Глава IV. Краткий исторический очерк русского Пантелеимоновского монастыря ко времени пострижения в нем о. Макария

The Russian Athos-Panteleimon monastery was going through difficult and difficult times when a modest young enthusiastic pilgrim, its future famous abbot, crossed the threshold of its port. Since 1735, the Greek element in this monastery gained the final advantage over the Russians, who little by little were completely forced out of it 38. The new inhabitants of the monastery, the Greeks, abandoned the former strict cinenial way of life and established an idiorhythm 39. The plurality of commands caused by the very structure of the new monastic life, in the form of conciliar government of the representative elders of the monastery (proestos), who transfer their power from hand to hand depending on the weather and in turn, both in our time and in the last century, did not contribute to the prosperity of monasteries, but always led and is leading now to the decline of material well-being, strict monastic discipline, to the introduction in them of internal unrest and disorder that interfered with the correct and peaceful development of monasteries. The Russian Panteleimon monastery was not a happy exception, but followed the usual path, which led it to impoverishment and complete ruin. In 1803, the Athonite Protat 40, taking into account the extremely disastrous state of the Russian monastery, which in Kareya 41 was not trusted even by 20 piastres (about 1 rub. 50 k. Ser.), had already decided to exclude this monastery from the list of Svyatogorsk monasteries, to sell the lands belonging to it to pay off the heavy debts that lay on this monastery, and to use the remaining cash surplus for the public needs of other Athonite monasteries. But this heavy sentence of the Karey Protat was not destined to come true. The Russian Panteleimon Monastery unexpectedly found itself an intercessor and patron in the person of the Ecumenical Patriarch Kalinnik, who always did not sympathize with idiorhythms. He took the side of St. Panteleimon Monastery and tried to prove to the monastery of the Holy Mountain that it was tactless and impolitic to destroy the Russian monastery at a time when Russia, with its last wars with Turkey, had acquired a decisive influence on the fate of Eastern Christians. The arrangement and bringing into proper order of the disordered monastic affairs in Russika was entrusted by His Holiness the Patriarch to the pious, already advanced in years, but energetic and experienced elder, hieromonk of the Xenophian monastery Savva, who, wanting to justify the trust placed in him by the Ecumenical Patriarch, zealously took up the work entrusted to him and even did a lot of good for the monastery, but, after death, did not manage to complete all his good intentions. The subsequent unrest on the Holy Mountain, on the occasion of the Greek uprising for its independence in 1820–1821, forced many peaceful Svyatogorsk residents to leave their monasteries and seek shelter beyond the boundaries of the Holy Mountain. After the conclusion of peace in 1830, the gathered small and poor brethren of the Russian Panteleimon Monastery, led by their abbot Gerasim 42, the successor of Sava, on the advice of the wise elder Hierodeacon Benedict, decided to invite Russian monks to the monastery in order to establish a monastery with their help. The well-known hieromonk Anikita (in the world, Prince S.A. Shikhmatov-Shirinsky) 43 readily responded to this call of the Greeks, arriving on the Holy Mount Athos on June 9, 1835 and temporarily settling in the Little Russian Ilyinsky monastery 44. Pious and compassionate Fr. Anikita, having gathered around him up to 15 “wishers” to move to Russik, according to Fr. Parthenia, “not knowing who was of what quality and mind,” went with them on July 2 of the same year to the Panteleimon Monastery, carrying in his arms the icon of St. Mitrophanius of Voronezh. In Russika he was received very cordially by the Greek brethren. The Russians were given the Church of St. John the Baptist 45. Fr. himself Anikita, in accordance with the promise he made, went to Thessaloniki on July 4, in order to go from there to Jerusalem, and entrusted the Russian brethren of the Panteleimon Monastery to the care of the confessor Procopius, a man “albeit a kind hearted man, as Fr. Seraphim of the Svyatogorets 46, but inexperienced and weak to keep his society within the boundaries of unconditional obedience and subordination to the strict rules of the cenobia or community life.” To the elders of the monastery, Fr. Anikita donated 3,000 leva to complete the finished church 47 in the name of St. Mitrophania. “The Russians did not respect and obey the Greeks,” describes what began with the departure of Fr. Anikita in the Panteleimon monastery, the monk Parthenius was in trouble, but they always began to contradict, and even intimidate, that the monastery is ours, Russian, and our leader is a prince; we will kick you out. Why did the Greeks, all the brethren, become confused... and began to tell Abbot Gerasim and Elder Benedict that we cannot live with the Russians and do not want their wealth; It’s better to eat crackers with water, but alone; The Russians have upset our whole lives" 48 . It is true that the Russians behaved tactlessly in the monastery, but the Greeks were not without guilt towards the Russians. “If I am not mistaken in my remarks,” our Russian traveler to Mount Athos V. Davydov writes about this time, “the Russian monks suffer a lot of oppression in their monastery, not only economically, but also in the management of the monastery estate and even in church services, which they are not allowed to conduct in the Slavic language” 49. The same o. Parthenius, who reacted with severe criticism to the Ilyinsky immigrants, does not hide the fact that a share of the blame for these unrest falls on the Greeks in general. “The Greeks of the Russian monastery,” he says, “were more prompted to expel the prince by the Greeks of other monasteries, because they envisaged that if the Russians moved into the Russian monastery, then they would take away their land from all the monasteries, and especially if the prince lived” 50. Be that as it may, the fact is clear when Fr. On May 9, 1836, Anikita returned from Jerusalem to Mount Athos 51 and arrived at the Russian Panteleimon Monastery, where he immediately found himself in the midst of diverging human passions: “The Russians began to complain about the Greeks, and the Greeks about the Russians” 52. “By God’s permission from above,” notes Fr. Aniketas in his diary, “Satan forbade the good deed, inciting the elders of the monastery to fear there, even if there was no fear, so that, despite their promise and my admonition, they completely renounced their words and completely refused to establish a throne in their monastery in the name of the great Saint Mitrofan” 53, whose church “remained without completion until his return” 54. To the meek and The peace-loving Father Anikita had no choice but to leave the inhospitable monastery and seek shelter