His Holiness Patriarch Hermogenes and the Russian clergy in their service to the Fatherland in the Time of Troubles

(Speech delivered on February 19, 1912 in the hall of the Society for Religious and Moral Education in the Spirit of the Orthodox Church on Stremyannaya Street). In these memorable days, on this holy evening of prayerful remembrance, the martyrdom of the “solid adamant, an unshakable pillar, a strong champion of the Orthodox true Christian faith” and “against the enemies (of the Fatherland) of a strong and invincible stand,” the third All-Russian His Holiness Patriarch Hermogenes, it seems to us quite timely and appropriate in this solemn meeting to propose to your gracious I would like to bring to your attention my best word about the hero Hermogenes and the Russian Orthodox clergy in their service to the Fatherland during the time of troubles in Rus', called hard times. Choosing this subject for a real funeral conversation, in our opinion, is timely and useful for many reasons. The now honored High Hierarch of the Russian Church, His Beatitude and Holiness Patriarch Hermogenes, surrounded by a great host of valiant contemporary hierarchs of the Russian Church, metropolitans, archbishops and bishops, ascetics and monastic leaders, archimandrites, abbots, cathedral and ordinary elders, and an innumerable multitude of cathedral archpriests, priests and deacons, appears before our mental gaze in all its charming greatness is precisely the indestructible adamant and a steadfast fighter against the enemies of the Russian Orthodox Church and our Fatherland, on the one hand, and a gentle nurturer-father among his ardently loving and obedient children, on the other hand. We are further encouraged to focus your attention on this subject of our conversation by the fact that the very feat of Patriarch Hermogenes’ courageous stand on guard of the Fatherland and the Orthodox Church was possible for him only on the condition that his closest collaborators, the archpastors and the entire Russian clergy, with very few sad exceptions, were unanimous with him in convictions and unanimous in actions, assisting him in every possible way in all his good endeavors. Being in the very heart of his long-suffering homeland, in Moscow, and for the most part among the ambitious, treacherous Russian boyars and service people, constantly surrounded by the original cunning enemies of the homeland and the Orthodox Church - the Poles, who vigilantly followed all the movements of the courageous sad man of the Russian land, and then even imprisoned “in great confinement”, in the stuffy dungeon of the Kirillovsky metochion, Patriarch Hermogenes was without help and energetic the assistance of these accomplices and collaborators devoted to him in soul and body could not have raised all of Rus' to its feet, inspired it to a crusade to the walls of Belokamennaya to liberate the Kremlin shrines dear to everyone. To remain silent about the unforgettable merits of the Russian hierarchy and the Russian clergy in this troubled time of our Fatherland means to be ungrateful to them. Finally, for us, who so recently experienced a new hard time in our Fatherland, called “liberation”, when the Russian hierarchy and our clergy, white and black, were subjected to mockery and grave accusations, the echoes of which we, unfortunately, sometimes hear even from the heights of the pulpits of our state legislative chambers, to refresh our memory of their various exploits and services to the Church and the Fatherland, which they showed during this difficult time, very instructive and highly edifying. In these memoirs, all those “co-questioners” and imaginary guardians of the interests of the Church and the Motherland will find for themselves a convincing and definite answer who, not wanting to reckon with the immortal and diverse historical merits of our clergy in the field of education and moral educational service to the Russian people, focus their greedy gaze on the various treasures accumulated by the long-term skillful care of our clergy and the amazing generosity of our ancestors, ancient Russian lovers of God, in our famous laurels and monasteries and in ancient revered churches, and they ask annoying questions: what did the Russian clergy do for the Fatherland, and where did the accumulated church and monastic property go during times of severe domestic disasters? But, no matter how tempting the rewarding task of appearing before you at the present time in the role of an impartial narrator and connoisseur of the indisputable and greatest diverse services to our Fatherland of our hierarchy and the white and black clergy, to our deep regret, we hasten to make a reservation that we cannot do this in the desired completeness and thoroughness, and in advance we seek the indulgence of our honorable listeners. The reasons for this lie outside of us and even outside of the short time available to us for our real word. The fact is, by studying the numerous written monuments of the time of troubles that have reached us: letters, acts, stories and tales of contemporaries and chroniclers and others, we find in them very abundant material and detailed information to characterize the hierarchs contemporary to Patriarch Hermogenes and partly some archimandrites and abbots, but we have in them at the same time very meager and very general information regarding the activities of the white clergy in the person of him archpriests, priests and deacons. While apologizing for some incompleteness of the picture, we, however, hope in this regard to present to your favorable attention some very edifying facts from the life of the white clergy during the hard times. The now brightly honored All-Russian Patriarch Hermogenes, before his accession to the see of St. Metropolitan Peter, stood out quite brightly among the host of contemporary hierarchs of the Russian Church and with energetic administrative, pastoral and prolific literary activity in his native Kazan in the rank of Metropolitan of Kazan and Astrakhan. Completely unknown to us during the years of his youth and upbringing, serving as a stumbling block for his biographers arguing about his family and place of birth 1, Patriarch Hermogenes becomes known in the years of courage as an enlightened parish priest of the St. Nicholas-Gostinnodvorsky Church in Kazan, zealous for his time. Well acquainted with the local clergy, of which we see undoubted evidence in the letters of Patriarch Hermogenes to his successor in the department, Metropolitan Ephraim (letter of December 20, 1606), and who enjoyed deep respect among him for his book and literary talents, the Gostinno-Dvorsky priest was chosen by the Kazan Bishop Jeremiah to lift the newly appeared icon of the Mother of God from the ground in his hands Kazanskaya, found after a fire in the city in 1579 on the site of the burnt house of archer Danila Onuchin. Having shown the newly-appeared icon to the numerous Orthodox people who had gathered for this celebration, he transferred it in a procession with the bishop at its head to the neighboring church of St. Nikolai Tula. The indescribable delight of the Orthodox Kazan residents at this discovery of the miraculous image and the innumerable miracles performed by it and attracting crowds of people, inspired the saint, and he, according to the royal knowledge, compiled a detailed and eloquent description of both this discovery of the miraculous icon of the Kazan Mother of God, and all the various miracles and signs that took place. Soon, the widowhood that befell him required, according to the customs of that time, either deprivation of his position as a parish priest and relegation to the rank of so-called non-parish "epistrachelion" priests, or tonsure into monasticism. The zealous, enlightened Nikolo-Gostinnodvorsky shepherd chose the second path - monasticism, which quickly gave him the opportunity “in the holy monastery, the fifth according to it, that is, St. Barsanuphius be, stand in his place and hold his staff in his hand.” The new abbot of the Kazan Transfiguration Monastery, which was badly damaged during the fire of 1579, received a heavy inheritance, and he was forced to work hard to restore it. In 1589, arch. Hermogenes was consecrated in Moscow to the bishopric of the Metropolitan of Kazan and Astrakhan. All of his previous zealous pastoral activities and long life in Kazan fully prepared him for high administrative activities in the region, relatively recently annexed to the Moscow kingdom and also relatively recently enlightened by the light of the Christian faith. Surrounded by hostile Muslims and foreigners who have not yet become strong in the faith of Christ, the zealous archpastor makes every effort to Christianize the vast region entrusted to him and to show its inhabitants that it constitutes an inalienable, dear heritage of the Moscow kings, who acquired it with the blood and sweat of their loyal subjects. For these purposes, he takes care of the construction of majestic churches at the site of the discovery of the miraculous icon of the Kazan Mother of God, in the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery, etc.; in 1592 he transferred from Moscow to Sviyazhsk to the Assumption Monastery the relics of the murdered Kazan Saint Herman, the enlightener of foreigners, in 1596 reveals the relics of the Kazan missionary saints Guria and Barsanuphius and then, with an inspired pen and living word, filled with deep knowledge of Holy Scripture and patristic works, describes truthfully, from the words of old-timers, their diverse apostolic works and exploits among foreigners; revives in the memory of Kazan residents the names of the glorious martyrs, forgotten by many, who suffered in the region for their faith and fatherland from Muslims: John, Stephen and Peter (the last two converted to Orthodoxy from Islam) and, with the blessing of Patriarch Job, in 1592 establishes an annual memorial service for them and records their names in the synodik; in the same year, and also with the patriarch's blessing, he honors the memory of all the glorious Russian heroes who lay bones during the capture of Kazan, by ordering all churches of the diocese to perform solemn funeral services on the first Saturday after the Feast of the Intercession, when the capture of Kazan by Tsar John Vasilyevich took place. Such a deeply thoughtful and penetrating caring attitude towards all aspects of the life of his native and dear diocese and a comprehensive study of its historical past and present diverse needs 2 undoubtedly served as the main motivation for him to divide his metropolitan diocese, which stretched along almost the entire middle reaches of the Volga up to Astrakhan, where the complex spiritual needs of the region required the no less vigilant attention of the diocesan ruler. diocese, renounce the pompous title of Metropolitan of Kazan and Astrakhan and take care of the formation of an independent diocese of Astrakhan. And the many-guardian Archbishop Hermogenes of Kazan handed over his former Astrakhan flock into the hands of his well-known and close man, Archbishop Theodosius (in 1602), who, as we know, lived for some time at the courtyard of Metropolitan Hermogenes in Moscow and shared bread and salt with him 3 . According to the custom of the ancient Russian Church, diocesan rulers were often and for the most part distracted from their dioceses to Moscow to share the work of the patriarch in managing the affairs of the entire Russian Church, to participate in meetings in the so-called “consecrated council” of the patriarchs, in the boyar duma and at the tsar’s ceremonial receptions in the palace. The famous Kazan high priest did not escape this fate. But inspired by the special protection of the zealous Intercessor of the Kazan region and our entire Fatherland, the miraculous image of the Mother of God and the lofty examples of feats for the good of the Church and our Fatherland of their famous predecessors in the department - the Kazan saints Guria, Barsanuphius and Herman, and those whose lives laid down their lives in battle for the Fatherland and whose bones lay before his eyes in the bowels of the Kazan land, Metropolitan Hermogenes went to Moscow - to the consecrated cathedral, to the