Глава десятая. Архиепископ Филарет Московский 1821–1823

– Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! - these are the words of the Apostle Paul from the Epistle to the Romans when Archbishop Philaret greeted his Moscow flock. Moscow! No matter how hackneyed it may be to repeat Pushkin’s lines, you can’t say better than Alexander Sergeevich: “How much is intertwined in this sound for the Russian heart!” At the beginning of the 14th century, Saint Peter, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus', settled here and was the first among the Russian archpastors to receive the name “Moscow”. Saint Alexei, educator of Dmitry Donskoy and friend of St. Sergius of Radonezh, inspirer of the struggle for independence from the Horde, completed the transfer of the metropolis to the God-protected city of Moscow and became the last head of the Russian Orthodox Church to bear the title of Metropolitan of Kyiv, and his descendants also nicknamed him Moscow. Although officially only a century later the diocese completely separated from the Kyiv Metropolis, began to be called Moscow and All Rus' and was placed first among the dioceses of the See of Constantinople. Its metropolitans, before the establishment of the patriarchate, were elected and installed independently of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Under Saint Jonah, Rus' rejected the Florentine Union, and the Moscow Church became autocephalous. Under his stole, Jonah saved the young prince Ivan Vasilyevich, the future Ivan III the Sovereign, who created a powerful state, seven times larger than the one he inherited from his father. And Saint Simon, during the reign of this sovereign, convened church councils many times, one of which put an end to the so-called heresy of the Judaizers. Saint Macarius created a collection of “all revered books in Rus'” - the Great Chetya-Menaion, which went down in history under the name Makarievsky. Under him, book printing began in Rus'; he opened the printing house of Ivan Fedorov in Moscow for the printing of sacred and liturgical books. Entering the Chosen Rada, Macarius had a huge influence on the young Ivan the Terrible; in 1547, he crowned him king, promoted his marriage to Anastasia Zakharyina, and inspired him to conquer the Volga region and capture Kazan. Many Russian saints were canonized at the Makaryevsky Councils, including the blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky. After the death of Macarius, the successor to all his affairs, Metropolitan Philip (Kolychev), tried to soften the embittered temper of Tsar Grozny: “I obey your will; but calm my conscience: let there be no oprichnina! May there only be a united Russia! for every divided Kingdom, according to the word of the Most High, will be desolate. I cannot bless you sincerely, seeing the sorrow of the fatherland.” And the king relented, but, seeing the betrayal, he began the executions again. Philip did not want to bless the new bitterness, he was subjected to trial, deposition, exile and died in the Assumption Tver Monastery. In the “Lives of the Saints” of Demetrius of Rostov it is indicated that Malyuta Skuratov killed him, but neither supporters of the murder version, nor those who seek to protect Ivan the Terrible from false accusations have any exact evidence. During the patriarchate, Moscow became the capital city of the patriarch, and the Moscow diocese was converted into a patriarchal region, which, after the death of Patriarch Adrian until 1742, was ruled by other diocesan bishops. In 1742, the Moscow diocese (metropolis) was restored. In 1799, the abolished Kolomna diocese was annexed to it as a vicariate. The Great Assumption Cathedral was still left as the first throne, the supreme cathedral of Moscow and All-Russia. Metropolitan Platon (Levshin) was one of the great Moscow archpastors, but Philaret began under his omophorion. Having become Metropolitan of Moscow, Plato first of all placed the Moscow Theological Academy in high esteem, built a dormitory with it, called a bursa, and increased the number of students from three hundred to a thousand. He started small schools at monasteries, took care of the development of genuine faith and churchliness in his pupils, vigilantly noted and nominated the most gifted. How many of them were even noted by adding the nickname “Platonov” to their own surname. He could have been called Drozdov-Platonov and Filaret, but for some reason he didn’t. Being an admirer of St. Sergius, Plato wrote an akathist for him, and his disciple Philaret will soon write a new life. Plato did a lot to decorate the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. He also had many enemies, since he resolutely fought against vices, of which many were observed among the priests. He fiercely took up arms against atheism, which was sweeping across Russia from Europe. But he rebelled just as fiercely against church hypocrisy, which in all centuries has greatly contributed to the spread of atheism. He also fought against the overly ornate, sophisticated style of church writings, proclaiming it indecent. “A preacher must talk with people of different conditions and concepts, and therefore necessity requires that spiritual conversation be understandable to everyone,” he said. “Vitism is useful in order to present the truth, recognized by everyone, in the most beautiful and flattering form, but where it is necessary to defend and prove it, which has been devoured by lies, then it is not only unnecessary, but also harmful; unnecessary: ​​for the FACE of truth is beautiful in itself; harmful: for it gives the suspicion that the defender wins not because the truth is on his side... but by the tone of his words and the sorcery of eloquence.” Most of all, Plato loved the works of John Chrysostom, and he himself was often called the Moscow Chrysostom. His student, Filaret, will soon be called the same thing. In 1805 or 1806, Plato had his first blow, after which he began to transfer affairs to his vicar, Bishop Augustine. In 1811, he was completely paralyzed, and he was relieved of his duties until his full recovery, which was never achieved. Before the Battle of Borodino, he tried to go to the battlefield in order to inspire the Russian army, but he was never able to overcome his physical weakness. On the eve of the French entry into Moscow, Metropolitan Platon was brought from Bethany so that he could say goodbye to his beloved capital forever. He had a presentiment that he would never see her again. On August 28, 1812, Plato sat on the main porch of the Chudov Monastery and wept bitterly. On September 1 he returned to Trinity. On November 11 he passed away. When Metropolitan Platon suffered from paralysis in the summer of 1811, he was replaced by the vicar of the Moscow diocese, Bishop of Dmitrov Augustin (Vinogradsky). He never managed to become a metropolitan. In 1818 he was elevated to the rank of Archbishop of Moscow and Kolomna, and a year later he died of consumption. Seraphim (Glagolevsky) became the new Moscow archpastor. A graduate of the Moscow Theological Academy and Moscow University, he taught Latin, history and rhetoric at the Trinity Seminary, then philosophy and theology at the academy; from the beginning of the new century he became a bishop, and for a long time he headed the Smolensk see. After the war with Napoleon, Bishop Seraphim was the Archbishop of Tver. Filaret followed him twice: first he replaced Seraphim in Tver, then in Moscow. Seraphim was Moscow archpastor from 1819 to 1821. He had a stern disposition and fought against various liberties, especially among people of clergy. He conducted strict examinations among priests. Meanwhile, rumors came from St. Petersburg about how the enmity between Metropolitan Mikhail (Desnitsky) and Prince Golitsyn, who had headed the Ministry of Spiritual Affairs and Public Education since 1817, was flaring up more and more violently, but was relieved of the post of chief prosecutor. The Bishop could no longer tolerate the spread of Protestant heresies, which were leading the Orthodox flock away from the churches of God. Countless charlatan mystics instilled the harmful idea of ​​some kind of “inner Christianity”, saying that everyone should have faith in their souls, and going to church is not at all necessary. On December 23, 1820, Mikhail returned from a meeting of the Synod so upset that they had to take him out of the carriage. - What kind of saint am I... when I do not have the power to authorize the service of the most ordinary prayers? – he was indignant. “If Golitsyn really wants to deprive me of power... he could have warned me about this privately, then the two of us would only know that I am a metropolitan only by name, and not by power; Now the last monastery servant knows about the humiliation of my dignity. He was seriously ill all winter and served only in his home church. On March 10, 1821, he again went to a meeting of the Synod and again clashed with the hated Golitsyn. Upon returning, he soon received the sacrament of anointing. Shortly before his death, Bishop Mikhail wrote a letter to the sovereign, beginning with the words: “When you receive it, I will no longer be.” There was no longer any need for him to maintain diplomacy, and he boldly wrote about the dangers to which Golitsyn exposed Russian Orthodoxy, and begged Alexander to “protect the Church from the blind minister.” On March 24, in the sixtieth year of his life, Bishop Mikhail died in the chambers of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, where he was buried with great honors in front of the very altar of the Spiritual Church, built on his initiative, but which never received its consecration. Filaret saw in Metropolitan Mikhail his spiritual like-minded person. Subsequently, remembering him, he wrote: “A few days before his death, someone saw in a dream that a high pillar with crowns on top collapsed with thunder. The dream, in my opinion, is very fair... However, the solid foundation of God, of course, is not supported by people.” On June 19, 1821, Seraphim (Glagolevsky), transferred to the Northern capital from the Mother See, became the new Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Novgorod. Seraphim did not justify Golitsyn’s hopes that he would behave differently from his predecessor; he immediately entered into a fierce battle with everything that was alien to the Orthodox Church - with overt and hidden Protestantism, with heresies of all varieties, with Freemasonry and mysticism, with