for himself and his brethren again in the Little Russian monastery of St. Elijah. On the 8th of June, after the liturgy and prayer service to the saint Mitrophanius, the Russian monks “carried his icon from the monastery to the Russian monastery of St. Elias.” On the way, “driving by,” we read in the diary. Fr. Anikita, our ancient Russian monastery, in which our brethren, up to 30 people from their Greek brethren, who spent the night in the same monastery after the slaughter, stayed in the ruins of this deserted monastery and with their companions, erecting an icon of St. Mitrophan in the paraklis of the Mother of God, which was still quite intact, served a requiem service for the departed and then continued on his way to the monastery of St. Elijah, where he soon arrived safely and was received kindly by the elders and brethren” 55. Thus the first attempt of Russian monks to settle in their ancient property in the Russian Panteleimon Monastery ended in complete failure. Father Anikita, who was appointed, while still in Jerusalem, to be a hieromonk at our embassy in Athens, soon left Athos 56 and went to his place of service, where he died on June 7, 1837 57. In 1839, a new attempt was made to attract Russian monks to the Russian Panteleimon Monastery. At the invitation of the monastic authorities, the hieroschemamonk confessor Pavel 58 settled in the monastery with several Russian monks who had left the brethren of the Ilyinsky Little Russian monastery due to the unrest taking place there. But oh. Pavel lived in the monastery for only eight months and died, leaving the monastery a very respectable sum of money of 70,000 (about 7 thousand rubles) piastres, which made it possible to at least somewhat improve the disturbed finances of the monastery. The remaining Russian brethren after the death of their confessor, with the blessing of Fr. Abbot Gerasim, turned to Fr. Arseny 59, a famous ascetic at that time and the most experienced confessor of all Russians, scattered throughout the numerous kalibs and cells of the Holy Mountain, with a request that he and his disciples move to live permanently in the Russian Panteleimon Monastery and gather the Russian brethren around him. Elder Arseny refused to take on work that was too much for his advanced age and suggested to the elders of the monastery, not without their desire, that they choose his disciple Fr. Ioannikis, who then lived in the cell of St. Prophet Elijah, near the Stavronikitsky Monastery, with two of his disciples. At first, Father Ioannikiy resolutely refused, since his settlement in Russika was connected with the need to accept ordination as a hieromonk, which he always feared, but, convinced by his elder Arseny, whose authority he revered, he finally agreed, sold his cell, distributed his property to the Russian orphans, and on October 20, 1840, he moved with his students to the Panteleimon Monastery. On the 18th of November, Fr. Ioannikis (in schema Jerome) was ordained by Gregory, Metropolitan of Adrianople, as a hierodeacon, and on 21 of the same month as a hieromonk and blessed 60 to be a confessor for the Russian brethren 61 . What is the personality of this organizer of the Russian Panteleimon Monastery, whose spirit and direction are still alive in the monastery to this day, and this mighty fighter for the Russian cause on the Holy Mountain? We did not personally know Fr. Jerome, who died in 1885 on November 14, and therefore are forced to describe his highly moral image in the words of people who knew him well. This is the review student Fr. gives about him. Ioannikis and even his roommate in Ilyinskaya cell, the monk Parthenius, who served with him for some time as a cook and a baker, and as a reader, and as a canonarch. “Father Ioannikis (Jerome also) considered,” writes Fr. Parthenius - and found in him a great and learned man, skilled in external and spiritual wisdom and much read and knowledgeable in the Divine and Fatherly Scriptures. Although I read a lot of books, I was against him like a drop against the sea: and I used him all the time; No matter what I asked him, the quick one would give me an answer. And he was very meek and forgiving; I could bear all our infirmities in such a way that in my entire life I had never seen such a meek and patient person, and I was perfect in all virtues; He did not teach in words, but showed everything in action, and in everything the image was for us - and in words he was sweet-talking, firm and reasonable, and had such power in his words that even if he was stony at heart, he could persuade anyone and bring them to tears, and could exhort and guide anyone on the true path... He was of high average height, long light brown hair, a long and wide brown beard, a clean and white face and always cheerful, a most pleasant look, but very pale and thin from great feats and poor health, he often engaged in spiritual conversations with us and often spent the rest of the morning without sleep. We considered it happiness when he engaged in such a conversation with us: we forgot our nature and sleep. And my heart clung to him so much and my soul loved him so much that I considered it a great loss even if I could not see him and hear a useful word from him; when we see his face, we forget ourselves. And I set the intention never to be separated from him, even until death. And when he happened to be sick 62, we cried those days and asked God to give him health” 63. Painted portrait of Fr. Although Ioannikija belongs to the pen of his passionate admirer and was written during the initial period of his ascetic life, nevertheless, it cannot be denied its truthfulness and remarkable similarity to the original. The surviving living memories of this elder in the Panteleimon Monastery to this day serve as the most convincing evidence of this. This is on the one hand, on the other hand, we have before us a more artistic portrait of this great elder, drawn by a more experienced hand and already in the period of his physical and moral maturity, a portrait that not only does not contradict the first, but, on the contrary, shows us the moral height to which the late Fr. Jerome. This second review was made by the recently deceased Fr. K. Leontyev, the former Consul of Thessaloniki, who lived on Mount Athos for more than a year in 1871, both for diplomatic purposes and to satisfy his always inherent inclination towards a contemplative life. K. Leontyev 64 stood in very close relations with both elders of the Russian Panteleimon Monastery: Fr. Ioanniki and Fr. Macarius, and we can fully rely on his truthful review. "ABOUT. Jerome,” writes K. Leontyev, - became the confessor and elder of the then small Russian brethren in the monastery of St. Panteleimon. This was not only a monk of high life, he was a more than wonderful person. It is not for me to recognize him as a saint - this is the right of the church, not a private person, but I will call him directly great: a man with a great soul and an extraordinary mind. Coming from not particularly important Stary Oskol merchants, 65 having received almost no education, through reading he developed his strong natural mind to the ability to perfectly understand the most abstract theological works, and to the ability to penetrate in his distance all the most lively modern interests. Firm, unshakable, fearless, enterprising; bold and cautious at the same time; a deep idealist and extremely businesslike: physically as strong (?) as mentally; even in his old age he is still strikingly handsome. Father Jerome easily subjugated people to himself, and even noticed that he influenced those who were themselves mentally and morally superior even more powerfully than ordinary people. This is understandable. These latter, perhaps, were only afraid of him; smart, original people, able to discern characters, gave themselves to him with amazement and love.” “I,” says K. Leontyev, “on myself, at the age of 40, experienced this incomprehensible even his attractive power. I saw this effect on others too” 66. “Father Jerome was a man of iron will par excellence. His internal “self-conceit” 67 probably had the goal, first of all, to soften his heart, to break, to humble his naturally proud will. It is also possible that it was with the intention of removing from himself all temptations of power over anything that he so stubbornly and for a long time refused hieromonasticism both in Russia and on Mount Athos, and only the strictest command of his Svyatogorsk mentor, Elder Arseny, forced him to accept consecration... Father Jerome was always so calm and unperturbed that I, notes K. Leontyev, had frequent meetings with him For more than a year, I never saw him get angry, nor did he laugh the way others laugh. He barely smiles from time to time, never raises his voice, never shows any special joy or sadness. Sometimes it's just a little lighter, sometimes it's a little darker and more severe. And yet he understood all the feelings in others, the most violent, the most inappropriate and the most cowardly. He understood them subtly, deeply and condescendingly. Everyone was afraid of him and everyone strove for him in their hearts” 68. It was into the hands of such and such an experienced spiritual father, an elder, a man with a strong character and rare endurance in life, a nugget of talent, who stood head and shoulders above all those around him, that Providence entrusted the fate of the Russian Panteleimon Monastery, reduced to extreme squalor and almost deleted from the list of Svyatogorsk monasteries. Faith in the better future of the Russian monastery, the charm of the personality of the confessor and the deep elder Abbot Gerasim, surrounded by an aura of high qualities of mind and heart among the then inhabitants of the Holy Mountain, and most importantly, the bleak position of the Russian people among the monks of other nationalities - all this taken together was sufficient motivation for these latter, leaving their poor calibres and natural caves, to seek shelter in the poor, but hospitably opened its doors to the Russian Panteleimon Monastery. In a short time about. Jerome, a rather significant group of Russian people was formed, who gave themselves into unconditional submission to their selflessly beloved experienced confessor and abbot of the monastery, who sincerely wanted to devote all their strength to the good of the monastery. A difficult task lay ahead of Fr. Jerome, if you do not merge two elements of different tribes and different characters into one whole, then with prudent suggestions you can reconcile them, since the previous experience under Fr. Anikete showed that without mutual concessions, life together between Greeks and Russians under one roof was unthinkable. Giving preference to the Greeks in the monastery, as a kind of masters, he constantly inspired the Russian brethren not to enter into disputes and disagreements with the Greeks, but to strive for the goal for which they came to the monastery, that is, to save their souls, for which peace and brotherly love are necessary. The strict cinematic lifestyle of the monks of the Russian Panteleimon Monastery 69, the harsh environment and extremely meager food, unusual for Russian people, with which the Greek monks easily got along - all this seemed like a difficult and difficult feat for the Russian monks. In this regard, even such an enthusiastic singer of Athonite beauties and Athonite monastic life as Fr. paints a gloomy picture of the life of the Russian monks of the Panteleimon Monastery. Seraphim Svyatogorets. “It is necessary, however, to admit,” he writes, “that the vigil does not tire my painful flesh so much as the local meal: beans, beans, lentils and revit - all these and similar products of the Svyatogorsk fields are in themselves very tasty and nutritious - but they are heavy, so heavy for a weak stomach that I often suffer extremely from them, and my vitality are exhausted... Judging by Russik’s shy position at the present time, there is almost no possibility of fixing the meal... I see many of the brothers in the same exhaustion as me from the influence of the meal... While Russik was fishing on the Danube 70, some of our brotherhood were extremely sad and complained about the beans and beans, which exclusively constituted our meal, and asked the confessor to take care of improving the table, especially since then the Danube could treat us with beautiful fish. The frequent complaints of the exhausted brethren worried the confessor too much, so he finally decided to hand them over to the geronte (i.e., the abbot). We knew this, we hoped for the good-heartedness of the Geronts, and one thought about the imminent change of a meal from indigestible to lightly nutritious, in Russian taste, consoled us, was often the subject of fraternal conversations "71... The caring Father Jerome, of course, recognized the justice of these complaints, he was sick in soul, but he did not have the strength to satisfy the desire of the brethren. As in many other cases, so in the present, the experienced confessor reassured excited minds, thanks to their resourcefulness, with a story about a wonderful vision that happened to one of the brothers, more dissatisfied with the meal than others. The story told by Fr. Seraphim in his letters to friends, made a deep impression on the entire brethren, who, according to Svyatogorets, “left carnivorous complaints about the meal, being content with what was served” 72. Concern for the spiritual education of the brethren entrusted to his care was for Fr. Jerome was a matter of prime necessity, but he did not forget for a minute both about the oppressive poverty that he found in the monastery, and about those first needs that harsh reality so persistently and eloquently declared. The brethren of the monastery asked, as we have seen, for a piece of daily bread that they could eat, they were looking for a warm corner and at the same time they felt an urgent need to build a special and spacious church, where they would have the opportunity to satisfy their first need - to pray in the Slavic language. The constantly increasing number of Russian brethren made the small church of St. unsuitable for this purpose. Mitrophania. The monastery could not satisfy all these urgent needs of its brethren, since, apart from debt obligations on which it was necessary to pay large interest annually, there was nothing in the monastery’s cash register. To get out of this oppressive need, Fr. Jerome had only one option left - to make an appeal to his pious compatriots and admirers of the Holy Mountain, so that they would help the Russian monastery with whatever contribution they could, and to send alms collectors to the borders of Russia 73 . The appeal to the kind Russian heart, which has long loved to spare no expense for the beautification of holy monasteries, found full sympathy, and donations of money and things flowed from Russia to the Russian Athos monastery. Father Jerome managed to place in the Russian monastery two eminent Vyatka merchants, G. Chernov and I. I. Stakheev, with whose funds the construction of the large Russian Intercession Cathedral, completed and consecrated on January 10, 1853, began. The iconostasis for this church was donated by Abbot Anthony Bochkov 74. The closest assistant and collaborator from the Russians, Fr. Jerome in these circumstances was someone Fr. Simeon Vesnin 75, priest of the Vyatka province, better known to us under the name of Fr. Seraphim of the Svyatogorets. With his poetic letters about the Holy Mountain, published by the monastery in 1850, he introduced the Russian people to the Holy Mountain, persuaded them to donate 76 and then personally collected considerable alms from his friends and benefactors for the benefit of the monastery. The Russian Panteleimon Monastery remembers with gratitude the name of Fr. Seraphim, as one of his ever-memorable patrons, who worked a lot with his talented pen and captivating words for the benefit of the monastery. Elder Abbot Gerasim and his most educated and humane governor, Hierodeacon Hilarion 77, tried in every possible way to assist Fr. Jerome in his works, since they clearly saw that they were really aimed at the good of their impoverished monastery. All donations that came from Russia, Fr. Jerome tried to divide equally, and in order to win over the Greeks towards the Russians, he even tried to give them the best things, and left the worst things for the Russian brethren, except in those cases when the donations were sent directly to the Russian cathedral or to the Russian brethren. Seeing this selfless activity, elders Abbot Gerasim and Fr. Hilarion tried with all his might to maintain harmony and unanimity between the Greeks and Russians and to eliminate all kinds of misunderstandings that arose on one side or the other, since this alone determined the further prosperity of the monastery. During these difficult years for the Russian Panteleimon monastery, which was gradually beginning to renew itself and take the path along which it had reached its high significance on Mount Athos at the present time, young Sushkin arrived on the Holy Mountain. Opening the hospitable doors of the monastery to the young admirer, Fr. Jerome and the other elders looked at him, and this can hardly be denied, as such a admirer, whose favor in favor of the monastery was for them a desirable and natural thing. They already knew about his origins from the richest house of the Tula eminent merchants Sushkins, both from Fr. Seraphim, and from his peers and companions of Stary Oskol who arrived on Athos before him. But soon circumstances showed that they were not dealing with a random, fleeting pilgrim, but with an ardent enthusiast, ready to forever share the harsh ascetic life with them. The strict disciplinary order established in the monastery, the magnificent day and night services and the simple way of life of the fathers made a deep impression on Mikhail Ivanovich’s soul. The unusually attractive image of the intelligent ascetic confessor Jerome seemed to be the long-familiar image that he had been looking for so long and in vain. With a pure soul, he already fell in love with Fr. confessor, managed to mentally surrender to him and could not hide from him his cherished thought that “he is not just a fan and pilgrim to holy places, but a person eager to follow in the footsteps of his asceticism” 78. This is a young man’s recognition of his love and passions, which in turn also made a good impression on Fr. Jerome, the latter liked it very much and the joyful thought of making this young enthusiast his most devoted assistant and linking the fate of the monastery entrusted to him quickly flashed through his insightful mind. But reserved Fr. the confessor, not accustomed to the manifestation of enthusiasm on the outside, calmly and even somewhat sternly responded to this passionate confession of an enthusiastic young admirer: “Let him live, stay, study, let him ask his father for permission to get a haircut... Then we’ll see” 79. The ardent Mikhail Ivanovich listened to this verdict with grief, and the thought of returning to his parents’ house, which he was afraid of, began to visit his head often. But oh. Jerome not only did not frighten young Sushkin with the thought of returning to his homeland, but, as we will see below, instilled in him confidence in the possibility of fulfilling his desire, only it was necessary to wait for time. “The Sushkins are very rich and strong people, we are,” confessed Fr. Hieronymus K. Leontiev, - they were afraid to cut his hair: the father could blame us for somehow hastening to cut his son’s hair in the hope of a rich contribution. We did not want to have such a bad reputation in Russia and thereby damage the monastery. A simpler person could have been tonsured without such hesitation” 80. But the idea of ​​joining the ranks of “angel-like people” expressed by Fr. confessor and apparently not meeting any sympathy from him, did not leave Mikhail Ivanovich for a minute. He wanted, on the advice of his confessor, to obtain the consent of his parents for his tonsure as a monk, so that later he could fulfill his desire without hindrance. However, he personally did not count on the blessing of his strict father and therefore decided to act through his mother Feodosia Petrovna, from whom he “did not hide anything” and who secretly “wanted the same. In a letter to her from Athos dated November 9, 1851, i.e., six days after his arrival, he asks his mother to “persuade the priest” not to prevent him from joining the brethren of the Russian Panteleimon monastery. Here is this letter, curious in many respects and eliminating all rumors 81 regarding the tonsure of Fr. Macarius into monasticism: “Dearest and most priceless mother Feodosya Petrovna! From Smyrna 82 I wrote to you, my dear, and now I have come to the Holy Mountain, where I want to ask for your blessing. Mother, bless! With the help of God and my Patroness, perhaps I will place myself here for your prayers. I fall at the soles of your feet and ask: do not be offended, do not be upset, remember the words of the Savior: to him who believes, all things are possible. Persuade the priest: it is better for us to pray for each other than to have a date. I’ll tell you: for God’s sake, don’t grieve... Mother, perhaps, if the Lord God wills, he will approve. You wanted the same thing. Pray for me. Read the life of Pimen, August 27: “What did he answer to his mother?” If only the Lord would confirm this. This is paradise, especially if this confessor is alive. Perhaps the Queen of Heaven will send her mercy. Mother, if you love Christ, thank Him and be comforted by this thought: what, if I come, will I get married? Save, Lord! Would God be willing to allow the enemy to laugh, but he has more mercy. If I come now, how long will I have to live? And who can guarantee that I will not have temptations? I don’t even have the ardor I used to have; everything is cold. I have already relied so much on the will of the Mother of God: what will She announce through the mouth of my confessor? And my confessor does not advise me to go, but here he is considered the first among Russians in monastic experience. I am sure that you will not take me away, but persuade the priest: a church is being built here, and I want to ask you. If, by the grace of the Queen of Heaven, I had stayed here, then instead of a meeting you would have ordered to give your icon of Tikhvin (the Mother of God) here, but with the way the side chapels are being finished here, and perhaps I will ask the confessor, even I have already hinted, in the name of Tikhvin, and we all have a blessed icon on the way. Now I don’t even dare to ask the priest, but wait a while to give something for the construction here, for, although I won’t be here, everything is good for the soul. And I especially wanted to decorate the chapel of the common Intercessor at my own expense. Forgive me, I only dared to write to you, my joy: I’m not hiding anything from you, that’s why I’m writing. Especially, mother, bless me, do not grieve, but pray and serve a prayer service to the Bogolyubskaya Mother of God. The Lord will comfort you and me. I kiss you and bow to the ground. Forgive and bless! Encourage Father to bless you. And go ahead and serve a prayer service, and then write a blessing. I remain your loving son, Mikhail Sushkin.” After sending the above letter, circumstances changed so dramatically in the life of Mikhail Ivanovich that the desire of his heart came true much sooner than he and those around him could have imagined. As a newcomer to the Holy Mountain, Mikhail Ivanovich, after the holiday on November 8, decided to go around St. Mountain in order to explore its monasteries and worship the shrines located in them. But before he had time to realize his thought even halfway, he inadvertently caught a cruel local fever, which often puts its victims, not accustomed to the climate of the Holy Mountain, into eternal rest. With difficulty, Mikhail Ivanovich reached the Greek Kutlumush monastery near Kareya and finally went to bed. By order of the elders of the Panteleimon Monastery, he was transferred to the Russian monastery on a stretcher. The disease did not respond to the simple medical means that the monastery had at its disposal to alleviate the suffering of the patient, and took on such threatening symptoms that they began to despair of his recovery. The danger of his own situation did not hide from the attentive Mikhail Ivanovich, who listened to what was being said around him. From the anxious faces of those around him and the tears of his Evgraf, who did not leave the sick man’s bedside, he realized that the days of his life were numbered. Mikhail Ivanovich turned again to Fr. Jerome with an ardent request that he, who is on the edge of the grave, would not be denied even now what every layman who accidentally dies on the heights of Athos has the right to; so that even at this hour a mortal would be honored with that angelic image of which he had cherished a dream since childhood. None of the elders was able to refuse in this case. On November 27, the rite of Great Schema 83 was performed over Mikhail Ivanovich in an abbreviated form, so as not to tire the sick person with the complexity of the rituals, and he was named Macarius. During the entire ceremony, Mikhail Ivanovich sat on his bed, half asleep, and when the rite of tonsure ended, he plunged into a deep, peaceful sleep, which very noticeably strengthened him. Waking up and feeling better, Fr. Macarius began to remember everything that happened to him before going to bed. Remembering that the entire past no longer exists, that the world in which he suffered so much, experienced so much, where he left those dear to his heart, that all this is now separated from him by an impregnable fence in the form of the Great Schema Mantle, Fr. Macarius shuddered and tears involuntarily flowed down his pale face, emaciated by illness. Two feelings, completely dissimilar, worried the young monk. On the one hand, he cried with joy and happiness, since the cherished dream of his childhood was easily and unexpectedly fulfilled for him, and on the other, from fear of the wrath of his father, to whom he gave his word to return to his homeland and who did not want him to be tonsured. The anxiety of the soul and tears intensified the paroxysms, and the patient again fell into unconsciousness. The serious illness lasted until January 1852. The news of Mikhail Ivanovich's tonsure as a monk in his homeland, in Tula, was, of course, unexpected and made a varied impression. Ivan Dionisievich, father of Fr. Macarius, was dissatisfied with his son’s action and for some short time, however, 84 not only did not write letters to him, but did not even talk about him at all, either at home or on the side. Feodosya Petrovna secretly rejoiced at the accomplished fact, which she had long dreamed of, and therefore immediately entered into a lively correspondence with her favorite, 85 although she did not show her pleasure in front of her husband and was restrained. This event was not told to any of the other relatives who lived in Tula, as they were afraid that outsiders’ questions about the young monk would cause grief to Ivan Dionisievich. This fact became the subject of speculation a week or more after the letter was received at the Sushkins’ house. The journey of Vasily Grigorovich-Barsky through the holy places of the east. St. Petersburg, 1887. Part III. P. 296. This word comes from the Greek ιδιόρρυθμος, which means original. In the idiorhythms, “submitting to the general rules in the main principles of monastic life, the monks have the right to live much more freely than in the cenobia: there is no common obligatory table, everyone can eat in their own cell (although at the meal every day some very simple food is prepared for poor visitors, for workers and for monks who do not want to eat in their cell). Moreover, one monk may be personally very rich, while another has nothing, etc. A monk of an original monastery is not obliged to give all his money to the common treasury, as in the monks. Everyone is given something common from the monastic storerooms and cellars, butter, flour, cheese, eggs, etc., and on top of that, everyone can acquire and maintain their funds as they wish." Some of the monks of these monasteries or proestos “occupy five, six and ten good rooms in the monastery; have a lot of money in banks somewhere or in their chests, in addition to the contribution they made to the monastery’s cash desk to obtain the best rooms and other privileges. They dress in silk robes, sit in their cells on a wide Turkish sofa, eat meat on fasting days and fish on fasting days, are representatives of the monastery, and occasionally travel to Athens, Istanbul, Odessa, Chisinau, etc. There are (in Vatopedi, for example) about 200-odd monks, no more than ten or twelve. The rest of the people are poor, who perform various jobs in the monastery (or, in monastic terms, obediences): they serve at the church, cook food, knead bread, chop wood, etc. All of them receive, in addition to certain provisions, a small salary from the monastery treasury and therefore cannot work outside... He [i.e. e. monk of idiorhythm] has more freedom. Firstly, he is not obliged to go to all kinds of services in the church, like the cinnamon; maybe, without being asked, he can read prayers at home, this is left to his conscience; secondly, he is free to choose food, clothing, society,” etc. “In a unique monastery, one monk can invite another to dine with him in his cell, talk, pray together... he can walk when they finish work, as much as he wants; You just can’t go to another monastery or to the Athos town of Kareya without asking the authorities. It is, of course, impossible not to keep fasts, it is impossible not to be present at church services too often, etc.” On the contrary, in communal (κοινόβιον) monasteries the strictest communism reigns: no one has the right to personal property, no money with them, no food in their room without special permission from the authorities, and even then very rarely, in the case of travel, illness, or generally something exceptional... Without the permission of the confessor, the monks do not have the right to talk in twos, threes in their cells - and this is watched strictly, especially relatively young... In the cenovies, especially in the Greek ones, which in other ways are even stricter than the Russians, it is not allowed, for example, to have lamps or candles in the evening without asking, for reading even by hieromonks, who, thanks to their rank and the constant tedious feat of proper worship, always have some privileges: it is impossible, without the request of the confessor or abbot, to go outside the gates (i.e., the monastery).” (Russian Bulletin. 1873. Book IV. pp. 651–654, approx.) In addition to these two main types of monastic life on Mount Athos, we also find several others here. In this essay, we will often have to talk about the Kelliots, Kaviots and Xiromonkhs, which are nothing more than the names of other types of monastic life on Athonite. Kelliots are monks who live not in monasteries, but in special rather spacious houses built on land purchased from one of the 20 Athos monasteries, which divided the entire Athos peninsula among themselves. This purchase is made according to a special charter, called homology, in which the buyer negotiates with the monastery the right to have a special church, a small number of brethren, however, not more than 15 people, to plant a vineyard, olive trees and vegetable gardens for food for the brethren, to have livestock and to build household outbuildings necessary in everyday life. The mentioned homology consists of three persons: the elder or ruler of the cell and his two disciples, who, after the death of the elder, in order of seniority, take his place and inherit his rights and property. At the same time, when the cell is transferred from the elder to his disciples, these latter pay the agreed fee to the monastery and a new person is entered into the homology so that this cell is not taken into the ownership of the monastery, but would be successively in the same hands. Hence, some cells on Mount Athos date back up to 600 years of existence or more. The monastic life and church rite in these cells are monastic cenovial, but without that strict rigorism that we see in monasteries. The interests of the Kelliots are protected by the monasteries on whose lands their cells are built. Kaviots or Kalibites are hermits who have small houses (ναλύβα) built on the land of a monastery. There are no churches near these houses, and there is no land for vineyards and vegetable gardens. Its owner has the right only to accept for temporary cohabitation, as a lodger, one kaviot or xiromachus similar to him. After the death of the owner, the kaliba becomes the property of the monastery on whose land it was built, and its transfer to other hands depends on the will of the monastery. In parallel to the Kaviots and Kelliots, who have, although small, their own funds, on Athos there is also a genus of hermits called Xiromachians (ξηρό μακός), who do not have any funds. They live for the most part in their own caves or dugouts and occasionally, with the money they have saved, they have the opportunity to rent a warm corner from the Kaviots as lodgers. They receive clothes, soft bread, crackers and occasionally money from monasteries, and for other needs they are forced to earn money by turning spoons or crosses, knitting rosaries, sewing clothes and shoes, etc. by crafts. All the anchorites of Karulya can also be included among the Xiromachus. On Mount Athos, a protate is a meeting of representatives or antiprosops of 20 Svyatogorsk monasteries on matters relating to the Holy Mountain in general. Kareya is a small trading town located in the center of Athos. A detailed biography of this abbot was also written by the monk Parthenius. “Hegumen Gerasim has an amazing gift of reasoning,” writes Parfeniy. “He has two hundred spiritual children, and he governs them all not in an authoritative manner, but in a fatherly way... His cell is never closed, like a doctor’s office... having seen everyone off, he himself leaves the cell. First he visits the sick brethren, then he goes around all the cells and visits all the workers and handicraftsmen; then he goes outside the monastery and visits all the brethren working in various obediences, and he himself works with them... He never forces the brethren to work, but still holds them back and often orders them to rest. In church he always appears first of all... He does not eat food, except for the common fraternal meal. Often at meals he speaks orally and gives instructions to the brethren, and sometimes exposes the brethren's weaknesses and shortcomings; but it doesn’t announce anyone’s name, it just makes it clear. And he always speaks with tears and with fatherly love, and brings all the brethren to tears... And not only his children revere him, but the entire Holy Mount Athos pleases him, as a strict guardian of communal monastic rules” (Monk Parfeniy (Ageev). The Legend of Wandering and Journey through Russia, Moldova, Turkey and the Holy Land. Part IV. pp. 260–261). A detailed biographical sketch of Fr. Anikita, read at a meeting of the Imperial Russian Academy on October 29, 1838, was published as a separate brochure entitled: About the life and works of Hieromonk Anikita, in the world of Prince S. A. Shikhmatov. St. Petersburg, 1853. Publ. 2nd. Interesting biographical information is reported about Fr. Anikita, his curious diary: “The Journey of Hieromonk Anikita (in the world of Prince S.A. Sh.-Shikhmatov) to the holy places of the East in 1834–1835,” published by priest V. Zhmakin for the past 1891 in the magazine “Christian Reading.” No. 1–2, No. 5–6, No. 7–8, No. 9–10, and No. 11–12; monk Parfeniy in his famous “Tale of Wandering and Journey through Russia, Moldova, Turkey and the Holy Land.” M., 1855. Part I V. pp. 241–246; Part I. pp. 150–152; Part II. pp. 218–222; Saint Seraphim in “Letters about the Holy Mount Athos”. M., 1883. Part I. P. 51–53, etc. Shirinsky-Shikhmatov P. A. About the life and works of Hieromonk Anikita, in the world of Prince Sergei Alexandrovich Shikhmatov. Christian Reading. 1891. No. 5–6. P. 530. Monk Parfeniy (Ageev). A legend about a journey through Russia, Moldova, Turkey and St. The land of the tonsured monk Parthenius of the Holy Mount Athos. M., 1856. Part II. P. 220. Saint Seraphim. Letters about the Holy Mount Athos. P. 53. Christian Reading. 1891 No. 5–6. P. 531; No. 11–12. P. 454. Monk Parfeniy (Ageev). A legend about a journey through Russia, Moldova, Turkey and St. Earth. Part II. P. 221. Davydov V.P. Travel notes kept during his stay in the Ionian Islands, Greece, Asia Minor and Turkey in 1835. St. Petersburg, 1840. Part II. P. 191. Monk Parfeniy (Ageev). A tale of a journey. Part II. P. 223. Shirinsky-Shikhmatov P. A. About the life and works of Hieromonk Anikita, in the world of Prince Sergei Alexandrovich Shikhmatov. Christian Reading. 1891. No. 11–12. P. 448. Monk Parfeniy (Ageev). A tale of a journey. Part II. P. 221. Christian Reading. 1891 No. 11–12. P. 449. Before leaving for Athens, Fr. Anikita presented the 3000 leva returned to him by the Panteleimon elders. Theodora, adding to them another 4000 leva, collected for the same subject in Odessa by A.S. Sundiy, and begged the elders of the Elias monastery to build a paraklis in honor of St. with this money. Mitrophania (Christian Reading. 1891, No. 11–12. P. 454, 450, approx.). Christian reading. P. 460. About the life and works of priest. Anikita in the world of Prince S. A. Shikhmatov. P. 66. Biographical information about the personality of Abbot Paul is reported by the monk Parthenius in his “Tale of the Wandering” (Part I V. pp. 234–241; Part II. pp. 107–110). “He has lived in Holy Mount Athos for more than twenty years in complete non-covetousness,” the Athonite monks said about Fr. Arsenia to the monk Parthenius, - in the deepest desert, without any bodily consolation: he eats the leanest food, eats neither fish, nor cheese, nor butter, and sleeps very little, perhaps one hour a day, and then sitting. His love is unlimited, and he is so merciful that he often gives away his books for whatever need anyone needs. He keeps us in the Holy Mount Athos, and if it weren’t for him, then half of us would have gone back to Russia from such great sorrows, but he doesn’t give blessings to anyone; and whoever does anything without his blessing or goes anywhere, everyone suffers and disappears” (The Tale of the Journey. Part II. pp. 119–120). According to the custom of the Eastern Church, only elder hieromonks who are skilled in spiritual life are appointed as confessors, and over them the bishop reads a special prayer for this occasion, available in the Archiratikon, which the chosen one listens to while kneeling. A lot of information about the personality of Fr. Jerome is reported by the monk Parthenius in his “Tale of a Journey” (Part II. pp. 168–173; Part I V. pp. 264–270; etc.). A. Kovalevsky literally used this information in many places for his brochure “Ieroschemamonk Jerome, confessor of the Russian Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos” (M., 1887). Father Jerome suffered from a hernia, attacks of which caused excruciating pain, often bothered him, sometimes prevented him from fulfilling his duties, and, finally, he went to his grave from the same disease. A tale of a journey. Part II. P. 170. K. N. Leontyev, a former consul, an intelligent publicist, whose articles on the Eastern question are read with great interest even today, and a good novelist, lived in recent years in Optina Pustyn as a simple ryassophore, where he died on November 12, 1891. O. Ioannikiy was born in 1803 in Stary Oskol, Kursk province, from devout merchants Pavel Grigorievich and Marfa Afanasyevna Solomentsov. “When you study monks with benevolence and at the same time with impartiality,” writes K. Leontyev, “then monasticism begins to seem like some kind of “self-cultivation” according to a certain model, with the help of God and with the guidance of mentors... You feel that by his own will, by diligence, by the sincerity of faith and love for the ideal, a person has done a lot, won many victories over himself in one respect or another; you see, you guess that his “self-dealing” was diligent, often even cruel, merciless to himself... But what to do if one has a golden nature, another has a copper nature, another has wood and clay, and most often some kind of mixture: gold in one, iron in another, clay in the third. Merit invisible before God may be equal, but visible before people the result is not the same. Experienced elders and leaders, watching the internal struggle, knowing what is hard for someone, understand all these shades perfectly... And we, from the outside, if we want to be conscientious judges and not be embarrassed, we must learn to understand that it is impossible to demand from all natures the same and identical purity of the final monastic image.” (Citizen. 1889 No. 192). Citizen. 1889 No. 246. Monk Parthenius describes the life of the monks of the Russian monastery in the following terms: “Every day they confess their thoughts to their spiritual fathers. Every week they receive Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. They consume very little food. Bread and food are served to everyone equally; On simple days there is always only one boiled food and everyone has their own cup; another one of the vegetables: or salted olives, or something else. Few people eat their share. Sometimes they supply wine, but few people drink it, and then only half and half with water. On holidays there are two brews. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday there is always one meal and then dry eating; on Tuesdays and Thursdays - with wooden butter, and on Saturdays and weeks, salted (goat) cheese is sometimes served. There is never milk or cow butter. They cook with butter only two days during cheese week, two days at Easter, and fish are eaten on great holidays, when there is an all-night vigil. They don’t know what kvass is like. When there is no wine, they drink water; in their cells they have nothing, below the water, below what they decorate, below when the lamp is lit, below the lamp, below who can lock the cell when he comes out to obey, below when they are heated, and there are no stoves, only some Russians made their own. In the cells, everyone has only the necessary clothes and bedding, one icon, one book to read, and not everyone; and there is no time - when to read; Reading happens more in church and at meals and during general obedience, but in the cell they are more engaged in prayer and bowing. The church rule is this: at Vespers, all obediences come to the monastery. Those who are far away are reading there. And the abbot strictly ordered him not to abandon church rules at all, because real obedience to a monk is prayer, and other obedience is a gift, only for the sake of boredom and despondency. And therefore, by Vespers, everyone makes it to the monastery” (The Legend of the Journey. Part II. pp. 196–197). “Fishing on the Danube,” according to Fr. Seraphim, - were abandoned as too dangerous for the monks staying there, due to many of their relationships to the world" (Letters of the Holy Mountain. Part III. P. 56). Letters from Svyatogorets. Part III. pp. 52–53. Several letters from Hieromonk Sergius, known under the name of Svyatogorets, and others to Abbot Anthony Bochkov (Publishing general history and Russian antiquities at the Moscow University. M., 1874. P. 17). On October 1, 1849, Fr. were sent to Russia as alms collectors. Joel, Nephon and Sylvester, in the schema-monster Seleucy, who later very thoroughly and innocently described in his “Tale of his life and wanderings in holy places” his entire real journey and the miracles that he performed with the help of Svyatogorsk stones (p. 194, 201, 216, etc.). The fruit of Fr. Seleucia in Russia were 4,000 rubles, which he brought to the monastery (p. 218), and 50 gold pieces, which were then handed over to the confessor (p. 221) after one vision. Besides this, Fr. Seleucy brought quite a few things donated for the church (p. 213) and for the monks (p. 217) and often sent money in letters to the X, when he was collecting in Russia (p. 206). Undoubtedly, the other collectors also returned to the monastery empty-handed. Several letters from Svyatogorets and others to Abbot Anthony (pp. 8–12). I'm brief, but I'm a good characterization. Seraphim was made by Fr. Abbot Anthony Bochkov in the preface to the brochure mentioned in the previous note. This influence of the Svyatogorets’ letters about the Holy Mount Athos on the Russian people is evidenced by Schemamonk Seleuky in his story “About his life and wandering through holy places” (p. 171) and even by the late Metropolitan of Moscow Philaret (Arch. Savva. Collection of opinions and reviews of Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow. T. V. Part I. P. 85). O. Hilarion is a native of “Skotyn”. As a poor orphan, he was adopted first by his relatives, and then by the Wallachian prince Alexander Ralis, who adopted him. In 1821, Prince Alexander, by order of Sultan Mahmut, had his head cut off, and Fr. Hilarion was again left an orphan. At this time, Princess Muruza Smaragditsa took part in it, and she sent him to be raised by Bishop Meletius, who at that time was in charge of the Constantinople school. When the Right Reverend Meletios was made Metropolitan of Thessalonica, he ordained Fr. Hilarion as a deacon. From his ordination as a priest and even as a bishop, the learned Fr. Hilarion resolutely refused and lived until the end of his life in the humble rank of hierodeacon, enjoying the honor and love of not only the Greek brethren, but also the Russians. O. Hilarion, by conviction, was an ardent Russophile and always supported the Russians. Schema o. Hilarion accepted in 1832, and died in 1886. Citizen. 1889 No. 196. As in the articles written about Fr. Macarius, on the occasion of his death, mainly on the Holy Mountain, among the monks there, entire legends arose in oral stories, filled with the most absurd details about the circumstances of the tonsure of Fr. Macarius into monasticism. We are very pleased that we have the opportunity to publish Fr.’s entire handwritten letter. Macarius, eliminating all wrong judgments about persons who were directly involved in this event, which was very important in his life. The letter from Smyrna, as well as the rest of the letters from Fr. Macarius, written by him during his trip to the East, has not reached us. “Many,” writes K. Leontyev, “can’t even understand why a dying person should be tonsured? After all, he will no longer live like a monk. The vows of selflessness are no longer able to be fulfilled on this earth. This is some kind of meaningless, old custom, some kind of formality, self-delusion, which was understandable in the superstitious times of John IV and Boris Godunov, but now!? And “now”, and then, during the time of the Moscow tsars, the foundations and general spirit of Orthodoxy were unchanged... And then and now the dying are tonsured not in order to live on earth monastically, but in order to appear clean before the terrible judgment seat of the Lord. By tonsure, all previous sins are destroyed and washed away, and the dying monk who remains on earth will inevitably fall into those new ones will not have time to commit. “Once,” continues K. Leontyev, “I asked this very Father Macarius: “What is tonsure - is it a sacrament or just a sacred rite?” “It relates to the sacrament of repentance and is its highest degree,” he answered. I have never seen such a definition in catechisms and, not being a theologian myself, in this case I can in good conscience only vouch for the reliability of my testimony, and not for the dogmatic correctness of the Athonite ascetic. Perhaps this question is one of those issues that have not yet been finally resolved by the highest church authority, of which, in the opinion of some Russian theologians, there are still quite a lot of them in the system of Eastern Orthodox teaching (Fr. Ivantsov-Platonov, by the way, thinks so). And this incompleteness of the Eastern Orthodox system should not only not frighten us, but, on the contrary, it should rejoice us, for this state of affairs guarantees that the Orthodox Church can not only continue its earthly existence through strict protection alone, but also live, that is, develop further on its unshakable apostolic roots” (Citizen. 1889, No. 243). The question of the meaning of the rite of tonsure was the subject of a rather lively discussion on the pages of the Church Bulletin for 1889. If we are not mistaken, the first letter from my father to Fr. Macarius received in April 1852 (see letter to his mother dated May 4, 1852). Mother sends Fr. Macarius with her blessing, wishes him strengthening in his feat, forget the world and not be bored, declares with tears in her eyes that she herself does not miss him (letter dated April 24, 1852), asks her son for a blessing (letter June 15, 1852), seeks his forgiveness for the punishments that she gave him in the days of his childhood (letter April 3, 1852), becomes the most persistent intercessor for him before father and unquestioning executor of all his desires (see below in particular the letter dated January 29, 1853). You might be interested in: