Глава пятнадцатая. «Твоим огнем душа согрета» 1830–1831

The three Golitsyn princes meant a lot in the life of Metropolitan Philaret. The first is Alexander Nikolaevich. It is associated with the St. Petersburg period of the saint’s life. The other two are from Moscow. For a quarter of a century, His Serene Highness Prince Dmitry Vladimirovich Golitsyn was the military governor-general of Moscow, the first person in the Mother See. Filaret had to communicate a lot with him on Moscow affairs. Their relationship was very good, although sometimes the bishop had to go against the affairs of the mayor. For example, in October 1829, while in St. Petersburg, Filaret learned about Dmitry Vladimirovich’s idea to install wax figures depicting scenes from the Old and New Testaments in a large gallery for Christmas, and immediately sent him an indignant letter: “If displaying sacred and Divine objects for vain curiosity is contrary to the sense of piety, then displaying them, so to speak, on the same board with objects low, contemptuous and disgusting, disgusting to every sense of decency.” And the mayor had to put up with the opinion of the ruler. But Filaret’s most sincere friend in Moscow remained Prince Sergei Mikhailovich Golitsyn, a kind man, a respectable Christian, and a clever man. He was eight years older than the bishop, admired his sermons, and from the first days of Philaret in Moscow began to patronize him. Sergei Mikhailovich was very rich, rose to the rank of actual privy councilor of the first class, was awarded all the highest orders of the Russian Empire... but was unhappy in his personal life. In the year of Pushkin’s birth, Golitsyn married Evdokia Izmailova, considered the most beautiful woman in Russia. She was indeed very pretty, she shone with intelligence and education, but at the same time she flaunted excessive freedom of behavior. Eighteen-year-old fiery Pushkin fell in love with thirty-seven-year-old Evdokia Ivanovna and dedicated one of his wittiest poems to her: Alien lands inexperienced amateur And his constant accuser, I said: in my fatherland Where is the right mind, where will we find genius? Where is the citizen with a noble soul, Sublime and fiery free? Where is the woman - not with cold beauty, But fiery, captivating, lively? Where can I find a casual conversation? Brilliant, cheerful, enlightened? With whom can you be not cold, not empty? I almost hated the Fatherland - But yesterday I saw Golitsyna And reconciled with my fatherland. Moreover, Pushkin wrote “Gallitsyna” in both the draft and final versions of this poem, playing on the word “Gaul” and thereby hinting that La Princesse Nocturne spoke French better than anyone else. Fortune teller Lenormand predicted her death at night, and Evdokia Ivanovna completely switched to a nocturnal lifestyle. From dusk to dawn, noisy parties were held in her house, for which the beauty was nicknamed the Princess of the Night - La Princesse Nocturne. However, this was already in St. Petersburg and after the divorce from Sergei Mikhailovich, which took place in 1809, and could not help but take place, considering that the couple lived only a few days after the wedding, the young wife fled abroad and her husband never saw her again. The Princess of the Night salon, known throughout St. Petersburg, was located on Millionnaya Street. And the abandoned husband lived in Moscow on Volkhonka in a luxurious mansion. Now it houses the Higher Institute of Management and the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences - Volkhonka, 14, in close proximity to the Museum of Fine Arts. Sergei Mikhailovich Golitsyn held many positions in Moscow - honorary guardian of the Orphanage, and the Moscow Board of Trustees, and a member of the council at the Moscow School of St. Catherine, and the manager of the Alexander School, and the chief director of the Golitsyn Hospital, and the president of the Moscow Trustee Committee, and the vice-president of the Moscow Trustee Committee on Prisons. In 1830, he became chairman of the Moscow Board of Trustees and trustee of the Moscow educational district. In winter, a festive Christmas evening was held in the house on Volkhonka. Among the guests, the daughter of the late Field Marshal Kutuzov, Elizaveta Mikhailovna, married to Khitrovo, a general’s wife and owner of a fashionable St. Petersburg salon, stood out. Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky wrote about her: “In the chronicles of the St. Petersburg hostel, her name remained as irreplaceable as it was attractive for many years.” And she stood out, as always, with her daring neckline, for which she received the nickname Liza Golenkaya from a young age. Now they did not at all match her age - Elizaveta Mikhailovna was already approaching fifty. It was especially unpleasant for people of clergy to look at this. Filaret could hardly hide his disgust. In addition to her cleavage, Liza Golenkaya was famous for the fact that as a girl she fell in love with Pushkin and tried to seduce him, and he burned her passionate letters without reading them. She still managed to achieve, if not love, then the friendship and affection of the poet. Now Alexander Sergeevich lived in St. Petersburg. News about him came both good and not so pleasant. Delightful new chapters of “Eugene Onegin” have been published. Last year, Pushkin heroically took part in the Russian army’s campaign against Erzurum. Wrote the poem "Poltava". He published his collection of poems. But at the same time, an ugly scandal broke out with his obscene poem “Gabrieliad”, monstrously blasphemous. Written back in 1821, it was distributed in lists without the name of the author. Now the authorship was established, and Pushkin himself admitted this to the sovereign in a letter dated October 2, 1828: “Being questioned by the government, I did not consider myself obliged to admit to a prank that was as shameful as it was criminal - but now, questioned directly on behalf of my sovereign, I declare that the “Gabriiliada” was composed by me...” All that remained was to hope that now the poet was not lying in his opinion a prank “shameful and criminal” that he sincerely repented of writing the most vile poems, not worthy of his pen. And so General Khitrovo brought a fresh issue of “Northern Flowers” ​​with new poems by Pushkin to the house on Volkhonka. Having opened the almanac, she enthusiastically began to read to Sergei Mikhailovich’s guests: A vain gift, a random gift, Life, why were you given to me? The heart is empty, the mind is idle, These poems were written by Alexander Sergeevich on his birthday in 1828, but only now have they been published. Listening to the sorrowful lines, Filaret was horrified by the bottomless depth of despair and unbelief that opened before him. Having begged for a copy of the almanac, he arrived in the evening at the Trinity Compound and immediately sat down to write. Accustomed to correcting people with sermons, the saint began to correct Pushkin’s poetry: I myself am capricious in power Evil called out from the dark abysses; He filled his soul with passion, Remember me, forgotten by me! Shine through the darkness of thoughts, Soon the Moscow Metropolitan’s poetic response flew to the banks of the Neva. Filaret could personally bring it to St. Petersburg, going to the winter session of the Holy Synod. But he instructed the same Khitrovo to do this. The poem “Not in vain, not by chance...” was given to a completely new Pushkin, not the one who wrote “A Vain Gift.” Then, at the end of the 1820s, returned from exile by Nicholas I, he found himself in the St. Petersburg world, plunged into its bustle and was horrified not only by this vanity itself, but also by his own involvement in it. Time passed, Alexander Sergeevich truly fell in love for the first time, his soul opened up and shone in a new way. He visited the active army, saw the victorious valor of the Russian soldier, he himself was eager to fight and realized his rapture. In the coming 1830, he was preparing for his wedding with Natalya Nikolaevna Goncharova. This year will become the year of the Boldino autumn, but already now, in January, poems came out from the pen of the genius one after another, testifying to a new great surge of his creativity. He writes: It will die like a sad noise Waves splashing onto the distant shore, Like the sound of the night in a deep forest... No, I don't value rebellious pleasure Sensual delight, madness, frenzy... It's time! to Moscow, to Moscow now! The city here is prim and dull. Here speeches are ice, hearts are granite... And from this very Moscow, where his soul flies, he has news. Yes from whom! From the Bishop of Moscow himself! If he had received Philaret’s letter at the time when he was composing the Gabrieliad, one can only imagine with horror what a grin, what a grimace would have distorted his mouth. But Pushkin, at thirty years old, is already exactly the genius of whom we can and should rightfully be proud. Now he really is already “the smartest man in Russia.” He is shocked by the answer of Saint Philaret. Perhaps he even kisses the paper on which the letters written by the ruler glow. And on Sunday, January 19, 1830, he sat down to write a response poem: In hours of fun or idle boredom, Madness, laziness and passions. But even then the strings of evil Involuntarily I interrupted the ringing, When your voice is majestic I shed streams of unexpected tears, And the strength of meek and loving Rejected the darkness of earthly vanities, He called his work a lyre, Filaretov - a harp! Later, publishing these stanzas on February 12 in the Literary Gazette, Pushkin will redo the last line, moving away from a specific image of Metropolitan Philaret to a generalized image of a certain seraphim, with a small letter: But on that Sunday day he wrote to the personal addressee - Filaret of Moscow. And most importantly, what the Tsar of Russian poetry admits is that his soul “rejected the darkness of earthly vanities.” With this purified soul, he will go to Moscow in March. On May 6, his engagement to Natalya Nikolaevna took place, to whom he writes at this time: The sad legends have changed, You are without participation and attention And meetings of conditional expectations In the gardens, in the silence of the nights. In his spiritual insight, Pushkin parted with his sinful past. He dreams from now on to become a faithful husband, to get rid of the destructive Don Juanism. No less important is the fact that he soon pronounces anathema to the godless crowd, anathema to pride, anathema to the thirst for glory. This anathema is in one of his best and most important poems: Poet! do not value people's love. There will be a momentary noise of enthusiastic praise; You will hear the judgment of a fool and the laughter of a cold crowd, But you remain firm, calm and gloomy. You are the king: live alone. On the road to freedom Go where your free mind takes you, Improving the fruits of your favorite thoughts, Without demanding rewards for a noble deed. They are in you. You are your own highest court; You know how to evaluate your work more strictly than anyone else. Are you satisfied with it, discerning artist? Are you satisfied? So let the crowd scold him And spits on the altar where your fire burns, And your tripod shakes in childish playfulness. Pushkin in St. Petersburg, Filaret in Moscow. Filaret came to St. Petersburg, Pushkin left for Moscow. Filaret returned to Moscow, Pushkin returned to St. Petersburg. It’s as if fate is deliberately separating them from each other. But this year there is a close spiritual connection between them. “The soul is warmed by your fire...” And it would not be an exaggeration to say that this year a pie was baked on Filaret’s fire, which we all know under the name “Boldino Autumn”. Moscow Chrysostom breathed new life into the soul of the king of poets. In May, the Metropolitan returned to his Moscow flock and on this occasion marked himself with a sermon “On the day of the discovery of the relics of our father Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia, the Wonderworker.” In essence, this is a rather lengthy lecture on the divine origin of all nature. And he ended it with a blessing to Moscow: “The most pious emperor himself sends through my measure a word of his high favor, greetings, and love to good Moscow. Good Moscow!.., accept this good news, carry it from house to house, from hundred to hundred; let her go beyond the gates of the vast city; let him pass through villages and towns, near and far... And at this time, not only the good news of Philaret, but also one very unpleasant traveler, spread through villages and towns, near and far. Persia took revenge on us for our humiliation in an insidious way - from there cholera came to Rus'. In July she was already visiting Georgia, soon she appeared in Astrakhan and was particularly rampant there; in August she was met by Tsaritsyn and Saratov, and then by the entire Volga region. At the beginning of September, Pushkin arrived in Boldino and was captured by cholera. “In our neighborhood there is Cholera morbus (a very nice lady). And she can detain me for another twenty days!” - he wrote to his bride in despair, but did not yet know that the cholera quarantine would keep him in captivity not twenty, but more than eighty days, to which we owe the fact that we have incomparable masterpieces of Russian literature - “The Shot”, “The Blizzard”, “The Undertaker”, “The Station Agent”, “The Peasant Young Lady”, “The House in Kolomna”, “The Miserly Knight”, “Mozart and Salieri”, “The History of the Village” Goryukhin”, “The Stone Guest”, “A Feast During the Plague”, “Hero”, “My Genealogy”... That’s how much Pushkin was forced to write by the “very nice person” cholera morbus! This uninvited guest arrived in Moscow in early September, but her visit officially began on the 16th. The Moscow bishop, as befits a priest and preacher, saw the cause of the pestilence in the new errors of his compatriots - too many of them joyfully greeted news of new revolutions from Europe, in France the fall of the Bourbon dynasty occurred again, and in other countries freedom-loving hearts instantly flared. Even in his speech on the birthday of Emperor Nicholas, delivered in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin on June 25, 1830, he called: - Brothers! In our days there is a special need to point out such an obvious duty of serving God and His Kingdom. Behold, darkness covers the earth, and darkness upon the tongues (Is.60:2). Christian peoples, or, to be more specific, people who are allowed to be the language of these peoples, representatives and proclaimers of their wisdom, directors of their activities, for the most part not only do not know, but what is much worse, do not want to know Christianity; the kingdoms of the earth do not seek, do not call for the Kingdom of God, and pay less attention to it than to the kingdom of the last of their neighbors... These builders of the new Babylon are working to bring everything into confusion, so that, having refuted the accepted social concepts, established on the very truth of things or strengthened by custom and antiquity, they end up not understanding each other. They want kings who are not sanctified by the King of those who reign; rulers enslaved by their subjects; on the contrary, they attribute royal and autocratic power to the people, that is, they give the hands and feet the power of the head; Their people are ruled by rebellions, sedition, robberies, robberies, and burnings; and the fruit worthy of this imaginary autocracy of the people is the absence of public and private security. Thus the heathen are tottering because they are taught in vain; because in their unblessed assemblies they gather against the Lord and His Christ. So, from September 16, Moscow also became a cholera city. The streets, squares and courtyards were covered in smoke - fires were burned everywhere from leaves and anything that gives more smoke. It was believed that this somehow saved from the spread of the disease. They began to say that there was no need to go to churches and gather there for common prayer. On September 17, Filaret wrote in a letter to his vicar Ignatius: “It is in vain that they are more afraid of prayer than of illness. Is prayer really more harmful than illness? Having experienced three cholera before the current one, I saw quite a few experiences that where prayer intensified, the disease weakened and stopped.” On September 18, the newly built Church of St. Basil of Caesarea was opened on Tverskaya-Yamskaya. Having consecrated it, Filaret spoke about the sins of King David, which entailed punishment - pestilence. – The punishment of sin was revealed, and David’s repentance was accomplished. And David spoke to the Lord, when he saw the Angel beating people, and said: Behold, I am a sinner. David completely repented of the evil of sin, and immediately the Lord repented of the evil of punishment. And he said to the Angel who destroys people: It is enough now, take away your hand. Notice the saving effect of repentance... Brethren! Don’t we see something similar to David’s menacing vision?.. The destructive disease that for several years devastated the non-Christian countries of Asia has also spread to the Christian countries of Europe... What should we do? I think the same thing that David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did at the sight of the destroying angel... Let us cast our hearts, brethren, before God in humility, in submission to His inscrutable destinies. It is difficult to imagine that this sermon contained a hint of Nicholas’s activities, but soon gossip came to the Winter Palace that the Moscow Metropolitan had denounced the sovereign and blamed him for the onset of cholera. Nikolai Pavlovich was offended like a child, and soon sent Filaret an order to urgently arrive in the Northern capital. Unexpectedly, the saint refused. In a letter to his governor at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Archimandrite Athanasius, he put it this way: “I postponed my journey to St. Petersburg in order to die with my people.” He also abandoned his usual trip to the monastery of St. Sergius at this time of year. On September 20, Filaret sent an order to the Moscow Theological Academy and Seminary to take the necessary measures to save them from cholera. Classes were limited to only one hour a day, the rest of the time they had to do home exercises in their rooms. Students who had relatives or parents in Moscow were allowed to go home altogether. Soon Filaret drew up orders on how monasteries should behave during the epidemic. In all the churches of Moscow, prayer services began to be held for deliverance from the disease, and on September 25, Saint Philaret served such a prayer service in the Assumption Cathedral, after which, together with all the clergy, he walked in a religious procession around the Kremlin. The first kneeling prayer was said at the Execution Ground, the second - in the Iverskaya Chapel, the third - upon the return of the procession to the Assumption Cathedral. Count Mikhail Vladimirovich Tolstoy wrote in his memoirs: “Never before (as far as the old people could remember), nor after has there been such a pious mood among Moscow residents: the churches were full every day, as on the holy day of Easter; almost everyone fasted, confessed and partook of the holy mysteries, as if preparing for inevitable death.” Soon a rumor spread that the sovereign himself was going to Moscow. And in the seventh issue of “Gazette on the State of the City of Moscow” they published a letter from the emperor to Governor General Golitsyn, which clearly stated: “I will come to share with you the dangers and labors. Devotion to the will of God! I approve of all your measures. On my behalf, thank everyone who helps you with their labors.” The commentary to the letter said: “Europe was surprised at Catherine II, who inoculated herself with smallpox as an encouraging example for our fathers. What will she say now when she hears about Nicholas’s readiness to share such labors and dangers on an equal basis with all his subjects? On the evening of September 28, the emperor “appeared like a knight without fear or reproach in his capital. The parent’s heart could not resist!” Having met with Filaret, Nikolai first asked: “Isn’t it harmful, Vladyka, that you gather masses of people and make them kneel in prayer on damp ground?” “Your Majesty,” answered the Metropolitan, “the Lord justified the church’s action, at least against this doubt.” The number of people falling ill after religious processions is not more, but somewhat less, than in the days before the religious processions. On the morning of September 29, the tsar came out to the people near the Iveron Chapel and led his subjects to the Kremlin, where the anointed saint was met by the saint on the steps of the Assumption Cathedral with the following words: - Most pious sovereign! Kings usually love to appear as kings of glory in order to surround themselves with the splendor of solemnity in order to receive honors. You now appear among us as the king of exploits, to share dangers with your people, to overcome difficulties. Such a royal deed is higher than human glory, since it is based on Christian virtue. The King of Heaven foresees this sacrifice of your heart and mercifully protects you, sir, may resurrection and life come with you! At that time, the memoirs of Bourrienne, Napoleon's personal secretary, circulated, which, in particular, told how Bonaparte visited a plague barracks in Jaffa and shook hands with his soldiers before ordering the doctors to give them poison so that they would not suffer from a terrible disease, and most importantly, due to the fact that the enemy was approaching Jaffa. Enthusiastic fans of Napoleon vied with each other to repeat this episode from the life of their idol, correlating it with the current infection in Moscow and the arrival of the sovereign in the cholera city. But there was already information that Burien’s memories were a fake. "How so? After all, Burien is still alive! - the enthusiastic people argued. “He’s alive, but he’s been in a mental hospital for a long time and is unable to write anything,” the skeptics answered. “So your Burien is actually a False Burien!” Whether Napoleon really visited the plague barracks remains unknown. But Nikolai’s visit to cholera-ridden Moscow is undeniable. Pushkin, sitting in quarantine in Boldin, wrote a magnificent poem in which he argued with skeptics: May the light of truth be cursed, When mediocrity is cold, Envious, greedy to temptation, He pleases idly! - No! The darkness of low truths is dearer to me Leave your heart to the hero! So what? Will he be without him? Tyrant... This masterpiece has a clearly marked date: “September 29, 1830.” It seems as if the poet spoke passionately not only about Napoleon, but also about the Russian Tsar. Or maybe so. Perhaps Pushkin wrote these lines later, after learning about the sovereign’s arrival in Moscow. And he set the date so that they wouldn’t laugh too much at his devotion to Nicholas. Probably, someone in Boldin chuckled: “We know, we know how he is there among the cholera patients... He’s probably afraid to touch everything!” So Alexander Sergeevich answered them. However, this is just a guess. Let's return from Boldin to Moscow. The Emperor was greatly concerned about the precautions he should take. It was no coincidence that the first thing he asked Filaret about was national prayer services. And he received the saint’s firm assurance that when it comes to church unity, inspired by true faith, precautions are unnecessary. The sacrament of communion, when everyone approaches the sacred vessels and receives communion from one spoon, could especially inspire fear. And then Filaret assured the king that there were no cases of infection after communion. One can’t help but remember recent events, when a wave of so-called “swine flu” swept across the world. In the Western Christian Church, where in recent times they don’t really take communion anyway, there are strict bans on communion during an epidemic. The Orthodox Church remained firm, there were no prohibitions, and in our churches the number of people receiving communion did not decrease at all. In the fall of 1830, there were many times more communicants than before. People fasted strictly, as during Great Lent, confessed, repenting of all their sins, as before death, and received communion with especially open hearts. And the participants did not become infected! In one of his numerous administrative documents issued during the time of cholera, Filaret wrote: “In church teachings, with the observance of decency, mentioning that the righteous God sent this destructive disease as punishment for our sins, to excite the people to prayer, repentance, correction of life and to strengthen and sanctify themselves by communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, which in Moscow itself is already being fulfilled by the Orthodox children of the Church from the very appearance of the disease until now; It seems that God’s true mercy begins to appear here in reducing the number of sick people and the strength of the disease.” During his nine-day stay in the cholera capital, Emperor Nicholas carefully checked the state of affairs, ordered in his daily bulletin not to soften the truth about the disease, no matter how regrettable it was, and fully supported the actions of Metropolitan Philaret, about whom he was sometimes informed of something very unpleasant. Thus, the head of the Third Department, Alexander Khristoforovich Benkendorf, who accompanied the tsar on a trip to Moscow, had at his disposal a vile denunciation from a certain official M. J. von Fock: “In the last years of the last reign, mystics and sectarians mastered absolutely all the paths leading to power: one mystical group, under the command of Philaret, generally called a Russian Jesuit; the other is the so-called Orthodox, under the leadership of Photius (Spassky). The mystical one was patronized by Prince A.N. Golitsyn, and the Orthodox one, in the end, by Count A.A. Arakcheev, who won.. Now, on the occasion of the discovery of the infection in Russia, the mystics have raised their heads again. Mystics confuse the gullible with predictions of troubles for Russia. The name of Philaret is again heard among the mystics, and his last speech reveals his plans. This speech is such that it amazed everyone. One military general, having read this speech, exclaimed: “If I were the military governor in Moscow, then in response to my answer I would lock this Jacobin prophet in a monastery!” This is absolutely a manifesto against the sovereign, recruitment, and war." Having visited Moscow, Nicholas I and Benckendorff became convinced that the informer von Fock was clearly exaggerating, and the annual report of the Third Department for 1830 said much more softly: “The party of mystics tried hard to influence the gullible. The famous speech of Metropolitan Philaret regarding the appearance of cholera in Moscow outraged everyone, and the sectarians secretly rejoiced at it.” So, the tsar softened towards the MOSCOW Metropolitan. Although long kneeling prayers in the open air were still strictly prohibited, since cold days were approaching, and cholera especially cleverly grabs people with a cold in its claws. On Sunday, October 5, a special day for Moscow, when the memory of all Moscow saints is celebrated - Metropolitans Peter, Alexei, Jonah, Philip and Patriarch Hermogenes, in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin, Metropolitan Philaret and Tsar Nicholas, after the liturgy, prayed together for deliverance from a destructive disease. After this, Moscow Chrysostom preached a stern sermon: – And now is not the time to celebrate on the holiday, because the word of the Lord is being fulfilled over us: I will turn your holidays into pity ( Am. 8:10 ). And on the Day of the Lord in the house of God it is not free to theologize, because the light of contemplation is obscured by the fog of sorrow, and caring thoughts interrupt the thread of reflection and speech... The destroying angel walks from farm to house, leaves most of the inhabitants untouched, touches not many, strikes some... Let us think, brethren, about the importance of the present time for us... When should we hesitate? Where to put saving intentions? Is there a place to sleep carelessly on the edge of an abyss? It is necessary for each of us to immediately and zealously strive to alleviate the burden of our previous sins through repentance and acts of love for mankind... Knowing that the king was slandered, as if Filaret had him in mind when two and a half weeks ago he spoke about punishment for the sins of King David, the bishop did not fail to object to the evil gossip: – There should be much comfort and encouragement for us, brothers, and what God’s anointed, our most pious sovereign, is doing among us. He is not the cause of our misfortune, as David was once the first cause of the misfortune of Jerusalem and Israel... however, with David’s self-sacrifice, he accepts participation in our misfortune. He sees our danger and does not think about his own safety... Filaret knew that Nikolai would soon leave, but in his words he turned everything as if he was letting the Tsar leave Moscow or even inviting him to leave, blessing his departure with his pastoral words: - Sovereign! We know how close your ancient capital is to your heart, but Russia is on your shoulders; Europe is before your caring eyes, Europe, infected with a much more deadly epidemic of immeasurable and violent wisdom; against this ulcer you need to strengthen the barrier; This requires vigilant observation of events, many pieces of advice, and addition to the ranks of your army... On Tuesday, at the word of Philaret, the sovereign left Moscow for St. Petersburg. The following Sunday marked the next anniversary of the liberation of Moscow from Napoleon's troops. At the religious procession on October 12, the bishop gave orders to his vicar Innokenty (Selnokrinov): “I trust the parish clergy to be in their places and pray for deliverance from the disease. It is inconvenient to gather all the clergy in action because they are needed everywhere for the sick.” According to the Tsar, the Metropolitan canceled prayer services in the open air. In his speech, again delivered in the Assumption Cathedral, he appealed to the flock: – Let us submit to God’s fate in everything; let us follow every wave of Providence... For since God is visiting us now, without a doubt, because of our sins, then most of all we need repentance, and with repentance, sadness is more consistent than joy, if only the sadness was for God, whom we have offended with our sins... – Do not reject our imperfect and unworthy prayers; do not increase Your anger for our lack of faith and insensitivity or impatience... See widows threatened with childlessness; see babies who have not known their right hand, nor their foolishness, who also do not understand the guilt or the calamity of orphanhood that awaits them. See and have mercy... Alas, the cup of God's wrath has not yet been completely poured out. Cholera only got worse. By the end of October, one and a half hundred people were dying every day. It was hard to see how the fun continued in some rich houses, with gorging and drunkenness. Consecrating the restored Trinity Church in the hospice house of Count Sheremetev, on October 26, Filaret called on the careless rich to come to their senses and spend their money not on balls and dinners, but on helping in the fight against the destructive epidemic. Filaret established the Moscow Bishops' Temporary Committee for Helping Those in Need. The largest donations during the epidemic were distinguished by Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich, the nobles Golitsyn, Sheremetev, Samarin, Pashkov, merchants Aksenov, Lepeshkin, Rybnikov. But at the request of Filaret, many donations also came from the monasteries. A lot of orders had to be sent to parishes so that the priests would not be lazy to constantly impress upon the people the need to observe precautionary measures. Cholera riots were often initiated in the following way: near the house where cholera manifested itself, police officers stood so as not to let anyone into this house; Relatives come to visit and begin to be indignant that they are not allowed in to visit people dear to their hearts, the indignation develops into a squabble, the police have to use force, and then the whole street comes out to stand up, but not for the representatives of the authorities, who in Russia are always disrespected, such is the nature of our people. Or are our government representatives such that they are always misunderstood... “It (cholera) does not like either excessive insolence or excessive timidity, especially intemperance; consequently, it teaches caution, abstinence, and trust in God’s Providence,” wrote Metropolitan Philaret to Bishop Gabriel (Rozanov) of Ekaterinoslav. Yes, first of all, he called for repentance, prayer, communion, but he preached not only this, but also purely medical methods of combating the disease. I sent recipes everywhere I could. On September 27, 1830, he wrote the following to his mother in Kolomna: “Good health to you, dear Madam Mother, and to the whole family. I would like to know about your health. I am healthy, and my home is safe. In the city there are several sick and dying of a dangerous disease. I am sending some notes about precautions: A way to purify the air in the chambers: pour into the powder 1 pound of bleaching lime, 12 pounds or three glasses of water and, mixing this composition with a wooden stick, let it stand for half an hour so that it can settle, and then separating the upper part of this solution of bleaching lime...” - and so on, a detailed description of what needs to be done in addition to prayers and fasting. The harm of bleach to the human body and animals was already known at that time, and therefore it was prescribed to remove people and all living creatures from the premises for several hours during spraying with bleach. There were many very unpleasant cases when overly zealous Christians or schismatics found in what was happening too formidable signs of God, sinfully began to cry out about the onset of the Last Judgment, and the quarantine ticket was called the seal of the Antichrist. It was bitter for Filaret to hear that the Old Believers in his native Kolomna especially took up the task of inciting such unrest. “It is painful, by the way, to hear that schismatics, dispelling false teaching, in support of their opinions, are trying to prove the unworthiness of Orthodox priests by the fact that they do not teach anything at the present time,” the Moscow Metropolitan wrote in his next indicative appeal. – And in our fatherland there was an infectious disease in 1771, and then quarantine precautions were used, which, of necessity, caused some difficulties to the people; everyone sees that it was not the time of the Antichrist, for the time of disaster, by the goodness of God, has passed and no Antichrist has appeared...” No matter how Saint Philaret warned his mother, no matter how much he prayed for her trouble-free life in Kolomna, in early November 1830 news came that she, too, had contracted cholera. Fortunately, Evdokia Nikitichna Drozdova was in good health and survived, overcoming the disease. But it brought a lot of worry to my ardently loving son. In mid-November, early winter set in and cholera subsided. On November 15, Filaret wrote to Viceroy Athanasius: “The disease in Moscow has decreased significantly and, if God extends mercy, seems to be coming to an end,” and five days later in the cathedral church of the Chudov Monastery he spoke in a word dedicated to the day of Emperor Nicholas’s accession to the throne: “The Lord has created this day for us, the sons of Russia, so that we may rejoice in the king given to us: and thanks be to God that this joyful day is rather respectfully given way to the days of sorrow that suddenly came upon this city.” The city of tsars is recovering so as not to spend the tsar’s day in untimely despondency. In this sermon he called cholera a rod in the hand of God. He probably heard a lot during these days of complaints about the injustice of the Creator, who, together with sinners, punishes innocent babies. And Filaret responded to these bitter complaints, as befits a Christian, a shepherd, saying that it is not babies who are punished, but their relatives, while “the innocent dying does not lose anything, but gains a safe and better life,” and as a result, “the death of an innocent baby from a destructive disease does not prevent this disease from remaining a social punishment of God, and, perhaps, moreover, in particular, a punishment or a means of spiritual stimulation for those who have lost this the baby and he will be mourned.” Here he also argued with fanatics who objected to medical treatment of the disease: – In the very case where illness is truly God’s punishment, healing from illness should by no means be compared with escaping from punishment. Thus, he preached the modern Orthodox understanding of medicine as God’s assistant in the matter of saving a person who has atoned for his sins with illness. At the beginning of December, the epidemic ended, and on December 6, on the name day of Emperor Nicholas in the Chudov Monastery, Metropolitan Philaret congratulated his fellow citizens on the opening of Moscow after quarantine: - Congratulations to you, resurrected from the fear of death, healed from mortal illness, a city resolved from the difficulties of life!.. If you are resurrected, then know how to take care of the safety of life returned to you... A sinner, punished and pardoned, to move away from sin, isn’t it a special urge, doesn’t it have two wings - in the memory of punishment and in gratitude for the pardon?.. Beloved city! It was bitter for you; but your cup has been greatly sweetened: keep what you have been given with gratitude; prudently deserve the best; Beware of sins and mistakes, so that nothing worse happens. Let us affirm to ourselves, brothers, and never cease to fulfill the vows that the saving time of tribulation inspired us with. On the same day, Pushkin galloped to Moscow with a whole heap of new works, with a soul warmed by Filaret’s lyre, with the desire to quickly begin preparations for his marriage to Natalya Nikolaevna. This wedding took place on February 18, 1831 in the Church of the Great Ascension at the Nikitsky Gate. Metropolitan Philaret was in St. Petersburg at the next session of the Holy Synod. And could he have crowned Pushkin? I would like to think that yes: if he were in Moscow, none other than he would have performed the sacrament of marriage. It would be worse to know that Filaret was in Moscow and was not present at such an important event in the life of such an important person in Russia. However, Filaret also had some connection to this wedding. It is known that he forbade the sacrament of wedding of Pushkin and Goncharova to be performed in the house church of Prince Sergei Mikhailovich Golitsyn and insisted that this take place in the Church of the Great Ascension at the Nikitsky Gate. Pushkin himself later noted the hand of Providence in this - after all, he himself was born on the day of the Ascension of the Lord. Russia paid much more attention than to Pushkin’s wedding to other events that unfolded in 1831. The day before, Poland had rebelled, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich fled from Warsaw, and with difficulty managed to withdraw Russian troops from the city and retreat with them to Bialystok. Field Marshal Ivan Ivanovich Dibich was appointed commander-in-chief of the army to suppress the Polish uprising. The Emperor advised the Poles to calm down. In response to this, the Sejm deprived him of the Polish throne. Throughout Poland, persecution and persecution of dissidents, as Catholicism calls its Orthodox fellow citizens, unfolded. On January 24, Diebitsch's troops entered Poland, on February 7, the valiant Ivan Ivanovich defeated the Poles at Wavre and approached Warsaw; On February 13, a major battle took place on the approaches to the Polish capital at Grochow. Our troops lost ten thousand people, the Polish ones - twelve thousand and retreated to Warsaw. And in Russia itself there were many liberals who declared: - The Tsar is a gendarme! Strangler of freedoms! Europe must come to the aid of long-suffering Poland! Accordingly, surveillance began on the disseminators of liberal and Polonophile ideas. Among the zealots of Russian autocracy, as always, there were many who, having been burned by milk, blew on the water. In January 1831, the emperor received a denunciation from General Alexander Borisovich Golitsyn. Perhaps the same one who, according to von Fock, called Philaret a Jacobin prophet. A brave warrior, Kutuzov’s adjutant at Borodino, in peacetime he was also eager to fight, this time against the enemies of Orthodoxy and the official Church - Freemasons, Old Believers, sectarians, heretics. But sometimes he began to imagine God knows what. The denunciation contained a message that a new conspiracy was brewing in Russia by the Masonic society of the Illuminati, founded back in 1776 by the German mystic Adam Weishaupt, author of the book “On the Fear of Death.” Saint Philaret is identified in the denunciation of the brave general as the leader of the conspiracy! “The main one,” wrote Alexander Borisovich, “was the current Metropolitan of Moscow Philaret, all of Russia already understands how it is, despite his moral, secretive appearance and lean face... All his so-called high sermons breathe eclectic confusion and intolerant mysticism, while simple ones have a non-monarchical direction... He is the head of the spiritual government and a tireless patron of learning, gives way to the flow of throughout Russia of German rational teaching and the philosophy of Weishaupt." Where is Filaret and where is Weishaupt! The founder of the Illuminati order preached that a person is initially born good, and religion and the state make him bad. Is this in tune with Filaret? The Illuminati dreamed of a time when there would be only republics in the entire world. The year of the founding of the order is the same as the year of the proclamation of the United States, where the coat of arms of the Illuminati is very common - a pyramid with a shining all-seeing eye. How could Filaret dream of republics if in his sermons he constantly affirmed the divine essence of monarchies headed by God’s anointed ones! Philaret spoke about the Freemasons without any equivocation: “Why drink from hidden and, perhaps, unclean wells, when the spiritually beneficial creations of the Fathers of the Church are always ready for us?”; “Why come to God from the back porch if the front is open?” Laconic and clear. As in the case of the slander about Filaret’s involvement in the Decembrists, the tsar easily brushed aside the denunciation about the ruler’s involvement in the Illuminati. And soon on April 19, 1831, Metropolitan Philaret “for his zealous and active service in the archpastoral rank, worthily worn, and, moreover, for many years of commendable exploits and works in favor of the Church and the state, constantly rendered on any occasion, he was most graciously ranked with the Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called” - the highest award of the Russian Empire! It was an Easter gift from the sovereign. How else better could the emperor express his complete trust and disposition towards Moscow Chrysostom? But Nicholas could have waited another year and a half and timed the order to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the bishop. But right now he wanted to make it clear to all Filaret’s ill-wishers what importance the Bishop has in the Russian state. But the emperor did not give Dmitry Brianchaninov to the Moscow Metropolitan. This very gifted young man in many respects, the scion of a famous family descended from the squire Dmitry Donskoy, nicknamed Brenko, just recently graduated with honors from the Main Engineering School, managed to become famous for his literary works and ability to conduct an entertaining conversation, and he was invited to dinner parties with such, for example, pillars of St. Petersburg society as the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Alexei Nikolaevich Olenin. Filaret saw people through and through and immediately noticed an outstanding person in Dmitry Alexandrovich. And he also openly admitted his desire to become a monk. After serving one year in the Dinaburg fortress, Lieutenant Brianchaninov submitted his resignation and labored in the Alexander-Svirsky Monastery. In February, the governor, Archimandrite Afanasy (Fedorov), died, and Filaret was looking for a replacement for him. Even earlier, while in St. Petersburg, foreseeing the death of Athanasius, he turned to the Synod with a request to send Brianchaninov to the Moscow diocese. - No, I won’t give it to Philaret! - said Nikolai Pavlovich, and six months later the brilliant young man, having taken monastic vows under the name Ignatius, became abbot and abbot of the Holy Trinity St. Sergius Hermitage near St. Petersburg. So fate sent two great preachers and religious thinkers of the 19th century in different directions - Filaret (Drozdov) and Ignatius (Brianchaninov). And Archimandrite Anthony (Medvedev) became the new abbot of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and abbot of the Spaso-Bethans Monastery. Filaret met him back in 1824, when the young hieromonk of the Vysokogorsk desert, Anthony, was returning from a pilgrimage to the holy places of Kyiv and stopped in Moscow. Philaret remembered him for his clear mind, education and at the same time restraint, and when the question of a new governor arose, the saint thought of him among other applicants. Further, according to Philaret himself, the following happened: “But at that time a wanderer appeared, who named me Father Anthony as the governor of the Lavra.” Anthony was nearly forty, before becoming a monk he was a doctor, and now he was already serving as a builder, that is, the rector of the Vysokogorsk monastery in the Nizhny Novgorod diocese not far from Arzamas, he used the advice of Elder Seraphim of Sarov... Why not? After making inquiries, Filaret found out that in fact Antony was not Medvedev, but the illegitimate son of the noble and wealthy Prince Yegor Alexandrovich Gruzinsky. On February 26, 1831, the Moscow Metropolitan sent a letter to the Vysokogorsk monastery inviting Anthony to become the vicar of the monastery. With this letter, a correspondence began between them, constituting the most extensive part of the epistolary heritage of Moscow Chrysostom. Anthony arrived at the Moscow Trinity courtyard for a blessing on March 10 and on the same day in the house church he was sworn in to serve as the vicar of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Later, he shared one secret with Filaret - he already knew about his imminent appointment. Back in January of that year, Father Anthony began to be oppressed by a constant premonition of death. With this he went to Seraphim of Sarov, and the elder predicted: “That’s not what you think, my joy, not that.” God's providence entrusts you with a vast monastery. Kindly receive the brethren from Sarov if anyone comes to the Lavra or whom I send. Do not abandon my orphans when the time comes to you. Soon Anthony was received by the brethren of the monastery of St. Sergius and ordained to the rank of Archimandrite of Bethany. After some time, he will become Filaret’s confessor, being ten years younger than his spiritual child. At first, only Anthony consulted Filaret in everything, but over time, Filaret increasingly began to seek Anthony’s advice and spiritual support. From now on and until the end of his life, the saint confessed and received communion at the abbot of the Lavra. In the spring of 1831, Filaret fell ill. Until the end of the summer, his incomparable sermons were not heard in Moscow. With the onset of warm days, cholera reappeared. In Moscow, she no longer committed atrocities as last year, there were not so many cases, but she went west and north, raging both in St. Petersburg and in Poland, where on May 14 Diebitsch again defeated the rebels in a major battle at Ostroleka, and two weeks later this valiant field marshal at the age of forty-six died of cholera. Ivan Fedorovich Paskevich was appointed in his place. In June, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich died of cholera in Vitebsk. In St. Petersburg, rumors were spread about deliberate poisonings, and gullible citizens staged a pogrom at the cholera hospital on Sennaya and killed doctors. The Emperor personally appeared on Sennaya Square, appeared before a crowd of five thousand with words of reproach, then knelt in prayer in front of the Church of the Savior, and everyone fell to their knees with him. “Pray for the people of St. Petersburg,” Filaret wrote to Anthony on July 9. - Cholera is very strong there. However, in the first days of this month, it seems that relief followed. Pavel and Benjamin are sick in our courtyard.” He wrote few words about his own illness, only apologizing for the fact that he did not often write letters and could not come to Trinity. Finally, on August 22, Filaret was able to go out to the Moscow flock in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin to deliver a word on the anniversary of the coronation of Emperor Nicholas. He praised the sovereign for saving the Fatherland from the Decembrist rebellion, fighting two victorious wars against Persia and Turkey, and now successfully fighting in Poland. He also praised him for the fact that he is not afraid of dangers, is not afraid of cholera, and is not afraid to strengthen the state with a firm hand. He praised the king for trusting in God: “It’s high up to God,” says the common people’s mind. Yes, high, for you, who think low. In fact, God is neither low nor high, neither close nor far; since He is omnipresent, and therefore closer to you than your soul is to your body; just know how to find this closeness through faith and prayer. The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth (Ps. 145:18). But I’m not worthy of this, someone will say. So quickly reject everything that makes you unworthy; and meanwhile believe, and pray, and trust in God. A few days later, he again devoted his sermon to condemning people’s craving for excessive wealth. He recalled the Gospel story about a young man who kept all the commandments and hoped to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but when Christ invited him to give away his rich possessions to the poor, the young man walked away because he could not control his love for wealth. He preferred true wealth - to be with Christ - to imaginary, temporary, earthly wealth. Filaret explained: “What should we do, someone will say, should everyone really give up their property and become beggars?” - No, that’s not the point again. For Christ did not demand voluntary poverty from everyone... Have what necessity forces you to have and the rule of your rank allows you to have. But beware of appropriating and retaining anything beyond this; and do not allow yourself to thirst for more... If you do not know how to preserve your soul while preserving your property, then is it really not better to destroy your wealth than for it to destroy you?.. Another sermon by Philaret dates back to the same time, dedicated to the human body, which is the church of the soul, and therefore it should be treated as a church, and, therefore, not desecrated: - Note, Christian soul, the sacred and even mysterious importance of the custom of placing the bodies of the departed in the Lord at the church of the Lord. They are worthy of this honor because they themselves are churches of God, members of the body of Christ, dwellings of the Holy Spirit. Think about this often, with attention, while you wear your earthly body; and carefully cleanse your body through abstinence, sanctify it through the exercises of piety, and fashion it with an imperishable garment from works of faith and virtue... At the beginning of August, Pushkin wrote his powerful poem “To the Slanderers of Russia” regarding the Polish uprising, in which he spoke as a Russian patriot, and at the end of the month Paskevich took Warsaw and personally headed the provisional Polish government. In addition to Anthony, in this year of 1831, God sent Filaret another new friend, with whom he would be friends until the end of his days. Twenty-five-year-old writer Andrei Nikolaevich Muravyov returned from a pilgrimage to Egypt and Palestine. He presented to the Moscow Metropolitan his book “Journey to Holy Places in 1830,” an exquisite work in style, filled with the fragrance of genuine Christian faith, containing a huge amount of remarkable information. Pushkin, having read this book, responded enthusiastically about it: “We read Mr. Muravyov’s book with tenderness and involuntary envy... He visited the Holy Places as a believer, as a humble Christian, as a simple-minded crusader, eager to be thrown into the dust before the tomb of Christ the Savior... Our young compatriot was attracted there not by a vain desire to find colors for a poetic novel, not with restless curiosity to find violent impressions for a tired, dull heart... He had the opportunity to fulfill a long-standing desire of his heart, a favorite dream of adolescence... about the keys of St. Church, about Jerusalem." Filaret carefully read the manuscript, made some significant corrections to it, and thus gave his blessing for printing. From that time on, a constant correspondence began between him and Muravyov; moreover, Filaret planned in the future to ensure that Andrei Nikolaevich became chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod. In a word, another star rose in the horizon of Russian literature, and after Pushkin, Muravyov could repeat: “The soul is warmed by your fire...”