overseas preachers, whose popularity suddenly grew enormously. We saw many of them quite recently, when in the nineties of the last century they were given television, they could be listened to and seen in all the clubs, houses and palaces of culture of the collapsed USSR, in stadiums and concert halls. And at the beginning of the 19th century, in one of his sermons in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Saint Innocent (Smirnov) shortly before his death uttered murderous words about such artist-preachers: – The adulterer does not act for the sake of procreation, but to satisfy his unclean lust. So is the preacher of the word of God, when he preaches not for the sake of the birth of spiritual children according to the law, but so that, having said the word, only with the movement of his hands, the echo of his voice and pronunciation, he will be considered a preacher OR scratch his heart with a tickling, hearing of honor and distinction, he does the same as an adulterer. This one commits fornication physically, and that one spiritually... God knows, since in many real preachers there is evil spirits, a carelessly and vainly preached word! And in Moscow they met a new ruler, who was destined to become the local archpastor for a long time. On Sunday, July 3, 1821, the day of the transfer of the relics of St. Philip of Moscow, Archbishop Philaret ascended to the Moscow see. Not even a decade has passed since the great fire of the capital. The restoration of the Mother See is in full swing. So far, only the Kremlin and Red Square have been restored to their divine glory. The architect Osip Ivanovich Bove, himself a participant in the expulsion of Napoleon, returned from the war and led the revival of the city. Red Square was cleared, the ditch that ran along the Kremlin wall was filled in, and a boulevard was laid out in its place, along which the road to the embankment ran. Numerous shops and dilapidated buildings that littered the square were removed, and from now on a majestic view of St. Basil's Cathedral of the Intercession opened up, and in addition, in 1818 the square was decorated with a monument to Minin and Pozharsky. Behind them, facing the Kremlin, new buildings of the Trading Rows rose. Now, in 1821, when Filaret arrived in Moscow, a huge expanse northeast of the Kremlin was cleared for a new square, where the foundation of the future Bolshoi Theater was laid, and the Neglinka River was hidden in an underground pipe. To the northwest, right under the walls of the Kremlin, construction was underway on the Alexander Garden, also designed by Osip Ivanovich. The improvement and construction of the Boulevard Ring continued, the fortifications of the Zemlyanoy Val were demolished and the ditch was filled in, and in their place the Garden Ring was formed. Wooden construction inside it was strictly prohibited. At the intersections of this ring with radial streets, outpost squares with guard posts appeared. Gardens and front gardens were preserved here for a long time. To this day they rustle in the names of the streets - Bolshaya Sadovaya, Sadovaya-Karetnaya, Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya, Sadovaya-Samotechnaya, Sadovaya-Sukharevskaya, Sadovaya-Triumfalnaya... In the year of Filaret’s arrival, Moscow was just beginning to blossom after the fire. Give it another year or two so that Griboyedov’s Skalozub can wittily remark: “In my opinion, the fire contributed a lot to its decoration.” The capital will receive a special face, which will later be called Moscow, thanks to the thoughtful development of the post-fire commission for the restoration of new facades of buildings and streets. A new type of Moscow mansion was born - not very large, but not small, beautiful, but at the same time quite modest, with columns, but without pomp. And most importantly, unusually cute and cozy. The commission produced entire albums of “model facades”, according to which Moscow streets were built. Everything was discussed, from the number of floors and type of finishing to the color of the paint. Once built in a certain degree of disarray, Moscow was becoming harmonious and orderly. It is difficult to resist one very remarkable detail of the restoration of Moscow. It was during the years of the resurrection of the Mother See that cement was invented - the same fastening material that humanity uses to this day. It was necessary to quickly revive the Kremlin, which was badly destroyed by the French. The Vodovzvodnaya tower was destroyed to the ground, Nikolskaya half, the rest to varying degrees. A talented engineer, Yegor Gerasimovich Cheliev, invited from Saratov, intensively experimented with various kinds of materials, trying to find a composition capable of reliably holding bricks and stones together. And they made an important discovery: if you mix lime with clay and burn this mixture at a temperature of 1100–1200° Celsius in a forge on dry wood until “white heat,” you will get a sintered product, which then, when thoroughly crushed to a dust state, has high mechanical properties and the ability to harden in water. Cheliev summarized his invention in the “Treatise on the art of preparing good mortars,” published in 1822 in St. Petersburg, and then in the book “Complete instructions on how to prepare the cheapest and best mortar or cement, very durable for underwater buildings.” The word "cement" (caementum) in Latin means "crushed stone." The new Moscow archpastor, of course, was primarily concerned with the condition of the churches and monasteries of Moscow. By the time he arrived, they had mostly already been restored. He settled in the courtyard of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, not yet knowing that from now on he was destined to live here until his death - for forty-six years, almost half a century! The Trinity Metochion arose in the north of Moscow in 1609 under Tsar Vasily Shuisky as a kind of hotel for the monks of the Sergius Lavra coming to Moscow. After the construction of the Sukharev Tower in 1695, it became known as Trinity-Sukharevsky. The place turned into an excellent country residence of Moscow bishops through the efforts of the unforgettable Plato (Levshin), he begged Empress Catherine for money and landscaped the courtyard. Since the late 60s of the 18th century, it looked like a vast rural estate with a good church. Plato himself lived here little, mostly staying either in his Kremlin chambers, or in St. Petersburg, or in the Sergius Monastery. What happened in 1812 is eloquently evidenced by a letter from the Lavra treasurer, Hieromonk Arseny: “The Trinity Sukharevskoye metochion in Moscow, everything was burned out by the enemy, and therefore now remains without roofs.” The courtyard was resurrected by the second most important leader of restoration work in Moscow, after Beauvais, the Italian Domenico Gilardi. The Peter and Paul Church, having been repaired, was reconsecrated in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh. In 1815, Moscow bishops were evicted from the Kremlin and the courtyard turned from a country residence into the main one. The first permanent resident here was Archbishop Augustine, the second was Seraphim (Glagolevsky), the third was Philaret. When he arrived here on August 13, 1821, the farmstead still had the appearance of an estate, located on the left bank of the Neglinnaya River and the Samotechny ponds fed by it. “Near the western fence of the courtyard, above the steep bank of the pond, towered the white stone Trinity Church, richly decorated with carved patterns. Beyond the eastern one, several hundred meters away, above the treetops and roofs of houses, the faceted vertical of the Sukharev Tower, topped with a double-headed eagle, was visible. A garden with a pond, restored after the devastation caused by French troops, shabby log outbuildings, vegetable gardens rented by surrounding residents... A quiet, secluded and very, very far from the noise of the “big life”.” Filaret settled on the second floor of the bishop's chambers; his personal chambers occupied the eastern wing of the building. The setting is modest. This is how she remained throughout all the years of his residence here. Five rooms - wardrobe, bedroom, study, dining room and chapel. “The simplicity and squalor of his dwellings were surprising in their inconsistency with the height of his position. Bare wooden walls with simple folk seats in Gethsemane, ancient, simple, not extensive and not in the taste of the current century, decorated cells in the Lavra and in Moscow, which have retained one unchanged appearance almost since the time of Metropolitan Plato, and all other furnishings, extremely simple, all this seemed mysterious and difficult to explain to many who knew that the See of Moscow and the Trinity Lavra had a complete the opportunity, without the slightest difficulty, to prepare for his primate and rector a dwelling that fully corresponds to the requirements of the time and his great position" (Essay on the biography of His Eminence Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna. M., 1868.). Next to the saint’s chambers there was an office, two rooms for a secretary and a room for a cell attendant, that is, a personal servant and assistant. There was a house church in the western wing. Vast rooms, namely the entrance hall, living room and hall were intended for receiving visitors. The first floor was occupied by the cells of the monastery's inhabitants, of whom there were never more than eight people, and cells for monks coming to Moscow from the Lavra. There are also office premises and the housekeeper's office. Having moved in, the ruler established a routine that did not change until the end of his earthly existence. Early in the morning he served in the house church, then drank tea. This drink helped him fill with vigor all his life. He loved it in many different forms. When visiting, he was usually served three cups - the first with lemon, the second with wine, and the third with jam. At the end of his life, he will love to drink tea “with almonds,” that is, with almond juice, which was called almond milk. At the Trinity courtyard after tea until two o'clock in the afternoon, the bishop was busy with business - carefully familiarizing himself with the papers that came in his name and giving them further progress. At two o'clock lunch was served - some fish, some bread, some vegetables and fruits, tea. After lunch, rest, but that’s what Filaret called an hour or two of quiet book reading. And then - again business, reports, correspondence. On Tuesdays and Fridays he worked with two vicars. In addition to all of the above, his activities included the consecration of churches, performing services outside the home, preparing to read sermons, meeting people, examining students of academies and seminaries, and visiting secular schools. “When I came to the Trinity Metochion with a weekly report,” recalled Archbishop Ambrose, “usually on Friday at four o’clock, I did not see the bishop every time, and when I did, I always found him in quiet solitude and at work: lying on the sofa in a black cassock and skufa, girded with a sash of white crepe, he was looking through spiritual magazines or diocesan statements, making different marks in them with a pencil; sometimes I wrote a letter." This is how his Moscow life began... The day after arriving in Moscow, on Sunday, August 14, on the eve of the feast of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, Archbishop Filaret delivered a “Sermon on taking over the administration of the Moscow flock” in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin. What did he choose as the topic for his first Moscow sermon? Having paid tribute to the city of Moscow and the Moscow Church, he began to talk about human desires, that we first of all want physical health and a long life, and not the salvation of the soul. We are all temporary guests in the world, but for some reason we want to stay away as long as possible. – The desire for a long life, if it does not receive the highest significance in combination with other noble desires, cannot bring us anything more than the continuation of our earthly exile and wandering:.. Whoever more or less tried to emerge from this slavery into the freedom of the children of God, he, without a doubt, experienced and understood how the evil of the world attacks us with the weapon of sorrows and suffering in order to overthrow us with despondency and despair; how the blessings of the world surround us in order to take us captive by the cunning of lust; how the unrestrained desires of the flesh stretch out, apparently, in order to conquer the whole world for us, but in fact they conquer us with everything to which they cleave... The grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ is the only source of true and perfect spiritual peace for us. This began the many years of sermons of the new Moscow Chrysostom in the churches and monasteries of the Mother See of our Fatherland. Soon he had an assistant, who was destined to serve the Bishop faithfully for thirty-five years - Alexander Petrovich Svyatoslavsky, who first took the position of scribe and then secretary of Philaret. His father, Archpriest of the Moscow Church of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, Priest Peter Velyaminov-Svyatoslavsky, died in 1812. The French demanded from him the keys to the church so that they could hide there with the horses, that is, desecrate the church. He refused. They began to torture him and tortured him to death. This hero of the war with Napoleon is buried on the south side of the Catherine Church in the Novospassky Monastery. His son Alexander Petrovich graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary in 1821, and the consistory assigned him to St. Philaret. And he will faithfully serve the lord for thirty-five years. An important date was celebrated in the fall - exactly twenty years ago the unforgettable Metropolitan Platon crowned Emperor Alexander Pavlovich in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin. On the anniversary Thursday, September 15, Filaret delivered a word dedicated to this here. He began with the commandment from the Psalter, “Touch not my anointed,” and recalled how the Europeans, led by Napoleon, violated this commandment: - It is not surprising that it was necessary to proclaim this commandment with a thunderous voice to the pagan peoples, deaf to the meek word of God. Who would have thought that for the Christian peoples it would be necessary to write it again with blood and fire on the hard tablet of Europe; and in the enlightened age there are sages who to this day still do not know how to read these formidable and at the same time saving letters! It was the most, as we would now say, pro-government speech by the supreme hierarch. - A government that is not protected by sacredly revered inviolability from all the people cannot act with all the fullness of its power, nor with all the freedom of zeal necessary for the establishment and protection of the public good and security. No democracy! Filaret pointed to the people, whose power is not in the hands of God’s anointed, but chosen according to the fleeting whim of the people, as “a crowd of fugitives or robbers.” – If, for example, we compare society to a building, and compare power to a foundation that supports everything, or to a vault that covers everything: does the building lay down its foundations or does it raise the vault above itself? “Do not touch My anointed” - a clear sound flew through the entire sermon of Philaret, thundering under the arches of the ancient church of Fioravanti. Only four years remained before the uprising on Senate Square, before the event that would prove that not everyone “knows how to read these formidable and at the same time saving letters.” Plans were already being developed to kill royalty and divide Russia into many independent states with their own capitals. In September, Filaret visited the Sergius Monastery and read here “The Sermon on the Incorruption of Holy Relics, in Memory of St. Sergius.” In it, he said that the resurrection of people will take place in their earthly bodies, mysteriously renewed, and the first resurrection “consists in the miraculous incorruption on earth of the consecrated bodies” of the righteous. – This incorruptibility, this healing and life-giving power emanating from them, words that teach us more clearly and convincingly about piety and encourage us to imitate their faith. In November, in the Archangel Cathedral of the Kremlin, Filaret read a sermon on the day of the Council of Archangel Michael. “It’s amazing,” he said, “that oblivion of the heavenly Powers in some Christians extends to the point that they even doubt the existence of the invisible world... Testimony is written on everything visible and invisible... Look at yourself: what in you feels, desires, thinks, isn’t it invisible?.. Let’s despise the earthly and draw closer to the heavenly.” Let us purify our senses and see the supersensible. Let us expel carnal desires and vain thoughts from our soul, and then the ethereal Forces will visit it and lead us from strength to strength, until finally the Lord God Himself appears in the Zion of our spirit and makes an abode for Himself in it. Amen. The War of 1812 left many widows. In Moscow, on Kudrinskaya Square there was a large building. Before the war, it housed a home for the disabled for soldiers living out their days. When the Russian army retreated from Borodino, a hospital with three thousand beds was placed here. The fate of the wounded who were placed here was terrible. During the retreat from Moscow they did not have time to be taken out. Kutuzov appealed to the mercy of the victors, but what kind of Christian mercy did he dream of if a godless and heartless enemy came to Russia! The French amused themselves by coming to the hospital every day to kill the wounded, and when seven hundred unfortunate people remained, a fire engulfed the building and they were all burned alive. After the war, the building was renovated, and from now on the Imperial widow's house for widows of soldiers who died in 1812 was located here. On the day of St. Spyridon of Trimifuntsky, Archbishop Philaret served mass here in the Mariinsky Church and read a sermon. Then he became acquainted with the living conditions of the widows and was horrified at the deplorable state of their homes. He began to fuss, and soon the architect Gilardi was entrusted with the overhaul of the building, which, by the way, he also built in 1775. This was the beginning of not just Filaret’s pastoral service in the capital, but also his tireless care of Moscow and its inhabitants. From the very first year of his stay here, much, if not almost everything, was revived, restored, flourished under his blessing, thanks to his tireless efforts. At the end of the year, Filaret visited his native Kolomna. The reason for the trip was sad - his dear grandfather Nikita Afanasyevich Filippov died. The Bishop celebrated the Nativity of Christ in the Kremlin, in the monastery founded by Saint Alexei Chudov. The Miracle Monastery was desecrated in 1812. Napoleon's headquarters was located there, and Marshal Davout built himself a bedroom in the altar of the cathedral church, girls were brought here for him, and here he relieved himself... In 1814, the Miracle Monastery, as one of the most important Kremlin shrines, was one of the first to be restored. The Gospel translated by Alexei from Greek was kept here. And so the new translator of the Holy Scriptures, Filaret, read a Christmas sermon here, and then throughout the spring of next year he performed divine services and read sermons. At Maslenitsa he invoked the memory of St. Alexei: – Save us with your prayers from dangerous negligence and destructive infidelity before the Chief Shepherd! In winter, it was necessary to go to St. Petersburg for the winter session of the Synod, participate in meetings, argue about the need for better education of both the flock and the shepherds themselves, sometimes not entirely literate. In February 1822, Filaret put forward a proposal to make it mandatory to preach sermons in theological schools for the sake of teaching future priests. He also proposed that rectors and teachers should give speeches on Sundays interpreting the Holy Scriptures in the form of a conversation, in simple and intelligible language. And again he spoke about translations, this time about translations of the works of the Church Fathers from Greek and Latin into modern Russian. Returning to Moscow, on March 5, during the Holy Week of the Cross, Filaret spoke about Christian freedom in the Chudov Monastery: – As the leader and king of the free, Jesus Christ does not force anyone to follow the path that He shows, but invites those who wish to enter it: whoever wants to follow Me... The path of Christ is terrible! The very apostles, who, being directly led by Him, followed Him, could not calmly walk this path... But is it not in vain that I reveal all the horror of the path of Christ, which many are already afraid of? - No, Christians... For where does this path finally lead? He leads to heaven, to God the Father himself... Almost every week, Filaret’s sermons were heard in the Kremlin, which he diligently prepared every time. Each of them is a genuine literary work. Moscow continued to be rebuilt, and Archbishop Philaret was called to consecrate new churches, hospitals, and hostels. His whole day was planned from top to bottom. He got up early and went to bed late. And I managed everything! In 1822, with a foreword by Archbishop Philaret, a Russian translation of the Psalter was published, carried out by Archpriest Gerasim Pavsky in collaboration with Philaret. “Historical readings from the books of the Old Testament” have been published. Published “The Life of St. and our God-bearing father Sergius,” which he read on July 4 at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra at the all-night vigil. He was glad that it was much closer from Moscow to Kolomna than from the Northern capital, and that he could sometimes visit his hometown, see his own mother and other relatives. - God-loving city! For the sake of the holy Church, which is the house of God, for the sake of her Orthodox children, who are close to God, I wish you good things! - he said in the Assumption Cathedral of Kolomna on All Saints Sunday. And from Kolomna I went to Serpukhov. From Serpukhov - to Sergiev Posad. And further to other places near Moscow, so that everywhere they could hear his word and know that there is an archpastor not only for Moscow itself, but for the entire Moscow region. And at the same time he continued to work on a new, his own version of the Orthodox catechism. In 1823, with a preface by Philaret, an edition of the complete Russian New Testament was published. And in the same year, his “Christian Catechism of the Orthodox Catholic Eastern Greek-Russian Church” was published, compiled in the form of questions and answers. Here is its beginning: “Preliminary Concepts. 1. What is the Orthodox Catechism? The Orthodox Catechism is instruction in the Orthodox Church Christian faith, taught to every Christian for the sake of pleasing God and saving the soul. 2. What does the word "catechism" mean? Catechism translated from Greek means announcement, oral instruction. Since apostolic times, this word has traditionally denoted the original teaching of the Orthodox faith, necessary for every Christian (see Luke 1:4, Acts 18:25). 3. What is needed to please God and save the soul? To please God and to save the soul we need: knowledge of the true God and correct faith in Him; life by faith and good works corresponding to it. 4. Why is faith needed first? Faith is needed because, as the word of God testifies, without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). 5. Why, in addition to faith, are life by faith and good works needed? Life according to faith and good deeds must be inseparable from faith. works because, as the word of God testifies, faith without works is dead (James 2:20). 6. What do we call faith? According to the explanation of the Apostle Paul: faith is... the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). That is: confidence in the invisible, as if in the visible, and confidence in the desired and expected, as in the present. 7. What is the difference between faith and knowledge? The difference between knowledge and faith is that knowledge has the tangible and knowable as its subject, while faith has the invisible and even incomprehensible as its subject. Knowledge is based on experience and study of the subject, and faith is based on trust in the testimony of truth. Knowledge belongs to the mind, although it can also act on the heart; faith belongs primarily to the heart, although it begins in the thoughts. 8. Why does the teaching of piety require not only knowledge, but also faith? The teaching of piety requires not only knowledge, but also faith because the main object of study is God, invisible and incomprehensible, and the wisdom of God, surrounded by mystery. Therefore, much in this teaching cannot be covered by knowledge, but can only be perceived by faith. “Faith,” says Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, “is sight that sanctifies the conscience; it gives man knowledge. If you do not believe, it is because you are not proven” (Is. 7:9; Catechetical Teaching, 5) Saint Cyril explains the need for faith in this way: “Not only among us, who bear the name of Christ, faith is revered as great, but everything done in the world, even by people alien to the Church, is accomplished by faith. Agriculture is based on faith: he who does not believe that he will reap the harvest will not work in the field. Seafarers are guided by faith, entrusting their fate to a small ship and preferring the rough sea to solid land, indulging in unknown hopes and having with them only faith, which for them is more reliable than any anchor" (Catechetical Teaching, 5:3)." The release of the catechism did not go unnoticed. On June 2, 1823, Archbishop Filaret received the Order of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky as a reward for him.