boyar duma and to the royal palace, not, however, in order to take up extra space there, or, as jokers used to say in the old days, to “sit for a while”, to fulfill the will and desires of the mighty of this world, flatterers, self-interested and ambitious people, but to really accomplish the cause of the king, the people, the fatherland and to fight hard for the right Orthodox faith, to stand even to the point of blood for its inviolability. The Russian Church especially needed such an animated, courageous, unshakable patriot-fighter at this time. On the patriarchal throne sat Patriarch Job, who had a high life and was filled with many virtues and merits in the past, but was already a deep blind old man, due to senile timidity and weakness of will, very compliant in everything before the king, the strong mind and very power-hungry Boris Godunov. Great turmoil was brewing in the state, and yet the presence of a strong, strong ruling hand was not felt in church affairs. With the impostor False Demetrius I, the ambitious Greek Ignatius ascended to the patriarchal throne, with a very dubious past and religious beliefs that were not quite clearly defined for us, in his ambitious calculations he reconciled all the plans and encroachments of temporary workers and deceivers and earned the rightful nickname of “indulgence” from his contemporaries. The powerful, authoritative voice of the head of the Russian Church fell silent. The impostor False Dmitry, who easily took possession of the Moscow throne, thanks to the discord of the Russian boyars and dissatisfaction with the rule of Tsar Boris Godunov, had already begun to carry out his hidden plan, having married the Catholic Marina Mnishek, with the help of papal accomplices, to introduce a union in Russia. But when this destructive intention of False Demetrius was accepted by Patriarch Ignatius “without any controversy,” Kazan Archpastor Hermogenes became a courageous, undaunted fighter for the Orthodox Church. “The Kazan Hermogenes, according to a contemporary of Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Kotyrev-Rostovsky, had a lot of prohibitions about this foul marriage, saying to him: as it is not worthy for you, the Tsar, to copulate with a heterodox girl, and for you to be powerfully introduced into the conciliar and apostolic Church without having washed her in the bath rebirth? He, the accursed one, has no desire to listen to this, like a deaf asp, stopping his ears, and he raises a lot of hatred and zeal against this blessed father. If God had not stopped his days, he would have killed this blessed father without hesitation.”4 And for the fact that the saint of Kazan “did not follow his deed and about marriage, giving him a ban on the council, fearlessly pouring out words before all people” - “and for this he was quickly imprisoned” 5. Metropolitan Hermogenes was removed from Moscow from among the members of the “consecrated council” and, it is believed, was defrocked and imprisoned in one of the Kazan monasteries. Of the then rulers, only Joseph, Bishop of Kolomna, and some archpriests who completely shared the view of the courageous Kazan Metropolitan followed him into exile. If Metropolitan Hermogenes had found great support among the then hierarchs at that time, the fate of our fatherland would have turned out differently, because False Demetrius, according to the testimony of Buchinsky Stanislav and Jan, his favorites, “had great fear at that time,” and “most of all he was afraid that my Tsar’s Roman faith, and that the metropolitans and archbishops and bishops would be stubborn and would not bless and they will not anoint you with myrrh and will not remember you for many years.” But, not having encountered any “dispute” from his humble servant Patriarch Ignatius, he “went into the church to get married,” and “what he wanted, he did,” “everything was done according to his desire and will.” “And the metropolitans and archbishops and bishops and archpriests who previously taught this were talking about this, False Demetrius openly boasted to his friends Buchinsky, and he sent them away, and now no person dares to say a word, and in everything they do my will” 6 . But the punishment that befell the courageous Kazan Metropolitan Hermogenes was short-lived. After his marriage to Marina Mnishek, False Demetrius was dethroned and killed, and along with him, his “indulgent” Patriarch Ignatius, imprisoned in the Chudov Monastery for repentance, was deprived of the patriarchate. By the will of the Moscow boyars, not without the consent and presence of a “consecrated council” headed by Metropolitan Isidore of Novgorod, a descendant of the ancient princely family of Rurikovich, the elderly Prince Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky, is installed as king on the Moscow throne. Feeling rather shaky ground beneath him and wanting to rely on strong spiritual power, he opts for the courageous and enlightened Kazan archpastor and calls him from exile through the election of the consecrated council to the see of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' (June 3, 1606) 7 . The already aged seventy-year-old Patriarch Hermogenes received a difficult legacy. Political unrest and the absence of firm church authority demoralized the entire Russian society, and at the same time the Moscow clergy under its control. The zealous archpastor, “a skillful and good helmsman of book wisdom”, who knows the church canons well, had a difficult task, seeing “the impoverishment of the strength and unanimity of man”, “with the eyes of his heart he considers the right reverend metropolitans and bishops, and the sanctified consideration for the correction and teaching of the Christian faith of the good of the skilled.” The state of the Moscow clergy at this time is characterized by the author of the 1617 chronograph in truly gloomy colors. “Seditious people who, from the sacred rank, were seduced by the worldly, and those, according to the rule of the saints, the apostle and the saints, the father according to their dignity, and not in vain, humbled, because then they were enraged by many churchwomen, not only worldly people, readers and singers, but also priests and deacons and monks who shed much Christian blood and rank having cast off the priesthood, I rejoice at every crime. And these seditious people, some of them with Divine orders, and some of them with prayers, and some of them forbidden, are nasty bloodshed and do not want to turn to repentance, and give them over to damnation; and those who truly repented, he kindly accepted them and delivered many from death through his intercession. His patience is only worthy of wondering what kind of benefactor he is to the villain” 8. Church rite, the splendor of worship and the good behavior of worshipers in churches came into complete disarray at this time and were in need of serious correction. The Patriarch therefore wrote “a letter of punishment to all people, especially priests and deacons, about the correction of church singing,” in which, condemning the unrest that had crept into the divine service, he condemned without mercy the lay worshipers in churches during the divine service, “both of them dozing, of both of them looking here and looking at each other, of others talking to each other.” Undoubtedly, it was for the same reasons that Patriarch Hermogenes ordered the publication in 1610 of the Sergius Monastery by the Black Kryloshan Loggin, “The Eye of the Church,” or the Church Charter, which had never been published in print before. True, later, in 1633, this Charter was condemned by Patriarch Philaret to be burned by the hand of the executioner, and Loggin the publisher was called “a thief and a hawk-moth,” who allegedly sealed many articles in the Charter “not according to the apostolic and not according to paternal tradition, by his own willfulness” 9, but this is not true. The Charter was not only printed “with the blessing of the chief shepherd, the extreme hierarch, the father of the father of the kir Irmogen, the Patriarch of Moscow” and “the entire sacred council” and, according to the practice accepted at that time at the Moscow printing house, “witnessed with the blessing of the spiritual great bishop,” and not only does not contain anything anti-apostolic and anti-patristic, but is also deeply revered and dear to this day valued by our fellow believers and Old Believers. This Charter gives precise instructions “on the correction of church singing” and on the use of “khabuva” and “nenenaek” chants in stichera, as well as fits and kokisms. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that contemporaries, lovers of church singing, “song-readers,” hoping for his “humility and extreme kindness,” turned to Patriarch Hermogenes with bewilderment regarding the use of “habuv and not ine hebuve” in stichera, canons and troparia and, proving that “in the Greek language there is no such thing in any books: neither in the conarchist, nor in singers”, that the natural Greeks Arseny of Elasson and Ignatius, “the bishop of Skyra, who was the patriarch here - he is a lot of singers: in Greek the whole stichera sings”, living in Moscow, “have not heard and do not know” that “that fita habuva in superfluous speech and in reason in the word creates a schism” 10. Undoubtedly, on the part of the patriarch, this “song-monger”, unknown to us by name, after “zeal” and “search for truth,” was given an answer in the Church Charter of 1610. In his daily home life, Patriarch Hermogenes was distinguished by extraordinary modesty, love of poverty and complete non-covetousness. Here are the touching features in which the chronograph of 1617 depicts this side of the personality of the now honored patriarch: “Besides his custom, as if he is tight-lipped in words and in views (that is, he is stern in words and in looks), but in deeds and kindnesses he has the same disposition towards everyone, and the food of everyone at his meal is often his own and his own, abounding in good food and drink and abundantly. And he gave a lot of alms to both the poor and the military people, and clothes and shoes to many who had been robbed, doing all the hours, and giving out a lot of gold and silver for their wounds and for healing. And he gave alms to such an extent, as if he himself had come to the last poverty” 11. The time of Hermogenes' patriarchate was very troubled politically, and this prevented the enlightened archpastor from devoting much time to internal church affairs, as the archpastor, filled with ardent zeal and experienced in administration, wanted. His attention was constantly, and in the last years of his life, political and state affairs especially attracted him. In the place of the murdered False Dmitry I, a second False Dmitry appeared, who settled with his followers near Moscow in Tushino and was nicknamed the “Tsar” or “Tushino thief.” Under the banner of this impostor, not only Cossacks and Poles gathered, but even natural Russians and, moreover, from noble boyar families, who were popularly nicknamed “pereditchikov.” Unfortunately, the ambitious Polish woman Marina Mniszek and her father, Pan Voivode Sandomierz, recognized the second impostor as the one who had escaped during the rebellion of False Dmitry I and lived with him in Tushino. At the same time, the favorite of False Dmitry, Prince Grigory Shakhovskoy, who owned the state seal, rebelled against Shuisky throughout Seversky Ukraine, Lyapunov - Ryazan, Tula - Pashkov. The Moscow throne under the unloved Tsar Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky, who had managed to discredit himself very much during the reign of Boris Godunov and the first Pretender in the eyes of the Russian people with his ambiguous and insincere testimony in the murder of Tsarevich Dimitri in Uglich, staggered, and Patriarch Hermogenes was faced with the difficult task of strengthening it, or at least supporting it. To this end, in a series of his letters to Russian cities, he announced through the clergy that Tsarevich Demetrius had been killed in Uglich, as evidenced by his mother, the queen nun Martha, who, under duress, recognized False Demetrius as her murdered son, that his relics, transferred on June 3, 1606, are in Moscow in the Archangel Cathedral and exude endless miracles with faith in them flowing in that False Demetrius is not Dimitri Tsarevich, but “the enemy of God and our destroyer and destroyer of the Christian faith,” that “his stingy body was given over to fire, as if not the ashes of his foul body would be left on the earth,” that the Tushino “tsar” is a thief and a villain. “And if you, my son, wrote Patriarch Hermogenes to Metropolitan Philaret Nikitich of Rostov, he ordered the letter of honor at the council not one by one, so that all Orthodox peasants would know, but also in his monastic villages, in all the holy churches, he sent lists of our letters to the priests, and calling them with teaching, punished from the Divine Scripture, so that robbers and destroyers of Christians, villains, and thieves who had fallen away from the Christian faith were not listened to in any way whatsoever” 12. Such letters of exhortation were also sent to other dioceses to the bishops and clergy. And we know that they were a huge success and greatly contributed to the sobering of the masses. In the same manner of strengthening the royal throne and the desire to raise the authority of Tsar Vasily Ivanovich in the eyes of the people, Patriarch Hermogenes begged the elderly and blind old man Patriarch Job to “perform a feat” and from Staritsa, where he was in retirement, to come to Moscow “for the sovereign and the great cause of the land.” It consisted in the solemn resolution in the Assumption Cathedral on February 20, 1607 to the Russian people of his criminal oath of cross kisses to Tsars Boris Godunov and his son Theodore against the Pretender and in the conviction on the part of both patriarchs to faithfully serve the “pious Tsar and champion of the Orthodox faith” Vasily Ivanovich and firmly stand for the Orthodox faith and Fatherland. But all the efforts of Patriarch Hermogenes could not prevent a new serious disaster for the Fatherland - the planned overthrow of the legitimate king from the throne, who had many irreconcilable enemies and envious people. The first attempt on February 17, 1609 to deprive Tsar Vasily Ivanovich of the throne, however, failed, thanks to the convictions of Patriarch Hermogenes, and its instigators, for fear of heavy retribution from the Tsar, fled to Tushino. Patriarch Hermogenes sent two letters of exhortation to the defectors, written extremely eloquently, cordially and convincingly in defense of the legitimate sovereign. The strong words of the “second Chrysostom,” as Patriarch Hermogenes was called by his contemporaries, are worthy of your attention, M. Mr. and M. Mr., from beginning to end, but we will cite only some of the most outstanding passages. “The word is not enough for me,” he writes, “to the former master and brethren and all the priestly and monastic ranks, and the boyars, and the okolnichy, and the nobleman, and the clerk, and the boyar’s children, and the guest, and the clerks, and the archer, and the Cossack and all the military and merchant, and arable people, the former Orthodox Christian of every rank and age and Sanaa, now sin for our sakes, having been found against us, we don’t know what to call you” - not a soul is sick, my heart is sick and my whole inner self is torn and all my limbs are trembling, I cry, I say, and cry out with sobs: have mercy, have mercy, brothers and only begotten children, your soul and your parent who has departed and is alive, your father and mothers, and your wives, and children, and relatives, friends, arise, understand and return! “You see, your fatherland is plundered and destroyed by strangers, and holy icons and churches are cursed, and the blood of innocents is shed, and they cry out to God, like the righteous Abel, asking for vengeance. Remember against whom you raise your weapons, and is it not against God who created you, is it not the lot of the Most Pure Mother of God and the great miracle workers, or is it not our brothers of the same tribe? Are you not ruining your own fatherland, many hordes of foreigners are flocking to it, and now it is being reviled and trampled upon by you? ... “Do not be afraid, my naked flock, for My Father has deigned to give you the kingdom. Even if there are many waves and fierce drowning, but do not be afraid of being polluted, for we stand on the rock of faith and truth, even though the sea foams and enrages us, but Jesus’ ship cannot be sunk, and the Lord will not give to reproach those who trust, neither the rod of His lot, nor the teeth of His enemy’s servant, but He will preserve us, as His holy will wills. “I adjure you in the name of the Lord God in our Savior Jesus Christ to give up such an undertaking until there is time for knowledge, so that you do not completely perish in your souls and bodies. And we, by the grace of the Holy Spirit given to us, will accept those who turn and repent and the forgiveness of your sins, voluntarily and involuntarily, with general advice; Together, with our beloved like-minded Russian metropolitans and archbishops and bishops, and with all the consecrated clergy, I must pray to God and ask the Emperor for your guilt: for he is merciful and does not remember to be malicious and the message is that not everyone does the same with their own will. “And your brothers, on the raw Saturday, rose up against the Emperor and uttered false and rude words, just as you did, to those who gave away the guilt, and now they remain with us unharmed, and your wives and children also remain free in their homes. Is this not mercy and not retribution of evil for evil? Even if someone received a small punishment for such great guilt, it is nothing. And even if someone’s soul is not meek, his good deed will overcome him. And even if he still gives you rank or property, he is a liar—someone else’s, not his own. And if God pleases you to correct yourself, you will not be deprived of that, only have mercy on your soul... “Our mind cannot accommodate what you have done,” says Patriarch Hermogenes in another letter to Tushino, “neither our rumors have ever received such things, nor have we seen in the chronicles what you have done that is inconceivable to the human mind. Who wouldn’t be surprised by this, or who wouldn’t cry? Having left the faith, having been born in it, being baptized in it, being brought up in it, truly full of miracles, in such a mind and the most cunning and strongest faith in God of all, the tongue has now appeared crazier than all, leaving the light in the darkness of the fallen, leaving the belly of death harnessed, leaving the hope of future blessings and endless bliss The life and the kingdom of heaven have been plunged into the pit of despair, and even if you live, but by falling away from the faith, even more so from God, you are dead. Moreover, this also surprises us, who is so merciless when he was to his parents and to himself, and to his wives and children, and to his household, that those who, by self-will, fell from the glory of God and from the faith and were separated from their relatives, and destroyed their houses, and even more so themselves? ... “In being a physical being, a king is equal to a man, but in a power worthy of his majesty, he is befitting the Most High, who is above all, God. And again it is written: God’s lot is the royal appointment, to whomever he wants, he gives it to him. For the earth and its ends are the Lord’s, and without God’s command nothing happens. The fault of their uprising was in vain and in vain, for fear they struck like waves on a stone and crumbled, and as if the Lord scattered them in a storm with His anger, having learned in vain, not knowing the will of God and His power. They rose up against the Tsar, but forgot that the Tsar received the kingdom by the will of God, and not by himself, and did not remember the Scripture that all power is given by God. And then we forgot that the Sovereign God, his enemy, and our destroyer and the monastic rank of the scolder, consumed our Christian faith, and he again established the Sovereign and brought all of us Orthodox Christians from destruction to the stomach again. And if God had allowed them to create according to his evil will, of course the Christian faith would soon be trampled upon and the Orthodox Christians of the Moscow kingdom would be in ruin, like other cities... “The diarrhea against the Tsar is in vain - nothing in their speeches was found righteous, but everything was false. And they taught honor to the letter, written to the whole world from the Lithuanian regiments, from the Russian people: Prince Vasily de Shuisky was chosen by Moscow alone for the kingdom, and other cities do not know this, and Prince Vasily de Shuisky is not loved by us in the kingdom, and his blood is being shed for him and the land will not be pacified, so that we elect another king in his place. And we told them against this: until then, neither Novgorod, nor Kazan, nor Astarahan, nor Pskov, nor any other cities were pointed out to Moscow, but Moscow was pointed out by the whole city. And the Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich of all Russia was beloved and chosen and appointed by God and all the Russian authorities, and the Moscow boyars, and you nobles, and all sorts of people of all ranks and all Orthodox Christians, and from all the cities at his royal election many people were appointed at that time, and the whole earth kissed the cross to the Sovereign, that the Sovereign was good for him want, but dare not even think about it. And you, having forgotten the kiss of the cross, a few people rose up against the Tsar, you want to bring him down from the kingdom without guilt, but the world doesn’t want that, and doesn’t even know, and you and I don’t join in that council” ... “And why do you say that for the Tsar blood is being shed, and the earth will not be pacified - and that is being done by the will of God... And then we write to you, declaring their enmity, that it is in vain and without the boyars' knowledge, and without talking to us, and without the advice of people of all ranks and without the knowledge of all Orthodox Christians of the Moscow kingdom, it was in vain that they rebelled against the Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich of All Russia and advised him evilly, but God advised him well, since they always put all their hope in God and in the Most Pure Mother of God... “But your fathers not only did not allow their enemies to approach the Moscow kingdom, but they themselves did not allow their enemies into the sea, into distant distances and into unknown countries, like keen-sighted and fast-flying eagles, like soaring on wings, and all at the hand of the Moscow Sovereign Tsar, and you yourself are witnesses of this. And you, for God’s sake, be jealous of your parents and do not be opposed by their deeds” 13. But with these inspired and eloquent patriotic messages, Moscow’s “second Chrysostom” only delayed the storm that was preparing to break out over the poor head of the weak-willed sovereign, but did not eliminate it completely. The successful victory over the rebels of the young knight Mikhail Vasilyevich Skopin-Shuisky, the tsar's nephew, and the liberation of Moscow from the Tushins and their "tsar", who fled to Kaluga, temporarily stopped the turmoil and discontent in Moscow with the tsar, but the unexpected and mysterious death of the people's favorite young Skopin-Shuisky, for which the blame was placed on the tsar, awakened Muscovites' indignation and hatred of the Tsar with renewed vigor. Shuisky's enemies (Zakhar Lyapunov and Pyotr Zasekin) demanded that Shuisky abdicate the throne, which took place on June 17, 1610. With tears, Patriarch Hermogenes begged the seditionists not to commit this lawlessness, but the rebels did not listen to the patriarch and forcibly tonsured the king and queen into monastic rank. Sovereign power in the Moscow state has now passed into the hands of “seven Moscow boyars,” “but,” as they say in “Another Legend,” “nothing was right for them, just two months of power had been enjoyed, for then there would be great internecine enmity” 14. The situation was truly the most critical. The Poles, who were masters in Moscow under the first Pretender, hoped to retain their influence and power even after his tragic death, putting the second impostor, the Tsar of Tushino, into the arena of political and religious struggle, handing over to him and Marina Mniszech, the instrument of their malicious encroachments. When they saw that hopes for the second impostor did not promise them good results, they convinced the Polish king Sigismund III to declare war on Russia. Approaching Smolensk with his troops and meeting here courageous resistance in the person of Archbishop Sergius and Governor Shein, the king, after the deposition of Tsar Vasily Ivanovich from the throne, moved part of the army under the command of Zholkiewski to Moscow. Almost at the same time, the impostor, the Tushino “king”, moved here with his troops. In Moscow, everyone was overcome by despondency and fear for the fate of the capital and its inhabitants. At this “stateless” critical time, the eyes of all right-thinking Russian people turned to Patriarch Hermogenes, and everyone expected further guidance from him. The way out of this difficult situation, in the opinion of the patriot-patriarch, was one and natural - the election of a new tsar to the Moscow throne, certainly of Russian boyar blood. In the mind of the perspicacious old man, Patriarch Hermogenes, who foresaw future events in his Fatherland, there was already an immutable conviction that the best candidate for the Moscow throne at this time would be the beautiful soul and kind heart of the young 14-year-old boyar Mikhail Feodorovich Romanov, the founder of the dynasty now safely reigning on the Russian throne, the son of the Metropolitan of Rostov Filaret Nikitich and nun Martha, from the Romanov boyars, a relative of the glorious and kindest Queen Anastasia, wife of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible. The Patriarch openly told the boyars the name of this favorite candidate of his, but the temporary workers, seduced by the caresses and promises of all kinds of Pan Zholkiewski, nominated the young prince Vladislav as a candidate for the Russian throne, the son of the Polish king Sigismund. With the power of his eloquent words and the most convincing and obvious arguments for everyone, pointing out the disaster for the purity of the Orthodox faith that the Poles brought to Rus' in recent times, together with the first impostor and his wife, the Polish Marina Mnishek, the patriarch tried in every possible way to challenge this intention of the boyars, Prince S. I. Mstislavsky, Prince V. V. Golitsyn and F. I. Sheremetyev and etc. The opinion of the patriarch-patriot and champion of the Orthodox faith was not only not accepted, but supporters of Prince Vladislav directly stated to him; “Your job, Most Holy Father, is to look after church affairs, but you should not interfere in worldly affairs.” The Patriarch, reluctantly, made a concession, but demanded that the contractual letter of the Moscow boyars with Hetman Stanislav Zholkiewski regarding the invitation of the prince Vladislav to the throne should certainly include a clause according to which “Vladislav Zhigimontovich, if he, the sovereign, comes to the capital city of Moscow, be married in Vladimir and in Moscow and to all the great and glorious Russian states with a royal crown and deadema from the Holy Hermogenes, Patriarch of Moscow, and from the entire illuminated cathedral, the Greek faith, according to the former custom and heritage, as the former great sovereigns of Moscow were crowned..., for all Orthodox Christians to be in the Orthodox Christian faith of the Greek law as before, and the Roman faith and prayer churches of all other faiths and all other faiths should not be erected anywhere in the Moscow state and in cities and villages... and do not destroy or dishonor the Christian Orthodox faith of the Greek law, and do not introduce any other faiths, so that the bright Orthodox Christian faith of the Greek law has its integrity and beauty as before” 15. At the head of the embassy were Metropolitan Filaret Nikitich, “a spiritual and wise man,” and Prince Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn, “a man of great reasoning and skillful in embassy regulations,” 16 and they were entrusted with the delicate mission of negotiating with King Sigismund. Patriarch Hermogenes' premonition did not deceive. King Sigismund hesitated to give the ambassadors a decisive answer, kept them captives in his camp near Smolensk, even demanded that the deposed Tsar Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky come here as a hostage, tried to bring his troops located near Moscow under the command of Gonsevsky, who replaced Zholkiewsky, into Moscow and occupy them with Kitay-Gorod and even the Kremlin, and already began to dispose of the Moscow state as myself in Poland. The Poles who settled in Moscow behaved extremely defiantly, insulted in the most unacceptable way the religious feeling and human dignity of Moscow residents. It now became clear to everyone that the Russians had fallen into the Polish trap for the second time and, of course, this was realized best of all by “the pillar and solid adamant of the warrior of Christ, Patriarch Hermogenes,” who courageously spoke to the supporters of Tsarevich Vladislav: “Children of my flock, listen to my words! Why are you worrying in vain and entrusting your soul to a filthy Pole? Which to you, verbal sheep, communion with the vicious wolves: you are meek in Christ, but these are insolent in Satan. You know, for a long time, our Orthodox Christian faith of the Greek law is hated by foreign countries: by what rights will we be reconciled with these foreigners? 17. The gaze of true patriots, the best sons of their Fatherland, once again turned to the courageous warrior for the Russian land, Patriarch Hermogenes. “And now, as it is said in the “new story” about the patriarch, he alone stands alone and holds everyone and sternly attacks him as an enemy, and there is no one else to help either in word or in deed, except God and His Most Pure Mother and the great miracle workers; he has no one capable of himself. Those who were his sons and pilgrims have the same rank, and they were seduced by the glory of this charming world, they simply choked on the words, and they bowed down to those enemies and do their will. And our landowners themselves, like the former land-eaters, have long lagged behind him, and have given up their minds to the last madness, and they have stuck to them, the enemy, and to others, they have fallen at their feet, and they have exchanged their sovereign nature for bad servile service, and they have submitted and worshiped unknown to whom - you yourself know” 18 . And, quite rightly, the same writer notes: “if we had many such great, strong and unshakable pillars, in this evil time our holy and immaculate faith would not have fallen from such soul-destroying wolves, from visible enemies, from strangers and from our own, otherwise our great sea would have shone without shaking and without disturbance” 19 . On December 11, 1611, the second impostor died. Gonsevsky and the Polish Russian boyars and governors, led by Gonsevsky, Saltykov, Masalsky and Andronov, understood well that in the person of Patriarch Hermogenes they had a strong enemy, and that it was not easy for them to get around him with cunning and intrigue. The named traitors to the Fatherland, in order to “deceive the patriarch and the authorities, and other boyars,” wrote the king insidious “letters of faith” with a repeated request to give the prince Vladislav to the Moscow Tsars, and in everything else “they relied on his will,” “as it suits him, so do it.” When they suggested that the Patriarch sign such a letter, he energetically protested: “I will write letters to the king on this and I will put my hand to it and I will command everyone with authority to put their hands and I bless you to write; the king will give his son to the Moscow state and baptize him into the Orthodox Christian faith and lead the Lithuanian people out of Moscow, and God blesses you to write such letters and send them to the king; and such letters will be written that in everything we put on the royal will and the ambassador beats the king with his forehead and puts it on his will, and then it became known that we should kiss the cross for the king himself, and not the prince, and I don’t only have such letters that I can lay my hand on, and I don’t bless you to write, but I curse whoever writes such letters write" 20. The insidious plan failed, and the irritated Saltykov, in anger, swung a knife at the patriarch, “wanting to cut him.” Patriarch Hermogenes, having made the sign of the cross, calmly said: “This sign of the cross is against your accursed knife, so that you may be cursed in this world and the future” 21 . Patriarch Hermogenes now clearly understood that there is only hope for God and for those Russian people who still remained faithful sons of their Fatherland. From Moscow, both orally, in conversation with those people who pressed him to Moscow for blessings and advice, (for example, the fearless Wigeon Rodion Moiseev), and in writing in eloquent messages through the diocesan rulers, and most of all through the “archpriests, priests and deacons” under his command, he depicted in the most horrifyingly dark colors the heavy destruction of the Fatherland, and especially the city Moscow, where the hated Poles were the masters of the situation, and convinced the people's militia to hastily go to liberate the capital. The voice of the patriot Patriarch Hermogenes found a warm response in the hearts of truly Russian people, and both zemstvo and military people from different cities moved towards Moscow. One of these patriarchal letters, depicting severe disasters, besieged Smolensk residents and the cunning insidious plans of King Sigismund, who treated the ambassadors from Moscow very harshly, ended up in Nizhny Novgorod and made a huge impression on the residents there. Someone “from the Christian people, a man of no illustrious race, but wise in sense” 22, “eating on a wretched purchase, that is, a seller of meat and fish in demand of the people” 23, Kozma Minin delivered his patriotic inspired speech to his fellow citizens with the following content: “We will want to help the Moscow state, but we will not spare our bellies, and not just our bellies their own, but do not regret selling their yards and mortgaging their wives and children and beating them with their foreheads, so that they would stand up for the true Orthodox faith and be our boss” 24 . The Nizhny Novgorod militia quickly gathered, placed under the command of a skilled governor, Prince Dimitry Pozharsky, and headed towards Moscow. The Kazan people also joined the Nizhny Novgorod people, having, according to the instructions of Patriarch Hermogenes, in the regiments, as a strong Intercessor, the revered “image of the Most Pure Mother of God, a list of Kazan icons” 25. “The military people began to hold great faith in the image of the Most Pure Mother of God, and many miracles came from that image. In the Etman battle and in the Moscow capture, many miracles happened” 26, and therefore, after the election of Mikhail Feodorovich to the kingdom, this icon was left in Moscow, first in the church of Prince Pozharsky, with the establishment of a festival for it, which is still celebrated on October 22, and then transferred to the Kazan Moscow Cathedral for permanent residence. These militias, dragging along the way the militias of the cities of Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Kostroma and others, appeared as a formidable army near Moscow. These militias were later joined by the regiments of Procopius Lyapunov and Zarutsky, and thus Moscow was besieged by a military force of over one hundred thousand. The Poles, as well as the Russian boyars - traitors to the Fatherland, who went over to the side of Poland, locked themselves in the Kremlin, came to Patriarch Hermogenes and, with the threat of death, began to demand from him that he convince the Russian militias to move away from Moscow. “And they came to Moscow based on your letter,” said Gonsevsky and Saltykov, “and if you don’t write, we will order you to be put to death with an evil death.” The undaunted patriarch courageously answered them: “Why are you threatening me, I fear only God; All Lithuanian people will leave the Moscow state, and I bless them to go away, and you will stand in the Moscow state, and I bless them all to stand against you and die for the Orthodox Christian faith” 27. After this, the enemies of the Fatherland had no choice but to subject the courageous patriarch to severe supervision in order to deprive him of the opportunity to have relations with the militias stationed near Moscow and not to exert an encouraging influence on them. And earlier, the townsman Rodion Moiseev, sent to Patriarch Hermogenes “with formal replies and for genuine news,” conveyed to the Novgorodians that the patriarch spoke to him “in a speech”: “but the letters to you, gentlemen, were not brought, that there was no one to write to him, clerks and clerks and all sorts of courtyard people were caught, and his entire yard was plundered” 28. Now his position in the Kremlin in the courtyard of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, where the Poles imprisoned him, became positively unbearable. It was here that he, “dishonorably removed from the throne and shut up in exile” 29, was “starved to death” 30. But even in the midst of grave suffering, the great passion-bearer of the Russian land had the joyful consolation of seeing the end of the domestic disaster, and from a cramped, stuffy dungeon he sent a blessing to the bright dawn of life that was rising over our country in the person of the young scepter Mikhail Feodorovich Romanov, the ancestor of the now safely reigning dynasty. The courageous patriot Patriarch Hermogenes, being in the Kremlin among enemies, could say about himself that he was “united and solitary,” but he could not say this about the rest of Russia. The gaze of all Russian patriots was turned to the Moscow archpastor-sufferer. Their hearts beat with ardent love for the Motherland tormented by enemies and with the most lively sympathy and complete sympathy for the unbearably difficult situation among the enemies of Patriarch Hermogenes. Everyone listened sensitively to his ardent words, filled with enthusiastic love for the suffering Fatherland. With bated breath they listened to this word, whether it was written on paper in a letter, or transmitted orally by those who had the opportunity to talk with the patriarch in his captivity. With the speed of lightning, all these messages and news from Moscow spread throughout the cities and villages of the Moscow state: to metropolitans, archbishops and bishops, and from them to archimandrites, abbots, archpriests, priests and deacons, and all the consecrated clergy, everywhere they were re-read several times from church pulpits, passed on in oral conversations, corresponded and were sent from city to city and from village to village. All of Rus', one might say, at that time lived with one thought - at all costs, by common unanimous efforts to liberate Moscow from its enemies. To the great happiness for our Fatherland and to the consolation and joy of the unshakable fighter for Russia, Patriarch Hermogenes, among the Russian hierarchs of this evil time, called “hard times,” there were many worthy archpastors who, with their enlightened patriotic efforts, greatly assisted Patriarch Hermogenes in his valiant service to his Fatherland. It is worthwhile and righteous for us, distant descendants, to remember these worthy helpers and collaborators in these days with deep gratitude. Among the Russian archpastors of this time, the first place must undoubtedly belong to the most worthy successor in the Kazan Metropolis of the patriarch we honor, Metropolitan Ephraim. In the charter of the immortal knight of the Russian land and liberator of Moscow from the Poles, Kvyaz Dimitri Mikhailovich Pozharsky, July 29, 1612, Metropolitan Ephraim is directly called “a pillar of piety, based on the stone of the commandments of Christ, a solid adamantine, a shepherd and teacher, and a vigilant guardian of Christ’s flock, verbal sheep in piety, and an unwavering steadfast champion, a champion of the right faith, a guardian of the apostolic and paternal traditions, a strong and invincible weapon against the enemies of the cross of Christ, wounding the enemies of Christ with a spiritual sword, and laying down his soul, according to the word of Christ, for His sheep” 31 . And this certification, which was very flattering for the Kazan archpastor from the lips of the great patriot, was not just politeness and a desire to say something nice to him, but it poured out naturally, as a tribute to deep respect for the personality of this wonderful patriot-ruler. In fact, it is enough to recall his wise order given to his subordinate clergy in the city of Sviyazhsk, when its inhabitants went over to the side of False Dmitry II and betrayed the oath given to Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky. “You have done the work of your flock worthily,” Patriarch Hermogenes wrote to the “valiant shepherd” in praise of his zeal on December 22, 1606, that the priests of the city of Sviyazhsk did not order the priests of the city of Sviyazhsk to accept offerings to the Church of God from deceived people, since they themselves have deviated from God’s mercy and believe in the deceptions of their enemies; You, like a good shepherd, following in the footsteps of our Master, lead them from their sins to salvation. We, together with the entire consecrated cathedral, bless you to continue to take care of your flock and to guide you the people of God on the path of salvation, so that they do not deviate into destruction; Yes, and punish the priest, so that they live according to the commandments of God and teach and punish their spiritual children, so that they live in purity and in the passion of God, and are cleansed from sin by repentance and do not lose the charms of the enemy. And if Sviyazhen had forgiven and allowed his son, the nobles and children of the boyars and all sorts of people, and ordered their offerings to be accepted to the Churches of God as before. Yes, and in Kazan you would have firmly protected from this turmoil, so that the people of God would not perish in body and soul” 32. And in subsequent history we see that Metropolitan Ephraim remained faithful to the end to the patriotic advice of his father and leader. When Patriarch Hermogenes raised people's militias in Russian cities, Metropolitan Ephraim helped prepare “every Christian age with military people together” and sent them on a campaign under the command of governor Ivan Ivanovich Volynsky “with all the troops and equipment” 33. These militias of military people went to Moscow for “zemstvo service”, “not only “without hesitation” and “hastily”, but also “military people for the sake of poverty, so that the military people did not scatter from Moscow”, they also carried with them from the ruler, “what is in the collection in Kazan of all kinds of monetary income from previous years” 34. He was entrusted with a high mission by Patriarch Hermogenes in 1611, who was already in captivity - to write a teaching letter to the Kazan army and boyars, so that “they would not accept the cursed Marinka’s son into the kingdom (not accept)” 35, that “there is no need for Marinka (son) for the kingdom, he is cursed from the holy cathedral and from us” 36. All the advice and orders of his beloved patriarch were accepted by him willingly and carried out exactly. It is not surprising, therefore, that Prince Pozharsky and other Moscow boyars, after the liberation of Moscow from the Poles, turned their full attention to the Kazan Metropolitan and expected from him alone the arrangement of all church affairs,” which had fallen into extreme disorder 37 . Metropolitan Ephraim, summoned to Moscow, as is known, took part in the election of Mikhail Feodorovich Romanov to the kingdom and in his coronation. The second of the Russian archpastors in terms of the power of influence on the people and clergy, in the sense of calming worried minds, was Metropolitan of Rostov Filaret Nikitich. Forcibly tonsured (1601) as a monk under Boris Godunov, under False Dmitry I, as an imaginary relative, summoned to Moscow and ordained (1606) to the see of the Rostov Metropolitan, Filaret Nikitich, in the troubled time of the reign of the Russian throne of Tsar Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky, strongly advocated for the strengthening on the throne of Shuisky and in every possible way opposed False Dmitry II and his Poles accomplices. “And as Patriarch Hermogenes wrote to him in 1606, November 30, 1606, our letter will come to you, son, and you would go to the holy cathedral and apostolic church of the Most Pure Mother of God of her honorable and glorious Assumption and would order you to be your archimarite and abbot, the archpriest and the entire sacred rank, and the clerk people, and the prince, and the nobleman, and the children of the boyars, and everyone who served in the townspeople, and would pray in congregation and in their cells to God and the Most Pure Mother of God and the holy great wonderworkers and all the saints... about the health and salvation of the God-crowned and God-beloved Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich of all Russia, the autocrat... so that the Lord God would calm down his righteous anger and destroy the internecine warfare, and the Lord God would order His people, all the Orthodox peasants, according to His former love for mankind, in peace and in obedience and in love; and the bolyars and the princes and the Christ-loving army and all the Orthodox peasants, in love and in obedience to the Sovereign, would have committed him, and would have exalted his right hand, and would have subdued all his enemies under his nose, and would have protected the kingdom of his Sovereign in peace and peacefully established it, and would have given all that is good and useful and the multiplication of the fruits of the earth. And he ordered this letter to his son at the council not one by one, so that it would be known to all Orthodox peasants; and in his monastery villages, in all the holy churches, he sent lists of our letters to the priests, and calling them with teaching from the Divine Scripture, so that those who had fallen away from the Christian faith, robbers and destroyers of Christians, villains, thieves, would not listen to anything in any way, hoping for the mercy of God and the prayers of the Most Pure Mother of God and the great miracle workers... and remembering If we kissed the cross on the Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich of all Russia, we would stand strong against the thieves” 38. Filaret Nikitich carried out the will of the patriarch precisely and immediately sent the archpriest of the Ustyug Assumption Cathedral, Konstantin, a letter with the order that he, in turn, “summon the city of Ustyug and from the district archimandrites and abbots, and priests, and deacons, and the entire consecrated cathedral, and princes, and nobles, and clerks, and the children of boyars and merchants people" and prayed to God for the same thing 39. He did the same in other districts of his diocese to incite popular patriotism. The “New Chronicler” has preserved for us a highly dramatic story about the courage and unanimity with which the Rostov flock, led by its archpastor and clergy, met the invasion of Rostov on October 11, 1608 by the troops of the Polish commander Jan Sapieha, who captured the metropolitan and sent him to the camp of the second impostor in Tushino, and the priests and residents of the city who were killed in cathedral church. Here is this edifying martyrology: “The Metropolitan, seeing the wrath of God, went to the cathedral church of the Most Pure Mother of God and put on his priestly rank. Many people came and sat down in the church. He, the saint, preparing, like a lamb for the slaughter, was granted the most pure and life-giving Mysteries, and the desire for salvation for the whole world and the desire to give a righteous answer to God, according to the prophetic words: “Behold, I and the children whom God has given to me.” And he commanded the archpriest and the priests who are in the church to renew (that is, confess) and give communion to all the people, and grant all the Divine Tanin. Lithuania came to the city and began to beat people who, before they had time to go to church, ran away from the city to Yaroslavl. They go to church. The Metropolitan, seeing that they were going straight to the church, ordered the door to be closed. They began to approach the doors and fought with them in the church, not allowing them to approach. The Metropolitan, seeing the impossibility, came to the church doors and began to speak to the Pereslavl people from the Divine Scripture, so that they remembered their Orthodox faith, from the Lithuanian people, they fell behind and turned to the Tsar. They, the Pereslavl people, like wolves of ferocity, cried out in a great voice and began to approach the church and knocked down the church doors and began to kill people, and killed a lot of people. The Metropolitan took from his place and the holy vestments on him, stripped him and dressed him in thin vestments and handed him over as a bailiff” 40. Filaret Nikitich, who was later sent to King Sigismund in the embassy to ask Vladislav for the Russian throne, was forced to endure the hardship of Polish captivity. The courageous and long-term siege of Smolensk by King Sigismund and the revelation to the Russian people of the secret plans of Sigismund III, King of Poland, should be attributed not so much to the courage of the boyar and governor Mikhail Shein and Prince Peter Gorchakov, but also to the patriotic and energetic activities of Smolensk Archbishop Sergius. “And in Smolensk, Sovereign, the governors wrote to Moscow, your Sovereign is a pilgrim, and the nobles and the boyars’ children, and the archers, and all sorts of Smolensk townspeople, they didn’t believe their thieves’ arrival, they stand for the true Christian faith and for you, Sovereign” 41. “And we, your Sovereign’s orphan, write in 1609, the residents of Smolensk, having consulted with your Sovereign’s pilgrim, the Most Reverend Sergius, Archbishop of Smolensk, and with your Sovereign’s boyar and governor... they refused to the Lithuanian king and the noble lord with the word that we, the whole world, both the servicemen and the Zhiletsky people, took a vow in the house of the Most Pure Mother of God, that we for the true Orthodox Christian faith and for the holy Church of God, and for you, the Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich of all Russia, for your royal kiss on the cross, to everyone die, but I’m not a fan of the Lithuanian king and his lord” 42. But fate dealt cruelly with the staunch defenders of Smolensk, and Archbishop Sergius and his comrades in misfortune had to endure the shame of captivity and a forced march to Moscow, together even with the enemy of our Fatherland and the Church, with the former Patriarch Ignatius, who fled from Moscow to the King of Poland, after his second elevation to the Moscow patriarchal throne. Metropolitan Isidore of Novgorod, back in 1605, at the appearance of False Demetrius I, wrote to the Solovetsky Monastery to Hegumen Anthony and his brethren: “And in your own monastery, son, he ordered this letter of ours to be carried to everyone for the hearing of that traitor and criminal of the cross of Christ and the heretic and scoundrel of the Christian faith, the Rostrig Grishka... cursed in a council of all the people, and from now on I would order them to curse in their monastery..., but here in Veliky Novgorod, in a council with the abbot and with the entire consecrated cathedral and with all the Orthodox Christians, we also cursed them all and henceforth we command them to curse” 43 . This metropolitan subsequently, when Novgorod fell under the rule of the Swedes, took every measure to ensure that in Veliky Novgorod there would be no disruption of the Christian faith from the German people and that there would be no ruin for the Orthodox peasants, but that they would continue to live as before without any sorrow” 44 . About the Tver ruler Theoktiste, Metropolitan of Rostov Filaret Nikitich testifies in a letter of 1606 that he “with the people of Tver, his flock entrusted to him by God, those living in the city and not with the military, showed many victories against the military” 45. There is no doubt that for this courage he was killed by followers of the impostor on the way to Moscow 46, due to many temptations and torments.” Paphnutius, Metropolitan of Krutitsky, who twice went on assignments to Patriarch Job, was also sent to the camp of supporters of Pretender II to persuade the “flyers” to be loyal subjects of the legitimate Sovereign, and who enjoyed great respect for his righteous life in Moscow, ended the days of his life during the capture of the Kremlin by the Poles. “Bishop Joseph of Kolomna, tied to a cannon, according to Avraamy Palitsyn, led more than one to the city and was thus more frightening than many” 47 ; for his “standing and strengthening others against the impostor and his followers 48 . Galaktion, Archbishop of Suzdal, successor of Patriarch Hermogenes as abbot of the Kazan Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery, very zealously fought against the people's rebels when they were given promises by the impostor that they would be rewarded for treason against the lawful Sovereign, which “they have no idea” 49, for which he was expelled from the pulpit and died in exile 50. Arseny is a Greek, former Archbishop of Elasson and Demonika, who occupied the place of Archbishop of Arkhangelsk, with an obligation to serve funeral liturgies in the Archangel Cathedral for the Sovereigns, as a duty of service he had to endure the full burden of those troubles that befell those imprisoned in the Kremlin with the Poles, besieged by Russian militias. He had the difficult task of maintaining a spirit of vigor among those besieged in the Kremlin, and he, after his wondrous vision of St. Sergius of Radonezh, predicted the imminent liberation of Moscow from the Poles. He was lucky enough to meet Prince Pozharsky and the liberators of Moscow in the Kremlin with a solemn religious procession, and then to participate in the coronation of Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich. He died in the rank of Archbishop of Suzdal. His relics rest hidden in the Suzdal Cathedral and are revered by local inhabitants 51. The merits of Russian monasteries in troubled times are beyond any doubt. The tales of contemporaries and chroniclers are filled with feats of valiant service to the Fatherland at this time by their archimandrites, abbots, cathedral elders and simpletons. These “black crows,” as the proud Poles mockingly called the humble monks, were no less dangerous for the latter than the military Moscow people, devoted to the legitimate sovereign. Thousands of people who fled cities and homes captured by enemy Poles found shelter and food in the monasteries. From here grain supplies were sent to Moscow during the famine. Money flowed like a river from the monastery treasuries to support the Moscow troops and people's militias. The monks accompanied the militias, inspired the warriors with their living, passionate words and messages, served prayers for them, performed the burials of those killed in battles, looked after the wounded and sick military men, tonsured monks and administered the Holy Mysteries to those departing for the other world, often giving to the army all the best in the monastery and constraining themselves to the last degree. “The priestly rank is completely exhausted from the much labor of the sick and dead and dying. And the eyes of the priest were quicker, and holding them with strength over the weak. And so all the priests passed away, and little remained of the sacred rite for the proclamation” 52 . When there was a “scarcity of money” in the monasteries, according to the legend of the cellarer Abraham Palitsyn, “robes and surplices, in patrahels, planted in patrahels (that is, decorated with pearls and stones) were sent from the monasteries to support the troops in a pledge of thousands of rubles for a short time” 53 . The famous Trinity-Sergius Lavra in this regard set a commendable example to the rest of the Russian monasteries. If at the present moment, for the sake of saving time, we do not draw your attention to the valiant 16-month feat of her unparalleled courageous stand against the Polish troops of Sapieha and Lisovsky, it is mainly because the so-called “Trinity Sitting” is more or less known to all Russian people. Undoubtedly, everyone also remembers what ardent patriotic messages were sent to Russian cities by its famous Archimandrite Dionysius, especially at a time when the courageous Adamantine Patriarch Hermogenes was already in captivity and was deprived of the opportunity to write. Many of you also know well about the patriotic activity at that time of the famous cellarer of the Sergius monastery, a Kazan native, Elder Abraham Palitsyn, who repeatedly left the monastery and, amidst enemy dangers, made his way into the camp of the Russian militias to encourage and raise their military spirit 54, an enthusiastic narrator of the exploits of his native monastery in his “Tale” about the siege of this monastery. We would now like to remember with gratitude only the name of the wondrous archimandrite of this monastery, Joasaph, under whom the siege of the Lavra by the Poles took place, and about whom our historians say very little. “Archimarite Joasav, Abraham Palitsyn tells about him, grieving for the poor and needy, and for the eyes of the blind and the feet for the lame. Even if not with his own hands and feet, but in every possible way to give peace to everyone, and without tears he cannot look at the crying and mourning with those who sigh, and everyone asks for anything, even with weak hands, without leaving him” 55 . We believe that for our listeners it is undoubtedly more important and interesting at this time to know and hear about the courageous patriotic deeds of other monasteries and their worthy monks. During the invasion of the Polish troops with Sapega at the head of the Kolyazin monastery, a stern ascetic, Elder Irinarch, who wore several very heavy chains, labored there with two of his disciples. When Sapega was told by those close to him: “This elder does not pray to God for our king and for Dmitry, but prays for the Shuisky God,” and when commander Sapega began to interrogate him about this, the elder fearlessly and courageously answered: “I was born and baptized in Rus', and I pray to God for the Russian Tsar.” Pan Sapega was so amazed by the firmness and calmness of this extraordinary old man that he said with admiration to those around him: “I am such a father, nowhere here, nor in other lands, am I fearless from our sword.” Having bowed to the elder, Sapieha “and did not order anything to offend the monastery” 56. The Solovetsky Monastery, with its abbot Anthony at its head, showed ardent patriotism and brought its monastic treasury not only to the last penny to the altar of the Fatherland, but even the last silver spoon. “In that many times, Tsar Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky wrote to the monastery in August 8, 1609, from our treasury, from our treasury, to the nobles and boyar children and all service people on salary, our many treasury came out, and from those monasteries in our state, and from those monasteries, every monastery treasury was taken and distributed to all service people on salary,” therefore the Tsar He asked that “in the Solovetsky Monastery there are all sorts of monastic treasuries, or there will be someone’s luggage, and you would immediately send all that treasury to us, to Moscow, with the treasurer or the cathedral elders, and give that treasury to all service people as a salary,” and “send it to us, to Moscow soon, without wasting an hour, so that you can serve us” 57 . Hegumen Anthony quickly fulfilled the king's desire. “They wrote, says the royal letter to the monastery on November 29 of the same year, 1609, and they sent to us with the cathedral elders, with Elder Vasyan of Napolsky and with Elder Serapion, the monastery treasury 3150 rubles, and the Pechensky Monastery treasury 398 rubles and 25 altyns, which was supplied to you in the monastery, and 150 Efimkov, yes a silver spoon" 58. In 1609, Tsar Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky sent a letter of gratitude to Abbot Matvey and his brothers to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, praising the monks for the fact that “they stood for the house of the Most Pure Mother of God and for the miracle-working relics, and for us, and for the entire Orthodox peasantry, I believed in the thief and the thieves’ unrest, and throughout the city they wrote about the fortification and they fortified many places,” and that their service and zeal were “known to him for certain” 59. The chronicler also preserved for us the touching fact of the courageous meeting of death by the monks in their monasteries. “In the Pakhnutievo Monastery, we read in the New Chronicle, many people were under siege, and the governors were there; Prince Mikhailo Volkonskaya, Yakov Zmeev, and Ofonasei Chelishchev. The Lithuanian people attacked the monastery with great attacks and I couldn’t do anything to them. The enemy of the governor put an evil thought into Yakov Zmeev and Ofonasya Chilishchev, and began to plot how they could build a house for miracle workers. The voivode, Prince Mikhail Volkonskaya, was not with them in that Duma and did not know that evil thought among them. Suddenly those damned ones ordered the fort gates to be opened. Lithuanian people and Russian thieves entered the gates. Prince Mikhail and Volkonskaya, seeing his exhaustion, ran to the church. The same governors invite him to meet him. He refused them: “I should die at the tomb of Pafnutya the miracle worker.” Lithuania entered the monastery and began the meeting. Many people ran to church. The same Prince Mikhailo stood at the church door and fought with them a lot and was exhausted from great wounds and fell in the church near the left wing. The Lithuanian people entered the church and began to slay the abbot and brothers, and then they killed the governor and beat up all sorts of people in the monastery to the number of 12,000” 60. Equally touchingly described by a contemporary is the courageous defense of the Simonov monastery by its monks 61 . Knowing well what a high moral influence monasticism in general had in ancient Russian life, what influence and respect it enjoyed among the people, and what force of resistance it exerted at this time in particular, it is not surprising that the Poles were very hostile and even cruel to the point of mockery towards Russian monks and nuns. “The monastic and priestly rank is soon not put to death, writes Avraamy Palitsyn, but first it is tormented by evil in every possible way, burning into coal with fire, torturing the stomach, and then put to death. And they will bring together the monks, who never travel from place to place, but who live in one promise, and who will be rewarded with work: and they will be the beyahu, and the wine and beer cook for them, and also the human and horse feed, prepared for them, and the shepherd of their flocks. Likewise, the priests have the chalk and the carts, and the woodcutters the sailors, and the guards of the harlots, and the laborers of the harlots, and carry water for them, and firewood, and wash the foul ports on them, and at their horses, all the laborers are commanded. And old and holy men lay at their feet like orphans; and the one who curses them commands to sing shameful songs and jump and splash and put those who disobey to death.” “The brides of Christ, honest and holy nuns, were stripped of their robes, and were dragged around their camp by force and desecrated by fornication, and forced them to eat meat and on holy days to partake of cheese and milk” 62. We already made a reservation at the beginning of our speech that there are very few facts from the patriotic activities of the Russian white clergy in the troubled era in historical documents and in the tales of contemporaries. Even fewer have survived the names of persons who stood out for their truly patriotic pastoral activities during these hard times of the Russian land. But it would, however, be a great injustice and positive ingratitude on our part, their distant descendants, if we were completely silent about the exploits of their patriotic service to their Fatherland at this time. In itself, the phrase of all the messages of the patriarch, metropolitans, archbishops and bishops, boyars and governors, with the mention in them of archpriests, priests, deacons and the consecrated rank, seems at first glance to be general, saying little to the mind and heart of the Russian patriot, a phrase that does not seem to contain particularly important content, but, after a serious, thoughtful attitude towards it, it turns out that it contains a deep and very meaningful meaning. The very use of this phrase in almost all the letters clearly demonstrates to us that those who wrote these letters attached enormous importance to the archpriests, priests and deacons in the matter of their patriotic service and hoped that these sacred, although modest in rank, persons would be reliable and powerful conductors among the people of those sound ideas and views that were necessary for the salvation of the Fatherland, Orthodoxy and Russian identity in these times of vacillation minds It is therefore clear that both the patriarch and the diocesan rulers were always “at the council”, with all the clergy, before the people, read all the important letters and, sending them out immediately to the district towns, recommended the “archpriests” to hold the same nationwide celebrations in their district cathedrals, and then quickly send them to all the priests under their charge in the villages, with the order to read them to all the holy churches “not one day at a time” and “not one at a time, so that all Orthodox Christians know it” 63. Archpriests, priests and deacons were strictly instilled, “according to the grace given from God, to lead all people forward to the truth and to take them away from the deception of the enemy” 64, and with “instruction to punish from Divine Scripture” 65. Where, due to circumstances, even this seemed not enough, the clergy were ordered to, in order to have a greater impact on the people, enemies of the Orthodox Church, the Fatherland and the Russian people, “conciliarly, publicly” curse and excommunicate 66, and from their supporters and like-minded people, the Russian people “deceived”, “they would not accept offerings to the Church of God” 67. The Russian white clergy of this time, as the support of Orthodoxy and legality, staunchly and courageously stood for the anointed Tsar and prayed for his preservation in good health, for the pacification of rebellions and disorder among the Russian people and for victory over impostors and Poles. Every happy victory was greeted by the clergy with joy by serving prayers and ringing bells. Many of the priests gathered the people's militias, accompanied them on the campaign, encouraging the faint-hearted to valiant deeds, admonishing them with confession and the Holy Mysteries before mortal battles, caring for the wounded and sick in the troops and giving the dead Christian burial. Therefore, it is quite understandable that the attitude towards the Russian clergy on the part of the Poles, which is very eloquently described by a contemporary, cellarer Avraamy Palitsyn, saying that they “the monastic and priestly ranks will not soon suffer death” 68, but tried to subject them to the most difficult and humiliating work and assignments not only for the priesthood, but also for human dignity. The clergy were killed in large numbers. There is, for example, information that in one Uglich district of the Yaroslavl province during the period from 1608 to 1612 the Poles “priests and deacons and sextons and other ecclesiastical ranks burned and hacked to death more than 500 people” 69 . Few names of the white clergy, famous for their valor, have survived, but they are known, and we will name them now, noting even the true heroes among them. Here, first of all, we must mention the name of the archpriest of the Transfiguration Cathedral of Nizhny Novgorod, Savva Evfimiev, who stood in his Nizhny Novgorod for Sovereign Shuisky and strongly advocated before his fellow citizens for the cleansing of Moscow from the Poles. Using enormous influence among his clergy and residents in the city, he contributed to the rapid formation of the Nizhny Novgorod militia, and with the archimandrite of the Nizhny Novgorod Pechersk Monastery Theodosius, he influenced Prince Dimitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky, who had not fully recovered from the wounds he received, with an ardent plea to become the head of this militia and a promise to help him and his native militia by all means. Undoubtedly, for his outstanding patriotic activity, Tsar Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky granted Fr. Savva with children in the Kremlin near the cathedral “the sovereign’s courtyard place” 70. Fr.'s closest colleagues were not forgotten by the Sovereign's generosity. Savva Eveimiev and his collaborators in this troubled time: cathedral protodeacon Ivan, Smirnov priests Kondraty and Timofey, and deacon Timofey, archpriest of the Church of the Archangel Michael Fatey and priests Dorotheus and Peter 71. Archpriest of the St. Nicholas Church of the city of Zaraysk, Dimitry, “strongly and blessedly died for the true Orthodox faith” 72 to the governor of Prince Dimitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky, when supporters of the impostor besieged this city and tried by all means to deprive the courageous governor of his life. To this glorious faith and spirit Fr. Demetrius owes the city of Zaraysk the fact that he remained “without hesitation” loyalty to the legitimate Moscow Sovereign. Archpriest of the Ustyug Assumption Cathedral Konstantin, an active collaborator of the Rostov Metropolitan Philaret Nikitich in the zealous dissemination in his district among the clergy subordinate to him of patriarchal messages calling on “those who have fallen away from the peasant faith, robbers and destroyers of the peasants... not to listen to anything” 73. The priests of the city of Sol-Galich, Ivan Church of the Resurrection and the Mother of God Church. Mercury, in a letter signed with his own hand, testified before Tsar Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky, “that for the entire Orthodox peasant faith, for their homes, for the holy churches of God,” for the Sovereign they were “glad to die” and “to fight with the sovereign traitors to the death” 74. The cathedral priests of the city of Perm, Potap and Andrey, not only sent “to the Siberian cities” copies of the patriarchal patriotic messages, but together with the citizens of the city, “gathering fifty military men, with bows and arquebuses and with all the service, and giving them hired money for five months..., they released them from Cherdyn to the Moscow State” and promised to send “immediately” military people and from other places 75. The Kazan archpriest, unknown to us by name, with the blessing of Kazan Metropolitan Ephraim, accompanied the Kazan militia, having with him “a list of Kazan icons” 76, which he brought “near Moscow to Prince Dmitry Timofeevich Trubetskoy and Ivan Zarutsky.” “With his help, the Novaya Devichey monastery was taken from the Lithuanian people near Moscow.” According to the chronicler, “and there was that image near Moscow until winter.” “The same image with the archpriest of Kazan was released back” 77. Not named by name, the courageous Rostov archpriest and priests, when the Pereyaslavl residents, who had gone over to the side of the Tushino thief, burst into the city, and then into the cathedral church, where the inhabitants, distraught with fear, took refuge, not only by order of their Metropolitan Philaret Nikitich, “renewed” (confessed and gave communion to the whole people), but many of them received the martyrdom here in the church death from the sword of enemies, when these latter, despite the admonition of Bishop Philaret, burst into the church and “began to cut down people and kill many people” 78. It is impossible to pass in silence among those whom Patriarch Hermogenes and the Moscow boyars, together with Metropolitan Philaret Nikitich, “sent from the spiritual rank, selecting wise men and literate idle men from the priestly rank 79 and from the deaconate, who would be able to speak in Latin about the Orthodox Christian faith.” Their lot fell not only to the task before King Sigismund of “really standing unshakably for the Orthodox Christian faith” 80, but also to endure a lot of moral suffering, finding themselves in involuntary, shameful captivity among the enemies of Orthodoxy - the Poles. The chronicle, very meager in the facts of the patriotic activities of our white clergy in the era of hard times in general, did not fail, however, to include on its pages amazing facts of the truly heroic deeds of our clergy. Here, for example, is what is said verbatim in the chronicle about the Novgorod Archpriest Amos of Sofia, who courageously fought with the Swedes who besieged Novgorod in 1611. “The Archpriest of Sofia, Amos, locked himself in his courtyard with his advisers and fought with the Germans for a long time, and many Germans beat them. The Germans told him many times to give up. He is by no means heeded by their words, he does not evade. At that time, he was forbidden by Metropolitan Isidore, but the Metropolitan, standing on the city wall, singing prayers, seeing his strong standing, forgive and bless him for his eyes, in vain to his court. The Germans, seeing his cruel behavior, came with all the people and set fire to his yard, and he burned with everything, not taking a single person alive.”81 The archpriest of the Uglitsky Cathedral, Afanasy, showed miracles of courage in 1609, when the Poles and Lithuanians besieged this city. “In the devastation of Uglech, when the city of Uglech, in the summer of 7117, Lithuanian people and Latins took the traitor, it is told in the “Addition to the story of the devastation of Uglech,” then they began to cut the townspeople in Uglechi with swords, and burn them with fire, and desolate the holy churches, and plunder church estates and the city... Then the Lithuanians warriors, and Christian luthias defeated the Latins, going around the cathedral church like a dark cloud, and establishing loopholes on the church doors and beating even until three days, and knocking down the church doors and waking up in the church... Lithuanian warriors, drawing sharp swords, and the heads of Christians on the church platform, like grape fruits, tossing the cutters and splashes headless in the blood of mankind. At the same time, Athanasius, the great daring and very careful about the salvation of Christian souls, a very spiritual man, the archpriest of the cathedral, was flogged, for he had done so many slaughters in the holy church that, according to all the books of the chronicles, like Christian blood flowing from the cathedral church through the threshold of the church like a river” 82 . There is also a fact in the chronicle relating to the siege of the city of Smolensk by the Poles and the capture of it by the troops of Sigismund, thanks to the betrayal of a certain Andrei Dedeshin. “The last people, the chronicle says, asked the Most Pure Mother of God in the cathedral church. Only one Smolyan rushed into the cellar. I buried what was under that cathedral church in a treasury of gunpowder, and I lit that potion, and the cathedral church of the Most Pure Mother of God was torn apart, and I killed all the people who were in the church” 83. The presence of the clergy in the cathedral at this time is beyond doubt, and the very silence about it in the chronicle, in our opinion, is more eloquent than any words... We have finished our speech, and it seems to us that we now have the right to loudly publicly proclaim “glory” to all the strong champions for the Orthodox faith, for our Holy Russia and for Russian identity. Glory and eternal memory to you, unshakable “adamant” and courageous warrior of our dear long-suffering Motherland, His Holiness Patriarch Hermogenes! Glory and bow to you, your Eminence metropolitans, archbishops and bishops, unhypocritical and filial most devoted collaborators and comrades-in-arms of the great “first man” in his difficult struggle for the Orthodox faith and the Russian people! Glory to you, archimandrites, abbots, cathedral and simple elders, in word and deed in times of hard times, who helped the great sorrowful Russian land, generously and without hesitation bringing to the altar of the Fatherland all their most cherished expensive treasures, accumulated by the holy prayers of their ever-memorable predecessors and the generous, willing offerings of the Russian God-loving tsars, boyars and peasants! Glory to you, o.o. archpriests, priests, deacons, whose names are known to the only Lord God! Humble in your holy service and little known to the world through the writings and testimonies of contemporaries - chroniclers of their holy names, but fearlessly fulfilling your pastoral duty in all necessary cases, with your breasts under the shadow of holy churches defending your spiritual children who were dying a valiant death for the Motherland and even, if dire need insisted, exchanging the holy cross and the Gospel for a sharp damask sword, you lay down with honor with bones on the thresholds of churches and at holy altars, and thus won crowns for themselves from the Rewarder, and from us, their distant descendants and admirers, pure eternal memory! Glory to all the Orthodox Russian people, who saved their Fatherland from enemies with their blood and, in a terrible time of national ruin and state poverty, who did not spare their most valuable asset - their wives and children! ... But a grateful heart is currently looking for another, more concrete expression of its feelings outside. In the heart of our Fatherland, in long-suffering white-stone Moscow, on the Russian Calvary, on Red Lobnaya Square, a majestic monument to the two unforgettable saviors of the Fatherland in troubled times, Prince Dimitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky and the merchant, Nizhny Novgorod citizen, Kuzma Minin, already flaunts for our edification. In the near future, the grateful sons of Russia, using the national contribution, intend to erect there and on the same historical square another similar monument to the saviors of the Fatherland in the same time of hard times to His Holiness Patriarch Hermogenes of Moscow and Trinity Archimandrite Dionysius. The Imperial Moscow Archaeological Society has already announced a competition or competition among our artists, sculptors and sculptors to draw up a project proposed for the erection of a new monument. We would be infinitely happy and grateful if these artists, inspired by the unforgettable and great feats of service to the Church and Fatherland of Patriarch Hermogenes and Archimandrite Dionysius, did not at the same time forget the works and exploits of their most worthy contemporaries, archpastors and shepherds from the white and black clergy. If only these modest heroes of spirit and heart, fighters for Orthodox Rus' in the time of its terrible turmoil, our artists had given a place on this monument, even on its pedestal, in modest bas-relief figures, taking for this, for example, the moment of the siege of Rostov by the Tushins and the courageous defense of the city residents in the cathedral church by Rostov Metropolitan Philaret Nikitich, archpriest and priests, or Sapieha’s capture of the Pafnutievsky monastery, or the martyrdom of the unparalleled personal bravery and courage of the “strongman” of the Novgorod Sofia archpriest Amos and the “greatly daring and meticulous” Uglich archpriest Afanasy, then this would have shown them on our part not only the honor they fully deserved, but also worthy justice. Such a monument there, in Moscow, almost next to the monument to another modest representative of the clergy, Deacon Ivan Feodorov, the first Russian printer and instiller of education and literacy in our Fatherland, will give the most eloquent answer to all the “co-questionnaires” of our day to their idle questions: how and how our Russian clergy, headed by their archpastors, live and lived, and where they went and can Should his priceless, varied wealth of monasteries and churches and their sacristies go in a time of domestic disaster? Its origins are considered most likely to be from the Vyatka townspeople. Presumably they think that his worldly name was Ermolai. Here are the details that Patriarch Hermogenes reported to his successor, Metropolitan Ephraim, in 1606 about the Kazan clergy: “and most of all, look at the Sophia, and over the Pokrovsky, and over the Irinipsky (priests): they will not really change their customs and they will not be in any trouble” (Act. Archeogr. Exped., vol. 2, no. 62, p. 139). See our brochure: “To the three hundredth anniversary of the Astrakhan diocese. Life and exploits of the first Archbishop of Astrakhan Theodosius” p. 25. Kyiv. 1903 Russian Histor. Library, ed. arch. Commissions, ed. 2, t. 13, art. 655–656, St. Petersburg. 1890. Assembled. state literate and Great Danes. No. 140, part 2, p. 298, M. 1819. Russian History Bible t. 13 art. 551. Russian Histor. bib. vol. 3, art. 902. V. V. Maikov. Message to Patriarch Hermogenes about the abuse of “khabuva” in church singing. Brochure pp. 7–17. Reprint from a collection of articles dedicated to S. O. Platonov. St. Petersburg 1911 Russian Histor. Bible v. 13, art. 1315. Acts of the archaeographer. forwarding vol. 2, no. 57, p. 128. St. Petersburg. 1836 Acts of archaeographer, expedition. vol. 2, no. 169, pp. 286–291. Russian Histor. Bible v. 13, art. 123. Collection state gram. and agreement. vol. 2, no. 201, p. 393. Russian Histor. Bible v. 13, art. 637. Russian Histor. Bible v. 13, art. 208. P.S.R.L. vol. 14, part 1, p. 106; n. Collection state letters and agreements, vol. 2, no. 224, p. 491. P.S.R L. vol. 14, part 1, p. 106. Russian Histor. Bible v. 13, art. 125. P.S.R.L. vol. 14, part 1, p. 116. Assembled. State gram. and Great Danes. vol. 2, no. 228, p. 497. Ibid. No. 275, p. 578; No. 262, p. 548. P.S.R.L. vol. 14, p. 117. Assembled. state gram. and Great Danes. vol. 2, no. 283, p. 599. Acts of the archaeographer. forwarding vol. 2, no. 61, pp. 138–139. Assembled. state gram. and Great Danes, vol. 2, no. 241, p. 519. Acts of archeogr. forwarding vol. 2, no. 53, pp. 128–129. Full Collection Years. v. 14, floor. 1, p. 83, St. Petersburg, 1910. Acts of History. vol. 2, no. 141, p. 162, St. Petersburg. 1841. Acts of history. vol. 2, no. 267, p. 319. Acts of archeogr. forwarding vol. 2, no. 29, pp. 83–84. Assembled. state gram. and Great Danes. vol. 2, no. 282, p. 598. Acts of archeogr. forwarding vol. 2, no. 57, p. 127. Russian Histor. Bible vol. 13, p. 514. Russian Histor. Bible vol. 13, pp. 514, 1018. P.S.R.L. vol. 14, part 1, p. 99. Acts of history. vol. 2, no. 99, p. 132; No. 110, p. 133. Russian Histor. Bible v. 13, art. 514. See in our book: “Arseniy of Elasson and his memoirs from Russian history.” Kyiv. 1899. Russian Histor. Bible v. 13, art. 1106. Russian Histor. Bible T. 13, art. 1203, 1219, 1220. Acts of archeogr. Expedition vol. 2, no. 136, p. 248. P.S.R.L. vol. 14, floor. 1, pp. 98–99. Russian Histor. Bibl., vol. 13, art. 100. Acts of archeogr. forwarding vol. 2, no. 63, p. 128. Acts of history. vol. 2, no. 221, p. 260. Acts of archeogr. forwarding No. 53, p. 128. Acts Arch. Expedition vol. 2, 20, pp. 83–84. Russian Histor. Bible vol. 13, p. 510. “Yaroslav. Diocesan Led." 1892, no. 48, p. 755. Acts of History. vol. 2, no. 69, p. 88. Acts of archeogr. forwarding vol. 2, no. 57, p. 128. Acts of history. vol. 2, no. 177, pp. 206–207. P.S.R.L. vol. 14, part 1; page 113. Ibid., p. 83. Among those present in the Rostov Cathedral was the Uglich archpriest Afanasy, mentioned below. In the messenger letter of Patriarch Hermogenes, September 1610. 13, very poorly preserved, only one archpriest of Voznesensky, Kirill, is named by name, and the names of others have been erased. Collection state gram. and contracts vol. 2, no. 207, p. 450. P.S.R.L. vol. 14, part 1, p. 101; See our book “Arseny Elassonsky, his memoirs from Russian history” page 145. P.S.R.L. vol. 14, part 1, p. 114. “Yaroslav. Eparch. Led." 1892 No. 48, p. 756. This interesting fact was reported to us by A.D. Popov, to whom we hasten to offer deep gratitude for this instruction. P.S.R.L. vol. 14, part 1, p. 111. You might be interested in: