t I, in my new rank, add new dark spots to my spiritual robe, which still needs a lot of washing? One way or another, in any case, blessed be the will of God! Being more precious than all the treasures of the world for the true servants of God, may it also be precious for me, a sinner. Juvenaly was summoned here from Optina Pustyn. At first they wanted to join him with me. They wanted to give my governor the position of abbot, and give the place of governor to Juvenal, assigning him the position of assistant in the deanery over the monasteries, so that in these positions they would prepare him to take my place. But that didn’t happen either. On your way back from St. Petersburg to Optina via Moscow, you probably visited him. The new Chief Prosecutor 3 appears here. There is nothing particularly new, because the figures remain old. The only noticeable thing is that he is avoiding the most well-intentioned people with whom he was previously on friendly terms, such as Prince Golitsyn, who met you in Moscow. If we can conclude from this beginning about the consequences: then we must assume that the desire of secular power to dominate the Church will continue. Hierodeacon Sergius is already here. He wanted to join the brotherhood of the Sergius Hermitage, but I rejected him from this intention, imagining that there were novices with merit and ability for the available monastic vacancies. Asking forgiveness for my verbosity and committing myself to Your Holy Prayers, with feelings of sincere respect and devotion, I have the honor to be Your Reverence’s most humble novice Arch Ignatius December 17, 1856. Most Reverend and Beloved Father! I bring you my sincere gratitude for your loving letter and congratulations to me, unworthy, on the rank of Bishop. I am quite sure that you take an active part in this event, participation in the Lord. May the Lord reward you for this with His grace, and may He grant me to undergo this new service of mine for the glory of His Name, for the salvation of my soul and for the salvation of my neighbors. I was slow in answering Your Reverence for the reason that I did not know where I would have to stay in Moscow. Here’s the thing: I don’t know how to save money and therefore I constantly needed and still need help from my neighbors. The providence of God constantly gave me benefactors, so that I was constantly in need and constantly in abundance. This situation accompanied me during my ordination as Bishop. I left the Monastery with 50 rubles, borrowed rubles at that, and the good people provided me with everything. One of them took upon himself the sending of my library to Stavropol, as well as all my property, and also took upon himself the sending of me from St. Petersburg to Moscow; this man wants me to stay in Moscow at his house. Please see that it is impossible for me to refuse him. And therefore I bring you my sincere gratitude for the Christian offer of premises! Instead, I hope to see you often in Moscow. I would like to spend December 1st there. I don’t know what awaits me in the Caucasus, but I’m leaving St. Petersburg with joy. So, see you soon! With feelings of sincere devotion and respect, I have the honor to be Your Reverence, my most humble novice Ignatius, Bishop of the Caucasus and Black Sea, 1857, November 19th. Your Reverence, Most Reverend Father Archimandrite! I bring you my most earnest congratulations on the upcoming Feast of Feasts, the Resurrection of Christ; At the same time, I sincerely thank you for the brotherly love that you showed me when I was in Moscow. May the Lord preserve this union between us throughout our earthly journey, and may it be the guarantee of love in eternity, that love that is no longer afraid of change. Although this place is new and almost everything needs to be set up; although I suffer from an unusually harsh winter, from particular discomfort indoors, I am calm and therefore content. The climate has a beneficial effect on me: I feel significant relief from hemorrhoidal attacks. In the summer I plan to visit mineral waters. – Notify me about the health of His Eminence the Metropolitan and about yours. If any change happens to you, do not hesitate to write to me about it. Committing myself to your Holy Prayers and calling upon you the abundant blessing of God, with feelings of sincere devotion and respect, I have the honor to be Ignatius, Bishop of the Caucasus and Black Sea Your Eminence, Most Gracious Archpastor. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to you for your letter of April 25th. You were not mistaken in honoring me with the notification of granting you the rank of Bishop! I sincerely rejoiced at this news and trust in the mercy of God that you will carry out the great service entrusted to you, for the glory of God, for the significant benefit of the holy Church. You have a great responsibility: to reconcile the main classes of the fatherland, which have been separated by European teaching. Both the clergy and the nobility largely submitted to the influence of this teaching. I read with horror the January and March articles of the Kazan Orthodox Interlocutor, in which the clash of classes is expressed very clearly. The Church and the clergy have suffered, are suffering and, it seems, should suffer from European teachings, and not from any class. I saw merchants in St. Petersburg who were staying in Europe, and I marveled at the distance, the savagery that they began to show towards the Church and the clergy. I saw priestly children there, educated in European style: the same thing! Here I became acquainted with the white clergy much more than I was acquainted with in St. Petersburg, and I find that among them there are the kindest people, that all clergy in general can be perfectly directed, that they are very virgin, that their errors and shortcomings are more gross than deep. Your will: we need more specific education and direction. Works in this field belong to Your Eminence. You have become very closely acquainted with the clergy and the spiritual class: You understand the means by which it can be satisfied and brought closer to other classes, which is necessary for the benefit of the Church, for the benefit of society. I thank God: the local clergy shows me a special affection; but I am old, formed in the monastery and for the monastery, I cannot penetrate into the life of the clergy so that I can judge it quite thoroughly. Committing myself to your brotherly love for the Lord and your Holy Prayers, with a sincere desire for all true blessings for you, with feelings of perfect respect and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be Your Eminence my most humble servant Most Reverend Bishop, Most Gracious Archpastor and Father! With heartfelt joy and gratitude I read your letter dated May 25, a letter from the Bishop, and wished you from the depths of my soul with all the fullness of my desire, true and eternal blessings and gifts characteristic of true servants and disciples of Christ. Thank you also for the holy icon, which will constantly remind me of you. Do not interrupt your love for me: I wander along the path of earthly life very lonely. Nowadays it is very difficult to find a true servant of God, although outwardly no time abounded in the servants of God as much as our time, proclaiming its positivity, abounds (1 Thessalonians 5:3). There are many who lead God and are pleasing to God according to human testimony, but it is difficult to find a God-attested God-knower and God-reader. The testimony of God is clear as the sun, but the world is blind and therefore does not see the testimony of God; not seeing the testimony of God, he replaces the testimony of God with his own testimony and thinks to be satisfied. How well our Ancient Fathers of the Orthodox Church acted! They, having learned human sciences, took on the yoke of Christ and in the field of self-sacrifice, under the guidance of the Cross of Christ they learned Divine Wisdom, and for them human learning became a humble work, which they used in the service of Divine Wisdom to teach this Wisdom to their neighbors. A scribe who has learned the Kingdom of Heaven can wear out both the old and the new, subduing the old to the new and adapting it to it; and one who has not learned, obviously, can wear out only one old thing, which is death and enmity towards God, which produces its own impression on others, even if they talk to them about God, even if it scratches the ears of the soul, arousing in it the subtlest adulterous movement of passions, recognized by many as the effect of grace. Save us, Lord! We perish from ourselves, having loved our own teachings and rejecting or valuing little the teachings sent to us by God. Currently I am traveling through the western half of my Diocese - along the Black Sea, which is not as corrupt as other places. But European enlightenment has penetrated here too with its fornication, and there is nothing to say about state-owned peasants. Their officials are naked and hungry, they have completed courses at different universities, they seem to believe only in money; From the root of evil all the branches of evil grow. What will happen? In all likelihood, such university graduates will soon become rulers and leaders of the entire common people. Here are the results, expressed very modestly, of practical views on Russian soil. Committing myself again to Your Fatherly and brotherly love, asking Your Holy prayers with feelings of excellent respect and perfect devotion, I have the honor to be Your Eminence the Most Gracious Archpastor and Father, most humble novice June 22, 1859 Taman. Your Eminence In good health, Most Gracious Archpastor and Father! I was somewhat slow in responding to Your Eminence’s letter, wanting to tell you something satisfactory about D. Williams. But no one here knows anything about him. I bring you my sincere gratitude for your concern about the “Word on Death”. My ailments often talk to me about death. This conversation is edifying! After it, the world with all its events appears in a completely different form. The eye of a wanderer looks differently than the eye of a permanent resident. I was pleased with the information contained in your letter about the Ugreshsky Monastery. God bless Father Pimen, who used and continues to use his abilities for the Glory of God! Nowadays it is difficult to find a well-maintained monastery! In many monasteries, various buildings of considerable size are erected, which give the monastery the appearance of prosperity. But this is a deception for a superficial glance. Monasticism itself is quickly being destroyed. Spiritual achievement is almost universally rejected; the very concept of it is lost. This is not enough! in many monasteries morality is completely lost. I say this, having before my eyes the saddest sight - the Black Sea desert, a monastery with very significant funds, located in a very secluded place. There are two convents in the local diocese: morality is good in them, but physical labor and much care for material development destroy spiritual development. I sincerely wish that the reforms in theological schools achieve good results. It is very useful to remove students from theological schools, if possible, from the seductive impressions of the world and to give the education itself a stronger and more defined character, so that the education affects not only the mind, but also the heart, so that the student educated in the theological school receives the decisive character of an Orthodox Christian, prepared to serve the Church with all his soul. Our pupil comes out with some vague direction: he wants to get a priestly position, if it is profitable; if, by chance, a more advantageous position in the clerk's office presents itself, he does not hesitate at all to accept it. During conversations, you always hear in the foreground the idea of ​​​​benefits. Detailed teaching of Church History is necessary so that students have an understanding of the characters of historical figures and themselves are molded according to the characters of true servants of the Church. From teaching that acts exclusively on the mind, there is a coldness towards Church work, and there is a predominantly material direction. Because of this coldness, we have almost no monastics from seminaries. They will not go to monasteries! They did not feel any inclination towards self-sacrifice or spiritual development. As a result, the monasteries are in great decline, being a haven for only illiterate jealousy. If seminary students went to monasteries, the monasteries would be in a completely different situation. Be the will of God! There is nothing you can do against temptation. Committing myself to your Holy Prayers, with feelings of sincere devotion and respect, I have the honor to be Your Eminence, Most Gracious Archpastor and Father! Please accept my sincere congratulations on the upcoming Holidays and New Year and together with my sincere gratitude for your letter. I received the nameless one from the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, but the Face that is depicted there by this namelessness turns out to be good so far. His heart didn't belong there. He treats the Moscow Academy with love and respect. My relationship with the Rector is the same as you describe. Unfortunately, Fr. Herman rejected the relationship that, according to the same system, the Rector should have had with the Bishop, and rejected the love with which I accepted him. He considered it necessary to form his own opposition to the Bishop on diocesan affairs, under the leadership of a certain archpriest who had been removed from the consistory by the Holy Synod. Fortunately, Fr. Herman was soon transferred from here: without this, he would have become a victim of his inexperience and enthusiasm. – I sincerely thank you for the notifications about the health of the Most Reverend Metropolitan. It is no wonder that the perspicacious Elder leads the most solitary life: from the silence of his cell he sees those clouds that accumulate on the horizon. Committing myself to your Holy prayers, with feelings of perfect reverence and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be Let me ask for your gracious attention to the bearer of this letter, Alexei Petrovich Brianchaninov, my own nephew, the only son of my brother, the local Head of the Province. Alexey Petrovich wishes to join Moscow University. Do not refuse him useful instructions, which young people have always needed, and now, with the increase in temptations, they need even more. My brother is the most religious person; tried to raise his son in the fear of God, and now, releasing him from his personal supervision, he entrusts him to God and God’s servants. Moscow magazines opened a war against monasticism. They call it an anachronism. We should speak more frankly and say that Christianity is becoming an anachronism. Looking at modern progress, one cannot help but admit that in all its principles it contradicts Christianity and enters into a most hostile relationship towards it. Rural priests see this from experience: the position of priests, especially well-intentioned ones, becomes the most difficult. God sees all this. May God's will be done! May God's mercy cover us! O. Epiphanius is doing well. I'm pleased with him; it seems that he is happy with his position. Committing myself to your Holy Prayers, with feelings of sincere respect and devotion, I have the honor to be Most Reverend Vladyka, Most Gracious Archpastor! The venerable Citizen of the Mother See of Moscow, Vladimir Andreevich Sapelkin, brought me some information relating to the schismatics located in the Caucasus, among the Linear Cossack Army, and asked that I convey my answer to him through the Person of Your Eminence. Fulfilling such an order from Vladimir Andreevich, I humbly ask Your Eminence to take on the task of transmitting the following answer: “I have no influence on the Cossack Army, and I have no right to interfere in the affairs of the Army. But due to my good relationship with Ataman Zudzevich, I conveyed to him some of the information given to me.” Last month, the Chief Priest of the Caucasian Army, Stefan Ivanovich Gumilyovsky, visited me and told me that the Main Command in Tiflis is aware of the appearance of false bishops from Austria in the villages. On these grounds, I would consider it very useful for Vladimir Andreevich to enter into direct relations with the Chief Priest of the Caucasian Army. Actually, in the Caucasian Diocese there are very few schismatics. We are experiencing a significant migration of Mohammedans to Turkey. This greatly weakens the remaining highlanders, gives an advantage to the Russians and calms the region. Here is one piece of news that I can tell Your Eminence from the remote deserts of the Caucasus. Committing myself to your love in the Lord, with feelings of perfect respect and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be Ignatius, Bishop of the Caucasus and Black Sea. P.S. Epiphany is doing well and working hard. I'm very pleased with it. Please accept my most ardent congratulations on the upcoming All-Holy Easter, my most ardent wish for Your Eminence all true and perfect blessings and all-joyful greeting: Christ is Risen! Today I had the real pleasure of receiving your letter dated March 30th and I offer you my sincere gratitude for your most merciful concern for my poor Word. I sincerely rejoice that the Word of God will be in common use in Russian. That same day I received a letter from St. Petersburg from an acquaintance who wrote that he was sending me the newly published Gospel. God bless! It seems that the Holy Spirit, having imparted to the Apostles on the day of Pentecost the knowledge of languages, with all clarity indicated the will of God, which was that the Word of God should be available and proclaimed in all languages... In the fourth week of Lent, I was very sick with smallpox. Drinking the local mineral waters prepared me to accept this disease. These waters have an effect on people affected by old diseases not during the summer use of the waters, but the following winter and throughout the winter. The effect of the waters is a special kind of disease, which drives out old illnesses. My illness was very severe; the loss of strength is extraordinary. Spent Easter week in bed; I spend most of my time on it now. – Thank you very much for the news about Your Eminence the Metropolitan. May the all-merciful Lord strengthen his strength at this difficult time, in which many different storms are beginning to play. I take my heartfelt participation in Mr. Gorsky. May the Lord grant him prosperity and prosperity and fill him with all true blessings. Committing myself to Your Holy Prayers and for the Lord's love, with feelings of perfect reverence and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be Your Eminence, my most humble novice Please accept my most ardent congratulations on the upcoming Feast of Holidays and my earnest wish for Your Eminence true and perfect blessings. I treasure your letter dated December 1, 1859 as a treasure. This is the treasure. It shows the most faithful relationship of the Bishop to the Rector and the Rector to the Bishop. Since the wise and experienced Saint of Moscow established these relationships in himself and constantly maintains these relationships, I considered it my duty to adhere to them and to constantly maintain my relations with Arch Epiphanius. The other day I considered it my duty to show a beneficent letter to the Archimandrite, so that he could see from the letter the way of thinking that they have in Moscow about the duties of the Rector to his Diocesan Bishop. I allow myself to disturb Your Eminence with a most humble request. If you received from Fr. Epiphany any complaint against me, do not refuse, for the love of the Lord, to communicate it to me first, in whatever form pleases you, so that I too can say something and thereby take away the one-sidedness of the complaint. By this you will do both of us a true benefit: you will give me the opportunity to correct my mistake and be more prudent in the future, and Fr. Epiphany You will maintain within the decent limits of modesty necessary for a monk, from attempts to write absurdities against your Archpastor and shake the subordination necessary for him in the Diocesan Department. Committing myself to your brotherly love and asking your holy prayers, with feelings of perfect respect and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be I sincerely thank Your Eminence for your loving letter of June 17th. May the merciful Lord reward you for your love. O. Rector Epiphanius wrote a letter of petition to the Synodal Chief Prosecutor about his removal from here due to his inability to endure the local climate. I advised him to write to him and to the High Hierarch of Moscow, which, as he says, he did. And I wrote to His Eminence, asking Him not to leave Fr. Epiphany. At the same time, Fr. The rector submitted a note to the Seminary Board about his illness; Despite this pain, I asked him to visit me from time to time, believing that my conversation, which has no other merit than good intentions, could calm his spirit, which he really needed. Having seen that he goes into complete frenzy and self-forgetfulness when he is exposed to a temper, that he is brought into this state by others and does not notice it, I concluded that he is incapable of the position of Rector. Recently he himself expressed this thought: thank God if he spoke sincerely. Understanding your inability is a great blessing! I very well understand how you write that one High Hierarch tried and is trying to introduce a new element into the Higher Hierarchy. This opinion was shared by our late Metropolitan Gregory. But it seems that one Person of Your Eminence is destined to justify the election and thought of the Moscow High Hierarch. May the Lord overshadow you with His grace, may He strengthen you with His strength, so that you can more and more provide comfort and reinforcement to those who need it and who come running to you for it. God's destiny is endless! And every reproach is not without its consolations, when a person gives thanks to God for his situation. Committing myself to your Holy Prayers, your paternal and brotherly love, with feelings of perfect reverence and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be Please accept my sincere gratitude for the loving reception given to me by Your Eminence. You made the most favorable impression on me, which I enjoy to this day. I made the journey safely. But the last day of the journey was difficult, and the cold in my leg got worse. Upon arrival at the monastery, a few days later he took to his bed. It’s better now, I get out of bed from time to time, and today I’ve started doing a little writing. Committing myself to your holy prayers, with feelings of perfect reverence and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be Bishop Ignatius October 24, 1861. The gratitude that I brought to Your Eminence for the hospitality shown to me in Moscow is replenished by repeating thanksgiving. The hospitality shown to me was so full of love that it was necessarily aroused by thanksgiving every time I remembered this hospitality. May the Lord save you! Do not refuse to provide patronage to the bearer of this letter, the treasurer of the Babaevsky Monastery, if he has to bother you with any request. With my position, given to me by the ineffable grace of God, I am pleased and pleased. It seems that my health has begun to improve. The seizure that happened to me in Moscow, which was repeated to a very strong degree here, it was a consequence of my chronic illness and treatment with water, has not remained without consequences to this day. The tranquility and solitude in the Babaevskaya Monastery are invaluable. Those who need them and even need them cannot help but rejoice at such a shelter. Committing myself to Your Holy prayers, with feelings of perfect reverence and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be Your Eminence’s most humble servant Bishop Ignatius January 12, 1862. Your Eminence, Most Gracious Archpastor! Please accept my sincere gratitude for your thoughtful message of December 27th. It was with particular consolation that I read the description of the relationship between the Sovereign Emperor and the Sovereign Empress towards His Eminence the Metropolitan. This good is social good. God united the Kings and Priests for the benefit of humanity wandering on earth, instructing the former to arrange the temporary prosperity of human society, and the latter to prepare this society for migration to eternity and bliss in eternity. Representatives of both ministries must be in unanimity, as called to this unanimity by God Himself, and act out of their pious unanimity. Satan always tries to upset the order established by God, deceiving people with sophistry and using people themselves to destroy their temporary and eternal well-being. ABOUT! As a person (judging by myself) he is blind and gullible. With great difficulty he decides to believe God, with the greatest speed, headlong, as they say, he believes Satan. From my solitude I look at the world like a ship sailing in the distance, and I am filled with the desire that it complete its voyage under the cover of God’s mercy. ABOUT! may she not betray us to the leadership of false reason, this source of human misfortune. Committing myself to your holy prayers and love for the Lord, with feelings of perfect reverence and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be Your Eminence the Most Gracious Archpastor and Father, my most humble servant Bishop Ignatius January 3, 1863. P.S. I offer Your Eminence my most sincere gratitude for your gracious remembrance of my loved ones, who themselves will thank you. Please accept my most sincere congratulations on the upcoming holiday of the Nativity of Christ and the New Year and my most earnest wish for Your Eminence the longed-for health and all true and perfect blessings. This is already the third year since I had the honor of seeing you in Moscow! Since then, you too have become ill. My business is over; recovery, due to the complete exhaustion of strength caused by a forty-year illness, is impossible. I sincerely wish Your Eminence the restoration of health and strength for your and public benefit. Committing myself to your holy prayers with feelings of perfect reverence and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be Bishop Ignatius December 15, 1863. I bring you my sincere gratitude for your favorable acceptance of my work, the book “Ascetic Experiences”. Please accept my most humble request: do not refuse to offer this book, known to Your Eminence, to monastics and ascetics in general, this book, which protects against abuses in the feat of prayer, abuses leading to self-delusion. Committing myself to your Hierarchal prayers, with feelings of perfect reverence and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be Your Eminence, the Most Gracious Archpastor and Father, the most humble novice Bishop Ignatius June 1, 1865. I bring you my sincere gratitude for your gracious remembrance of me and my most ardent congratulations on the upcoming holiday of the Nativity of Christ and the upcoming New Year, which I wish you to enjoy in the desired health and prosperity. God bless you for your love for monasticism. Many people now complain about him, seeing or finding various shortcomings in him; but monasticism is a barometer, which, standing in a secluded room, closed on all sides, accurately shows the state of the weather outside. Old buildings must be repaired with great care and knowledge of the matter: otherwise the correction may turn into destruction. Be the will of God! Asking for your holy prayers in support of my mental and physical infirmities, with feelings of perfect respect and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be Your Eminence the Most Gracious Archpastor and Bishop Ignatius December 27, 1865. Take the trouble to convey my most ardent bow to Fr. Arch Pimen and sincere gratitude for his memory of me. I thank you for remembering me, and I mutually greet you with the past holidays and the coming New Year, sincerely wishing Your Eminence all true and perfect blessings. At the present time - just as in November and December of last year - I feel especially sick and weak, I sit deprived of the ability to engage not only in writing, but also in reading: therefore, I hasten to finish these lines by asking for your Holy prayers to strengthen the infirmities of my many. Your Eminence's most humble novice Bishop Ignatius January 10, 1867. I humbly ask you to accept the last two volumes, 3rd and 4th, of my works and cover my shortcomings with love and condescension. Bishop Ignatius March 4, 1867. ...O. Juvenaly Polovtsev... - About him, see note., p. 650 Hierodeacon Sergius, about whom Fr. Леонида имеется следующая запись от ноября 1856 г.: «...но слова Владыки [Митрополита Филарета]: «Он был в Сергиевой пустыни; It’s unlikely that any good thing will be released from there easily,” they forced me to write to Fr. Ignatius." ...new Chief Prosecutor. – About him, see note. (footnote 2), p. 596 From No. 1 to No. 6 – RSL OR. F. 149. K. 13. No. 31; from No. 7 to No. 23 - Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov. Essays. T. 7. Letters. M. 1993. P.357–391 You might be interested in: