Archpriest Sergius Chetverikov. Biographical sketch. Sermons

Contents: Childhood and years of study. First service Saratov. Under the wing of Bishop Hermogenes Service in the Poltava cadet corps Time of Troubles Emigration and the RSHD Taking monastic vows. The last years of life Selected sermons delivered in the Poltava Cadet Corps. 1907–1913 My grandmother, Elena Sergeevna Arbatskaya (nee Grebenshchikova), lived a significant part of her life in exile. A huge number of Russian refugees, whom my grandmother met during the days of exile, became her friends for many years. Among them was the Chetverikov family - Feodosius Sergeevich, his wife Valentina Nikolaevna and their children Alexey and Elena. The acquaintance with them took place in Bratislava, where in 1948 E. S. Arbatskaya moved from Prague at the invitation of one of her former classmates at the University of Belgrade to take a position as a researcher in the new plant protection laboratory at the Slovak Academy of Sciences. There, in Bratislava, my grandmother learned about the father of Theodosius Sergeevich, Archpriest Sergius, who died a year before her appearance in Bratislava. However, my grandmother had heard about this spiritual ascetic for a long time, from the time of her studies at the Russian-Serbian gymnasium in Velikaya Kikinda (Serbia). In the 1920s, he taught at the Don Mariinsky Institute in Bila Tserkva, where my grandmother was later transferred, but she never found him again. Thus, the spirit of Father Sergius was always invisibly present nearby, wherever fate took Elena Sergeevna Arbatskaya. This became especially clear during many years of communication with the family of Father Sergius’s eldest son, Theodosius, first in Slovakia, and then in the Soviet Union, in the Urals. The destinies of the Russian people are incomprehensibly intertwined in the history of our long-suffering Fatherland. Could my grandmother have imagined that her own son Yaroslav (my dad) would also end up in the Urals, and that the Chetverikovs’ apartment in Sverdlovsk would become for several years the only place in the USSR where he could feel like a free man? However, this is another story, and I want to dedicate this essay to a wonderful spiritual shepherd - Father Sergius Chetverikov. The name of the priest is often mentioned in the memoirs of religious figures of the Russian Abroad, books by Father Sergius have been published (some posthumously), a short biography has been written, but, strangely enough, I have never come across an ordinary biography of Chetverikov, even in the form of an essay or article. There will probably still be researchers who wish to write in detail about his works for the benefit of the Russian Orthodox Church, especially since the grandchildren of Father Sergius are still alive, having preserved some of the documents, and most importantly, remembering him in everyday life. In the meantime, I consider it my duty to at least fragmentarily outline the main points of the life and ministry of Father Sergius. In my narration I will rely on the memories of both Chetverikov himself and his contemporaries. Even though they sometimes seem too long, in order to avoid loss of sources, I will quote everything that I could find in various archives and private collections. I express my gratitude to Konstantin Vikhlyaev for his assistance in collecting material. Childhood and years of study. First service Sergei Ivanovich Chetverikov was born on June 12, 1867 in the city of Bakhmut 1, Yekaterinoslav province (and not in the Chernigov province, as indicated in all biographies), into a merchant family. Father, Ivan Ivanovich Chetverikov, was a member of the Bakhmut city government. In general, the Chetverikov family of merchants descends from three brothers - Ivan, Fyodor and Andrey, who bought land here in the second half of the 18th century and were engaged in trade. This is how Father Sergius himself describes his childhood: “...I remember an indelible picture. My mother lies in a coffin in our small thatched house of three small rooms. Her coffin stands in the holy corner under the icons and is surrounded by a crowd of weeping women. I, a two-year-old child, in the arms of some woman, see the figure of my mother lying in a coffin and understand that this is a mother, but I don’t understand why she is lying on the table in a coffin. Since then, the image of my deceased mother has been forever associated for me with the image of the Mother of God, and the image of Jesus Christ with the image of my younger brother, from whose birth my mother died, who himself soon died. I remember another moment in the same small house. Lots of fun guests. A young, beautiful, well-dressed lady enters the room from the yard, comes up to me and with a friendly smile hands me a large beautiful apple. I turn away from her and hide behind the chest. The beautiful lady who gave me the apple turned out to be my stepmother, with whom we were later very friendly, on whose lap I fell asleep at the tea table, who took care of me in my frequent illnesses and became almost my own mother. My father taught me to pray, to love church and church singing. Thanks to my father, church and holidays, especially Christmas and Easter, occupied a central place in our home life and became its main content and educational element. Every Saturday I went with my father to the all-night vigil and fell in love with church singing. Without instructions and teachings, the church took possession of my soul. My older sister taught me to read and write. The old landlady, with whom we later lived in an apartment, taught me to read to her and love Ushinsky’s “Native Word”. Christmastide and Easter were joyful and fun. Christoslavs were received with love and hospitality, were rewarded generously and were the favorite and only Christmas entertainment. At the age of seven I was sent to school with an old Nikolaev soldier, Pavel Danilovich. At nine years old, they sent me to the preparatory class of the Theological School, not because they wanted to make me a priest, but because there was no other school in our city at that time. When three years later we opened a pro-gymnasium, I was accepted into the 2nd grade without an exam. The preparatory class teacher will forever remain in my memory as my favorite teacher. He devoted himself entirely to working with us. He had a well-stocked classroom library and guided our reading. His oddity was that he smoked in class. The outbreak of the Russian-Turkish war captured all our attention. We were all great patriots and Slavophiles. Emperor Alexander II was our idol. Generals Gurko, Skobelev and others delighted us. We accompanied parties of soldiers leaving our city to the front, carried gifts to the wounded - tobacco pouches and cigarettes, looked at the captured Turks, whom our market traders compassionately fed with bread and watermelons. I left the school without regret, but I kept in touch with some of the teachers for the rest of my life, and they came to visit me when I was already an archpriest. After the bursa, studying at the pro-gymnasium seemed easy and fun to me. We are especially lucky to have mathematics teachers who are interesting and talented. The terrible year of 1981 has arrived. I was in 3rd grade. On Sunday, March 1, at 4 o'clock the school guard comes. Crying. What's happened? - The Tsar was killed in St. Petersburg. - What, the Tsar, the liberator of peasants and Slavs? I ran to the cathedral, which was next to our apartment. The cathedral is crowded with people. They're crying. The archpriest speaks a sermon and cries himself. It became creepy. The high school students stand in their place. That same autumn there was a literary evening at the gymnasium dedicated to the Tsar-Liberator. I was assigned to read, in front of the emperor’s portrait, an introductory poem from some newspaper dedicated to the murdered emperor. This event cast a heavy color on the whole year. The following year I graduated from high school. At the act, I was given the collected works of Lermontov. The first student was given the collected works of Pushkin. I fell in love with Lermontov very much and became closely related to him. But he brought me more harm than good, which especially affected me already in the senior classes of the gymnasium: 6th, 7th, 8th. I've always read a lot. Until the age of 10, I loved reading the lives of saints. Then I fell in love with the works of Fenimore Cooper, Gustav Emar, Mayne Reid, and others. In high school, I had less free time, and I read less. Among foreign writers I loved Dickens, Spielhagen, Hugo; from the Russians - I re-read all the classics - Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev and minor ones - Lazhechnikov, Mordovtsev, Ostrovsky, etc. I loved reading the populists - Gleb Uspensky, Zasodimsky, Zlatovratsky, Levitov, Pomyalovsky, etc. I read magazines - “Domestic Notes”, “Delo”, etc. And you can’t remember everything. I loved Lermontov very much, but he also brought me a lot of evil. He corrupted my soul. And I had a hard time getting rid of what he put into it. In Taganrog I experienced the most difficult years of my life, my faith faded away, my mental and physical purity was lost. There was no support from anywhere. I began to come to life and be reborn only from the 7th grade of the gymnasium, when my summer trips to Crimea began to visit my married sister. Two young girls, teachers, with whom I met and became very friendly, also came there. With their purity and friendship they warmed and cleansed my soul. There was nothing romantic between us. We rode a boat, walked around the outskirts of Sevastopol, walked along the highway along the southern coast to Yalta... This pure friendship, which lasted for several years, revived, cleansed, warmed and resurrected my soul. The Taganrog experiences were forgotten, died, and a new, pure, bright, spiritual life began. Tolstoy passed by my soul without touching it, although I re-read all his forbidden things. His psychology did not correspond to my spiritual makeup. I was inclined not to the life of reason, but to the life of feeling and spirit...” 2. These memoirs were published in the journal “Vestnik RSHD” in 1957, the tenth year since the death of Father Sergius. The article itself, entitled “My response,” was written by him on December 10, 1946, in the year of the 50th anniversary of the priesthood of Father Sergius. From the above quote it is clear that Sergei first studied in Bakhmut, and then spent four years at the Taganrog gymnasium. It is curious that three years before Chetverikov entered this gymnasium, A.P. Chekhov graduated from this gymnasium. Sergei Chetverikov’s experience of children’s perception of God is interesting, which he mentioned in a report read in Paris at a meeting of the Religious Pedagogical Cabinet (published as an article “On the difficulties of religious life in childhood and youth” in the magazine “Put”, No. 4 for 1932): “When I studied at the Theological School and Gymnasium, of the nine-year course of the Law of God that I completed, only the preparatory class course left an impression on me, which is still preserved in my memory and in my heart, perhaps because the teacher was able to give his teaching a special clarity and sincere simplicity. Meanwhile, regardless of the lessons of the Law of God, there was a religious life in me, in my early childhood. I really felt the presence of God - and this feeling was reflected in the love of visiting church, in the love of church hymns, in festive religious customs, in reading books of religious content, especially the Lives of saints, in the love of home prayer, in reading akathists, in religious processions, etc. As a child, I was not bored in church, and when I learned to read, I did not spend my little pocket money on delicacies, and to buy Lives of the Saints... The task and difficulty of religious leadership is to help a child, boy, youth or girl maintain the correct relationship between himself and God, and not allow the temptations of sensuality and pride to develop in himself, which clog the purity of inner vision. Remembering my youth, I must admit that it was precisely because of the internal process I indicated that the loss of religiosity occurred in me at the age of 13–14. The desires of sensuality and excessive trust in the mind, the pride of rationality that developed in me, deadened my soul. And I’m not alone, many of my comrades suffered from the same thing. If there were an observant and experienced leader around us and looked into our soul, then perhaps he would find something good in it, but mainly he would find in it laziness, delicacy, deceit, secrecy, arrogance, excessive confidence in one’s own strengths and capabilities, a critical and skeptical attitude towards other people’s opinions, a tendency to hasty and rash decisions, stubbornness and a trusting attitude towards all negative theories and etc. We did not have such a leader. Our teacher of the law, a very respectable archpriest, barely had time to ask us the lessons of the Law of God and explain further. And these lessons had for us the same external and indifferent character as all other lessons. Outside of lessons, we did not and could not see the teacher of the law. We treated confession, the only one of the year, with little consciousness. And nothing prevented us from spiritually fading and dying..." 3. After graduating from high school, Chetverikov decided in 1888 to enter the Faculty of Medicine at Moscow University, but after studying for three years, he realized that medicine was not his profession. Moreover, the constant drinking bouts of students and the general passion for revolutionary ideas, as Chetverikov himself later recalled, brought him to the point from which the irrevocable spiritual fall of man begins. “When, after our trip to Kyiv and the Crimea, we returned to Moscow, I felt that I needed to take some decisive step, otherwise I would reach the Khitrov market, the refuge of the Moscow gluttony, among which there were many “fellow students”, bitter drunkards... And I decided to go to the Sergius Lavra to consult with the young, new rector of the Theological Academy, Archimandrite Anthony, whose fame was already resounding throughout the world. Moscow and whose articles about Tolstoy and Solovyov were already known to me. He immediately captivated me with his warmth, simplicity and bright, shining face. Our conversation lasted two hours. He advised me to go to the Academy and continue my education, but not to go “into life”; supplied me with books and ordered me to come next year in August for the entrance exam to the Academy. I worked hard all winter and summer. In August, 80 people came to take the exam, the best graduates of the seminary, perfectly prepared, and I also came with my home preparation. Of the 80 people, only the first 30 who passed the exam could count on government support. I passed the exam 30th on the list and was accepted for the scholarship of St. Sergius. There were four such Lavra scholarships at the Academy, one for each year. He graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy as a scholarship recipient of St. Sergius. That year, at the Academic Act, V. O. Klyuchevsky, professor of the Academy and University, read his famous speech about St. Sergius. I listened to this amazing speech, and it showed me the program for my new life. With admission to the Theological Academy, the period of my wanderings ended. I found my way and calmed down. Listening to the lectures of the professors, I at the same time spent all my time among the crowd of pilgrims from all over Russia - in the Trinity Cathedral at the relics of St. Sergius and St. Nikon, in the chapel on the site of the saint’s cell, where the Mother of God appeared to him and where every Friday at two o’clock in the morning, in memory of this appearance, a prayer service to the Mother of God was served with an akathist while the full choir of Lavra singers sang; in the Gethsemane monastery with the confessor Elder Herman; in the monastery of the Chernigov Icon of the Mother of God with the confessor of Elder Barnabas, who was also my confessor. I entered a new life, joyful and peaceful, full of scientific theological work, which completely captured my soul and completely satisfied me. The feelings and freshness of my childhood returned to me” 4. Four years of study at the Moscow Theological Academy strengthened Chetverikov’s spirit, made his faith irresistible, and his heart compassionate. The rector of the Academy, Archimandrite Anthony (Khrapovitsky), later Metropolitan, played a special role in this. Chetverikov will remember him very fondly: “...Vladyka Anthony was the heart of our academic world... The doors of his chambers were open to students at all times. He himself often came to our evening prayers at the academic church and talked about something after prayer. He knew how to approach each of us, and the spirit of formalism and officiality was eliminated from our relations with him. We lived warmed by his love and affection. And at the same time, these relationships were alien to any familiarity. We felt his immeasurable superiority... For the first time, perhaps, he revealed to many of us the meaning of Orthodox shepherding as a loving and selfless acceptance of his flock into his soul, experiencing with her all the sorrows and joys, all the trials, temptations and falls of his spiritual children and revival and rebellion through the power of compassionate love and prayer" 5 . Sergius Chetverikov married the daughter of Archpriest Elena Yakovleva from the village of Tsimlyanskaya, Don Region. The first child was daughter Angelina. Having graduated in 1896 with a candidate of theology degree, Chetverikov was immediately ordained a deacon (July 14, 1896), and a week later - a priest. Father Sergius's first experience of serving was the church at the Vozdvizhensky labor brotherhood in the Glukhov district of the Chernigov province, where he accepted the position of rector of the church. This became a real test for the young priest, since both the activities of the brotherhood and its founder himself were new phenomena, exceptional for imperial Russia at the end of the 19th century. The church building was also new, just built. Finally, the attitude of the Synod towards the brotherhood was wary and suspicious. In light of the above, we can say that the rector of the Academy, Archimandrite Anthony (Khrapovitsky), sending the best student to the first service in his life, on the one hand, completely trusted Chetverikov, and on the other, arranged a real “baptism” for his beloved graduate. Chetverikov later wrote: “When, at the end of the course, I came to Chernigov to take the priesthood, some old priests, having learned where I was being appointed, shook their heads and, sighing, said: “My God, my God,” but I did not attach any significance to these sighs.” 6 The Krestovozdvizhenskaya school, as a peasant school of a new model, was founded on August 4, 1881 by landowner Nikolai Nikolaevich Neplyuev on his own estate on the Krestovozdvizhensk farmstead, Glukhov district, Chernigov province. A graduate of the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University, N. N. Neplyuev refused a position at the Imperial Embassy in Munich in favor of organizing an agricultural school. Let us turn again to the memoirs of Father Sergius Chetverikov: “Secular life and a diplomatic career did not attract him. One day, returning home from a court ball in a particularly depressed state of mind, Neplyuev fell into a heavy sleep. And so, he dreams that he is in his Chernigov estate, from which he was taken away as a six-month-old child and has not returned to it since: he is sitting in a peasant hut, in a crowd of peasant boys, and reading the Gospel to them. Through the window he sees the local parish church and the priest walking from the church to his hut. This dream put him in a bright, joyful mood and was repeated exactly the same for three nights in a row. Neplyuev understood this dream as God’s indication of his future destiny and activities, he decided to quit the diplomatic service, move to live in the village and, following the example of S. A. Rachinsky, engage in the Christian education of peasant children. The father did not oppose his intention. Neplyuev came to the Chernigov estate, Yanpol, where he had his own manor house, hired a peasant hut in the village, began to gather peasant boys there and tell them the gospel story, deeds, parables and miracles of the Lord. He gathered the guys in his manor house, entertained them with music and talked about his life abroad, about his travels, as well as about Russia. He immediately gave his evangelical conversations with children a practical character: these were not simple retellings of the gospel story, but lessons in practical Christian life. All conversations were directed towards the main goal - what a Christian should be and what his Christian life should be... He told them a lot about his travels to different places in Europe and its attractions, occupied the boys with music, taught them to love and understand it, introduced them to Russian and foreign poetry and prose. Together with the boys, Neplyuev built an earthen mound in his garden on the Vozdvizhensky farm in memory of his beloved poet A.S. Khomyakov, many of whose poems he set to music, and they were sung by one of his sisters, who received a special musical education. From the more or less noisy Yanpol, Neplyuev moved to the secluded Vozdvizhensky farm, where he founded two special agricultural schools - for boys and for girls" 7 . Neplyuev began by taking in ten peasant children from the poorest families. In August 1889, the first graduation from the school took place. Of the six people who received certificates, three did not want to leave. They became the first members of the Holy Cross Labor Brotherhood. From this moment on, the life of N.N. Neplyuev and the work of establishing the Brotherhood of the Exaltation of the Cross are inseparable from each other and form a single whole. For the sake of serving the brotherhood, he chose the path of celibacy. His mother Alexandra Nikolaevna and sisters Maria and Olga were actively involved in the work of building the brotherhood. In 1891, a similar four-year school for girls, Preobrazhenskaya, was created. Neplyuev’s closest assistant, sister Maria Nikolaevna Umanets, became her guardian. The second sister, Olga Nikolaevna, was in charge of the Yanpolsky junior school, which was preparatory to studying at an agricultural school. Neplyuev believed that society needed a new Christianization, since people do not live by faith, and the clergy is doing nothing to correct this situation. He sharply criticized church life: “The parishes are scattered and turned into fiction,” many representatives of the clergy are guided “not by the truth of God, but by the decrees and instructions of their superiors,” passing off “anti-church routine as “true Orthodoxy”” 8. The main idea of ​​N. Neplyuev, to which he devoted his entire life, was the need for repentance and unity between Christians, which is carried out in the Christian community. Such communities can unite into a labor brotherhood, in which believers could build their lives according to faith, live together with brothers in Christ and earn a living through joint activities. Neplyuev pointed out three reasons for the structure of life and activities of the Christian labor brotherhood: Faith in the Living God and that community life is the will of God. Love: loyalty and the desire to stay together despite conflicts and everything that separates. Work: high-quality performance of one’s duties for the common good and voluntary discipline. In addition to labor and professional activities, Neplyuev spoke about the need and importance of spiritual labor - a voluntary discipline of love, which consisted in recognizing a hierarchy of values ​​common to all brothers: serving God is embodied in the establishment of a labor brotherhood, to which it is necessary to subordinate one’s personal and family interests. Neplyuev considered the idea of ​​universal equality and the right to unlimited freedom of individuality to be a superstition of Western European culture. He emphasized that there cannot be spiritual equality, therefore, to create brotherhood, strong power based on love, respect and trust of the majority is necessary. The basis of the Exaltation of the Cross Brotherhood were communities (or fraternal families), into which brothers were united according to their professional occupation. Membership in the community of each member of the brotherhood was given fundamental importance: without acquiring the skill of loving the brothers and sisters of one’s Christian community, it is impossible to learn to love the brotherhood and the church. The fraternal family lived in the same house, including both married and single members of the fraternity. Married people lived in separate rooms, and single people lived in a common room. In the fraternal family there was an elder who decided all issues of common life. A duty was established for cleaning, kitchen work and monitoring small children during the working day. The preparatory stage for life in the brotherhood were schools in which children were taught not only to believe in God, but also to live by faith. Neplyuev created a special education system in his schools. At first he abandoned the punishment system, seeing its ineffectiveness. Then he introduced weekly meetings at which issues of relations between teachers and students were discussed, helping to openly resolve conflicts. Neplyuev formed the Senior Brotherhood Circle, and after him the Junior Brotherhood Circle: the elders became Neplyuev’s closest assistants in educating the younger ones, while educating themselves at the same time. Gradually, the school became one friendly family, quickly assimilating new arrivals. After completing training, the student could ask to join the fraternity or leave 9. According to the Charter, the patron of the brotherhood was the Bishop of Chernigov. The brotherhood had a unique right, enshrined in the Charter, to choose a priest for the fraternal church, and its approval depended on the bishop of Chernigov and Nizhyn. Nowhere else in Russia did a parish participate in the selection of a priest; only the Brotherhood of the Exaltation of the Cross was given this right. The attitude of contemporaries towards the brotherhood was ambiguous. The Neplyuev experience of churching life was assessed both negatively (Chief Prosecutor K.P. Pobedonostsev, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg Anthony (Vadkovsky), Bishop of Chernigov Anthony (Sokolov), Archpriest S.N. Bulgakov, M.A. Novoselov) and positively (Bishop of Chernigov Sergius (Sokolov), Metropolitan of St. Petersburg Palladius (Raev), holy righteous John of Kronstadt, Bishop of Perm Peter (Losev), elder Barnabas of Gethsemane). This was the situation in Krestovozdvizhensk in 1896, when priest Sergius Chetverikov arrived there. The main reason for the difficulties in the relationship between the young priest and members of the brotherhood was the unique position of Neplyuev, who was not just the head of the community, but its actual spiritual mentor, without being invested with the priesthood. Chetverikov, who did not yet have deep church experience, found it difficult to understand and accept this state of affairs, since in all parishes the spiritual leadership of the priest was considered the norm. In addition, the very idea of ​​a Christian labor brotherhood might seem dubious, especially in light of accusations of sectarianism and unorthodoxy. Stay o. Sergius in the brotherhood did not last long: between him and the brothers “there was a disagreement on some issues,” and he “preferred to go to an ordinary church parish” 10. Nevertheless, Chetverikov recalled Neplyuev with gratitude: “N. May N. Neplyuev, as a sincere and selfless Christian worker in the bosom of the Orthodox Church, have eternal grateful memory” 11. Neplyuev wrote about the reasons for the discrepancy with Fr. Sergius: “He constantly made it necessary to choose between the loss of love, respect and trust in him or in the guardian of the brotherhood” 12. After leaving Fr. Sergius in the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross there were at least four rectors. Chetverikov turned to Bishop Sergius (Sokolov) of Chernigov with a request to transfer him to another parish, and in 1897 he was appointed rector of the Pyatnitskaya Church in the city of Chernigov. Pyatnitskaya Church in Chernigov is a unique work of masters of the last period of ancient Russian architecture. The church was built at the end of the 12th - beginning of the 13th century on the Chernigov suburb next to the market place and was named in honor of Saint Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, the patroness of trade, agriculture, and family. In 1899, on August 7, a girl was born to them in Chernigov, who was named Alexandra. But Chetverikov was not caught by this event. In 1898 Fr. Sergius was transferred to Saratov, where he would stay for nine years, first as a teacher of law at a model school at the Saratov Diocesan Women's School, and then (1901–1907) as a teacher of law at the 2nd Saratov Gymnasium. His wife and daughters came to Father Sergius later. There, in Saratov, Olga, Feodosius and Sergei were born into the Chetverikov family. There was another son who remained with his mother in the Caucasus; his further fate is unknown. Saratov. Under the wing of Lord Hermogenes Saratov Women's Diocesan School is one of the first women's theological educational institutions in Russia (founded in 1869). At that time, the chairman of the Saratov diocesan school council was Bishop Hermogenes (Dolganev), who took the initiative to establish a church-teacher seminary in the diocese and build a complex of church and educational buildings in Saratov. Under him, extra-liturgical interviews were organized in Saratov, and tea-canteens were opened for the people. While at the Saratov department, he paid great attention to the construction of churches. During his leadership, more than 50 churches were consecrated in the diocese, among them one of the first in Russia, the church in the name of St. Seraphim of Sarov. In the area of ​​organizing the life of the monasteries of the diocese, Bishop Hermogenes pursued the idea of ​​monasteries as missionary outposts and was a supporter of monastic service to the world. By general recognition of his contemporaries, Bishop Hermogenes strove for asceticism and was a great man of prayer and fasting. His services were strictly statutory and lasted 5–6 hours or more. The Bishop paid great attention to the problems of theological education, solving not only the practical problems of the Saratov Theological Seminary under his jurisdiction, but also speaking out with theoretical considerations on the question of how a theological school could overcome the crisis, the essence of which he saw mainly in the aggravated contradiction between the tasks of this school and the desire of a significant number of its students to receive a secular education. Vladyka developed extensive social and political activities. At the end of 1904, he founded the diocesan newspaper “Brotherly Listok” (in 1907–1908 - “Russian”), which immediately entered into controversy with local secular newspapers of various political trends. During periods of the rise of the worker and peasant movement, Bishop Hermogenes constantly called the people to social peace, constantly preached himself and gave orders to the clergy to preach on modern topics, held solemn processions of the cross, and also blessed the publication of articles on current topics in the “Brotherly List” 13. Father Sergius Chetverikov recalled the service of His Grace Hermogenes in Saratov: “From the very first days of my stay in Saratov, I recognized Bishop Hermogenes as a people’s prayer book and a people’s mentor. Then I also recognized him as a generous benefactor... What also especially amazed and attracted me about the Reverend was his completely youthful responsiveness to every good undertaking and complete disregard for his own comfort and peace... He did not belong to himself. At any time of the day, high school students and high school girls would come to him, and he would go out to them and talk... He could go... to visit some pious tradesman... When I, still barely knowing him, fell ill, he came to visit me, although I lived somewhere completely on the outskirts... Filled with deep, fiery faith, he is not an armchair administrator, not a scientist far from life, but a living practical worker, sensitive and who warmly respond to the spiritual needs of their flock..." 14. In Saratov, in a fairly calm atmosphere of teaching, Father Sergius at first became interested in studying the history of the asceticism of the holy fathers. Quite often visiting Optina Pustyn, he was interested in the phenomenon of old age and the origins of the gift of divination. In the Optina Hermitage there were 14 such elders in the entire history of the monastery, and the closest in time to Father Sergius Chetverikov was the Monk Ambrose, in the world Alexander Mikhailovich Grenkov (died in 1891). While still a student, Chetverikov saw the Monk Ambrose and heard about his miracles and extraordinary wisdom. Elder Ambrose is an amazing person even by the standards of the Holy Optina Hermitage. He lived for thirty years in a cell built into the monastery fence on the right side of the bell tower. Those who were lucky enough to know him remembered the old man as a handsome old man, very bent, leaning on a stick, always wearing a warm black cotton caftan and a black warm kamilavka hat. There was so much generous kindness in his sympathetic smile, so much love in his expressive and unusually lively black eyes, so much wisdom in his advice and reasoning... People from all over Russia flocked to him for help, advice, support, participation, blessing, and guidance. It happened that during his lifetime the elder appeared a hundred miles away to people who had never seen him and had never even heard of him. These were precisely the phenomena, because Father Ambrose, due to illness, practically did not leave his cell in Optikoy; in the last years of his life he visited only the Shamordino Monastery, and only in the summer. During these apparitions, Elder Ambrose warned against danger, gave advice, instructed how to recover from illness, or healed. Father Sergius Chetverikov liked monastic life. On each of his visits, he rested his heart in the Optical Desert, while collecting material for his future book about St. Ambrose. Bishop Hermogenes also learned about these trips. One day in 1905, he invited Chetverikov to his place and instructed him to find out in Optina Monastery whether the elders could provide an experienced mentor to the Saratov monastery. The general spiritual decline, especially noticeable in the monasteries of the Saratov province, greatly worried Bishop Hermogenes, and he hoped to improve matters with the help of an experienced and wise person who would have authority among the clergy. Father Sergius Chetverikov wrote to Hermogenes from Optina Hermitage: “I spoke with Father Superior about your desire to have an experienced leader in your monastery from among the brethren of Optina Hermitage, but he told me that he did not dare to send anyone to you, because there are no truly experienced leaders in the monastery at the present time, and when I pointed out some to him, he noticed that they were not yet fully mature...” 15. The Saratov bishop noticed in priest Sergius Chetverikov a special talent as a teacher and preacher and from that time on did not leave the teacher of the law unattended, and over time he brought him closer to himself, entrusting him with the most responsible work. In view of the intensification of the struggle of the Old Believers, as well as sectarians and atheists with the Orthodox Church in the Saratov diocese, Bishop Hermogenes paid special attention to missionary activities. In order to combat sectarianism and instill Orthodox teaching in all cities and villages, with the blessing of the Bishop, non-liturgical pastoral conversations began to be organized. In Saratov, the bishop appointed Father Sergius to conduct conversations on all Sundays and holidays. These conversations were preceded by a short prayer service, alternated with spiritual chants performed by the bishop's choir, and ended with the singing of all those present. The conversations attracted such a crowd of listeners that there were days when the huge hall of the music school where they took place could not accommodate everyone. After one of the lectures, the prominent Socialist Revolutionary Arkhangelsky allegedly told Prince Kropotkin: “If you had all the priests like this Chetverikov, then we wouldn’t exist either” 16 . In addition, with the blessing of Bishop, Father Sergius and other trusted clergy held special conversations with Old Believers and sectarians at the Intercession parochial school, in all the churches of Saratov, as well as in the canteens he established for the spiritual and educational department of the Brotherhood of the Holy Cross. Both church services and non-liturgical interviews always ended with the distribution of leaflets and brochures with religious and moral content to the people. All these events were carried out by members of the Society for Religious and Moral Education at the Brotherhood of the Holy Cross, created with the blessing of Bishop Hermogenes on July 8, 1906. Father Sergius Chetverikov was elected Chairman of the Society's Council. Over the several months of the Society's existence, about fifty leaflets of various titles and twenty-five brochures 17 were published. At the beginning of 1906, under the editorship of the Bratsky Messenger, the Right Reverend Hermogenes established a committee to provide assistance to the famine-stricken of the Saratov diocese, of which Father Sergius was again elected chairman. The consistory sent decrees to all deanery districts so that all churches of the diocese on all Sundays and holidays would make a special collection in favor of the hungry, preceded by the teaching of the priest. Thus, in Saratov, Father Sergius Chetverikov, performing the duties of a simple teacher of law at a gymnasium, gained invaluable experience working with believers and students, and also acquired publishing skills, which later became very useful to him in emigration. The experience of the printed word under the guidance of Bishop Hermogenes became for Chetverikov one of the main things in his subsequent spiritual activity. In 1907, Father Sergius was entrusted with a new responsible task - the position of a law teacher in the Poltava Cadet Corps, where he would serve for 12 years. Service in the Poltava Cadet Corps The Poltava Petrovsky Cadet Corps was built back in the 1837–1840s on the direct orders of Emperor Nicholas I. The main T-shaped building had an internal house church in the name of St. Sampson the Host, whose memorial day (June 27) coincided with the date of the Battle of Poltava. The duration of training in the corps was seven years, boys were accepted into it from the age of 10. The corps consisted of 4 companies. Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, who headed the Main Directorate of Military Educational Institutions in 1900, was a frequent guest in the building. He was present at the exams and even wrote the tickets himself and checked the exam papers of the graduates. Since 1902, he became the official guardian of the Poltava Corps. Every year, in the corps church of St. Sampson, a memorial service was held for “the emperors who died in Bose, the deceased and the deceased pupils of the institution and those who served in it.” The newspaper “Poltava Voice” for December 8, 1907 wrote: “The commitment of the former cadets to their native corps excites tenderness. Old and young appear, some in military uniform, others in frock coats. No matter how fate promises different fields, they are united into one family by an expensive secondary educational institution. One cannot help but regret that such a sense of camaraderie has not been instilled in civilian educational institutions, accompanying former students to the very grave” 18. The names of the corps members who fell on the battlefield were written on black marble plaques that were installed on the wall of the corps church. From the first days of study in the building, ten-year-old boys prayed for the repose of the souls of their older comrades who gave their lives for the Fatherland. The same “Poltava Voice” wrote on August 29, 1908 about an interesting tradition that appeared in the building in 1908. After enrolling in the corps, 1st class cadets purchased icons for their department, which seven years later in a solemn ceremony were handed over to first-graders with a dedicatory inscription: “Continued blessing of the cadets of 1908 to fellow newbies for the honest work of preparing for the valiant rank of warrior,” thereby urging them not to disgrace the honor of the uniform and the good name of their native corps. It is clear that this tradition was introduced by priest Sergius Chetverikov. Before talking about the service of Father Sergius, a few more words about the history of the corps. In 1844, the Poltava Corps was most mercifully granted a banner. This banner remained in oblivion for almost forty years and was kept in the corps church, but by the Highest Order on February 13, 1901 it was returned to the corps, along with the other ten oldest corps, as the highest military shrine and the best decoration of the cadet system. From that time on, on especially solemn occasions, the Poltava Corps brought into service its banner kept in the church. The first graduation of cadets took place in 1845 (34 people). In 1914, there were already 500 cadets studying in the corps under the guidance of 40 full-time and 24 private teachers. The case contained several unique relics: a lifetime portrait of Peter I by the French painter Nicholas Langilier, acquired from Princess Repnina, and a huge painting by artist V.K. Shebuev, donated by Emperor Nicholas I, depicting Peter I riding a white horse. Educational and extracurricular activities were organized in the building. Sick cadets received free treatment in a sanatorium in the city of Slavyansk, where educational officers and teachers specially sent there were with them. For junior class cadets, every Christmas there were matinees with an obligatory Christmas tree. Pupils who had difficulty studying attended compulsory additional classes, and those who studied easily had the opportunity to study mathematics, foreign languages, literature, and geography in depth. In 1908, a small observatory for astronomical observations was equipped in the attic of the main building. The cadet corps was truly one big and friendly family. Father Sergius Chetverikov ended up in such a wonderful educational institution. Date of arrival for service: October 13, 1907. The director of the corps at that time was Colonel Nikolai Petrovich Popov (teacher of chemistry and analytics). Georgy Andreevich Levitsky served as deacon in the corps church, and Lieutenant Colonel Grigory Afrikanovich Khodoley served as church warden. Before Chetverikov’s arrival, the Law of God was taught by the rector of the seminary, Archimandrite Varlaam (Ryashentsev), and the inspector of the women’s diocesan school, priest Kamensky. At the time of Chetverikov’s arrival, the corps consisted of 446 cadets, distributed in 4 companies and 16 class sections. Sergiy Chetverikov recalled his appointment to Poltava: “In 1907, I was a teacher of law in the city of Saratov. There I received an offer to be a law teacher in one of the cadet corps. I was offered a choice: Polotsk or Poltava. I chose Poltava. I decided to go there, find out what the cadet corps was like and whether I would approach it. Arriving in Poltava, he came to the director of the corps, General Popov (at that time he was a colonel - Author) and went with him to the corps. It was August 16, 1907. The director made a very good impression on me. He said: “Look, father, and, by the way, serve a prayer service with us.” The old priest then died, and the corps was left without a priest. There was a prayer service on the occasion of the beginning of the school year. I agreed. I saw the cadet here for the first time. I wasn't familiar with them before. I served for a long time. The director then remarked: “Serve for a long time, father, our service is going faster.” I looked closely at the cadets, at the order, at the teachers. I decided that this place would suit me. By the way, my vacation was ending. I wrote a statement to the director, and went to Saratov, report to the authorities and return... Reported to the corps in October. I gradually settled into the situation and immediately felt good. Everything is new: duty officers, reports from duty officers for the cadet class, etc. I served until the end of the corps - 1919. The building left behind the brightest memories that will not be erased from me until death. Our holidays, order in the church, singing of the cadet choir, lessons, meetings with teachers and educators. And to this day, abroad, I keep the closest connection with you, my children and brothers. You are accompanying me to Valaam now. I don’t know if we will ever see each other, but I will keep the memory of you in my heart until the grave. May God grant you to live to see your return to Russia... Restore our old cadet corps there, our best school and its traditions, which were not found in any civilian educational institution. Good health to you and many more summers 19.” On October 17, 1907, Priest Chetverikov served in the corps church for the first time. At the end of the service, Fr. Sergius said the following: “As I enter your corps family today and perform common prayer with you for the first time, I rejoice that the beginning of my communication with you is sanctified by prayer, taking place in church, at the throne of God. I see this as a guarantee of God’s blessing at the beginning of our relationship. And our relationships should be established precisely in the name of God, since I am called to promote your religious and moral prosperity. But before I begin to talk about the duty ahead of me among you, as I understand it, I consider it my duty to express to all of you, both students and my future colleagues, my sincere greetings and my sincere readiness to move towards our mutual rapprochement in common joint work. I understand my duty among you, children, to be that I must do my best to promote the development of religious and moral life in you. The task of the Law of God cannot be reduced only to the assimilation by memory of certain theological knowledge. Such an understanding of the task of this subject would be too superficial and insufficient. The law of God must have in mind not only the communication of information, but, mainly, the development of feelings, good direction and strengthening of the will. Each of us undoubtedly knows what a religious feeling is. Each of us, in early childhood, experienced the sweetness of prayer, either in our own family or in church; everyone knows what peaceful and pure spiritual joy the great holidays of the Nativity of Christ and Easter bring with them; knows the joy experienced after a sincere, sincere confession and communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. The task of the teacher and confessor is precisely to support and strengthen these sacred and dear feelings for every person in students. He must live with them with these same feelings and teach them to consciously value them, revealing to them their reasonable and solid basis in the Christian teaching about God. But this is not enough - no matter how good and dear certain feelings may be, they can become deaf if our will is not directed accordingly to them. Nurturing the will, self-education, working on oneself in a Christian direction - this is what each of us should do from early childhood. We must carefully monitor our intentions, our actions and, in the name of Christ, not allow anything in ourselves that is contrary to the Christian conscience. And if we notice something like this, we must grieve about it, struggle with ourselves, ask for help from God, consult with more experienced and strong people, purify ourselves with confession... In this internal moral struggle of each of you, the teacher of the law must be your constant assistant. He should come to you in difficult times and provide you with moral support. This is how I understand my responsibilities among you. In short, they consist in living a common religious and moral life together with you, working out our common salvation together with you!” 20. On October 20, after the liturgy, a memorial service was served for the late Emperor Alexander III and on the occasion of Demetrius Saturday. And the next day, a literary and musical evening took place in the 2nd company, after which there were dances. The evening was attended by cadets from three other companies. The concert program for this day is interesting: 1. “Le Jlamand”, march, performed. spirits, orc. 2nd company. 2. “In Memory of A.S. Pushkin”, op. Safonov, read by Mr. Zherebko. 3. “Medley of Russian songs”, Spanish. balalaika orc 2nd company. 4. “Blessed is he who smiles,” op. Vel. Book Konstantin Konstantinovich, read by Mr. Razumovsky. 5. “Trio”, Spanish. companies Gabaev, Popov and Kostin. 6. “Russia”, read by the author, Mr. Fedorov. 7. “The sun is low”, Spanish. choir of the 2nd company. 8. “Gaydox”, march, Spanish. spirit. orc. 2nd company. On October 28, the 2nd department of the 7th grade celebrated its separate holiday. Before the prayer service, Father Sergius said the following words: “I have only recently been in the corps, no more than two weeks, but, having looked a little closer at the cadets during this time, I noticed many good customs among you, testifying to the good direction of your religious and moral education. So, I noticed that during the lessons of the Law of God in your classes, a lamp is glowing; when you meet the Teacher of the Law-Priest, many of you come up for a blessing, and sometimes kiss the cross on his chest; passing by the church, they make the sign of the cross; they are diligent and willing to prepare lessons according to the Law of God... All this could not help but console me, all this showed that good seeds of Orthodox Christian skills have been sown in your souls and are being preserved in them. At this moment I stand before a new manifestation of your religious feeling. I see before me adult young men of the graduating class, gathered to pray in front of their separated image of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God on the occasion of the celebration in honor of this icon on October 22! The spectacle is comforting, I will say more, extraordinary! Not only in civil educational institutions, but (to my shame I say) in spiritual ones we do not know this wonderful custom; we will not see young men wanting to pray to the Queen of Heaven! During the seven-year course of your stay at the educational institution, you managed to carry your religious feeling unharmed! I sincerely wish you that this holy mood will not leave you in the future of your life! It is the guarantee of spiritual peace, family happiness, complacency in official labors, courage in misfortunes and trials, firmness in temptations!..” 21. There is no point in retelling all the events that took place in the Poltava Cadet Corps. A huge number of documents and memoirs on the history of Poltava were collected by enthusiastic historian Boris Tristanov. Surprisingly, he managed to find almost all the books “Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps” compiled by Colonel A.D. Romashkevich. There are also memoirs of former pets, released in France in 1965 in honor of the 125th anniversary of the founding of the corps. The “Materials...” also collects and gives verbatim numerous addresses from priest Sergius Chetverikov to cadets on the occasion of various holidays and memorial days. Among the documents on the site, I found a photograph of cadet Feodosius Chetverikov, enrolled in 1912 in the 1st class of the 1st department (Staff Captain Chepurkovsky), in the 4th company, commanded by Colonel Kvitkovsky. In 1913, Theodosius played the main role of Mitya in the “fantastic scene in one act” “A Dream for Christmas,” staged by the cadets. It is known that in 1919, Theodosius and his corps were evacuated to Constantinople, and from there to Serbia. The fate of Feodosius Sergeevich will be written further. On May 23, 1909, Father Sergius Chetverikov was elevated to the rank of archpriest. In the same year, on June 27, during the celebrations on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava, the cadet corps was visited by Emperor Nicholas II and Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich with their sons Igor and Oleg. When visiting the corps church, Archpriest Sergius met the emperor with the following words: “Your Imperial Majesty! Today, on the day of the bright celebration of the 200th anniversary of the glorious Poltava victory, the Poltava Cadet Corps, founded by Your Majesty’s great-grandfather in memory of this victory and to strengthen in the young hearts of future Russian soldiers the holy precepts of the valiant Poltava heroes, with deep reverence and joy welcomes its beloved Sovereign within its walls; and this bright moment imprints even more firmly in the hearts of both young cadets and their leaders the holy feelings of ardent love and devotion to the Tsar and the homeland, those feelings with which, after faith in God, our Russia has always been alive and strong. The Lord, who today granted victory to the Great Emperor Peter, may he be the all-powerful Helper and Guardian of Your Majesty in your royal labors and concerns, and may he bless you, the Royal Family and the Russian land handed to you from God with quiet happiness.” 22 Then, according to the testimony of A.D. Romashkevich, the sovereign “honored Archpriest Chetverikov with questions regarding his service in the corps,” and also examined the church in detail. The final events on this day were a ceremonial review of cadets and a ball in the evening in the corps building. Every day of Father Sergius Chetverikov was filled with a lot of worries, but among these working days there were also special days. On November 11, 1910, he was appointed censor of sermons for the 1st district of the Poltava district. In 1912, Chetverikov’s long-written book “Description of the life of the Optina elder Hieromonk Ambrose in connection with the history of the Optina Hermitage and its eldership” was finally published. Chetverikov sent the book as a gift to the emperor, for which “the Emperor deigned to thank Ave. Chetverikov for the said offering,” and on October 26, 1912, Chetverikov was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 3rd degree. In 1913, the Right Reverend Sylvester (Olshevsky), Bishop of Priluki, vicar of the Poltava diocese, conceived the publication of the Poltava-Pereyaslavl Patericon, which was to include the biographies of many ascetics who were born or lived within the Poltava region. The biography of Elder Paisius Velichkovsky, a native of Poltava, was entrusted to Archpriest Sergius Chetverikov. Chetverikov spent every summer vacation, right up to the revolution, in the libraries of the Imperial Academy of Sciences and the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, in the Moscow Synodal (Patriarchal) Library, in the Oryol Diocesan Archival Repository, in the libraries of the Optina Monastery and the Novo-Nyametsky Monastery in Bessarabia. The rich handwritten material required careful study and processing, which took a lot of time. Unfortunately, Chetverikov did not have time to complete this work before 1917. Only while in exile and visiting Romania in 1931, Father Sergius was able to complete his many years of work (the book “The Moldavian Elder Schema-Archimandrite Paisius (Velichkovsky)” was published in Estonia in 1938 in two editions). In 1916, Archpriest S. Chetverikov’s brochure “Conversations of a Teacher of the Law” was published (issue 11, Poltava). In this work, Father Sergius takes care of the moral purity and chastity of his young flock: the basis of his brochure was a conversation with senior students of the corps on the topic “Young men, take care of your chastity!” The reason for writing it was the idea that “we pay too little attention to preserving chastity in the soul of a child. Our school also devotes too little space to concerns about the moral purity and chastity of children.” Meanwhile, life in the building went on as usual. The cadets went to classes, read, played, and fooled around in their free time. We took part in corps and class celebrations, organized balls, staged plays, and rehearsed in orchestras. In the warm season, under the supervision of leaders, they went on excursions and hikes, spent time in summer camps, learned to shoot and fencing, and held sports competitions in running, jumping, and climbing inclined stairs. Not far from the building there was a large lake, where on weekends you could go boating and drink tea “with sandwiches and sweets” on the shore. One of the officer's reports provides a list of games played by the cadets: 1) skittles, 2) croquet, 3) stilts, 4) giant steps, 5) towns, 6) ball games, 7) lapta, 8) corner games, 9) shooter, 10) games with a ball and a tourniquet "punished onlooker", 11) games with a blindfold "sure hit" and "two blind", 12) "Gossip, give me the keys" and 13) "The robbers are coming." Sometimes the cadets went to the cadet grove for a picnic together with corps employees and their families, and at the end of the picnic they played various games. We often went to the estate of Prince Kochubey to inspect the park and garden, visited the museum at the Swedish grave, and went to the tile factory. Old photographs convey the atmosphere of cadet life in Poltava. The war that began in August 1914 made its own adjustments to the life of the cadet corps. Some teachers went to the front, the rest did not receive transfers due to special orders from their superiors. At the general meeting, corps employees decided to deduct 2% of their salaries for the purchase of materials and products for the needs of infirmaries and active units. For this purpose, a special committee was created. The director's wife and the ladies of the building purchased and provided materials for work, cut, sewed, took turns on duty, and accepted ready-made items. The rest of the committee members also actively helped the ladies. The director's apartment was provided for work and storage. Since October 1914, every service in the corps church there was a circle gathering among employees in favor of the Red Cross. On January 23, 1915, two boxes of shoe goods worth 250 rubles were sent to the Caucasian army. At the end of the summer of 1915, 266 safety masks were sent to the resettlement bureau. During manual labor lessons, cadets made folding beds (stretchers) for the needs of local hospitals. On January 28, 1915, the Emperor and his retinue visited the Poltava Cadet Corps. The year 1917 was approaching. The situation in the Poltava Cadet Corps in 1917 is eloquently illustrated by the memories of the participants in the events themselves. This is what graduate N. Karachentsev wrote: “The revolutionary period began on February 25, old style, 1917. Its gradual stages are known to everyone: the abdication of the Sovereign on March 3, Milyukovshchina, Kerenshchina, Commander-in-Chief Ensign Krylenko, the German “gift” of a sealed carriage with Lenin and his associates to deepen the “bloodless” revolution and their October seizure of power in Petrograd, etc. We entered the revolutionary period as young men completely unprepared politically. The demands of the mutinous and stunned soldiers were completely wild and incomprehensible to us: “No annexations! No indemnities! Not Constantinople! What kind of gibberish is this when the war is not over yet? What does Constantinople and everything else have to do with it, when national uplift and new efforts are needed to bring the war to a victorious end? The slightest disrespectful expression addressed to the abdicated Emperor caused us deep indignation. It also remained incomprehensible to us that not a single general was found to stop at the roots the growing devastation and chaos. We acutely felt only one thing: the Motherland is in danger, She needs us, She can have us at her disposal, as in the past, as evidenced by the black marble plaques in our church with the names of Poltava residents who fell on many battlefields. But who will tell us how and when to use our power? So far, the internal life of the corps has gone on as usual...” 23. Further N. Karachentsev describes the events of the February Revolution: “It was already the 9th day of the revolution. Our nerves were quite tense, and most of us experienced the events alone, rarely in small groups of no more than three or four cadets. A huge crowd of soldiers mixed with civilians and women filled not only the entire space in front of the building, but also part of the adjacent Round Garden. There were speakers, in general, the crowd held a meeting and, perhaps, for some preconceived purpose, gathered in front of the building. We were not interested in what they were talking about, but their presence and their hubbub only strained our nerves further, and a subconscious desire arose among many: to disperse them. This then turned into a more practical decision: disperse them first, or simply break through to the Vilnets and invite them to forget all past tensions between us and join us in restoring order in the city. (The Vilna Cadet Corps was temporarily located in tents on the parade ground near the building of the Poltava Corps. - Yu. A.). It seems that it was Saturday or some kind of vacation day, most likely before lunch, because some of the cadets were going on vacation and decided to leave the corps not individually, but together. When the cadets appeared on the platform of the building, death threats and the most selective abuse rained down on them. Indignant, they ran to the company, and their appearance and their appearance caused the missing impetus that was missing for decisive action... When the command “GUN” was heard, it was picked up and repeated by some precisely because the cadets were in different parts of the room. Consequently, many had not seen the returning cadets and did not yet know what had happened. Given the nervous tension we were experiencing, the command “IN THE GUN” found an immediate response. The cadets began to quickly put on their uniforms, fasten their pouches, disassemble their rifles, bayonets fixed, and line up in the corridor. The first command of Vice-Sergeant Mikhailov was heard, then the subsequent ones, and the company turned to go to the exit. The next point has two versions: a) Lieutenant Colonel Buzhinsky, leaning his feet against the ceiling of the door and his back to the opposite, shouted: “Come to your senses! What are you doing?.. I won’t let you in... What are you!.. are you crazy?”; b) Lieutenant Colonel Vasilyev, at the exit door, leaning on his stick, grabbed a revolver and, placing it to his right church, calmly but loudly said: “Only over my corpse will you cross.” The first rows of cadets were taken aback and stopped; one of them threw his rifle, which thundered along the corridor. The cadets came to their senses, slowly dispersed, put their rifles in the trestles, but then they all started bawling like children...” 24. And here is another description, now of other events. These lines belong to the 1919 graduate S. Treshchenkov: “Before the summer holidays of 1917, the life of the building still flowed by inertia, as in the old days. The director of the corps was then Major General Klingenberg. Because of his German surname and his appearance as a Prussian officer, we rather did not like him and called him, behind his back, of course, with the contemptuous nickname “German.” And this “German” showed himself in an unexpected way during the days of the revolution and in a short period (he was arrested and removed from the corps in the summer of 1917) won the love of the cadets. In connection with the events in Petrograd and Moscow, cadets from other corps appeared who were considered seconded to us. Among them was Klingenberg’s son, a cadet in the Corps of Pages, who, along with several other cadets, joined the local council of soldiers’ deputies. For this activity, Klingenberg fired his own son by order of the corps. Subsequent and more serious events showed our director from a new side. Our brass band was the only one in Poltava at that time, and, of course, the corps constantly received persistent invitations to take part in parades and demonstrations. During all this time, we were only once forced to take part in some kind of parade, marching among a crowd decorated with red bows. We did not like this very much, and we refused further participation. Our director, accused by the local authorities of keeping the cadets locked up, began to invite everyone who came to “invite” us and to go and talk with the 1st company, which rejected these invitations, citing the fact that our business was to study. This continued until the moment when a very persistent delegation was “lightly” helped down the stairs. Relations between the corps and the city deteriorated greatly. The revolutionary masses (there were about 4,000 reserves in Poltava at that time) threatened to take the building by storm and destroy this “counter-revolutionary” nest. The atmosphere was extremely tense, and we expected an attack any minute. The first company, armed with berdanks, and the 2nd with iron gymnastic sticks, guarded all entrances to the building. We had no illusions about the outcome of the upcoming battle. I don’t know exactly what happened in the 1st company, but we, the cadets of the 2nd company, wrote farewell letters to our relatives and put them in a secluded place, so that the survivors would send them to their destination. It was at this acute moment that we were experiencing that General Klingenberg came to us and made a speech, persuading us to keep cool and not do anything without his knowledge. “Believe me that when the right moment comes, I myself will command: “GUN!” were his final words. Thank God nothing happened. News spread throughout the city: the cadets had installed artillery and machine guns on the ground floor. The streets adjacent to the building were completely deserted: the “beauty and pride of the revolution” did not risk passing by the armed “counter-revolutionary nest”. An explanation for this news can only be found in the following insignificant event: we, I don’t remember why, dragged two small cannons from the time of Peter the Great, which were always in the building, into the first floor. Someone saw this, and word of mouth turned them into “powerful artillery.” Be that as it may, thanks to this, we peacefully survived until the summer holidays. Returning to the building in the fall of 1917 prepared a whole series of unpleasant surprises for us: the building was renamed the Military Department gymnasium, which was, from our point of view, much worse than the previous military gymnasiums. New trends began to affect everything. It was obvious that it was decided to destroy the military spirit of the corps. It began with our first acquaintance with the new director, who, having come to the dining room, began to teach us that we should not answer his greeting, as before: “We wish you good health,” but we must say, as he did: “Hello.” So: “Hello, gentlemen!” - “We wish you good health, Mister Colonel.” - "Not really! You can't do that! I already told you - once again: Hello, gentlemen! - “We wish you good health, Mister Colonel.” - “That’s not possible... So I’ll go out, come back and say hello to you again.” The third time, success exceeded all expectations: in response to our director’s greeting, something unimaginable arose: “Hello!.. How are you?.. How is your wife’s health?.. How are the kids?” The director no longer greeted us, the COMPANIES disappeared, they were replaced by AGES. It was forbidden to line up according to rank, it was necessary to stand in pairs and it was forbidden to walk in step. I don’t remember at what point the cadet uniform turned into a black jacket, the shoulder straps, buttonholes and braid from the collar were removed, the copper buttons were trimmed with black material. In view of the complete confusion of the authorities, we took upon ourselves to maintain discipline and order, so as not to extinguish the cadet spirit, and it must be admitted that we supported them incomparably more strictly than it was in previous times. Later, part of the company premises was occupied by Red Army soldiers, and there were sentries with machine guns at the entrance to the corps. This gave birth to a new sport: a crowd of cadets surrounded the sentries and hectored them, while others tried to steal their weapons. Sometimes this was successful, the weapon disappeared into the countless hiding places of the building, and the subsequent searches, sometimes during lessons, did not yield any results. This is how we survived until the summer of 1918” 25. The academic year 1918–1919 brought new changes: in Ukraine, power passed to the Hetman. The congress of corps, convened in Kiev, made a unanimous decision to restore the cadet corps. The corps located on the territory of Ukraine again returned to the previous order, but were Ukrainized. Epaulets of the same blue color with white edging appeared, but narrowed and rounded at the top; Instead of the monogram of Great Peter, they bore a trident - the Ukrainian coat of arms. The companies began to be called hundreds, the promotion to vice-non-commissioned officers was restored and the teaching of the history and geography of Ukraine and the Ukrainian language was introduced. On December 12, 1918, the cadets were prematurely dismissed for vacation. Only those, including 30–40 people, who had nowhere to go remained in the building. On January 6, 1919, the Reds occupied Poltava, and the next day one of the Red Army units was stationed in the premises of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th companies. On January 28, two demands were made by the commander of the Red Army soldiers located in the corps building: 1) cleansing of the Church on the same day to establish a Red Army reading room in it, 2) cleansing of all apartments occupied by educational officers. The next episode is one of the most tragic both for the Poltava Cadet Corps and for Sergiy Chetverikov himself. Here are his memories, recorded almost verbatim by one of the graduates in 1929: “I want to tell... the story of the destruction of our Corps banner, that sad story that has been weighing heavily on my heart for 10 years now, which was the main reason for my voluntary departure from the corps in 1921 and which, probably, will not cease to weigh on me until the end of my life. In 1919, Colonel Paray-Koshits and I made a detailed written report to the then director of the corps, Colonel Antonov, about the destruction of the banner, but, apparently, this report was lost along with other reports and papers during the evacuation of the corps, and at present no one except me has exact information about how it all happened. Therefore, I consider myself all the more obliged to report this story again in detail and accurately. On January 28, 1919, Monday (this is the exact date of the destruction of the Corps Banner), in the morning at 9 o’clock the officer who commanded the red unit that had been stationed in the Corps building for three weeks came into my apartment in the building. He came to me, accompanied by two soldiers armed with rifles, and demanded that I clear the church premises that same day, since it was necessary to set up a reading room for soldiers. The premises must be cleared by three o'clock in the afternoon. If I do not have people, he can send his soldiers to my disposal. I asked him why, in order to install a reading room for soldiers in the church premises, it is necessary to destroy the church and is it not possible, as a last resort, to separate the altar from the middle part with a partition - the church is spacious enough both to place a reading room in it and to perform Divine services in it. When the officer, in response to me, again confirmed his demand, I said that I would have to report his demand to the corps authorities and Archbishop Feofan [Bistrov], after which only I could make one decision or another. After the officer left, I went to Archbishop Theophan. He told me that if it becomes necessary to cleanse the church, he allows the church property to be moved to the Archbishop's House, in the courtyard of which there was an ancient Zaporozhye church, in which Divine services were not held at that time. Simultaneously with the demand to cleanse the church, another demand was made: to clear all the apartments in which the officers serving the corps were housed. On this occasion, a general meeting of employees was scheduled in the infirmary at 12 noon. The state of affairs at that time was as follows: the director of the corps, Colonel Antonov, and three company commanders - Bykov, Romashkevich, and I don’t remember who the third was - were in prison. The commander of the 1st company, Colonel Paray-Koshits, was at large. The meeting in the infirmary was chaired by Corps Inspector Dankov. When I announced the demand presented to me to cleanse the church, some were indignant at this demand and found that we should not cleanse the church, let the Reds themselves cleanse it, others said that it was better to cleanse the church ourselves rather than leave this matter to the Bolsheviks. I saw that it was difficult to reach an agreement and a common decision, that we had no power to prevent the church from being cleansed, and that it was better to clean it ourselves than to let the Red Army men manage it, so I proposed, relying on the permission of Archbishop Feofan, to cleanse the church ourselves and transfer its property to the Bishop's House. This proposal met no objections, but since on the same day, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, a new meeting was to be held on the issue of clearing the apartments, the question of the church remained not yet finally resolved. No one remembered the banner that was in the church. Perhaps this is explained by the fact that everyone considered the care of him to fall on me, as the rector of the church. Before the March Revolution, the Corps Banner was placed on the right choir in an oilcloth cover. After the coup, the director of the corps, Major General Klingenberg, found it more convenient to store it in the altar. Then, at my suggestion, for greater safety, the banner was hidden in the right aisle of the church, behind the large icon case of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, where it was completely invisible from the outside. There it remained until January 28, 1919. On January 28, before the start of the meeting in the infirmary, sergeant major Timchenko (a long-term soldier serving in the corps) approached me and asked: “What should I do with the banner when cleaning the church?” I told him that I would tell him after the meeting. At the meeting, where, in addition to officers, there were also some civilians unknown to me, I did not dare to speak loudly about the banner. I approached Colonel Paray-Koshits and, calling him aside, asked him: “What to do with the banner?” He answered me: “I don’t know.” We began to confer. To understand the decision we made then, we must imagine the very moment: the director of the corps and three company commanders were sent to prison. We ourselves could expect arrest any minute. The Red Army soldiers, without waiting for the church to be cleansed on our part, could begin to cleanse it themselves, as was the case at the Theological School. Therefore, when I posed the question: should I destroy the banner and thereby prevent the possibility of it passing into the hands of the Reds, Colonel Paray-Koshitz accepted this idea without objection. Subsequently, the class inspector Dankov reproached me for why I did not consult with him about the banner, but with Colonel Paray-Koshits, but it seemed to me, and now it seems, that this question concerned Paray-Koshits more closely than Dankov. I am far from the idea of ​​justifying myself. On the contrary, I see no justification for myself. Now, soberly assessing the situation, I see that we could have saved the banner. But I see now only because I know all the subsequent circumstances. At the time, the situation seemed completely hopeless. After talking with Paray-Koshits, I returned to the church and told Timchenko that Paray-Koshits and I decided to burn the banner. And Timchenko did not have any objection. The banner was taken out of its case and burned, along with the staff, in a nitrate stove. This was done by Timchenko in my presence. I know how painful and how offensive it will be for former cadets of the corps to read or hear these lines of mine. And you will understand why since then I have not dared to look our cadets directly in the eyes and why I had to leave the corps. But I began to feel remorse only a few months later. At first, I thought I did the right thing. Then I told about this to several people whose judgment I valued. Colonel Paray-Koshitz always believed that we did the right thing. The former director of the corps, Popov, also recognized our action as correct. But I still don’t find peace. And despite the fact that TEN years have passed since then, I experience what happened with the same pain as in 1919. We started cleansing the church that same day and finished it the next day. This was the first cleansing of the church. In July of the same year, the church was restored and re-consecrated after the expulsion of the Bolsheviks. In November, the evacuation of the building began, and then all church valuables, utensils, vestments, and icons were sent to the Trinity Church. I don’t know what their fate is.” 26 In November 1919, the remnants of the Poltava Cadet Corps, together with teachers, on several echelons, went on evacuation to the Caucasus, where at that time the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Southern Russia was located. On December 4, after the liberation of Vladikavkaz, the Poltava Corps was merged into the Vladikavkaz Cadet Corps. In March 1920, the consolidated corps was transferred to Crimea, supplemented with other cadets and received the name of the Crimean Cadet Corps. Its priest, Father Sergius Chetverikov, followed relentlessly along with the corps. Only his entire family was unable to reach Crimea: due to his son’s illness, his wife had to stay in Tiflis. The eldest daughter Angelina Sergeevna was already married and wished to stay in Russia. With the priest were his four children: Theodosius, Sergei, Alexandra and Olga. Since then, Chetverikov has not heard anything about his relatives who remained in Russia... At first, the corps was located in Oreanda, in the barracks of the Crimean Cavalry Regiment, but as cadets from different corps arrived from the front, more spacious premises were allocated - in Massandra. By this time, Lieutenant General V.V. Rimsky-Korsakov was appointed director of the corps. As soon as the cadets, having settled down a little in Massandra, were about to begin their classes, the terrible news came about the fall of Perekop, and almost immediately the order came to prepare for evacuation. The 1st company was hastily armed with rifles and placed at the disposal of the Yalta commandant to perform guard duty in the city and to combat the robberies that had begun. The younger ones helped pack the hull property and transport it to the port. On October 30, the Greek barge "Chrisi", on which three companies of the corps were loaded, set off for the shores of Turkey. After spending several days in Constantinople, we went by train through Croatia to the Slovenian village of Sternishte near Ptuj. The government of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (KSHS) provided an empty prisoner of war camp built during the First World War - several dozen wooden barracks - for temporary housing. The corps remained here until the fall of 1921. Subsequently, it was transferred to Bila Tserkva, uniting with the Don Cadet Corps. Archpriest Sergiy Chetverikov in 1921 left the post of teacher of the law and priest of the Poltava corps. I have already written about the reason for this departure: to a large extent, the departure was associated with the destruction of the Corps Banner, for which Chetverikov blamed himself mainly. Of course, all the cadets and teachers, and with them Father Sergius himself, believed that evacuation was a temporary matter. They thought that in a year or two the corps would return to Russia. However, months and years passed, and it became increasingly clear that a return was impossible. The significance of Archpriest Sergius’ stay in the Poltava Cadet Corps is difficult to overestimate. It was here that his instructive word acquired that extraordinary power, and at the same time accessibility and simplicity, which later allowed Chetverikov to become the confessor of all emigrant youth in Europe. As for the cadets themselves and even the officer-educators, priest Chetverikov became a father figure to them over the years. Almost everyone who left memories of their years of study in Poltava wrote very warmly about Father Sergius. Many carried the spiritual light, kindled by the speeches and prayers of Father Sergius, throughout their lives. There was not a Russian person in exile who did not turn to the Orthodox Church in difficult times. But for most refugees it was not minutes, but years, decades. I'll give just one example. One of the graduates of the Poltava Cadet Corps was Mikhail Maksimovich, the future saint and wonderworker John of Shanghai and San Francisco, bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCOR). He graduated from the Poltava Corps in 1914, then from the Faculty of Law of Kharkov University (1918). I wanted to enter the Kyiv Theological Academy, but at the insistence of my parents I received a law degree. Only in exile was Maksimovic able to enter the theological faculty of the University of Belgrade, from which he graduated in 1925. In 1926, he was tonsured a monk at the Milkovo Monastery, receiving the name John. Until 1929, he was a teacher of law at the Serbian gymnasium in the city of Velika Kikinda. It was during these years that my grandmother, Elena Sergeevna Grebenshchikova, studied at the same gymnasium. Later, as a little girl, I always wondered where my grandmother got such a strong faith in God, such strict observance of Orthodox traditions. Only now, having learned about Father John’s teaching at the Serbian gymnasium, do I understand what spiritual power and what persuasiveness the teacher and priest John had in his sermons. But it all started with the cadet corps, where Fr. served. Sergiy Chetverikov! Two words about the further fate of Father John. In the early 1930s, he published a number of theological works, where he polemicized with supporters of the theological concept of "sophiology", primarily with the priest Sergius Bulgakov. Looking ahead, I will say that Chetverikov, while already in the Russian Student Christian Movement (RSCM), also constantly discussed with Father Sergius Bulgakov on the same topics. In 1934, after his consecration, Bishop John was sent to serve in Shanghai at the episcopal see, where he distinguished himself as a benefactor and trustee of philanthropic societies. In China, and then on the island of Tubabao in the Philippines, he became famous for numerous cases of healing hopelessly ill people through his prayers. From 1951 to 1962 - Archbishop of Western Europe, with the see first in Paris, then in Brussels. Since 1963, Archbishop of Western America and San Francisco. He died in 1966 in Seattle (USA). In emigration we had to start all over again. The children have already grown up and started to settle down on their own. Feodosius entered the university in Ljubljana at the electrical engineering department of the technical faculty. Alexandra became a student at the Faculty of Philology of the same university. Olga turned 15 years old in 1921 (she was born on March 6, 1906), and most likely she was with her older sister. The youngest son Sergei probably also remained in Ljubljana. From 1920 to 1923, Archpriest Chetverikov was rector of the parish in the Serbian village of Lika (between Bosnia and Croatia). Alas, it was not possible to find information about this period of Father Sergius’s life. We find the development of further events in the memoirs of Bishop Evlogiy (Metropolitan Evlogiy (Georgievsky) in 1923 was appointed by Patriarch Tikhon as the head of all Russian parishes abroad): “At the end of 1923, I began to receive letters from Bratislava with requests to organize a parish there and to appoint a priest. After some searching, I chose Fr. Sergii Chetverikov. ...He sent me a request to be transferred to Bratislava, where his son lived. His wish made me happy. I knew that Fr. Sergius is an outstanding priest with a high pastoral mood, ascetic monastic spirit and an expert on Russian monasticism and eldership. He studied well the works of the founder of the movement (in the 18th century) on the renewal of Orthodox monasticism and the founder of the eldership Paisius (Velichkovsky), and visited the Neamets Lavra (in Romania), where this great ascetic worked at one time; Fr. was spiritually connected. Sergius also with Optina Pustyn, was closely acquainted with the life and works of the Optina elders, wrote the book “Optina Pustyn”. I happily translated Fr. Chetverikov to Bratislava. Our arrival in Bratislava must be considered happy. All its abbots, starting with Fr. Chetverikov and to this day, outstanding shepherds. Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, is a university city where many Russian students live. O. Chetverikov organized the parish perfectly and did not limit himself to Bratislava, but began to extend far beyond its borders. There are quite a few Russian nests scattered in Slovakia - families of Czech prisoners of war who returned from Russia married to Russians 27 . O. Chetverikov developed extensive missionary activity throughout Slovakia, caring for up to ten such nests...” 28. Feodosius Sergeevich, the son of Sergius's father, actually settled in Bratislava after graduating from the university in Ljubljana. He accepted the position of head of the city water supply station of the city of Bratislava, where he worked until 1955, until his departure to the Soviet Union. Theodosius, here, at the water supply station (“vodyarne”, as the Slovaks say), received an apartment in a departmental building; I allocated one of the rooms to Father Sergius. This is how Archpriest Vasily Zenkovsky describes his meeting with him in 1923: “With o. I met Sergius for the first time in Moscow at a congress of clergy and laity in June 1917. I already knew the name of Fr. Sergius based on his book Elder Ambrose, but how much a personal meeting added to this literary acquaintance! In about. Sergius had some kind of irresistible charm, he was so attractive and friendly, he exuded such a spiritual structure that even then he left in me that “Optina” impression, which became dominant in the subsequent common life with him. During the years of emigration, already when our Student Christian Movement arose, I heard in Prague that Fr. Sergius. I decided to go to him, but this time my impressions were sad. He lived outside the city alone; O. Sergius was friendly, but very sad: his wife with one daughter and son remained in Russia, two other daughters and a son were in Yugoslavia. I was very sad to see Fr. Sergius in an uncomfortable environment, but the impression of his spiritual significance only intensified. He very willingly responded to the invitation to come to Prague in the summer of 1923 30 for a local congress, but at the congress he experienced great disappointment: Martsinkovsky, who developed Baptist propaganda, was present at the congress. Although there were many Orthodox youth at the congress who confessed and received communion, Martsinkovsky’s dexterity in promoting Baptistism created internal uncertainty in the religious style of the Movement. At the congress in Psherov in the fall of 1923, at which the Orthodox movement won, Fr. Sergius was not there, but he was at the general congress in 1924, and here his impressions were already different, favorable for the Movement” 31. A few words about Vasily Vasilyevich Zenkovsky. He was 14 years younger than Chetverikov, but by that time his name was already known to the entire Russian emigration. Since 1920 - professor of philosophy and experimental psychology at the University of Belgrade. Here he lectured at the Faculty of Theology, where many Russian students studied, and became close to members of the student Orthodox circle. He joined the Supreme Council for Russian Schools under the Ministry of Education, was one of the founders of the Society of Russian Scientists in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, became its secretary, and was a member of the Russian Academic Group. Despite his busy schedule, during these years he managed to continue the experiments on child psychology that he had begun in Russia and prepare for publication the book “Psychology of Childhood,” which was published in 1924 in Leipzig. Almost simultaneously, another of his books, “Russian Thinkers and Europe” (1922), was published for the first time in Zagreb in Serbian. Prague became one of the largest centers of Russian emigration. In 1923, on the initiative of the Russian Academic Group and with the financial support of the government of Czechoslovakia, the Russian Higher Pedagogical Institute named after. Ya. A. Komensky. Zenkovsky accepted the invitation to take a chair there and moved to Prague. He joined the Pedagogical Council of the Institute together with such famous scientists as professors S. N. Bulgakov, S. I. Gessen, A. A. Kizevetter, I. I. Lapshin, N. M. Mogilyansky and others. He headed the department of educational psychology and experimental pedagogy. Thanks to his scientific and public authority, in 1923, at the First Pedagogical Congress of Russian Emigration, Zenkovsky was elected chairman of the Pedagogical Bureau for Lower and Secondary Russian Schools Abroad, a kind of Ministry of Education of Foreign Russia. His active work contributed to the solution of many problems of financing and organizing school affairs in various European countries, teacher training, social protection of emigrant children, creation and discussion of software and methodological support for Russian foreign schools. So, at the invitation of Professor Zenkovsky, in July 1923, Father Sergius went from Bratislava to Sternberg (Czechoslovakia) to the First Pedagogical Congress of Russian Emigration, where Father Sergius Bulgakov also took part. It must be said that Bulgakov and Chetverikov had known each other since 1917; both of them participated as delegates at the Moscow Congress of the Clergy. A few years later, while in Paris, they would become the “main characters” in the Russian Student Christian Movement. Studies on the history of the RSHD usually talk about the influence of father Sergius Bulgakov and almost nothing about the role of father Sergius Chetverikov. At the same time, both priests were inseparable in their ministry and were very friendly, although they endlessly debated on a variety of issues of theology and philosophy. Only in the article by Alexander Kyrlezhev do we find the following remark: “The appearance of these names in connection with the prehistory of the RSHD is more than significant. These two priests not only represented the “Levitical” aspect of the Church, that is, its liturgical and sacramental dimension, but also symbolized two types of clergy who actively contributed to the formation and development of the RSCD abroad. Father S. Chetverikov is a “professional” priest who went through the traditional path of church service back in old Russia: a graduate of the theological academy, a teacher of the law; in the first years of emigration - parish pastor. Father S. Bulgakov is a “professional” intellectual who has gone from youthful atheism to Marxism and a professorship in the department of political economy... Both of these people in exile became the spiritual leaders of the RSHD, and each served the Movement with his own gift: one as a confessor, a mentor in spiritual life, the other as a theologian and ideological inspirer” 32 . However, I won’t get ahead of myself. Father Sergius Chetverikov, as mentioned earlier, took over the parish in Bratislava in 1923. Russian emigrants did not have their own church in Bratislava: services were held in one of the shops where two equipped rooms were rented. All that is known about the life and ministry of Father Sergius in Bratislava is that in the period from 1925 to 1928 the works of the priest Sergius Chetverikov “Russian Shepherd” (Berlin: Svidnik, 1925), “Optina Pustyn” (Paris, 1926, 186 pp.), “Great Lent” (Paris, 1926, 63 p.). At the founding congress of the RSHD in Psherov in 1923, Father Sergius was not present, but in the meantime, it was there that events took place that influenced the formation of the RSHD and determined the course of development of the Movement in Europe for many years. Delegates and activists of student circles (more than 30 people in total) were invited to the congress, representing all the centers of Russian dispersion: Paris, Prague, Brno, Przybram, Berlin, Lille, Zagreb, Tartu, Chisinau, Sofia, Belgrade. Representatives of the older generation took part in the congress as speakers and inspiring organizers: father Sergius Bulgakov, N.A. Berdyaev, A.V. Kartashev, P.I. Novgorodtsev, V.V. Zenkovsky, as well as younger ones L.A. Zander and G.V. Florovsky. At the congress, two approaches that were practiced in youth circles collided: on the one hand, the interconfessional, Protestant in spirit style, characteristic of the World Student Christian Federation and the circles that it initiated; on the other hand, the Orthodox style, characteristic of circles one way or another connected with the Church and clergy. The RSHD, which has firmly linked itself with the Russian Orthodox Church, chose the second path. Psychologically, he was less comfortable, in a sense maximalist, but the future showed the correctness of this choice: the Movement remained viable for decades; it seemed to die, but then was reborn again. Father Sergius Bulgakov spoke an inspired word, which made a very strong impression on those gathered. He set the true scale of the tasks that faced the Movement: to take responsibility for the destinies of the Church in Russia and abroad; realize the advent of a new Eucharistic era; to realize the universal dimension of Eastern Orthodoxy and, as a result, to look for ways to restore communication with Western Christians 33 . In 1925, the second congress was held in Argeron (France). By decision of the congress, the St. Sergius Theological Institute was opened in Paris, which became one of the spiritual centers of the entire Russian emigration. With the aim of uniting the Russian Christian youth of Europe, the monthly magazine “Bulletin of the RSHD” was also established. The magazine became the connecting link of the Russian Student Christian Movement, a platform where its ideology was developed, information about the Movement and the religious and philosophical works of its leaders were published, and close attention was paid to the position of the Orthodox Church in Soviet Russia. Father Sergius closely followed from Bratislava the events taking place in the student movement. The topic of Christian education of youth was very close to him, since for many years, first in Saratov and then in Poltava, he himself was involved in this matter. In 1926, he wrote a “Letter to Russian students, participants in the Christian Movement,” in which he expressed his opinion about the tasks and goals of the Movement and the dangers standing in its way. This letter was published in the “Bulletin of the RSHD” (No. 3, 1926). It was followed by the articles “Why do we rejoice on the day of Holy Easter” (No. 6, 1926), “Christianity as the birth of a new life in the soul and as labor in the name of Christ” (No. 2, 1928), “Tasks of the Movement” (No. 5, 1928) and others. Participants in the Movement very quickly realized who they were dealing with, and asked Bishop Evlogii to transfer Father Sergius to them. The Bishop, of course, agreed to this. But what was significant for Father Sergius was how he himself accepted this invitation to work in an institution of a new type, which did not fit into any canonical forms and was suspected by so many. This is what he wrote in his first letter to the Movement, published in Vestnik No. 9 for 1928: “...Metropolitan Evlogy entrusted me with the pastoral leadership of the Russian Christian student movement. I am aware of the importance and responsibility of this assignment, I am also aware of the weakness of my strength, but since I love the Movement, consider it a very important phenomenon of Russian life, I expect a lot from it for the Orthodox Church and for Russia, I am willingly ready to devote the rest of my life to it, hoping for God’s help and the prayers of all those to whom the work accomplished by the Movement is near and dear...” 34. Further, Father Sergius talks about how he understands his task in the Movement: not as an administrator (because the Movement has its own bodies) and not as a confessor (because the members of the Movement are scattered all over the world and already have their own confessors). “What, then, will be my attitude towards the Movement? In my opinion, it will consist in the fact that I will live one life with the Movement, enter, as far as I can and am able, into the lives of both individual members of the Movement and the life of circles and congresses, work and pray with them, connect the Movement more closely with the Church, help it clarify and carry out its tasks, promote its correct church growth and development. Of course, in all the respects I have listed, you can do a lot, or you can do nothing; You can become useful and necessary for the Movement, but you can also turn out to be a burden. I sincerely pray to God to help me be first and not last." 35 In 1928, Father Sergius moved to Paris. From that time on, he became a special “priest of the Movement” to protect and strengthen churchliness in the Movement. Very quickly the name of “spiritual leader of the Movement” was assigned to him. In fact, he was like that: the stamp of his personality clearly lay on the work of the Movement, but all his influence went through the path of pastoral relations with members of the Movement. In his Paris office, on the wall near the table, he pinned all the photographs of congresses, circles, and members of the Movement. And the photograph with hundreds of eyes looking at Father Sergius sitting at the table is a symbol of the Movement of both the prayer brotherhood and the small church. With the unification of church youth in the Movement and the development of their church consciousness, as numerous churches began to appear in emigration, the question arose about the relationship of the Movement to parishes. In the Baltics, for example, where parishes that existed before the revolution remained, this question also inevitably arose. The position of the Movement in this regard has always been very definite: it not only did not create any difficulties for its members in terms of active participation in parish life, but, on the contrary, called for this. The first Baltic Congress took place from August 1 to 6, 1928 in the Spaso-Preobrazhenskaya Hermitage near Jelgava. The Second Baltic Congress, from August 4 to 11, 1929, took place in the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, which, as is known, was then located on the territory of Estonia. The congress brought together about 270 movements. Among the guests were Professor V.V. Zenkovsky, Deacon L.N. Liperovsky, Archpriest Sergius Chetverikov and teacher of the Theological Institute in Paris I.A. Lagovsky. Archpriest Sergius Chetverikov took part in all subsequent congresses in the Baltic states. For example, at the fifth congress (1933), which proclaimed the general theme “The Meaning of Life,” Father Sergius read a report “Knowledge of God.” Later, in the article “After the Congress,” he emphasized the ideological line of the meeting: “It is difficult for people to understand that religious life in itself, and especially Christian, Orthodox life, can be a value that infinitely exceeds all other values ​​of state and public life.” Thus, the congress affirmed the intrinsic value of spiritual and religious life, its freedom and non-conditionality by the factors of worldly existence. The seminars dealt with issues of asceticism, the Gospel, liturgics and literature. Here is an excerpt from the memoirs of one of the congress participants: “The seminars were very lively, questions were asked, opinions were exchanged... One should not think that the youth gathered in the monastery only prayed and listened to religious reports. We all eagerly attended morning and evening services, were moved by the wonderful monastery choir, and participated in reports, commissions and seminars, which all took place in the meadow outside the monastery fence. But we still had a lot of free time. With a religious procession we honored the mass graves of Russian soldiers, visited the chapel near the old oak tree, where the Mother of God appeared and where we later found the icon of Her Dormition, and looked at the icons being renewed. They picked blueberries and wild strawberries in the nearby forest, brought cornflowers to decorate the church, swam in the historical Lake Peipsi, took turns in the kitchen, swung on a swing, climbed a tower from where six hills of Russia were visible, and most importantly, got to know each other, discussed reports and their lives in Latvia, Estonia, Finland, talked about work in parishes, about what they had read books - in a word, they had conversations on various topics” 36. In addition to his enormous literary work, participation in student circles and congresses of the RSHD throughout Europe, Father Sergius was the rector of the Vvedensky Church in Paris. This is the history of the church. With the development of the student movement, the question of the need for our own church became acute. At this time, the RSHD occupied several rooms and a fairly large hall for meetings and classes in a mansion located at number 10 on Montparnasse Boulevard. The premises for the church were found in the courtyard outbuilding, which served as a book storage. Through the efforts of members of the Movement, the premises were brought into proper shape, and on December 3, 1928, on the eve of the Feast of the Entry into the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the consecration of the church was carried out. The next day, December 4, the liturgy was served. The Day of Entry into the Church became not only the patronal holiday of the RSHD church, but also the holiday of the entire Movement. From that time on, services in the church began to be performed daily. What the Church of the Sergius Metochion in Paris represented for students of the Theological Institute - a place of prayer and a school of statutory church singing and reading for future shepherds of the Orthodox Church - the Church of the Entry was supposed to represent for members of the Movement, future active laity. In the person of the church psalmist and regent of the choir formed from members of the Movement, teacher of the Theological Institute F. G. Spassky, the Movement found a great expert in statutory singing, who did not make concessions to the so-called “beauty” and thereby instilled the correct church taste in all lovers of church singing who passed through the choir he directed. The interior decoration of the church (icons, banners, lamps), utensils, church books, vestments of the clergy were the fruit of the sacrificial efforts of members of the Movement scattered across different countries. All departments of the Movement, with one donation or another, contributed to the creation and decoration of the church, in which prayer was offered daily for the suffering Russian Church and for the Russian people, with the names of the members of the Movement being commemorated. Before quoting from the memoirs of psalmist Theodosius Spassky, I want to say a few words about Father Dimitri Klepinin 37, since this person is mentioned in the text. Seminarist Dimitry Klepinin met Fr. Sergius in 1931 and was so fascinated by him that he asked Chetverikov to be his spiritual father. Klepinin’s life is a special page in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church in France. Since the beginning of the war, he actively participated in the work of the Orthodox Cause association. During the German occupation of Paris, Father Dimitri served Russian patients, provided assistance to Jews, and issued them baptismal certificates. In 1943, Klepinin was arrested by the Gestapo and placed in a concentration camp, where a year later he died of exhaustion. Theodosius Spassky recalled the service in the church of Father Sergius: “...I don’t know if you noticed that when there were two Fr. Sergius, then our Fr. Sergius was called simply by his name, and no less than our name. Was S. Bulgakov also given his last name for precise definition? This was an unconscious recognition of Fr. Sergius in the world; O. Dimitry Klepinin, by the way, called Fr. Sergius "elder". ...Father Dimitri, like A.V. Morozov, could hardly bear it when the young altar boys, whom Fr. Sergius loved and bred extremely, they smile and wink. “If you put at least two gramophones for Father Sergius, he won’t notice,” said Fr. Dimitri. Indeed, Fr. Sergius himself did not notice and taught me not to notice during the service any extraneous circumstances or noises that broke into the silence of the service. In Montparnasse there was a ball court in front of the church. Sometimes the kids got inspired and banged hard on the door, but Fr. Sergius did not notice this. So he did not notice any smoke from the stove, nor frost, nor heat, nor any of the everyday inconveniences. For example, at one time there were mice in the church - white, gray and one noticed by Fr. Sergius, lame. The mice squeaked, fussed, and ran around the iconostasis during the service, but this in no way distracted Fr. Sergius from the service. He even rose to their defense when one pious parishioner, outraged by such indecency, was going to bring arsenic. “Don’t you know the expression: poor as a church mouse?” – asked Fr. Sergius. True, there was a danger that the mice would get to the Holy Gifts. And so it happened: the lame woman found her way to the altar. I once heard tapping in the altar at the beginning of the liturgy, repeated quite regularly. It turned out that Fr. Sergius left the throne to scare away the mouse by tapping his knife. I replaced him in this and from then on took over guard duty so that Fr. Sergius didn't think about it. Father Sergius rarely preached. Not understanding his attitude towards worship a little, A.V. Morozov and I often asked him to say a word. How difficult it was to motivate him to do this! He, as if not understanding us, always sent a fellow minister to preach. But, if he himself decided to speak (and he always spoke in one position, holding one hand in the other on his belt), it was for me a holiday of the triumph of Orthodoxy. I will never forget his words at his mother’s funeral service here... ...Father Sergius was somehow naively afraid of a repetition of the same thing. Every Good Friday he invariably asked whether Alyosha would turn over the vase of flowers by the shroud; before Easter, he was interested in whether the traditional egg was hung high enough under the lamp in front of the Royal Doors - one of the employees once touched it... When, through the efforts of Alexandra Sergeevna, our church was decorated, Fr. Sergius beamed and rejoiced, like a child rejoices at a new thing. At a conference in England, the only one that Fr. Sergius, he, not speaking English, walked and talked with Fr. for a very long time. Reeys, who somehow understood only French. Dima Klepinin and I came up to ask Fr. Sergius, how they talk. Father Sergius said: “He is a very good person,” and Fr. Reeys immediately kissed Fr.'s hand. Sergius. This is the Fr. Reeys, who alone, without government or trade unions, stopped the strike of dock workers in England...” 38. In Montparnasse, the Vvedensky Church existed for about eight years. At the beginning of October 1936, in connection with the movement of the Movement to new premises, the church was moved to house 91 on Olivier de Serre Street, in which the Movement resumed its activities in December 1935. A significant part of the lower floor was allocated for the church premises. Compared to the previous one, the new premises occupied a larger area and provided the possibility of expansion due to the adjacent hall intended for meetings. In 1929, their son Feodosius Chetverikov married in Bratislava. He chose Vera Nikolaevna Orsag’s sister Valentina as his wife. All the Chetverikovs came to the wedding. His letter to L.A. Zander dated October 21, 1929 sheds light on the details of Archpriest Sergius Chetverikov’s life in Paris: “Dear Lev Alexandrovich! I received your postcard and I hasten to answer you. I plan to arrive in Paris tomorrow evening, and on Wednesday morning we could talk to you if you could come to my apartment at about 10 o'clock in the morning. My address is 4 Rue Cels Paris XIII. 1st floor. It's not far from 10. In-a Monparnasse, 125. You need to go along av. Du Maine a few blocks, passing Mtro Maine and then under the railway bridge. When you pass the Cinema on the left side of the avenue, turn left, and immediately turn right - Rue Cels. From Monparnasse you can take tram 28, which stops at the corner of our street. Our house is on the left side of the street in the courtyard. If the outside gate is locked, call the 1st floor. If it's open, go left to the corner. The front door is unlikely to be locked. Go up to the 1st floor and knock on the 1st door on the left. This same day after 12 I will leave somewhere: maybe to Versailles. I won’t come to M-sse, because that would mean staying the whole day. Regarding the Commonwealth, I wanted to talk to you about two or three immediate issues: the admission of new members to the Commonwealth and the procedure for opening the Commonwealth. I received a letter from Riga from seminarian Kostya Mikhailov, a member of the seminary circle in the name of St. Apostle John the Theologian. He informs me that four of his comrades and himself wish to be members of the Commonwealth. Fr. has already told me about them before. John Janson recommended them. If these seminarians are already members of the Movement, then, of course, there is no obstacle for them to become members of the Commonwealth, especially since the program of their circle is suitable for the task of the Commonwealth. If they are not members of the Movement, then they cannot become members of the Commonwealth without first or simultaneously joining the Movement, because the Commonwealth cannot exist outside the Movement - it is an auxiliary body of the Movement. And now the question arises about accepting them into the Riga Movement. I wrote about. John, asking him to talk about this with you and Nik[olai] Pet[rovich]. I also wrote to Nik[olai] Petr[ovich], and I am writing to you - can they be accepted into the Movement if they have not yet entered it? This difficulty will arise in other cases when non-members of the Movement wish to join the Commonwealth. Would it be possible to allow the Commonwealth to accept new members so that they would automatically become members of the Movement? But is it convenient? Then a new path to joining the Movement will be established, in addition to that established by the last congress. This is the first question. The second question is about the procedure for admitting new members of the Commonwealth. I strive to establish such an order everywhere - the local Commonwealth decides to accept new members. But it turns to me for my blessing for this. Blessing the reception of a new member, I at the same time consecrate for him the icon of the Pochaev Mother of God. Then the local Commonwealth invites the recipient to prepare with prayer, confession and communion of the Holy Sacraments. And when he has done this, then in the meeting of the Commonwealth or in the church, after prayer, the applicant is given an icon (if possible, by a priest), and he becomes a member. I am notified of this and I communicate the name of the new member to all departments of the Fellowship for prayers for him. 3rd question - how does the local Commonwealth begin its life? Here in Paris, I proposed the following order: on the evening of November 1st we all gather for a preliminary meeting on the opening and work of the Commonwealth. I will prepare a short introductory talk for this meeting: The Commonwealth Path. After this, we will fast on November 4th (the feast of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God on Monday). After communion we gather in one of the rooms of Montparnasse for tea. This will not be a business meeting, but simply a friendly and fraternal one. Then I plan to meet no more than 2 times a month in the future. In my report, The Path of the Commonwealth, a number of practical tasks will be outlined, which will then become the subject of further development. This image of the opening of the local Commonwealth - I would suggest staying in other places. ...All this is the topic of our conversation on Wednesday morning. At least from my side. And then goodbye, God bless you and V[alentina] A[lexandrovna]! Archpriest S[ergiy] Chetverikov, who loves you” 39 . And one more letter, or rather, an excerpt from it. V. Rushanov, a student at the St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris, writes to Archbishop John (May 26, 1929): “...In Paris, the Movement created a church, they say that after a long struggle they managed to organize this parish. They appointed Fr., who was amazing in his purity of life. S[ergiy] Chetverikov, who is trying his best to smooth out these unevenness, but what will happen is unknown. They don’t particularly respond to his call to come to prayer. Father Sergiy Chetverikov will go to a conference in Estonia; This is a priest of a holy life, and it’s very difficult for him here, because with his pastoral instinct he catches these inaccuracies and tries to help...” 40. In 1930, the daughters of Father Sergius, Alexandra and Olga, arrived in Paris. Both of them helped their parents in services in Montparnasse. Together with him they participated in student Christian camps and conventions. Sergius Chetverikov was especially close to Alexandra. She, following her father’s example, wrote articles in the “Vestnik RSHD”. In the Movement, she took on the role of a literary educator: she read Gogol, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy to students, and discussed with them the religious views of the classics. What did the RSHD do, what were its forms of life? The RSHD consisted of various Christian circles, mainly biblical ones. There were quite a few such circles. Each of them united on average from 6–8 to 30 people. Circles arose both inside and outside the Movement, and then joined it. Their focus was very diverse: the study of the Bible, patrolology, church history, liturgics and other church disciplines, as well as philosophy and fiction. Meetings took place, as a rule, weekly and usually took the form of a conversation or a report with discussion. Sometimes they were devoted to a particular topic: “On the Resurrection of Christ”, “On Sin”, “The Collapse of Ideology”, etc. Courses were organized for circle leaders, meetings, conversations and lectures were held. Lectures were given by professors A. V. Kartashev, N. A. Berdyaev, L. A. Zander, Bishop Veniamin (Fedchenkov), S. S. Bezobrazov, B. P. Vysheslavtsev and others. The activities of the circles brought good results. In particular, in Belgrade, on the initiative of N. M. Zernov, the circle of St. Seraphim of Sarov was founded, in which Archimandrite Cyprian (Kern), Father Nikolai Afanasyev, Bishop Kassian (Bezobrazov), Father Dimitri Klepinin, and Mother Blandina (Obolenskaya), who later became major church leaders, participated. Members of the circle enthusiastically discussed church and political problems, issues of art, and diligently collected funds for the construction of a church in Belgrade. The circle subsequently transformed into the Brotherhood named after St. Seraphim of Sarov 41. The activities of the RSHD were very diverse: sports and educational organizations for children, summer camps, a lot was done to help those in need: free canteens, hostels for the poor and unemployed, a system of medical services. A huge contribution to the charitable activities of the RSHD was made by Mother Maria (Skobtsova), who was the local secretary of the Movement in the provinces of France. Later she wrote: “We have to act in our life together - visiting the sick, feeding the unemployed, teaching children, communicating with all types of human grief and human downfall, dealing with drunkards, with criminals, with the crazy, with the despondent, with the unbelievers, with the despondent - with all the spiritual leprosy of our lives...” 42 . It is necessary to say a few words about the activities of the philosophers N.A. Berdyaev and Fr. Sergius Bulgakov. In the early 30s of the 20th century, Berdyaev wrote an article “On the ideological crisis of the Movement,” in which he said: “The movement cannot only be a movement towards the Orthodox Church, the Movement must be a movement from the Orthodox Church, as a source of spiritual nutrition and strength, to all the painful questions posed by life. The movement can only be a revelation of the diverse life content of Orthodoxy” 43. He warns against mixing Orthodox piety with the sports education of youth and the unconscious participation of the Movement in politics: “Under the slogan of apolitism, a very definite right-wing nationalist or fascist policy is being pursued, as if its connection with Orthodoxy goes without saying” 44. Russian youth in exile in the early 30s began to experience decadent moods and a sense of hopelessness. She longed for activity, and the phrase “churching life” began to lose its meaning for her. N.A. Berdyaev clarifies it in this article: “The ecclesiasticalization of life, as the goal of the Movement, has remained a lifeless formula, it is not expressed in anything. Going to church on Sundays and holidays does not yet constitute churching of life. The struggle for the value and dignity of the human person, which is now ridiculed and threatened on all sides, the struggle for freedom of spirit and spirituality of life is a Christian task and a Christian slogan" 45 . As an answer to Berdyaev, although this was written by Chetverikov a year and a half earlier, one can consider the appeal of Father Sergius, where he calls on student circles to take a vow of prayer and form a Commonwealth. In fact, Fr. Sergius was looking for ways to revive the RSHD, remaining on a traditionalist platform, and although this ran counter to the views of N.A. Berdyaev, it had some support among supporters of conservative views. He wrote: “I hear from many members of the Movement that they often feel very lonely and do not receive the necessary moral and religious support from other members of the Movement, from other circles, from the entire Movement in general and from the center of the Movement in particular. They do not see in the Movement a living sense of unity that would animate and encourage them. Short animated moments of general Congresses are followed by long periods of spiritual weakening and loneliness. This makes them lose heart and despair. One feels the need to take upon oneself mandatory rules, some vow that would strengthen the will and regulate spiritual life. One of the most important reasons for this state of affairs is, without a doubt, the absence in our Movement of a connecting element - constant prayer for each other. If every member of the Movement knew that in the center of the Movement there is constant prayer both for the entire Movement and for its members, then this would be perceived by the members of the Movement as enormous and joyful support” 46 . Father Sergius conducted an active debate with Father Sergius Bulgakov on topics of sophiology. In these disputes, Chetverikov was supported by Father Georgy Florovsky. Some students sided with Bulgakov, which greatly upset Sergius Chetverikov. The peak of these ideological differences occurred in 1936–1938. In 1935, from June 1 to 4 in France, in the town of Boissy, near Paris, an expanded congress of the Movement Council was held. Both fathers Sergius took part in the work of the congress, as well as members of the Council - Professor Zenkovsky, Alexandra Chetverikova and many others. In the picture, both priests are sitting next to each other, and their ideological disputes in no way affect other members of the RSHD. Beginning in 1935, Father Sergius Chetverikov often left Paris to participate in various RSHD associations in Western and Eastern Europe and the Baltic states. In addition, during these years he began to visit Valaam and traveled to Romania to collect materials for his books. These travels gave members of the Movement a reason to jokingly call Father Sergius “the archpriest of all Europe.” During Father Sergius’s trips to the church, he was replaced by priests - first G. Florovsky, then L. Liperovsky and finally D. Klepinin. During his service in the Movement, he wrote the following works: “The Path of Purity” (Paris, 1929), “The Church and Youth” (Paris, 1933), “What is the Jesus Prayer” (Serdobol, 1938), “The Moldavian elder Schema-Archimandrite Paisiy Velichkovsky” (Published by Optina Pustyn, 1938), “Spiritual appearance Father John of Kronstadt and his pastoral covenants" (Paris, 1939), "On internal obstacles on the path to the Gospel" (Paris, 1951) and others. In addition, during Father Sergius’s participation in the RSHD, 28 of his articles on various topics of spiritual education of youth were published in the “Bulletin of the RSHD”. And to the articles we must also add “Holiday letters-sermons”, articles in the magazine “Path”. All this speaks of the significance, depth of his work and his influence in the RSHD. Under the editorship of Archpriest Sergius Chetverikov, several gospel stories for children were compiled in Paris. These brochures were published in 1928 in London, illustrations for the parables were made by the Russian artist Sister Joanna Reitlinger. I think few people know that the ministry of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II is also connected with the activities of Father Sergius Chetverikov. The fact is that Alexey Ridiger, the future Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', was born in 1929 in the family of Estonian students and members of the RSHD Mikhail Alexandrovich and Elena Iosifovna Ridiger. They got married in 1926, and even then Alexei’s father decided to become a priest. This decision was greatly influenced by Archpriest Sergius Chetverikov, who came to RSHD congresses more than once. The Patriarch, in a conversation with a correspondent of the Izvestia newspaper in 2002, recalled: “...My mother, Elena Iosifovna, nee Pisareva, was the daughter of a White Army colonel. He was shot by the Bolsheviks in Teriokki, now Zelenogorsk in the Leningrad region. My parents’ wedding took place in 1926, and at that time my mother already knew about her chosen one’s desire to become a priest... ...Both of them were active participants in the Orthodox church and socio-religious life of Tallinn, and participated in the Russian Student Christian Movement. It was led by the outstanding preacher Archpriest Sergius Chetverikov. It must be said that the activity of the Church in the life of the Russian diaspora was so great in those years that it even exceeded the pre-revolutionary Russian level. Particular attention was paid to youth. Very accurately, recalling that time and his participation in the RSHD, Archbishop of San Francisco John (Shakhovskoy) called that period “the religious spring of the Russian emigration,” its best response “to everything that was happening at that time with the Church in Russia.” And my father was lucky enough to even be a delegate to the fifth congress of the RSHD. Subsequently, after the establishment of Soviet power in the Baltic states, many of his associates were shot and exiled to camps” 47. Summing up the activities of Father Sergius Chetverikov in the Russian Student Christian Movement, it should be noted that the unusually active work of the priest, as well as his humility and hard work, became a model of service to Russia and the Church for people left without a homeland. Largely thanks to Father Sergius, the Movement became the greatest example of conciliarity for the Russian people. Who knows what the fate of the RSHD would have been like if it had not been for Father Sergius; perhaps it would have collapsed in a few years. The RSHD still exists today, although it is small in number. It unites mainly people of Russian origin, but born in France and speaking, as a rule, French (the anniversary colloquium was held in French in 2003). The “Russianness” of the modern Movement is preserved thanks to the vision of Orthodoxy that the “Founding Fathers” professed and preached. Tonsured. Last years of life As already mentioned, in 1935–1938, Father Sergius began to often visit the Valaam Monastery. The monastic life was after Chetverikov’s heart. There, in the quiet of the monastery, far from the bustle of the world, he could calmly work in the spiritual field and literary field. In 1939, having once again gone to Valaam, he was unable to return. These are difficult times. The Soviet Union annexed the Karelian Isthmus and other territories of Finland, many thousands of people found themselves refugees without a roof over their heads, without money, embittered and hungry. Being Russian in Finland at this time has become more difficult than ever. In December 1939, the evacuation of the brethren began from the Valaam Monastery. In February 1940, the bombing of Valaam by Soviet aircraft became more frequent. On February 2 and 4 alone, 70 Soviet aircraft took part in the raid on the island. The monastery urgently prepared a large convoy. Everything that could be saved from destruction: shrines, icons, a library, an archive, part of the bells (the Finnish army helped to remove the heaviest bells in advance by providing military trucks) was loaded onto a sleigh, and on the night of February 6, 1940, the convoy moved across the ice of Ladoga to the mainland, towards Landenpohja. Many kilometers on hummocky ice, in impenetrable darkness, severe frost. By dawn, having lost 12 people frozen to death, 193 monks went to the shore. Father Sergiy Chetverikov was with them. In the Finnish village of Kannokoski, the monks were housed in five schools - in classrooms with rough-hewn bunks. In one they built a church, where services were held in front of the throne taken from Valaam. The exiles hoped that the war would end and they could return to their homes. But the dreams did not come true. In 1941, part of the monks, led by Abbot Mauritius, returned to Valaam and found the monastery devastated. Soon Abbot Mauritius died and was buried at the altar of St. Nicholas Cathedral. The last monk left Valaam on August 19, 1941. In the spring of 1940, President Kallio invited the monks to buy the Pappiniemi manor in Hainavesi. This is how the life of New Valaam began, while the “Old” was given over to desecration, ending up on the territory of the USSR. There, in 1950, a camp for disabled veterans of the Great Patriotic War was established. Father Sergius Chetverikov, in order not to burden his brethren, moved to Helsingfors. Here, by that time (in 1938), a new building of the Russian Orthodox Church was consecrated on the site of the former St. Nicholas parish. Before the war, the parish was led by Archpriest Nikolai Shchukin, one of the former Russian officials of the military department, the psalm-reader was E.V. Grebner. Father Nikolai was lucky enough to serve in the new, specially built church building for about two years. In December 1940 he died. The parish was temporarily headed by priests Sergiy Chetverikov and Viktor Krokhin. They were assisted in conducting services by deacons Arseny Konev, one of the monastics, and Grigory Sandin, a future priest. In 1941, Father Sergius finally managed to get to Bratislava, where his son Theodosius then lived. Feodosius, as before, as 16 years ago, worked as the head of a water supply station and lived in a house next to the waterworks. This house has survived to this day, as has the “water house”. True, it is not the station employees who live there, but other people. Father Sergius settled in a separate room with windows onto the garden. Here in the apartment lived Feodosius himself and his wife, their children Elena and Alexey and the evangelical Annushka, who had been friends with Father Sergius for many years and was a nanny for Theodosius’ children. Father Sergius lived in this house until his death, until 1947. He almost never went anywhere. The only time he left home was in the summer of 1942 to visit the monastery of St. Job in the village of Ladomirova (Vladimirova) in the Carpathians. There he was tonsured into the great schema and became a schema monk. Subsequently, Theodosius’s house became a monastery for him, and the room became a cell. However, his life was not reclusive. Granddaughter Elena Lipska recalls that grandfather was always dressed in a black cassock and loved to take long walks in the garden where cherries, nuts, apple trees, plums, apricots, and peaches grew. Children were not allowed to enter his room, where there were many books, many of which were handwritten, without permission. Often he read children's books with religious content to his grandchildren, who could still only look at pictures. When Lena went to school, she was allowed to take the exam on the Law of God at her grandfather’s home. In general, the religious education of Theodosius’s children was somewhat unusual. At school, the Law of God was taught to them by a Catholic priest, at home they took an exam in Orthodoxy, and on Sundays they went to an evangelical church with their nanny Annushka. As a result, they became atheists. Various people often came to Father Sergius - some for confession, some for advice, some for a blessing. The neighbors invariably called the archpriest “father” and treated him with great respect. And this despite the fact that behind the wall, as Elena recalls, lived the Germans with two boys from the Hitler Youth, on top there was a Slovak family who all the time wrote denunciations against Theodosius: during the war that he was “red”, after the war that he was “white”. Further, next to the Slovaks, there lived a Hungarian family and another mixed family. On the ground floor, at the other end of the house, Slovaks also lived. Thus, all six families, despite their differences in political views, somehow managed to live together. What probably united them was that the heads of the families worked at the water supply station and were practically the only breadwinners in the families. During the war, Slovakia was not occupied by the Germans. Only in 1944, after the uprising of the Slovak army, were SS divisions introduced. From that moment on, the partisan movement in Slovakia, which was led by military specialists from the Soviet Union, had gained strength and called Theodosius into its ranks. He was in the partisan detachment of Zorich (Alexander Panteleimonovich Svyatogorov) and, working at the waterworks, collected information of a strategic nature. In 1941–1945, the Bratislava parish was headed by Father Mikhail Dykiy. He knew Father Sergius well and often visited him. In 1945, Soviet troops entered Bratislava, and many Russian emigrants, fearing persecution, fled to Allied territory. This happened largely thanks to the warning sermons of Father Mikhail, who thereby saved more than one family. Father Mikhail himself also emigrated to the West. He later served in Argentina. Many of those who remained were arrested and disappeared. The Chetverikov family also remained in their own house. Neither the Germans nor the Russians touched Father Sergius. Among Father Sergius's friends in Bratislava were Nikolai Leonidovich Lupandin, Nikolai Pavlovich Khiryakov, and numerous parishioners of the Russian church. Chetverikov was very closely connected in Slovakia with the Job-Pochaev Brotherhood, the most serious and tenacious of all Russian religious organizations that arose after 1917. The monastery of St. Job was known primarily for its energetic and large-scale activities in the production of religious literature. In a certain sense, it was the center of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, almost the only place in Europe from where the Orthodox printed word was spread to all parishes of the Russian diaspora. This monastery in the form of a printing monastic brotherhood was founded in March 1923 in the Slovak-Rusyn village of Ladomirova by the famous church figure Archimandrite (later Archbishop) Vitaly (in the world Vasily Ivanovich Maksimenko). In addition to book printing, the monastery was known for painting icons in the Old Russian style, as well as for making iconostases and crucifixes. When units of the Soviet army approached Slovakia, the monastery of St. Job was evacuated to the west, and its inhabitants actually created the two main monasteries of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad that still exist - St. Job of Pochaev in Munich (Germany) and the Most Holy Trinity in Jordanville (USA). At the beginning of 1947, Father Sergius received an invitation from the Patriarch and the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church to come to the USSR to teach at the Moscow Theological Academy. The archpriest refused, citing age. In fact, according to E. Lipskaya, Father Sergius in recent years simply “refused to live” and went into internal seclusion. He slowly melted away, not particularly delving into worldly affairs, and ate almost nothing. In November 1944, he had already written a spiritual will, according to which his entire archive was obliged to be handed over to his daughter Alexandra. Father Sergius Chetverikov died on April 29, 1947. Father Sergius was dressed in monastic robes, the funeral service took place in the chapel at the Slavichye Udolie (Nightingale Valley) cemetery. The cross, ordered during his lifetime by Father Sergius himself, is still located at his grave. In 1970, Alexandra’s daughter, who came from the United States, installed a black marble slab with the inscription: “Hieroschemamonk Sergius.” About descendants. Alexandra never married. Professor V.V. Zenkovsky dedicated one of his books, “The History of Russian Philosophy,” published in 1948, to Alexandra: “I dedicate my book to my friend and collaborator Alexandra Sergeevna Chetverikova.” After leaving Fr. Sergius Chetverikova from Paris Zenkovsky was the spiritual leader of the Movement and took an active part in the life of the church. He died in 1962 in Paris. Alexandra moved to the USA. She received her master's degree from Indiana University. At the same university she taught Russian language and literature for ten years. She taught at St. Vladimir's Theological Seminary for three years. She was a member of the Russian Academic Group in the USA. She died on March 16, 1989 in Valley Cottage, New York, USA (probably on Tolstoy Farm). Olga, while still in Paris, married a student at the St. Sergius Theological Institute, Sergei Verkhovsky. From 1944 to 1951, my husband taught dogmatic and moral theology and the history of philosophy at the institute. In Paris, the Verkhovsky couple had three daughters - Maria, Olga and Vera. In 1952, the family moved to the United States, where Sergei Sergeevich taught at the same theological seminary as Alexandra. Olga died in New York in May 1978; her husband survived her by eight years. One of the Verkhovsky daughters, Olga Sergeevna, having married the historian John Barrett Dunlop, converted her entire family to Orthodoxy; her husband studies Russian history, and her son is an Orthodox priest in Alaska. Son Sergei, according to Elena Lipskaya, in 1944–1945, succumbing to Soviet propaganda, returned to the Soviet Union and disappeared without a trace. Son Feodosius moved to the USSR with his entire family (wife and two children) in 1955. In Sverdlovsk he worked at a construction site as an engineer. Died in 1962. His son Alexey managed to graduate from college in Bratislava before leaving; in Nizhny Tagil he worked at the research institute for the development of ion exchange resins. Now he lives with his family in Yekaterinburg. Daughter Elena returned to Bratislava and lives there now. Archpriest Sergius Chetverikov left a bright mark on the history of Russian Orthodoxy. His literary works are still being republished, and some are still awaiting publication. Modern researchers called him “the martyr of the table.” His life's feat for the benefit of Russia is unparalleled both in the greatness of the deeds accomplished and in the degree of altruism. You can talk a lot about the wonderful human qualities of Father Sergius, quote from his theological studies, but, it seems to me, it’s enough to look at the photograph to understand: before us is a historical figure. Selected sermons delivered at the Poltava Cadet Corps. 1907–1913 On October 20, 1907, after the liturgy, a memorial service was served for the deceased Emperor Alexander III and on the occasion of Demetrius Saturday. Before the funeral service, the teacher of the law said word 48: It is not in vain that the Orthodox Church has gathered us, children, at this moment for joint prayer for the dead. By doing this, she makes us remember and experience three very important truths of Christianity. The first truth is that with the destruction of our mortal body, this temporary shell of ours, our existence does not actually cease, but only passes into new, hitherto unknown to us, forms. The Church does not know death. For her, our physical death is the birth of immortality. According to the word of the Savior, our God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. What a great and joyful truth for our hearts! Many of us have had to lose close relatives or friends... This loss would be extremely sad and terrible for us if our faith did not tell us about our immortality, if a person were like that bubble that jumps up on the water and bursts at the moment a raindrop falls... But no! This is not fate! Our God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living! And our death here is not the destruction of our being, but only a transition to a new world, to that world where, according to the assurance of the Church, there is no illness, no sorrow, no sighing, but endless life! However, we are not only immortal... By calling us to prayer, the Church testifies that there is communion between us and those who have gone before us into eternity. The dead feel our memory of them, our love for them - and this gives them great joy. On the other hand, there are cases when they also show us, living on earth, their participation in certain difficult and important moments of our lives. Thus, our dead are not only alive, but are also in undoubted communication with us. Finally, our Church reminds us of the third truth today. She comfortingly teaches us that our prayers for the dead do not remain fruitless. The Lord listens to them. He appreciates our love for the dead, our care for them, and for this reason he not only sends them relief, but also changes their eternal fate... And so, let us be diligent in prayer for the dead. Let us remember that our sincere, heartfelt prayer for them will reach the throne of God and bring them comfort and relief from their lot. It is especially appropriate for us now to pray for those who, out of love for their earthly Fatherland, out of loyalty to their duty, laid down their lives in battle, and also to pray for the One who, as the Tsar and Father of the Fatherland, undertook great labors for his people... Let us believe that our prayer for them will not be fruitless, and let us pray for them with all our zeal. Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1907 to October 1, 1908. Fifth year. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Pansky row. 1908. pp. 23–24. November 13, 1907, on the occasion of the 1500th anniversary of the death of St. John Chrysostom, the liturgy was served, and after it a prayer service. Before the prayer service, the teacher of the law said the following word: The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. And there are other sheep that are not of this fold: you too must be brought, and they will hear my voice: and there will be one flock and one shepherd. Today, the Orthodox Church everywhere celebrates the memory of its father and teacher, like the saints John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the occasion of the 1500th anniversary of his death. This celebration has special meaning for us Russians. Saint John Chrysostom is especially close to us. As Archbishop of Constantinople, he took care of enlightening our distant ancestors who lived along the northern coast of the Black Sea with the Christian faith. He died within the borders of our Fatherland. Our ancestors, having adopted Christianity under Saint Vladimir, were brought up on the works of Saint John, which, after the Holy Gospel, the Psalter and the lives of the saints, constituted their favorite home and church reading. With the words of Saint Chrysostom, from childhood we become accustomed to praying at the Divine Liturgy, compiled by him; Since childhood, we have been present at the all-night vigil, from which we received our present form; we participate in religious processions introduced by him; going to bed, we repeat the words of the prayers he composed: “Lord, accept me in repentance”; approaching the greatest Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, we say his prayer: “I believe, Lord, and confess that you are truly the Christ...”. Thus, every step in our religious and moral life is firmly connected for us with the name of Chrysostom. Saint Chrysostom is our daily mentor and inspirer. Let us, however, take a closer look at the features of the spiritual image of this great Saint of God and then we will see even more clearly why not only the Russian Church, but the entire Christian world is now brightly celebrating his 1500-year-old memory! Saint John Chrysostom is a wonderful teacher of truly Christian life, a wonderful shepherd of the Church of Christ! He highly harmoniously combined all the high spiritual traits of a true Christian and shepherd; he possessed deep knowledge and understanding of the Word of God, not in any of its theologically abstract interpretations, but in its practical application; being himself “not of this world,” he devoted his entire life to serving “in this world,” taking upon himself all the infirmities and sorrows of his flock, renewing and comforting them with his prayer, his fiery word, and his selfless love. He was extremely unselfish, modest, unpretentious and strict in his personal life; he distributed all his wealth to those in need; he was completely devoted to God alone and fearlessly denounced untruth and wickedness, no matter how high they were hidden, ready to endure all persecution and actually endured it for the Word of God. He was called the enemy of the rich, but he was not the enemy of the rich, but of their greed, luxury and callousness towards the poor. Having been born into a wealthy family in one of the noisiest and most brilliant cities in the East and having received the best pagan education of that time, Saint John was not satisfied with it. His soul thirsted for a different, higher wisdom, and the seeds of this wisdom, even in his early childhood, were sown in him by his mother, blessed Anfusa. From his mother, he first received the Christian truth about the infinite mercy of God and was inflamed with love for God. In order to strengthen and cultivate this love in himself even more, he renounces all the usual conditions of city life, goes into the desert, takes on the difficult feat of monasticism, by obedience, fasting, vigil and prayer, humbling his soul, subordinating his body to the dictates of the spirit. At the same time, he tirelessly studies the Word of God, saturating his soul with it more and more. After many years of hard work on himself, he returns to Antioch again and devotes himself to serving the church. Despite his brilliant education, deep knowledge of the Holy Scriptures and many years of spiritual exploits, he humbly goes through all the degrees of church service, starting with the degree of reader and only in the fortieth year of his life he is awarded the degree of presbyter. From then on, his pastoral ministry began to flourish. During the 12 years of his presbytery, he sets a high example of continuous, tireless, selfless care for the people entrusted to him by the Lord; he reproaches, and comforts, and instructs them; he lives the same life with them, shares with them both sorrows and joys; he grieves over their failures and is consoled by their correction; he is so close in spirit to them that when Emperor Arcadius decided to elevate him to the archbishopric see of Constantinople, he was forced to take John away from Antioch by deception, in order to avoid popular unrest. Inspired by a fiery love for God, Saint John had an amazing gift of expressing his feelings in fiery, fascinating and simple conversations that penetrated to the depths of the people's soul. And these conversations, despite their one and a half thousand years of antiquity, thanks to the strength and sincerity of the feeling that penetrates them, have not lost their freshness to this day, as if they had only been spoken or written yesterday. Having moved to Constantinople, Saint John here too became the focus of the spiritual life of his flock. The inhabitants of Constantinople very soon found in him and fell in love with an inspired exponent of their best feelings, which he knew how to convey and explain to them [with] such deep sincerity, strength and truth that they, being unable to contain their admiration, expressed it with loud applause. Here too, he often denounced his listeners, but these denunciations did not offend them, for they apparently came from the depths of a loving and grieving heart. But, however, there were also those who could not forgive him for the directness and truth of his pastoral instructions. In his ardent zeal, the Holy Patriarch did not know partiality - with equal force he denounced apostasy from Christ in all his flock, without distinction of their social status; he did not slyly keep silent, under the pretext of not condemning his neighbors, about the vices of the strong - and now the hatred of the empress herself fell upon him. John was condemned to exile and died on the distant outskirts of the empire on September 14, 407, 60 years old. In brief words we have outlined the image of the universal Father and teacher of the church! But even in this weak sketch his Holy soul is visible! May his image be imprinted in our hearts, may he be an everlasting example to us of an ardent sense of faith and love for God and people, a pure and truthful life, strictness towards oneself, fidelity in the performance of duty, unselfishness, self-sacrifice, courage and impartiality! Let's say a little more about the meaning of this holiday. The widespread celebration of the sesquicentennial anniversary of the death of the Saint of God cannot but be considered an extremely significant and joyful event. It testifies to the growth of Christian self-awareness in our society. If we begin to remember and honor the teachers of the faith, this shows that we value the faith itself, that we are no longer ashamed to profess it. And in fact, it is time, long ago, for our society, without shame or fear, to recognize itself as Orthodox, Christian. Western nations are ahead of us. They are not ashamed to be Catholics, to be Protestants, they are not embarrassed, but, on the contrary, they value reading the word of God. Let us also consciously treasure the shrines of faith. The forces of evil do not sleep. Unbelief and blasphemous mockery of the most holy truths of Christianity are spreading across the Russian land in a wide wave; debauchery is spreading from the theater stage, in the press, and in various kinds of images. The spiritual strength of youth is being undermined. Its moral strength and purity are weakening. How to fight this evil? Is it really possible to place all hope on government measures alone? No, we need to shake ourselves up, unite ourselves to fight evil. We ourselves must be inspired by that jealousy, that spirit with which Saint John Chrysostom was once alive and strong, and then no forces of hell will crush the healthy core of our society. So, the meaning of this holiday lies in the fact that it spiritually encourages us all, unites us all in serving the highest covenants and ideals of Christian life. But we want to say something even more! The current celebration is celebrated not only by the Orthodox East, but also by the entire Christian West. The current holiday is a holiday of the entire Christian world, without distinction of religions, united around the name of the universal Teacher and Father of the Church. This day is a joyful moment of worldwide unity of Christians. This is a reflection of the eternal Easter of Christ. That union of churches, for which they pray every day in churches, which they have repeatedly tried to create artificially, according to selfish calculations, has now been realized in one impulse of equally minded hearts. What a bright sight! What a great lesson for the future! Doesn't this day show us the surest path to Christian unity? If all Christian churches more often consciously united with each other in celebrating the memory of their great Saints, then that constant unity of spirit would imperceptibly be created, which would serve as the basis for the restoration of a single, universal church! And this restoration of a single church, this unification of all Christians is extremely necessary, because not just the Orthodox Church, but the entire Christian world is in great danger from unbelief and vice. Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1907 to October 1, 1908. Fifth year. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Pansky row. 1908. pp. 26–30. Word on November 21, 1907 about the educational significance of the church A real holiday makes us, children, think about how we treat and how we should treat the church. Our attitude towards the church of God cannot always be called desirable. It often happens that we are not aware of the importance of the church for our inner, spiritual life, we are reluctant to visit the church, we miss church services and are ready to exchange them, if the opportunity arises, for some kind of most empty entertainment. Being present in the church, we are in it only with our bodies, but our thoughts are in confusion, we do not have warm, heartfelt, focused attention to what is sung and said here. This is our extremely common flaw, children, a sad flaw with which we must fight persistently. How to deal with it? First of all, by clarifying to ourselves what significance the church has for us. If we clearly understand the benefits of visiting church, we ourselves will begin to fight involuntary absent-mindedness or any temptation to evade common fraternal prayer in church. The church, children, is of great importance to us because it elevates us above our ordinary, daily life and activities, above our exclusively worldly, temporary concerns and interests. He introduces us to another world, a world of eternal, unearthly and undying interests, into a world of eternal glory, holiness, goodness and beauty. In church we enter into communication with God Himself, in the Gospel we hear His Word to us, in prayers we express our feelings for Him of love, requests and gratitude. Everything here reminds us of Jesus Christ, His life, teaching and miracles, reminds us of the saints. The Church of God reminds us that in addition to temporary, earthly life, there is eternal and endless life, and teaches us to be guided in our behavior and mood not by fleeting everyday considerations, but by the eternal demands of God’s truth. The church of God shows us the indestructible support of life, the support that consists in coordinating our actions with the will of God. Raising us, apparently, from the earth, the church at the same time connects us more closely with people, teaches us to consider and feel all people as our brothers, to sympathize with their needs, to pray for their salvation. Unnoticed even by us, the church plants the seeds of good, pure feelings and high thoughts in our hearts... Thus, it is for us both the best rest for the soul and the best school for the heart. Let us learn, children, to appreciate this significance of the church. From childhood we will collect pure, holy and good Christian impressions into our souls, and believe that these good impressions will resonate in your life later. When you grow up and when life squeezes you in its often iron grip, then the impressions of prayer and holiness received in childhood will preserve your soul from callousness, rigidity and indifference to the highest ideals of life. In the Gospel read today, Jesus Christ gives preference to sitting at His feet and listening to His words, with which Mary was busy, over Martha’s fussy care for treating her teacher... Let this Gospel lesson consolidate in our minds the high importance of the church for our spiritual life, and also let the Blessed Virgin Mary serve as an example for us, from the age of three to 14 she was constantly brought up under the shadow of the church, finding herself in it deep satisfaction of Your holy soul!.. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1907 to October 1, 1908. Fifth year. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Pansky row. 1908. pp. 30–32. At the Divine Service on December 6, 1907, the teacher of the law said the following word: This day is doubly joyful for us. We celebrate today the namesake of our Most Pious Sovereign Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich and at the same time the 67th anniversary of the service of our dear corps to the Tsar and the Fatherland. On such a significant day, it is natural for us, first of all, to turn to the Lord God with a heartfelt prayer of gratitude for the joy He has given us, and we see that this prayer of gratitude is offered with us by many former students of the corps, who have united with us today into one common friendly family. It is gratifying to see this spiritual unity of different generations. But in addition to expressing feelings of sincere gratitude to God, we, children, today also need to think about what internal qualities we must possess in order to justify the hopes placed on us - by the Motherland, the Sovereign and our families, and in order to usefully serve our Fatherland in the future, while maintaining at the same time the honor of the educational institution that educates us. We will learn these inner qualities from the now-remembered Saint of the Church of Christ the Wonderworker Nicholas, who, in the words of the church song, was the rule of faith, the image of meekness and abstinence as a teacher. And so, the first thing St. Nicholas teaches us is to keep the Orthodox faith holy. You know from his life that from early childhood he kept this Holy faith within himself, loved to visit the church of God, loved to spend time in prayerful solitude, endured persecution and torment for his faith, courageously defended the purity of faith at the first ecumenical council. We especially need this lesson from St. Nicholas in the present time we are experiencing. Heartfelt and strong faith in God, in eternal and unchanging goodness is the foundation of every good and reasonable life, the support of true happiness, and yet we see how many at the present time, sometimes deeply regretting it themselves, are losing under the influence of various unfavorable influences the dear treasure of pure, sincere faith. Others, with some kind of gloating, are trying to radically undermine any possibility of faith, slander our native Orthodox Church, ridicule and reject its rituals and statutes, deny the basic truths of Christianity, such as the incarnation of the Son of God, the future life, eternal torment, etc. These evil moods, unkind thoughts are now in the air, they involuntarily penetrate into the consciousness of young people and involuntarily infect, desecrate it with their poison. At such times, we must be very attentive to ourselves, very strongly value holiness and the necessity of faith, in order to carry this jewel unharmed in the midst of all the temptations and obstacles encountered on our path in life. And you will be able to do this if, from early childhood, you take your Christian duties seriously and sacredly, and do not allow yourself to have a frivolous or mocking attitude towards them, and do not allow others to insult or mock your religious shrines. Another commandment of St. Nicholas is to be meek. Just as his first covenant determines our attitude towards God, so this second covenant determines our attitude towards people. You know what Saint Nicholas was like from this side! Learn from him to be attentive to other people’s grief, to be able to notice this other person’s grief and to be ready to alleviate it as much as possible. The great evil of our life is that we often do not know how and do not want to notice the grief of others. We very often are like that priest or that Levite who walked past the man wounded by robbers without paying any attention to him. And very rarely do we become like the good Samaritan who had mercy on him. Meanwhile, it is precisely this ability to notice someone else’s grief and dwell on it with sympathy that lies the basis of happiness, first of all our personal, and then universal. Try to start small: try to console your crying comrade, do not pass him by indifferently, be able to say a friendly word to the sad one, stop someone’s mocking or rude word, and you will undoubtedly feel great joy in your soul, the joy of good done. So, through small experiences during your school life, accustom yourself to be attentive to the grief of others, find a source of pure joy in alleviating the grief of others, and when you grow up, you will not seek deceptive joy in serving your selfish whims and you will not know the soul-killing boredom that so many suffer from now. Let us turn to the third testament of St. Nicholas. You know that Saint Nicholas was very strict with himself. And you accustom yourself to control yourself, so that, in the words of the apostle, “nothing possesses you,” do not indulge in excesses, learn to curb yourself, subordinate your blind inclinations and unreasonable desires to the requirements of duty, the voice of conscience, the law of good. You know well and from your little experience that there are always two principles fighting in our souls - good and evil. A good feeling tells us, for example, to forgive our offender, and an evil one inspires us to take revenge on him; a good feeling tells us to give up any whim, especially one associated with inconvenience and trouble for others, and an evil feeling inspires us not to pay attention to others, to seek only our own pleasure. In all such cases, one must learn to curb oneself, one must humble oneself, subordinating one’s will to the demands of duty. By accustoming yourself to this from early childhood, you will protect yourself in the future from many and serious temptations! So, children, work on yourself in the spirit of the covenants indicated to you by St. Nicholas, and you will gradually create in yourself the mood with which you will be able to honestly and usefully fulfill your duty to the Tsar, Motherland and Family. May the Lord help you in this work through the prayers of St. Nicholas, whose memory we now commemorate. Amen! Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1907 to October 1, 1908. Fifth year. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Pansky row. 1908. pp. 44–47. On January 13, 1908 (in the first service of the new year), the teacher of the law addressed the cadets with the following words: For the first time in the new year we gathered for prayer, and I would like to express to you, children, my New Year’s wish. Usually, at the beginning of the New Year, they wish each other health, happiness, success and all prosperity. Of course, and I wish you all this with all my heart. But, in addition, I want to add one more wish - I wish you in the new year to work with special diligence and attention on yourself, on your internal religious and moral improvement. I wish you that holy dissatisfaction with yourself will intensify in your soul, that dissatisfaction that prompts you to an ardent desire to get rid of your shortcomings and become better, kinder and pure. I wish that you would see for yourself a holy example of perfection in the Gospel and would educate yourself according to this example, according to the commandment of the Savior: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” I wish that the Gospel and the Evangelical Christian life become for you not something distant, unrelated to your personal life, but the content of your own soul. Just recently we read with you the book “The History of a Child’s Soul,” which you all really liked and from which you could see how necessary religious life and living faith in the existence of God are for our soul, for our happiness. So, let us work in the new year on our religious and moral development, let us lay strong stones in our souls for the future building of our Christian life. Let us be cheerful, let us not be discouraged, although we will see many shortcomings in ourselves. We will gradually free ourselves from these shortcomings if we do not give up on our work. I wish you that this year does not pass without a trace for you. Treasure your time, because it is short. Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1907 to October 1, 1908. Fifth year. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Pansky row. 1908. pp. 48–49. Sermon delivered on February 3, 1908, the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee From this resurrection, the Orthodox Church begins to prepare us, children, for Lent, and begins to little by little imprint in our hearts those feelings with which we must enter the holy week of fasting and repentance. The first of these feelings is a true, humble prayer of repentance, which was sung yesterday at the all-night vigil, “Open the doors of repentance, O Giver of Life...” and an example of which is the prayer of the publican, which we heard in today’s Gospel reading. Yes, children, it would be good for us to learn from this evangelical publican! Notice the vividness and depth of his religious feeling. He enters the church, clearly aware of where he is entering; he feels himself in front of the eyes of the omniscient and omnipresent, holy and righteous Lord, before Whom the depths of the great human heart are open; he clearly sees all the unworthiness, all the uncleanness of his sinful soul; sincere tears flow from his eyes; he longs for one thing - pardon, cleansing from his sinful filth, and from the depths of his heart he exclaims: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” The Pharisee is not like that, it is true, and he feels himself in the eyes of God; but he has no consciousness of his spiritual poverty. His little good deeds, his inner righteousness, fill his soul with a sense of self-satisfaction; he looks with arrogance at other people who do not have this external righteousness, and this publican, a known and notorious sinner, is especially contemptuous in his eyes! But... God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble! The proud Pharisee is rejected by the Lord, but the humble publican is accepted by Him. What lesson does this parable give us children? She teaches us to have, first of all, holy dissatisfaction with our inner spiritual mood. Let us not be complacent, let us never admire ourselves. Only the one who thought about his imperfections, about his shortcomings, who with heartache felt them in his soul, only he embarked on the path of Christian life. And the Pharisee, although he prayed to God and did righteous deeds, but since he did not have in his soul the consciousness of his spiritual impurity, he had not yet begun a truly Christian life. So, let us love holy dissatisfaction with ourselves. This is the first thing. And secondly, we, like the publican, will always feel the presence of God around us, we will enter the church as a place where God is invisibly present, we will enter the church as if we were entering the house of our father, to whom we came to express our love, express our gratitude, and confess our misdeeds. And then we will not be bored in church, just as children are not bored with their own family. Then, on the contrary, visiting the church will become our need and our joy, and we will not exchange this deep and pure joy for anything else. Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1907 to October 1, 1908. Fifth year. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Pansky row. 1908. pp. 49–50. Homily March 1, 1908, after communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ Although you are tired, children, I will detain you for two words, since I cannot leave you at this holy moment without greetings and instruction. I sincerely congratulate you on your acceptance of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Do you know who you are now like? You have become like the apostles who shared His Last Supper with the Lord Jesus Christ. And here the same Lord Jesus Christ is invisibly present, as there, He Himself, by the hand of a priest, gave you His Most Pure Body and His Life-Giving Blood for your closest and most life-giving union with Him. Take care of this holy gift that you have received undefiled. Remember that the sacrament of Holy Communion, like the sacrament of repentance that precedes it, is not a simple custom or a simple rite - no, here a moral turning point actually takes place in your spiritual life, your spiritual renewal and rebirth takes place. Now put up a cross over the past with its sinful falls and begin to walk “in the renewal of your mind,” begin to live in a new way, as you were convicted in confession. The Lord, united with you, will help you with this. The more you remain with Him with your love and fidelity, the more He will not leave you with His divine presence. Be careful not to drive Him away from you with your carelessness, much less with new grave sins. May God's blessing be upon you all. Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1907 to October 1, 1908. Fifth year. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Pansky row. 1908. pp. 50–51. Word spoken on Good Friday, April 11, 1908, after the removal of the Shroud ...After the burial of someone close to them, they like to remember certain words of the deceased, certain expressions of his. And we, like Joseph and Nicodemus, have just transferred the image of the Most Pure Body of the Savior, this St. The Shroud, from the throne to this tomb. And at the same time I involuntarily remember the following words of our Savior: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to Me!” The deep truth of these words is amazing! Millennia have passed since the ascension of Jesus Christ to the cross, during which time many kingdoms collapsed, other kingdoms arose in their place, people’s customs changed, many great discoveries were made, new concepts appeared... And Jesus Christ both attracted and continues to attract and, undoubtedly, will always attract the hearts of people to Himself. Great philosophers, famous scientists, invincible conquerors of the universe have become the property of history alone, their memory is preserved only in textbooks, and the name of Jesus Christ is on everyone’s lips, in everyone’s heart, and now you and I have not stopped gathering in this Holy Church for several days to listen to touching stories and chants about the last days of the life of our Lord. What does this mean? Where is the reason for this wonderful power of the Savior over human souls? Was He really so able to please people’s tastes or adapt to their weaknesses so much that they loved Him for this very reason? No, quite the opposite. He preached a teaching that was completely contrary to human vices, a teaching “not of this world,” just as He Himself was “not of this world”; He promised His followers not joy, but a cross, and argued that whoever does not want to carry his cross after Him cannot be His disciple. And despite His teaching, we, sinners, vain, proud and vain, we, people of “this world,” are drawn to Him as a source of light and warmth. Doesn't this mean that Jesus Christ gives us exactly what constitutes the deepest need of our souls, although we often do not realize this and deny it: that our soul is Christian by nature, that under a thick layer of all impurity it contains within itself those high and pure aspirations, that spark of God that Jesus Christ knows how to touch, inflate and ignite in us? We by nature thirst for what the Savior calls us to, but due to our depravity and weakness we are not able to rise to this heavenly light, to unconditional truth. And so - He extends a helping hand to us and leads us out of our moral filth and vulgarity and introduces us into His holy and pure world, and it is gratifying for us to spend at least a day, at least an hour in this bright and holy world, to breathe the atmosphere of the holiness of our Savior. That is why churches are now so crowded, and not only here, but throughout the entire universe, because everywhere people have the same nature, the same spiritual needs. Those who say that Christianity has outlived its time, that it has become a prejudice, the property of ignorant people, are deeply mistaken. Christianity cannot outlive its time until the nature of people changes, until they cease to love the good, the holy, the beautiful, for in Jesus Christ they find fulfillment, the fullest embodiment of this good, holy and beautiful. Let us be deeply grateful to our Savior for the fact that He, in His face, showed us the lofty truth, goodness and beauty of life, and taught us to love them; Let us reverently kiss His Most Pure Body and pray to Him that He never leaves us, that He always gives life to our souls and that we always remember that He is the way and the truth and the life for us. Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1907 to October 1, 1908. Fifth year. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Pansky row. 1908. pp. 52–53. On August 10, 1908, the Corps celebrated the birthday of the August Chief Chief. Before the start of the prayer service, which immediately followed the liturgy, the teacher of the law said the word “On true religiosity”: Today we celebrate the birthday of our Most August Chief Commander, His Imperial Highness, the Most Blessed Sovereign, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich. I will not tell you in detail about his various fatherly concerns for you, which are well known to you. I will dwell only on one, which, it seems to me, in the eyes of the Grand Duke himself, is a particularly important and urgent concern - namely, the establishment of true and sincere living religiosity in you. What is true religiosity? In relation to religiosity, we can and usually do exist in the following three kinds of relationships. It happens, firstly, that we are called Christians only in name, but in reality we have nothing to do with Christianity and religious life. Religiosity is an empty word for us. Our thoughts, our concerns, our desires are in a completely different area - sometimes in the area of ​​pleasures alone, sometimes in the area of ​​more serious interests and concerns, family, scientific or artistic, etc., but still not in the area of ​​religious feelings. In such a mood, there is undoubtedly a deep flaw in our soul, and we have neither true happiness nor true joy. There is a different kind of attitude towards religiosity when we, outwardly, strictly fulfill the entire ritual side of religion - we go to church, bow to the ground, light candles, observe fasts, but we do all this mechanically, as a custom, without having within us the fire of religious feeling that animates us. Such religiosity is a dead, ritual, external religiosity that does not give the soul true satisfaction. It is not such outwardly religious correctness that our Most August Chief Leader desires for you. There is a different kind of religiosity, true religiosity, which consists in a religious feeling of the heart, when you feel the existence of God in your heart, revere His incomprehensible greatness, bow before Him with love and are ready to fulfill His holy commandments with all your pure, believing and loving heart. This inner religiosity is true. And although it also requires external manifestation - visiting church, kissing holy icons, observing fasts, and so on, all this occupies a subordinate, secondary position with it, and not primary, not the only one. To feel God, to love Him and to revere Him - this is what you are looking for, children, this is what you plant in your hearts! This living feeling will protect you from despondency, save you from moral corruption, teach you to boldly look into the eyes of death itself, for in death you will see only a transition to another, better life, prepared by God for all who love Him. How can we strengthen this living religiosity in ourselves? Of the many ways, I will show you one, also indicated to us by the Grand Duke, - this is the daily reading of the Holy Gospel. Holy words, imperceptibly for us, fall upon the soil of our heart during this reading and give fruits that we did not even expect. Our heart imperceptibly becomes closer to the thoughts and feelings of the Gospel and gradually changes for the better. Sometimes they object - but we know the Gospel, we’ve read it more than once, it’s boring for us to read what we know again. This is completely unfair. It only seems so. Start reading, and boredom will immediately dissipate, and when reading the Gospel becomes your daily habit, you will be bored and difficult to spend the day without this reading. When life-giving rain falls on the earth, the earth does not say: I’ve had enough rain - it greedily absorbs nutritious moisture. For our heart, the Word of God is the same life-giving moisture - it is necessary for it, like rain for the earth. Let us use this means to strengthen our living religious feeling! And now let us pray for the health and well-being of the hero of the present celebration, our Most August Chief, His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1907 to October 1, 1908. Fifth year. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Pansky row. 1908. pp. 62–64. The academic year 1908/1909 began on August 16 with a prayer service, this time arranged especially solemnly. The miraculous icon of the Gorbanevskaya Mother of God was brought, to which everyone present in the church venerated; then the icon was carried into the infirmary. Before the start of the prayer service, the teacher of the law said that true education consists not only in the accumulation of knowledge, but also in mental, moral and religious self-improvement: Our academic work year begins again. With renewed strength from our summer vacation, let’s get back to our regular work cheerfully and joyfully! What is the work ahead of us? We would be very mistaken if we thought that our goal is only to assimilate the information offered to us by the gentlemen teachers. True, this information is necessary - it enriches our mind with knowledge, develops our memory, develops us mentally, but all this will be truly fruitful and useful for us only if we, on our part, apply personal initiative, if we clearly and definitely set ourselves the task of working on our improvement in the coming year. Our improvement is not limited to the enrichment of our mind with knowledge. No matter how extensive this knowledge may be, it in itself is only the material that a person can use for both good and evil, both for himself and for other people. For example, let’s take such a simple thing as a knife - it can be used to make some useful thing out of wood, and it can also injure a person. Likewise, a person can use his knowledge either to benefit people or to bring harm to them. So, knowledge alone is not enough. We must also have something higher and guiding within us that would inspire us with the desire to use our knowledge not for evil, but for good, both for ourselves and for people. This is the highest, this is the main and guiding thing - there is the Christian faith, which clearly shows us what good is and what evil is, and encourages us to use our knowledge for good and not for evil. Therefore, while we take care of acquiring knowledge, we will also take care of our correct moral and religious development; we will, in the light of our faith, understand for ourselves what good is and what evil is, and be strengthened in good and shunned from evil. Good is to believe in God, to feel responsible before Him and to arrange each of your life steps so that it is not contrary to the commandments of God. Evil is not to think about God and not to be afraid of responsibility before Him, but to blindly surrender to one’s desires, without understanding what they are. Remember, however, that we cannot both strengthen ourselves in good and avoid evil without appropriate practice, and this practice should begin with small experiences and then gradually expand. Only through work, only through life’s, practical struggle can we improve. If you have a desire to be lazy and not learn a lesson - overcome this desire, gain victory over yourself in this small matter, and you will take a step forward on the path of your moral development. Or - you wanted to say a bad, evil word - hold back, conquer yourself - and again you took a step forward. So gradually, slowly, persistently, step by step, studying yourself, eradicate evil in yourself and accustom yourself to goodness - and this will be your life’s work, in which the knowledge you acquire will benefit both yourself and others. So, children, here is the work ahead of us this year: 1) acquire knowledge, 2) strengthen in distinguishing good from evil on the basis of faith, and 3) practice goodness, starting with small experiences. But in order to be successful in this work, we must not forget the main condition for success - prayer. We ourselves are too powerless. Let us ask for help, enlightenment of our mind, strengthening of our will from God and from the Mother of God, Whose miraculous Gorbanev image we now see before us, and from our Guardian Angel and from all the saints! By our faith and zeal in prayer, we will undoubtedly receive help from them. Amen! Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1907 to October 1, 1908. Fifth year. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Pansky row. 1908. pp. 64–66. On September 8, 1908, on the day of the Nativity of the Mother of God, at the Divine service, the teacher of the law, Fr. Sergius said a word about the meaning of the holiday: The current great holiday of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary first of all reminds us, children, of another great upcoming holiday - the Nativity of the Lord Jesus Christ, with which it stands in close and direct connection and relates to it like the morning dawn to the rising sun. Therefore, everyone who is joyful at the coming of our Savior into the world cannot help but rejoice at the Nativity of the Mother of God, who appeared, in the words of church prayer, as the Dawn of a mysterious day. The church expresses this mutual connection between the two holidays, this joy on the occasion of the Feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God in the chant that you heard more than once both yesterday and today during Divine services: “Rejoice, blessed Virgin Mary...”. Why rejoice? Because from You has risen the Sun of righteousness, Christ our God, who came to earth to remove the curse of sin from us, restore to us the lost blessing, destroy death and give us eternal life. So, the current holiday reminds us of the coming into the world of Christ, its Savior, and this is its first, joyful meaning for us. But he also tells us something else. He reminds us of the life and moral traits of the One who was born today and who remains for all centuries the unattainable ideal of moral perfection. The Church has preserved little information for us about the life of the Mother of God, but she has preserved as much of it as is necessary in order to know this life and imitate it. In the life of the Mother of God, two features of Her moral character stand out especially clearly - complete devotion to God and immaculate purity of soul. The extent to which the Mother of God was completely devoted to God is evidenced by many events in Her life, and above all, Her introduction into the church. As a three-year-old girl, She already devotes herself to God alone, not knowing other goals, other joys in life; from the age of three to the age of 14, She lives at the church, devoting herself only to prayer and handicrafts, vows to remain a Virgin forever, to belong only to God, and then devotes Her entire life to Her beloved Son, at Whose cross she suffers with Him in her inexpressible maternal sorrow. What a great example for us, children! Let us learn from the Mother of God Her sense of prayer. Let the church of God be a place of joyful rest and tranquility for us too! Let it be for us not a place of boredom, where we don’t want to go, where we want to get out as quickly as possible, but a place of sincere, heartfelt conversation with God, a place of deep spiritual satisfaction and joy! We also said that in the Mother of God we also see an example of immaculate moral purity. It was as if nothing sinful had touched Her, which is why She turned out to be God’s chosen one and was honored to be the Mother of the Son of God, and the Orthodox Church places the purity and integrity of the Mother of God so highly that it places the Mother of God above the cherubim and seraphim. Imitate this purity, children! She is a very precious quality of the soul, but she is so rare! Especially in our time, purity and chastity are somehow especially little valued. True, sometimes impure, dirty thoughts and desires naturally crowd into the soul against a person’s will, but you don’t need to give in to them, you need to drive them away from yourself. But sometimes some see some kind of special bravery, special bravery and bravado in conducting dirty conversations, telling indecent jokes and thereby desecrating the ears and souls of both their own and their comrades. There is no youth in this! This is just disgusting! If it is disgusting to see cynicism and depravity in an adult, then it is even more disgusting to see it in children. Fight this evil, children, in your midst. If you hear anyone talking dirty, stop him, shame him and thus eliminate this disgusting dirt from your life. Especially you, the elders, must protect your younger comrades and newcomers in this regard - after all, there are your own brothers there; It’s scary to infect their souls with dirt and moral impurity, and therefore, with all your indignation, hold back those in whom you see a predilection for cynical conversations. By doing this, you will imitate the Mother of God, like Her, jealous of the purity of our lives. May the Mother of God help you in all this, in your pursuit of moral perfection, and may She protect you with Her Protection from all evil of soul and body! The blessing of the Lord is upon you with that grace and love for mankind always, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen! Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1907 to October 1, 1908. Fifth year. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Pansky row. 1908. pp. 67–69. Sermon on September 30, 1908 to the cadets of three sections of the 1st class before distributing the Gospels of the Corps to them in the church. The Holy Gospel is the most precious book for us. She tells us about God’s endless love for us, about the Son of God, who, out of His mercy, became incarnate and began to live among us, teaching us to know God the Father and His holy will. The Gospel tells us in detail about the life of Jesus Christ, about His deeds, teachings, about His suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. A Christian cannot help but love this book. And the ancient Christians loved it so much that they tried never to part with it, and were ready to endure torture and death itself, just so as not to give the Gospel to the pagans, who took away this sacred book of Christians and burned it. Reading this book produces an amazing change in a person’s soul. It brings a person closer to God, teaches him to love good and hate evil. For some, reading or listening to the Gospel immediately produced a decisive change in the soul, for others it affected gradually. I'll give you an example. There was one great sinner who never thought about God, did not know the Gospel and spent all her time in sinful pleasures. One day she stopped to spend the night in a hotel. In the evening she heard reading behind the wall in the next room. Listening to this reading, she heard the Gospel story about the future end of the world, about the judgment of sinners and righteous people, about the eternal torment of the former, about the eternal bliss of the latter. For the first time in her life, such words reached her ears. She felt scared. The next day she took out the Gospel and began to read it carefully. Then her eyes opened, she realized what a bad life she had led until now, and she, crying bitterly, decided to change. From then on, she became completely different and pleased God so much that the church canonized her. Not everyone experiences change so quickly. But holy words do not disappear without a trace. Reading them, the soul imperceptibly becomes close to them, imperceptibly gets used to loving God and goodness and being ashamed of evil; and when a bad desire arises in her, the commandment of Jesus Christ is immediately remembered, and the bad desire recedes from the soul. This is why, children, we need to constantly read the Holy Gospel. It will imperceptibly be imprinted in our hearts and will begin to guide our lives in a good way, in God’s way. The Native Corps, wanting you to grow up as true Christians, so that the holy image of our Savior and His holy commandments take root in our soul, now blesses you with these holy Gospels. He wants you to get used to being with God from an early age, to reverently listen to and know His word and love Him, and thus, from childhood, to acquire that good mood that you should always have in your subsequent life. And you accept this Holy Gospel with joy and reverence, guard it sacredly, read it every day with attention and, to the best of your ability and understanding, try to act according to the commandments of the Lord!.. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1908 to October 1, 1909. Year six. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Pansky row. 1909. pp. 2–3. Sermon on October 17, 1908 before the prayer service: Exactly twenty years have passed since the event that we remember today happened. On October 17, 1888, the royal train, in which were the Sovereign Emperor Alexander Alexandrovich, the Empress Maria Feodorovna and their August children, traveling at a speed of about miles per hour, near the Borki station, Kursk-Kharkov-Azov railway. d., derailed and fell down an embankment; Most of the carriages turned into chips, many people were wounded and killed, a servant who was standing near the Emperor at the time of the crash was killed, but amid this general destruction and death, the Royal Family miraculously remained unharmed and not even injured. All members of this family, without losing their presence of mind, immediately began to take care of the wounded and bruised, and only when help was provided to all the victims, they boarded the train from the Lozovaya station and returned to Lozovaya, where they listened to a memorial service for those killed during the crash and a prayer of thanks for the salvation of those who remained alive, and then arrived in Kharkov in a roundabout way through Ekaterinoslav, Kremenchug and Poltava, where they visited the wounded who were in hospitals, and, accompanied by enthusiastic and joyful greetings from numerous people, they departed further to Moscow. The miraculous rescue of the Royal Family from obvious, terrible danger caused a particularly strong upsurge of popular feeling in Moscow. People stood in a solid crowd all the way from the Kursk station to the chapel of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, where the Royal Family arrived to pray. Incessant cheers rushed towards and behind them, and many cried with joy, seeing the Royal Family completely unharmed. In the salvation of the Royal Family, the Russian people rightly saw the miracle of God's mercy, and this conviction was firmly established in Russia forever - donations poured in from everywhere for the construction of a church to the Lord at the site of the miraculous salvation, and soon a magnificent church was erected in the name of the Savior Not Made by Hands. And the Holy Synod, in order to constantly preserve this miracle of God’s mercy in the people’s memory, decided to always perform a service of gratitude to the Lord God on the 17th day of October. What does the now remembered event teach us? The Holy Apostle Paul once said: “God is not far from each of us, for in Him we live, and move, and have our being.” But how often do we forget this deeply gratifying truth! By giving ourselves over to our current worries and affairs, we often lose a living sense of God’s closeness; it seems to us that God has forgotten us, that He does not want to reveal himself to us. And then even some kind of doubt creeps into our souls. We are perplexed why God worked miracles in ancient times, appeared to Abraham, Moses, and the prophets, but now we don’t see anything like that? And our soul becomes heavy and sad. We want God to assure us of His existence, of His goodness towards us. We want to feel Him, to see Him with our own eyes. And the word of the Gospel comes true for us: “you will not believe unless you see a miracle”... And so, just as in the midst of hanging, dark clouds, a ray of sun suddenly flashes and brings light and joy into nature and into the human soul, so God at other moments gives us a vivid and clear sense of His almighty power; He shows us His presence, He performs an obvious miracle before our eyes, and the heavy stone of doubt and unbelief falls from our soul, our heart feels the existence of God and rejoices at this feeling. So the wondrous salvation of the Royal Family on October 17, 1888 clearly showed the goodness of God towards us, and the entire Russian people vividly felt it. Let us not be embarrassed when a cold heart overtakes us, when doubt and unbelief weigh on our soul. These painful feelings are untrue, false feelings. Let us remember then that even in our days the Lord shows us His power, that He is not far from each of us, that the event of October 17th is only one of a whole series of similar miraculous events, some of which happened to us ourselves, and then it will become easy, joyful and calm in our souls and a strong confidence will pour into us that not even a hair on our head will fall without the will of God! And now let us thank the Lord for the great mercy He has shown to the Russian people in saving the Royal Family from terrible danger and let us pray to Him that He, both before and in the future, will protect with His almighty power the life and well-being of our Most Pious Sovereign Emperor Nicholas Alexandrovich and His entire August Family! Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1908 to October 1, 1909. Sixth year. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Pansky row. 1909. pp. 4–5. Farewell message on October 26 [1908] to cadets of the 1st class of the 1st department on the occasion of the separate feast of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God: Today, children, for the first time you gathered in church to pray in front of your class image of the Kazan Mother of God. The Icon of the Mother of God, called the Kazan Icon, appeared for the first time in the city of Kazan in 1579, shortly after this Tatar city was conquered by the troops of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible. The Mother of God appeared in a dream to one 9-year-old girl and revealed to her that under the ruins of a house in the ground there was Her icon. They began to dig the ground at the indicated place, and the icon was indeed found. She was transferred to the church, prayers to the Mother of God began to be served in front of her, and a holiday was established in honor of this icon on July 8, the very day when the holy icon was found. More than 30 years have passed since then. A difficult time of troubles has come in Rus'. Moscow, the capital of Russia, fell into the hands of the Poles. The Russian land was devastated by enemies and robbers. Then people's militias began to rise from different cities to defend the Fatherland. Such a militia also came out from Kazan. It took with it the miraculous image of the Kazan Mother of God. Under the leadership of Prince Pozharsky, the people's militia defeated the Poles and liberated Moscow on October 22, 1613. And, attributing their victory to the help of the Mother of God, whose icon was with the army, they decided on October 22, in memory of the liberation of Moscow from the Poles, to celebrate the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich subsequently ordered that this day be made a national holiday. The Kazan Icon of the Mother of God remained for a long time in liberated Moscow, and under Peter the Great, as a family shrine of the Royal Family, it was moved to St. Petersburg. And subsequently it was placed in the Kazan Cathedral, where it is now. So, children, you see that the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God is our great national shrine, for through it the Queen of Heaven provided Her help to our people in the most difficult times of our Russian native history. And now, through this miraculous icon, many miracles do not cease to be performed on people who pray before it with faith and love. Cherish your cool icon, children! Honor her, take care of her, pray before her with zeal, turning with all your soul to the Mother of God and asking Her to be your patroness, protector and assistant in your studies, guardian of the purity of your heart and all your behavior. And the warmer your children's prayer is, the more sincerity and hope you turn to the Mother of God, the more joyful your soul will be, the more help you will receive from the Mother of God. But remember that the Mother of God will only be your patroness when you remember Her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and try to fulfill the commandments of God. It is not difficult to fulfill them. Do not offend each other, help each other, do not say bad words, do not have bad thoughts, work hard, stand attentively in the church, remember God, pray fervently, love your mentors and leaders and be obedient to them, be truthful. If you behave this way, you will fulfill God’s commandments, and the Mother of God will look at you with love as Her dear children, will accept your prayers and will be your helper and patroness all the days of your life. And now pray harder to the Mother of God, so that She herself will teach you and help you to educate and grow into good and honest people, faithful servants of the Tsar and the Fatherland! Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1908 to October 1, 1909. Year six. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Pansky row. 1909. pp. 6–7. On the day of the celebration of the 88th anniversary of the opening of the Poltava Petrovsky Cadet Corps - December 6 [1908] When any person or any institution celebrates the anniversary of his life or activity, it is natural and even necessary for him to look back on this day, at the path of life he has traversed, and to be aware of how he lived, what ideals he was inspired by, what rules he was guided in his life, and to check and evaluate them and their suitability for guiding them in the future. And then the words of the Savior will involuntarily be remembered: “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house on the rock; and the rain fell, and the rivers flooded, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it did not fall, because it was founded on rock. But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand; and the rain fell, and the rivers overflowed, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and he fell, and his fall was great” (Matthew 7:24–27). All of us who lead, teach and educate here are also builders. For 68 years, our predecessors and us have been building here a spiritual building from living bricks - young human souls. This building is being built in memory of the great Builder of the Russian Land, who laid the foundation of the new life of our Fatherland in the fields of Poltava, and is being built according to plans drawn up by the Sovereign Descendants of this great Builder. On what basis did we build and are building this spiritual building, the upbringing and education of those thousands of young men who are here preparing to serve the Tsar and the Motherland? These reasons are known. Throughout the years of the Corps' existence, they were the same. They were predetermined by the Great Peter, who said: “And about Peter, know that life is not dear to him, if only Russia were glorious and prosperous!” They were predetermined by the soldiers, here on the Poltava fields, “who were married in blood for piety.” These foundations of our upbringing and our life lie in simple, unsophisticated, sincere and deep faith in God, in devotion to our native Orthodoxy, in love and loyalty to the Tsar and the Motherland. These are the few and completely clear foundations of our life, our upbringing. And we rejoice that our native corps, during its 68-year existence, has always remained unfailingly faithful to these holy covenants of its founders and proved this by deeds, as evidenced by those black mourning boards that you see here in this holy church, and on which are inscribed the names of the valiant heroes raised by the Corps, who laid down “their souls” for the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland. We are especially glad that in serving these covenants we are all unanimous, everyone, from the director of the Corps to the cadet of the junior section of the fourth company, constitutes one family, unanimously striving for one common goal, imbued with the same mood, the same ideal of duty and honor. So, strong faith in God, loyalty to the Tsar and the Motherland - these are the foundations of our construction, this is the stone on which “our church is founded.” And we believe that, according to the word of the Savior, our building, founded on this stone, will not fall, even if it rains, and the rivers overflow, and the winds blow and rush against this house. Over the past period of time, rains fell around us more than once, rivers overflowed, winds blew and hit our house, but we remained faithful to our covenants and did not shake on our foundation. We hope that with God’s help we will continue to withstand all kinds of bad weather, for the foundations that form the basis of our upbringing and our life are not a random and artificial invention of ours. No, these are the eternal foundations of a reasonable and happy life, foundations that constitute the heritage not only of our native people, but of all humanity, and which find their blessing and their source in the Christian religion itself. May the spiritual light that has illuminated our path always shine upon us, may the holy feelings of childlike strong faith in God, love for the Motherland, and loyalty to its Sovereign Leaders live in our hearts and in the hearts of those generations who will replace us under these arches! With these feelings, with this fire in our chests, we will enter life cheerfully and courageously and will be able to fulfill our duty in it, following the example of our valiant ancestors, teachers and comrades! And now let us offer our earnest prayer for the health and well-being of the Sovereign Leader of our most pious Sovereign Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich, may the Lord preserve Him for the glory and happiness of his native land for many, many years to come! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1908 to October 1, 1909. Year six. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Pansky row. 1909. pp. 7–9. During the funeral service in the Korpus Church for Korpus teacher K.I. Chemezov on December 27 [1908]: Our dear and deeply respected colleague Konstantin Ivanovich! Which of us surrounding your coffin thought that so soon we would accompany you to your final earthly resting place! Even on the eve of your death, you prayed with us in this church, sharing the celebration of the great holiday of the Nativity of Christ, and on the very day of the holiday, when the breath of death was already blowing over you, you rejoiced in the circle of your own family, caressing your beloved granddaughter in your arms. And no one foresaw the fatal blow, no one guessed that God’s ordeal was about to break out over the peaceful family any minute! How can one not remember the words of the Holy Scripture: “Man, like the grass of his days, like the flower of the field, so he will bloom, like the spirit has passed through him, and there will be no more”... or the words of the church hymn: “yesterday I talked with you and suddenly the terrible hour of death has come upon me!” The sudden death of Konstantin Ivanovich struck the hearts of all of us, his colleagues and people close to him with deep and sincere sadness, for it was impossible to know Konstantin Ivanovich and not love him. His meek, gentle and noble soul was felt by everyone from the first acquaintance. There was a lot of deep gentleness and purity in him. In his presence, in conversation with him, one could always feel the amazing warmth and sincerity of his mood. Forgive me, our deceased brother in Christ, that by saying this, I may be disturbing the peace of your humility, but I cannot help but point out what explains everyone’s respect and love for you. Yes, in our corps environment your absence, your softening influence will be greatly felt! Your students, present and former, who have experienced your kindness and who knew that, despite all the fairness of your assessments of their successes and moral qualities, you knew how to sensitively and delicately note the good aspects even in their very shortcomings, will also grieve for you. But if we are all so sad to lose you, then what should your family and especially your wife, who for decades lived the same life with you, the same joys and sorrows, have to worry about?! But let’s keep quiet about this so as not to touch the living wound! However, brothers and sisters, let us not, in the words of the Apostle, “as if we have no hope.” We believe that the good and all-perfect will of God rules in the world. We believe that it is not by chance that a person is born from the darkness of the world chaos, and it is not by chance that he dies, turning into a complete nonentity. A comforting voice clearly reaches us from the heights of heaven: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”... “I am the resurrection and the life, Believe in Me... he will not die forever.” We believe that not even a hair of our head falls without the will of God. And if so, then the death of our Konstantin Ivanovich took place, of course, by the will of the Merciful God. He, obviously, was already ripe for another world, and the Lord called him away from us in order to prepare for him another, better resting place. Therefore, let us say in the words of the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy will be done”! And you, grief-stricken spouse, do not grieve beyond measure, do not say that for you life is over and the light has gone out! Your children need your life. After all, you are now the only one left with them. Let them unite that love, those concerns that they have until now shared between you and the deceased, now on you alone. You will be their consolation in the loss of their beloved father, and find your consolation in them. In a quiet and submissive prayer for the deceased, in the circle of a tenderly loving family, your sadness will be pacified and softened, especially since in them, in your children, the spiritual traits of your spouse are imprinted, and, loving them, you will love him in them, taking care of them, you will fulfill part of his care for them. And over all of you, in the hour of quiet reflection about the deceased, the bright image of the deceased and his life, his life example will always shine - they will always shine for you, encourage and console you on your path in life, they will always be the subject of your just and irreproachable family pride. Go, dear Konstantin Ivanovich, on your journey in peace, for we believe that “a resting place has been prepared for you”! And feeling our sincere, brotherly prayer for you, pray for us all before the throne of God with your loving soul, who so knew and loved to find joy in prayer here on earth! Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1908 to October 1, 1909. Year six. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Pansky row. 1909. pp. 9–11. In memory of Fr. John Ilyich Sergiev (Kronstadt). Said on January 28, 1909 before the funeral service Today marks forty days since the death of the glorious Russian shepherd Father John Ilyich Sergiev (Kronstadt). And we gathered to pray for him. The name of Father John is known to everyone in Russia, and is also known abroad. Where is the reason for his fame? This reason lies not in the external features of his position, not in his talent, not in his eloquence, it lies in the fact that within himself, in his heart, he carried that great treasure that Jesus Christ calls the “Kingdom of God”: “Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.” How often do we think that a person’s strength lies in the external power that he sometimes possesses: money, power, and the like. They say if I were rich, if I were noble, if I were gifted, I would do this and that, I would make everyone happy, I would help the poor. These words contain deep error, and it is not in vain that the Gospel says: “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My sake and for the gospel, but will now in this time, in the midst of persecution, receive a hundred times more houses, and brothers, and sisters, and fathers, and mothers, and children, and lands, and in the age to come eternal life” (Mr. 10:29–30). Father John did not seek either fame or wealth, and they came to him on their own only because he gave himself all, his whole heart, to God. From early childhood he had a heart warmed by strong faith and ardent love for God. Remember an incident from his school years: he entered school, due to the poverty of his psalm-reader father, completely unprepared for classes. His studies were difficult for him, and he fell far behind his comrades. But he did not lose heart, did not give up. In his family of origin, he learned to believe that God gives man strength and ability. And so he began to fervently, with all his heart, ask God for help. And God helped him. His studies went well. And he graduated from the theological seminary course as the first student and was sent to the Academy at public expense. Thus, Father John, even in early childhood, learned through his own experience the power of faith and the effectiveness of prayer. And this experience was imprinted on his soul forever. He was deeply sincere in his faith. He devoted himself entirely to his sense of faith and never doubted that God heard his prayer. There was also another Christian feeling in Father John - this feeling of love for people, especially for all those who suffer and are exhausted, without distinction of tribe or religion. This was the inner appearance of Father John. In our days of decline of faith and lack of love, he was the only amazing creature. And now pay attention to the result. People understood the inner strength of Father John, and he became a great center of attraction for them. All the needy, the grieving, the sick, the sad, reached out to him, seeking his help and consolation. And he helped everyone as best he could and as much as he could. He didn't belong to himself. From two o'clock in the morning to 11 o'clock in the evening every day, he spent all his time either in the church for prayer, or traveling to those who called him to them for consolation. On the way, in the carriage, in the carriage, he read the letters he received and then wrote his answer in pencil on the same letter. People who loved him and believed in him gave him large sums, and he used them entirely for charity. Hundreds of thousands of rubles passed through his hands every year, and he died, leaving only insignificant funds, and lived in such a cramped apartment that when it was necessary to take out the coffin, they had to break down the wall of his apartment. His fame and his charity transcended the boundaries of one religion, one nationality. He became a man of prayer and a benefactor of all mankind: people wrote to him from abroad, asking for his prayers and help, and he never refused anyone. He helped Catholics to build churches, Jews - to build synagogues. His book “My Life in Christ” has been translated into almost all languages ​​of the world, including Japanese. So, Father John of Kronstadt is so great and gained his wide fame that from childhood he understood the truth of the Savior’s words “seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness,” and in his soul he planted and nurtured this kingdom of God, the kingdom of faith, love and prayer. He was for everyone a living example of fiery faith and active, compassionate love, which is so little in life, but without which people cannot live, and therefore they so ardently cling to those who are sincerely and selflessly animated by these holy feelings. Let us also learn from Father John of Kronstadt! Let him take an honorable place in your children’s heart as a great teacher of Christian mood and Christian life. Having loved him sincerely, let us imitate him to the best of our ability and now earnestly pray for the repose of his soul! May this prayer establish forever a strong spiritual connection between us and the great prayer book of the Russian land! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1908 to October 1, 1909. Year six. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Pansky row. 1909. pp. 11–13. Word spoken on March 20, 1909 before the memorial service for N.V. Gogol: All of Russia today honors the memory of the great Russian writer N.V. Gogol on the occasion of the centenary of his birth. And we, joining this honor, first of all gathered here, in this holy church, to pray for his soul. I will not talk about the literary or social significance of N.V. Gogol’s activities: other people will tell you that elsewhere. I want to draw your attention to the significance that the works of N.V. Gogol have for the personal, inner life of each of us, for our personal spiritual growth and improvement, for strengthening in us a sense of love for goodness, truth and beauty, in a word, for our Christian development. Even one of the foreign critics rightly expressed about our Russian fiction that it, like a church bell, reminds us of heaven and calls us to God. And in fact, when you read the best works of Pushkin, Lermontov, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy and our other literary artists, you feel how your inner world expands, grows, and is enriched with bright, high impressions and moods. Everything that is good, reasonable and beautiful becomes clearer and more precious to you. God is getting closer to you. The works of N.V. Gogol have the same significance for our inner life. When you read them, you not only enjoy his wit, not only laugh at funny faces and conversations, but you experience many serious and sublime feelings, you learn to think and feel like a Christian. When Gogol depicts the beauty of nature in front of you, draws a wonderful Ukrainian night, the majestic Dnieper, boundless steppes or an old neglected garden, you involuntarily begin to live one life with nature and feel the breath of a higher, creative power in it, you come to know God. When Gogol introduces you to the circle of human life, with the amazing brightness of his talent he draws before you human characters and feelings - sometimes pure, sublime, bold, tender, touching, sometimes petty, low, rude, cowardly, vulgar - he evokes in your soul a new series of experiences, makes you closer to people, awakens in you sympathy for good and beautiful characters, disgust for the vulgar and base. You are touched by the tender feeling of maternal love for your young sons, which does not find due recognition, you are amazed by the courageous determination to personally sacrifice your beloved son to your homeland, and you are moved to tears by the martyrdom of another son for the homeland. On the other hand, when you get acquainted with Chichikov, Nozdryov, Plyushkin and others, you begin to understand what a person should not be like, what the humiliation of his human dignity consists of. Thus, in both positive and negative ways, Gogol leads your soul to one goal - to imprint in it sublime, truly human, truly Christian feelings and moods. The last years of Gogol's life and his last works seem mysterious and incomprehensible to many. They say that the old Gogol faded away in him during these years, that he betrayed himself and changed for the worse. But it's not fair. Gogol did not betray himself. To understand Gogol's state in these last years of his life, one must generally understand Gogol's soul. This was a soul that from childhood carried within itself a thirst for boundless perfection, from childhood it felt its connection with another world, with the world of eternal life. Gogol was always a deeply religious man, a Christian. His inherent thirst for truth and purity of life made him so sensitive to all human vulgarity and untruth. Mocking this vulgarity, he, in essence, cried over the lack of Christian perfection in life and in people. That is why he called his humor “invisible tears through the laughter visible to the world.” Over the years, Gogol ceased to be satisfied with depicting only the negative aspects of life. From childhood, the need for truth that lived in him inspired him that it was not enough to just push people away from vice and vulgarity by making them look ridiculous; it was necessary to show people positive goodness, bright and beautiful characters, and thus teach them what they should be. All of Gogol's latest works are attempts to reveal this positive goodness to people, either in the form of art or in the form of letters. Gogol felt the immense greatness of the task he had set for himself, and at the same time the weakness of his strength and the lack of living examples in the reality around him. The time had not yet come for the implementation of his task, and only partially, later, it was carried out by Turgenev, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. But Gogol was tormented by his powerlessness, sought support in prayer, asked others to pray for him and, in the end, exhausted by an unbearable internal struggle, constant dissatisfaction with himself, which forced him to burn his written works, died out prematurely. Let us appreciate this great Christian soul with its boundless aspirations to heaven and to God, give it the due tribute of love and gratitude and pray that the Lord in heaven will give it that peace, that inner satisfaction, that enjoyment of eternal beauty, which it so ardently sought and did not find on earth! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1908 to October 1, 1909. Year six. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Pansky row. 1909. pp. 13–16. Speech on April 7, 1909, before the funeral service for 6th class cadet I. Chesnok, who committed suicide A healthy natural human feeling, and even more so a feeling enlightened by the Christian faith, turns away with horror from the grave and dark sin of suicide. It is unnatural for human nature, created by God for life, to violently and arbitrarily interrupt this life. Every other sin, no matter how serious it may be, can either be smoothed over by the opposite good and honest deed, or atoned for, washed with tears of repentance. The sin of suicide cannot be corrected or atoned for. Life is over: there is neither place nor time for repentance and correction. There remains only one hope for the boundless mercy of God! If we delve into the essence of the sin of suicide in more detail, we will see that it is at the same time a sin against God, and against one’s neighbors, and against the person himself. This is a sin against God. The Word of God tells us: you are not your own, you are God's. God gave us life; granted, of course, because it is necessary for us! By living, we fulfill the will of God and obey His law. Anyone who arbitrarily interrupts his life rejects the gift of God, opposes the will of God, does not place the Supreme Judge of his life and death in God, but in himself, at his own discretion, that is, he puts his will above the will of God, he puts himself above God. For him there is no longer a supreme Creator and Judge; he becomes, as it were, his own Creator and Rewarder. Is this not the greatest spiritual blindness? Isn't this a grave sin of unbelief? Doesn’t this alone indicate an abnormal state of human mental life? Is your life hard? I believe! But why don’t you want to entrust yourself to the goodness of God? Why don’t you want to bear your cross, which, of course, was not sent down to you without the will of God? Why are you faint-hearted? Why do you allow despondency and powerlessness to take over your heart? Your cross is heavy! But remember what cross our Lord, Jesus Christ, bore! Are you better than Him, holier than Him, that you should be free from that burden from which even He was not free? The sin of suicide is a sin against one's neighbors. When I say these words, I involuntarily imagine the faces of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and friends of the suicide, struck with horror, despair and grief! Why was this heavy, merciless blow to their very heart dealt to them? Perhaps, when ending his life, the suicide does not think at this time about what he is preparing for his family and friends. Suppressed by his own pain, he is only concerned with one thing, how to free himself from it. But if so, then there is no excuse for him either. There are no excuses for him, because he has become indifferent to others, that he is completely absorbed in his own personality, and cannot and does not want to forget himself for the sake of others. And yet, in this very detachment from himself, in this oblivion of himself for the sake of others, lies for him the path to salvation, the possibility of life; but he, completely absorbed in himself, does not see this outcome. His selfishness blinds him to him. Finally, the suicide also sins against himself. He was given life, given strengths and talents, the purpose of life was indicated, which is to develop and improve these strengths and talents, and he, like a crafty and lazy slave, afraid of life and work, buries his talent in the ground in the literal sense of the word. As a result of all of the above, the Orthodox Church treats the sin of suicide so strictly that it deprives suicides of Christian burial... But, brothers, can we at this moment, at the tomb of this unfortunate young man, limit ourselves to just condemning the grave sin of suicide? Do we not have a desire to penetrate into the internal causes of this terrible incident, to understand the mental state of the suicide? The stories of the deceased's comrades, the observations of his educators and my personal conversations with the deceased show that for a long time there was some kind of dual life in the deceased. On the one hand, he was an affable, kind comrade, to whom all children's and youth's pleasures and activities were not alien, and who was loved for his meekness and cheerfulness. On the other hand, under this outer shell, visible to everyone, nested a hidden, unknown to anyone or few, but persistent, monotonous, sharpening and burdening the soul sadness about one’s supposed unfitness for life, inability to study, about one’s mental and moral emptiness. He sometimes expressed this sadness to his friends, half jokingly, half seriously, saying that sooner or later he would cease his useless and colorless existence, unnecessary to anyone. They consoled him, encouraged him, calmed him down for a while, or, better to say, he himself hid his sadness for a while, and everything seemed fine again. So months and years passed. But the sadness did not go away. Where did it come from, this sadness? It's hard to say. This is the secret of his character, perhaps of his mental illness, perhaps of the conditions of his life and development. But it is not this sadness that is terrible, it is the moral loneliness in which he experienced this sadness that is terrible. And perhaps it was this moral loneliness that brought him to such a terrible outcome. The thought that was sharpening the soul of the deceased, not shared with anyone in its entirety, not told to anyone, took possession of his soul more and more, covered the entire world around him and the people close to him with a black cloud, became a mania and finally destroyed him. Here a warning is given to us all, here the secret of moral life is revealed to us, that every dark thought, every evil feeling, unconfessed, not shared with experienced people, despotically takes possession of our soul and makes us its weak-willed slaves. Therefore, we will always be afraid of our secret thoughts. Let there never be anything in our soul that we cannot reveal to other people. Let us not judge the deceased for his actions! It's not our place to judge him. There is another Judge who said: “Vengeance is Mine, and I will repay!” We’d better think about whether we all share some of the blame for this untimely death? Have we done everything to get closer to this sick soul, to penetrate her secret and help her in her moral struggle? And once we ask ourselves this question, I don’t think that the conscience of each of us remains completely calm. Let this sad incident serve as a life lesson for all of us, let it teach us greater sensitivity and cordiality in mutual relationships, show us the need to be closer to God in our hearts, not to cover up the lives and interests of people close to us with our personal weaknesses, and may nothing like this misfortune ever happen between us! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1908 to October 1, 1909. Sixth year. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Pansky row. 1909. pp. 16–18. Graduation cadets at a prayer service at farewell to the banner on June 28, 1909 Gentlemen, graduating cadets of the Petrovsko-Poltava Corps, my spiritual children! You have had the happiness unprecedented in the annals of the Corps - to graduate from the course at a time when all of Russia is solemnly celebrating the 200th anniversary of the great Poltava victory, to complete the course in front of your beloved Sovereign Emperor! These exceptional circumstances cannot but leave a particularly deep impression for the rest of your life in your young hearts, they cannot but strengthen your desire, which you already feel vividly, as one of you said about a month ago when parting with your teachers and educators, to fulfill your duty to honestly serve the Tsar and the Motherland and thereby justify the hopes placed on you! Let me, at this last minute of your parting with your native Corps, remind you of one simple Christian truth, simple, but often forgotten, and yet containing the main condition for human happiness and fruitful social activity. Whatever your future path in life, whether academic career, work at the highest levels of administrative service, modest military work in a provincial backwater, whether you start a family or remain single, everywhere and always - in youth, in adulthood and in old age, remember and take care of your high dignity as a person created in the image and likeness of God, remember that God has entrusted you with an invaluable treasure - the soul yours, which you are obliged to God to keep pure, develop, improve, enrich with good and holy impressions. The earlier you are and the more consciously and persistently you take care of and nurture your soul, the greater the supply of spiritual strength and spiritual beauty you will accumulate within yourself for life, the brighter and happier your old age will be. In our youth we collect spiritual capital, but in old age we only live on the interest from it. Collect this capital carefully, collect it from everywhere, just as a bee collects its honey from different flowers. While maintaining your moral purity, collect spiritual goodness from science, enriching your mind with knowledge, from art, developing and ennobling your aesthetic and moral taste, from communication with living people who have already reached a certain spiritual height, from history. Let the main source for strengthening your spiritual strength and moral purity be religion, or continuous internal prayerful communication with God. Continuously work on yourself. Remember the words: “Be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” The true religious life of every Christian lies, first of all, within him, in his heart. It is there that man senses the existence of God, there he prostrates himself before God in a feeling of tenderness and reverence, there his decisions pleasing to God are formed and from there all his external activities come. Let your heart be a living church of God, let the bright fire of faith and love for God always burn in this church, and then your life will be sanctified, meaningful, and happy! This is my sincere, last parting wish to you! Remember it and make it your life rule! And now come here, receive for blessing from the Corps the icons of the heavenly patrons of our holy church, the Venerable Sampson the Stranger and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker as a sign of your inextricable spiritual union with the Corps, and say goodbye to the Corps Banner, this sacred emblem of the Corps’ good traditions and covenants, under the shadow of which you were brought up and grew for seven years as future good warriors of the Russian land and bearers of covenants those valiant warriors who 200 years ago on the fields of Poltava were crowned for piety with their blood! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1908 to October 1, 1909. Year six. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Pansky row. 1909. pp. 19–20. September 1, 1909 at a prayer service before the start of classes Starting today our new academic year, let us pray earnestly to the source of all wisdom and all good - the Lord God, may He send us His blessing and help for the work ahead of us, may He enlighten our mind and heart to firmly assimilate the useful teachings taught to us, may He inspire us with the desire to work and work conscientiously on our mental, moral and religious prosperity. The work ahead of us is holy and necessary work - let us approach it with love and zeal, and God will bless it with success! Your immediate task will, of course, be to master the training courses offered to you. But your life’s task cannot be exhausted by conscientious preparation of lessons, even at your young age, for you are not only students, but also people created in the image and likeness of God and obligated to take care to preserve this image within yourself pure and unsullied, and to the best of your ability to develop all your spiritual powers and abilities, growing spiritually according to the commandment of Christ: “Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). Here is a skilled sculptor in front of you. He takes a block of marble. This block is shapeless, rough, ugly. The sculptor works diligently and persistently on it, and under his skillful chisel it begins to transform; gradually she turns into a slender and beautiful human figure, animated by life, intelligence and beauty. Like this sculptor, each of us must work on our soul. We have before us a high example of spiritual beauty - our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us work on this, so that Christ may also be portrayed in us! Let the bright image of Christ - His holiness, His meekness, His goodness - captivate our hearts and fill them with a sincere desire to imprint these holy properties in ourselves. None of us consciously wants to be evil, but each of us has many moral shortcomings, and sometimes even indifference to our moral state. Notice your shortcomings and try to improve from them, diligently calling on God's help. Remember that the dignity of a person does not consist in being passively carried away by one’s desires, without discerning whether they are good or bad, but in conquering bad desires, no matter how tempting they may be. In this struggle, help each other and support yourself mutually. “Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). In addition to moral aspirations, our souls contain religious aspirations. Don't neglect them, don't drown them out! Keep a sincere, warm faith in God; pray earnestly, carefully, consciously; trust in God, resort to Him in moments of sorrow! Drive away religious indifference from yourself, conquer doubts with honest reflection and prayer, and most importantly, maintain purity of heart, which saves you from doubts, unbelief and indifference! Remember that life is short and that you have to give an answer to God about it! Let faith be the basis of your life! Do not forget to fervently pray to the Mother of God, look at Her as your common Mother! Pray to your guardian angel, your saint! In addition to moral and religious needs, a person also has other spiritual needs. The need for mental development and enrichment of oneself with knowledge will be satisfied by our educational activities. The aesthetic need can find its satisfaction in serious studies of music, singing, painting, and the study of fiction, both ours and foreign. Do not neglect any aspect of your spiritual being, for all of them are imprinted with the image and likeness of God! Work on the harmonious development of all your spiritual powers, educating and cultivating a person in yourself in the best and broadest sense of the word. And let every new year be a new step, a new step forward in your comprehensive spiritual improvement! Let us pray earnestly to the Lord God, that all these good wishes and intentions of ours may be fulfilled, and may it be The Lord is our constant Helper in the coming academic year in our labors. Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1909 to October 1, 1910. Year seven. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1910. pp. 205–206. Homily on October 1, 1909, on the Feast of the Intercession of the Mother of God: The real holiday of the Intercession of the Mother of God owes its origin to the following significant event. In the 10th century in Constantinople, in the Blachernae Church of the Mother of God, an all-night vigil was held on the eve of Sunday. Among those praying in the church were Saint Andrew, the Fool for Christ's sake, and his disciple, Saint Epiphanius. At four o'clock in the morning they saw an extraordinary, wonderful phenomenon: a majestic Woman was walking from the altar to the pulpit, accompanied by the holy apostles and many other saints of God. Stopping at the pulpit, She knelt down and prayed long and earnestly to the Lord. Then She headed back to the altar, did not reach the Throne, again knelt down and prayed again, watering Her God-like and Most Pure face with abundant tears. Rising again, She turned to the people, took off the veil, brilliant as lightning, from Her head and, spreading it with Her hands over the people, as if protecting the people with Her divine cover, and again fervently prayed for them. The Monk Andrew asked his disciple: “Do you see, brother, the Queen and Lady of all, praying for the whole world?” “I see, holy father,” Epiphanius answered him, “and I am horrified.” They reported their vision to the patriarch and the people, and this incident served as the reason for establishing the Feast of the Protection of the Mother of God. So, children, the Most Holy Theotokos is invisibly present with us during our prayer in church and fervently prays to God for us, protecting us with Her holy omophorion! This is a deeply joyful, inexpressibly pleasant truth for us, proclaimed to us by a real holiday! True, you and I do not see with our bodily eyes what Saint Andrew and Epiphanius saw, but this does not in the least detract for us from the significance of the event itself. We, due to our sinfulness, due to the weakness and coldness of our prayer, are unworthy to see those secrets of the spiritual world existing around us, which are revealed to pure hearts, hearts animated by fiery prayer, but this, of course, does not mean that what we do not see physically does not exist in reality. There is a spiritual world, and it is seen by those who are worthy of it, who are prepared for it with their holy life and pure feelings. We, perceiving from them truths incomprehensible to us, will be content with this, we will participate in their visions with the faith of our hearts and we will rejoice in the same joy as they do, from the consciousness that the heavenly world is close to us, the Mother of God is close to us, the Lord is close! It is here, in the holy church, that it is especially appropriate for us to have in our souls the consciousness of the closeness of the heavenly world to us and, while praying, to feel that a host of angels and saints are praying with us and for us, together with the Most Pure Mother of God. This consciousness and this feeling will remind us where and in front of whom we are, they will drive away boredom, inattention, absent-mindedness from our souls, they will force us to concentrate in prayer, so that by our negligence we do not offend, upset and remove from ourselves those who invisibly pray here with us for us. It is impossible not to admit that we do not always go to our main church and be present in it in the right mood. We don’t have the proper prayerful feeling here, the proper seriousness of mood. Often you yourself embarrass each other and disrupt each other’s prayerful mood. This is not because you don't really have faith in your hearts, or because you aren't able to pray sincerely and fervently at all. When you visit parish churches, where you feel freer than here, and are surrounded by a crowd of fervently praying pilgrims, you yourself experience a surge of prayerful feelings and know how to pray as you should. Consequently, all that remains is to wish that here, in the main church, you would feel as if you were part of one family and would be able to perform your prayer as freely and directly as you do in parish churches. To make this so, often remind yourself of the currently celebrated event, remember that in our holy church you stand before the face of God; that here the Mother of God is invisibly praying for you, stretching out Her most pure hands to the throne of God; if you remember this, then all the unfavorable conditions in which your soul is here will lose meaning for you, and it, seized by a feeling of prayer, will freely ascend to the heavenly abodes. Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1909 to October 1, 1910. Year seven. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1910. pp. 206–208. December 6, 1909, on the 69th anniversary of the opening of the Poltava Petrovsky Cadet Corps: “Behold, whatever is good or whatever is good, let the brethren live together!” These words of the psalmist King David are involuntarily remembered on this highly solemn day, when you see here, in this holy church, many generations of past and present Peter’s cadets gathered together, offering with one mouth and one heart a common prayer of gratitude to the Lord God. Sincere unity is a deeply gratifying phenomenon and a great moral force, and therefore, brothers, I want to tell you a few words about the foundations on which this fraternal unity of old and new generations of Peter’s cadets is based and should always be affirmed. The first spiritual connection between the Petrovna cadets is, without a doubt, their heartfelt attachment to the educational institution that raised them. Here, within these walls, the first years of your adult life have passed and are passing. Here, at the dawn of foggy youth, our first attachments were and are being created, bonds of friendship are formed, the first thoughts, dreams and aspirations are born, the love of knowledge awakens, here you have learned and are learning to evaluate both yourself and everything around you from the point of view of the Christian dignity of man. This feeling of love and affection for one’s native educational institution is a feeling that is bright, beautiful, holy, Christian, and therefore blessed by God! The second connection between the members of the corps is their devotion to the military rank to which most of you have given and are giving your lives. In modern society and modern literature, you will often find a negative attitude towards military rank. But no matter how evil these attacks on the military rank are sometimes, they will not be able to darken and discredit what is truly Christian and nationally important in this rank. No one can dispute that military rank primarily obliges self-sacrifice. Selflessness is the essence of military rank. A warrior is doomed to be ready at every moment to sacrifice his strength and his life for the good and peace of his fatherland. It exactly fulfills the words of the Gospel: “If anyone wants to walk after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me,” and other words: “Greater than this love no one has, but whoever lays down his life for his friends.” The warrior’s cross is heavy, although glorious; and this is always understood by the Russian soldier, who is therefore called the lover of Christ, that in his service he defends not his personal interests, but the interests of others, sacrificing for the good of others everything that is dear to him. If the title of a warrior is so sacred, then sacred is the unity between you that exists in the name of devotion to the military title! Finally, the third and final connection between the Petrovsky cadets is and should be an ardent love for the Motherland. Nowadays, you will often hear both in society and in literature a completely negative attitude towards both our present and our past, you will hear the opinion that we must put an end to our entire history and, as it were, begin again the history of the Russian people. Of course, we should not close our eyes to the dark sides of our Russian life; there are many, many of them! We have a lot of poverty, and ignorance, and drunkenness, and all other disorder. And despite this, we have, especially in our past, many bright and beautiful pages. There are traditions, covenants that we must keep sacred, in the name of which we must live. Woe to that people who have no dear past, no national shrines, who with each new generation renounce themselves and strive for new ideals. The task of every Russian should not be to deny the past and present, but to understand the creative forces that created Russia, and to apply our efforts to the efforts of the previous builders of the Russian land, continuing, and not destroying, their work. Love for the Motherland requires us to respect the common sense of our people and believe that they did not live a thousand years in vain! Having noted the ties that unite the old and young generations of Petrovsky cadets into one fraternal family, we wish that these ties never weaken between them! And for this to really be so, it is necessary that you keep in your hearts pure and strong faith in God, loyalty to your native Orthodox Church, live one life with it, sacredly preserving its teachings and rules! Faith in God is the best guardian of goodness in all paths of human life! Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, whom we commemorate today, may he be a helper to us all in our affairs, may he be an image of faith for us, an example of love for others and a teacher of abstinence! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1909 to October 1, 1910. Year seven. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1910. pp. 208–210. On the Sunday of the Prodigal Son - February 14, 1910 In today's Gospel reading we heard the touching story of the prodigal son, the content of which is well known to you. The son begged his father for the part of the estate assigned to him and, having received it, went to a foreign side and there squandered it without a trace, living dissolutely. When everything had already been squandered, famine suddenly arose in that country, and the unfortunate young man, not having a piece of bread, hired himself out to a man to graze his pigs. He was ready to eat the same food as these animals, but even that was not given to him. Some time passed, and suddenly a bright light illuminated his soul. My God, he said to himself, what am I doing? Why do I live here? Why am I suffering here? After all, I have a father who loves me! True, I am guilty before him, I am no longer worthy to be called his son, so what? I will come to him, fall at his feet and say: accept me as your last hired servant, and he will take pity on me and will not refuse me the piece of bread that his servants have. From such a thought, the young man’s heart lit up with joy, and he rushed to his home. And his father has been waiting for him for a long time, has been sitting at the window for a long time and looking at the road, is his son approaching along it? Children, doesn’t what happened to this prodigal son happen to us? And we receive from our Heavenly Father a significant share of great wealth, we receive a soul gifted with many high abilities, destined for development, for improvement. But, having neglected the high gift, we turn away from the Heavenly Father, and we begin to use the abilities given to us not for the Glory of God, but to satisfy our often base and rude desires. Plunging more and more into sensual life, into the interests of the current day, we become more and more alienated from God, we forget Him, so that there is no longer any room left in our soul for the thought of God, and this thought no longer has any influence on our life. We gradually exhaust the entire reserve of our religious strength, and then our moral, and finally our physical strength - and we reach the point where, not seeing any high meaning in life, no high goal that animates us, we spend the most base, animal, empty and boring life. At such moments we are not far from complete despair and even thoughts of suicide. And here, sometimes, suddenly, like lightning, a bright thought about the forgotten God, this supreme Power of Reason and Good, which reigns in the world and gives it meaning, is the source of life and happiness in it, will cut through our spiritual darkness. This thought will bring warmth into the soul of an unfortunate person who has lost faith and has devastated his soul, and he will say: “What am I doing? Why did I plunge into the unclean mud of petty thoughts and low passions? Why do I despair of the possibility of living? I will repent, I will return to my Heavenly Father, and with the thought of Him in my heart, my life will become light and bright for me, and in His name I will easily carry out my life’s work.” And then a hot wave of happiness will flood into the soul of this person, and he will feel like the son of the Heavenly Father, and will find spiritual peace and true high happiness. Let us not forget, children, this lesson given to us by the current Gospel, and if one of you (God forbid!) were to move his heart far away from the Heavenly Father and plunge into the mire of petty thoughts and low passions, and his soul became heavy and sad, let him then remember the prodigal son who fell at the feet of his father, and let him, like this son, come to his senses, will sober up, repent and, turning to God, will find in God his peace of mind and his joy. And even better - let him never be tempted by sensual happiness and base thoughts, let him never lose loyalty to his Heavenly Father, and then purity of soul and inner peace will always be his inalienable property. Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1909 to October 1, 1910. Year seven. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1910. pp. 210–212. A word delivered on March 2, 1910, on Tuesday of the first week of Great Lent, to the cadets of the two senior companies about the meaning of fasting So again the holy days of fasting, repentance and prayer have come for us, the only days in the year designated by the church for our self-examination, correction and spiritual renewal. Let us try, children, to take advantage of these days so that they do not pass in vain for us, so that we feel a moral change in our souls, feel in these days that we are becoming different, that everything sinful and bad has become alien to us. Days of fasting are extremely important in the moral life of every Christian. Imperceptibly, day after day, in the bustle of everyday life, we become callous and shallow in soul, a lot of bad, sinful things, voluntarily and involuntarily, stick to our soul and little by little dirty it. We get used to this bad thing, and sometimes it no longer even torments or offends us. If the Church did not call us to repentance, if it did not designate special days a year for moral self-examination and spiritual renewal, we would sink morally lower and lower and would cease to be sensitive to our sinful stains. The Church offers us the sacrament of repentance, that is, it requires us, firstly, to carefully examine our conscience for the period of time that has elapsed since the last confession, and sometimes longer. This test must be the most attentive in the face of God and, moreover, with a deep consciousness that every misdemeanor, every sin is a great guilt before the Lord, a shameful stain on our soul. Only that self-examination will be true, which will not be limited to a cold, indifferent calculation of one’s mistakes and moral shortcomings, but will be accompanied by sincere sadness, true grief for them and unfeigned self-condemnation. Having realized our faults, we must, secondly, have a sincere desire for spiritual renewal, cleansing our soul from the wrongdoings committed, from the shortcomings noticed in ourselves and, thirdly, sincere faith that, confessing our sins before God in the presence of our spiritual father, we will receive their forgiveness in the sacrament of repentance and will depart from confession as pure, forgiven, His children close to God. But this is not all that the Church gives us. After cleansing from sins in the sacrament of repentance, she offers us the closest union with the Lord in the sacrament of Holy Communion, as with the source of true life, in fulfillment of the words of the Savior: “Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood will have eternal life” (John 6:54). The sacrament of Holy Communion, uniting us with the Lord, gives our soul the most perfect sanctification, moral strength and strength, alienating us from sin for a long time, until we ourselves voluntarily return again to Him. So that we can properly take advantage of the moment of our spiritual healing offered to us by the Church, the Church has established two preliminary fasts. In order to begin confession prepared and to receive true benefit from it, it is necessary that the transition from our ordinary everyday vanity to the sacrament of repentance is not too abrupt, too hasty. Time is needed so that we can get out of the atmosphere of sinful vanity and enter into an atmosphere of prayer and serious concern for the state of our soul. Conditions are needed to facilitate this transition. Such conditions are attending public worship, fasting, detachment from ordinary everyday worries, reading books of relevant content, solitude, etc. Treat these means of preparing for confession and Holy Communion with all attention and conscientiousness. Make full use of everything that the Church offers you for worthy preparation for the sacraments of Repentance and Communion. Don't waste the coming days in vain. By an effort of will and earnest prayer, renounce the ordinary atmosphere of your existence and enter the atmosphere offered by the Church, and then these holy days will not be fruitless for you. You will actually perform serious and fruitful internal work of the spirit, as a result of which a new sense of well-being and a new self-awareness will appear, a noticeable spiritual rise above the internal state in which you were before the fast. You will feel a surge of new, holy life in yourself, which may the Lord vouchsafe you in the coming holy days. Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1909 to October 1, 1910. Year seven. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1910. pp. 212–214. Speech on March 18, 1910 over the coffin of the senior doctor of the Corps A. V. Belyaev Bearing the cross is the inevitable destiny of every true Christian. True, we, the faint-hearted, often faint under our cross, often grumble about our fate, but we still cannot avoid the cross. The words of the Holy Scriptures “you will be in a world of sorrow”, “through many sorrows you must enter into the kingdom of God” are immutable. If our Lord Jesus Christ himself walked the path of the Cross, if His holy apostles, martyrs, saints and all the saints walked the same path, then can we, sinners, be free from the cross, from suffering? In suffering, the soul of a person is revealed, through suffering it is purified, through suffering it is tempered. A heavy cross fell by the will of God and to the lot of our dear Anatoly Vasilyevich. Let's not grumble at God for this! Let us submit to His holy will, which always arranges the best for us and leads us along paths that are not always clear to us, but never beyond the limits of the wisdom and goodness of God! For six months our dear deceased stood face to face before the menacing appearance of death, clearly aware of the hopelessness of his situation, clearly noticing how a merciless disease slowly but steadily carried out its destructive work, painfully suffering for his loved ones and experiencing unbearable physical pain. What courage, what self-control, what, I say, faith in God and submission to the will of God was necessary to patiently bear this cross, not fall into despair, seem cheerful, and comfort those around him! The deceased had a lofty, courageous, Christian soul! When you look into this courageous soul of a man who for six months felt himself sentenced to death, and compare our own attitude towards our sorrows and failures with his attitude towards his cross, you involuntarily become ashamed of yourself. From the slightest failure, from a weak prick to our pride, from a small punishment that we fully deserve, we often fall into complete despondency, assuring ourselves and others that our suffering is unbearable, that life is hard. And look through the newspapers - how many people end their lives every day, not finding the strength to bear its burden! Why is this? From a lack of sincere, humble, submissive faith in Providence. And when you see all this in yourself and around you, then with a particularly gratifying feeling you again dwell on the personality of the deceased, who found in himself the inner strength, the strength of a deep Christian feeling, to stand above his suffering. The late Anatoly Vasilyevich was a man deeply organically imbued with the Christian worldview, which he had nurtured in his soul since childhood. Since childhood, he loved everything church - in the gymnasium he sang and read in the choir. He treated himself with extreme severity. He confessed with deep, concentrated attention, sincerely, with contrition, blaming himself for such actions in which others would not have seen any sin. He was a true Christian in his relationships with people: kind, meek, modest, delicate, especially gentle and affectionate with children, completely devoted to his duty, he earned himself general sincere love and respect. I cannot help but note another feature in him that is so precious in our time - he was a wonderful family man, he dearly loved his wife and children, and in this family, the Gospel covenant was truly fulfilled - to have one heart and one soul. Imprint, children, in your hearts the wonderful moral image of your deceased senior doctor and cultivate and protect similar bright Christian traits in yourselves. With Christ in your heart, with sincere faith in God, you will happily walk your life’s path and, no matter what life’s trials are destined for you, you will emerge from them with dignity, winners! And now let us fulfill our last duty towards the deceased - let us offer our common prayer for him, that the Lord may rest his soul in the villages of the righteous, may He forgive him his sins, voluntary and involuntary, and may the words of the Savior come true over him: “Where I am, so shall My servant be”! Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1909 to October 1, 1910. Year seven. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1910. pp. 214–215. Word spoken on May 21, 1910, on the day of remembrance of Saints and Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine and Helena and the name day of His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich: Both church and civil history equally glorify the Great Emperor Constantine. His merit lies in the fact that he was the first of the Roman Emperors, with his bright, penetrating mind, to understand that paganism had lost its creative significance, that it had ceased to live and inspire society and its individual members - and decisively moved under the banner of a new faith, that faith that was supposed to infuse and did infuse a new spirit and new life into decrepit humanity. Having come under the banner of Christianity, he directed the life of the state along a new path, thus completing a spiritual revolution in it of enormous significance. The pagan state collapsed - a Christian state was born. Not hoping for the revival of pagan Rome, Constantine moved his capital to the East, to Byzantium, and laid the foundation for the Byzantine Empire, which lasted for a thousand years after that and passed on the Orthodox faith to us Russians. Such are the world merits of the Great Constantine. But I don’t want to draw your attention to them. Pay attention to the inner, spiritual life of this emperor, to how the Providence of God gradually led him to an understanding of Christianity and how Constantine himself, for his part, accepted the instructions of Providence with all his heart. From the first days of his life, Konstantin was already under the influence of his intelligent and deeply religious mother, the Christian Elena, who was the first to plant in him the seeds of faith in the One God and sympathy for Christian teaching. Then life at the court of Emperor Diocletian showed Constantine all the negative, unsightly sides of pagan life. The wonderful vision of the cross in the sky with the inscription “hereby conquer,” which Constantine himself told his friend, the historian Eusebius, was for Constantine a direct indication from God as to where the truth was, and Constantine responded to this instruction by ordering to place the image of the Cross on the shields and helmets of soldiers and on a special banner later worn in battles. Feeling with all his heart the truth of Christianity, Constantine revealed this with a series of measures aimed at giving the triumph of Christianity in the empire; Thus, he allows the free transition from paganism to Christianity, returns to Christians the property taken from them by the pagans, gives various rights to Christian bishops, abolishes gladiatorial games and the death penalty on the cross, introduces the celebration of Sunday, instructs his mother to travel around the holy places of Palestine, find the cross of Christ there, build Christian churches in places consecrated by events from the life of Jesus Christ, convenes the first ecumenical council and, finally, having done all the good possible for the Church, at the end of his life he receives holy Baptism. Thus, in the life of Saint Constantine we clearly see two currents, two forces - the power of the right hand of God drawing him to Christ and the power of his own sensitive moral being, striving to live according to the truth of God. These two forces, children, undoubtedly operate in the lives of each of you. Just look closely and you will notice in your life the hand of God’s Providence, guiding your life and drawing you towards good. Know how, like Constantine, to notice this action of God’s Providence in your life and, noticing, feel God’s closeness to you and entrust yourself to His goodness and His wisdom. On the other hand, every human soul is a Christian by nature, for it is created in the image and likeness of God. Sanctified, in addition, by baptism and other sacraments, it is naturally drawn to a truly Christian life - try to recognize this attraction in yourself, widen its path, do not put obstacles in its way, and it will lead you to the knowledge of Christ, like Constantine. Thus, the example of St. Constantine can teach you, children, many good things; By imitating him, you will feel close to God, and then there will be great joy, great peace and great happiness in your soul! Today we celebrate the namesake of our August Inspector General, His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, who, as is known, reflects in his views and in his activities the spirit and covenants of his heavenly patron, Equal-to-the-Apostles Tsar Constantine. Let us pray with all our hearts that the Lord will prolong his life for many years and may He help him in his concerns for the youth entrusted to him! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1909 to October 1, 1910. Year seven. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1910. pp. 216–217. May 27, 1910, the day of the Ascension of the Lord None of the Gospel events is the subject of such fierce and caustic attacks from unbelief as the event of the Ascension of the Lord. The mind of our modern intelligent person, frozen in the narrow framework of materialism, cannot come to terms with this event. Thus, even our famous writer L.N. Tolstoy in one of his works did not fail to make the following remark regarding the event of the Ascension of the Lord, which seemed to him, undoubtedly, extremely weighty: “not a single modern educated person can seriously believe in the miracle of the Ascension of the Lord, for now even the ignorant peasant knows that there is no sky above us, but there is only one boundless space.” With these words, he obviously thinks to radically undermine confidence in the event of the Ascension of the Lord, but in reality he reveals only the extreme narrowness of his own view. In fact, the Holy Scriptures nowhere contain the doctrine of heaven as some kind of glass ceiling stretched above us, which non-believers try to attribute to it. On the contrary, a thousand years ago our Church already proclaimed: “who set up the earth upon nothing by Thy commandment and hung up the uncontrollably heavy one,” that is, it recognized free affirmation in the boundless space of the globe by the power of Divine omnipotence. By heaven, the Holy Scripture, like the Orthodox Church, understands only another world, the angelic world, the world of the highest spiritual (and perhaps physical) beauty, the real world, blissfully abiding in the unceasing contemplation of the greatness of God. Non-believers seem inclined to think that the highest manifestation of spiritual life exists only on earth and that the entire world around the earth, the entire universe surrounding our earth, is a continuous desert of dead matter. But such a view is completely arbitrary and has no rational basis, because in order to assert this, one must know all the corners of the universe, and hardly anyone can boast of this. The Christian Church teaches differently. She recognizes the existence of a heavenly Jerusalem, a whole vast spiritual world, to which earthly life is only a preparatory step. The Apostle Paul in one of his letters writes that he was caught up to the third heaven, where he heard ineffable verbs; church tradition tells of a boy ascended to the heavenly abodes, where he heard angelic singing. This teaching of the Church gives us a completely different picture of world life than the one presented to us by non-believers. It shows us that the entire universe is full of life and that this life is full of unspeakable glory, beauty and greatness. So, when we say that our Lord Jesus Christ ascended in glory to heaven, we affirm that He clearly ascended from them to another world for His disciples, where “many abodes” are prepared for all believers, and there is no reason to scientifically and rationally reject this fact. For us, who accept with all our hearts and without a shadow of a doubt the Gospel story of the Ascension of the Lord, this event has enormous moral significance. It clearly convinces us of the existence of another life besides our earthly one, that life where indescribable bliss awaits believers and those who love their Lord. This event shows us that the world is not a dead desert, but a great church of God, where everything is full of life, wisdom and beauty; it inspires us to always seek the heavenly, and not the earthly, for our eternal residence is in heaven. Our earthly existence will end, but our heavenly life will not end. And therefore we must live not only by temporary earthly interests, but by those interests that can lead us to blissful eternity, that is, we must live by the knowledge of God and His will. If we begin to live this way, then our earthly existence will receive a special meaning and high significance in our eyes, and then there will be no place in our soul for boredom, disappointment, despair, or vulgarity. Our soul will be enlightened by heavenly light and heavenly joy, which may the Lord God give us all. Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1909 to October 1, 1910. Year seven. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1910. pp. 217–219. May 31, 1910, before farewell to the graduation ceremony, a cadet with a banner Today ends an entire period of your life, the life of a student, and you stand on the threshold of the unknown, mysterious, mysterious and, in its mystery, alluring world of real life. A swimmer setting out on the open sea must steer his vessel with a firm hand, knowing where he is going and how he must go in order to avoid pitfalls and shoals. And he who enters the sea of ​​life must have a light in his soul, with the help of which he could accurately determine his direction and avoid those dangers that could destroy his ship of life. It is bad if a young man enters life, as they say, without a rudder and without sails, ready to surrender to any current, to submit to any influence, not being able to understand his own inclinations, properly evaluate them and firmly follow the path shown to him by his conscience, sensitive and enlightened by proper upbringing. And you, entering life, need to ask yourself the question: with what, with what spiritual wealth, with what guiding principle do you want to begin real life? May God grant that this principle, clearly recognized by you and dear to you, be a firm intention to always and in everything coordinate your life with the dictates of the Higher Reason and Good, announced to us in the Holy Gospel. May God grant that simple, sincere, deep childhood faith in God will constantly warm and strengthen your young hearts on the path of life! God grant that this faith gives meaning to your life and fills it with light and joy! May God grant that, inspired by this faith, you prepare with all conscientiousness for the public service ahead of you and then carry it out with the same conscientiousness! May God grant that the same faith will instill in you unwavering fidelity in all paths of life to the holy commandments of the Gospel! If this strong, conscious faith in God lives in your soul, if you lovingly keep the bright image of Christ in your heart, if the Gospel is your guide on your paths, then the pitfalls and shoals of the sea of ​​life will not be scary for you. You will be able to get around them and overcome them. There will be a lot of these stones and shoals! Doubts of the mind will attack you, supported and aroused by faithless literature and pseudoscience. They will kill in you the simplicity of immediate faith, shake your understanding of life, revealed by the Gospel, with the guesses of your own individual mind, in order to then instill distrust in these guesses, and little by little bring you to the loss of all hope for the possibility of knowing the truth, bring you to melancholy, despair and conviction of the meaninglessness of existence! Sincere faith, love for truth and selfless research, with purity of life and heart, will help you break the plexus of a doubting mind, like a thin web, and not lose peace of mind and balance. Next, the temptations of sensuality will stand in your way, the danger of completely wallowing in the pleasures of the flesh - this is an enemy terrible for many! The temptations of vanity, the thirst for human praise and human admiration for you will stand in your way, and this idol will try to close the higher and more worthy goal of human existence from you, to close the true conditions of real happiness! It is difficult for a person to pass by these temptations without succumbing to them, without being carried away by them even for a moment. We must have a courageous soul and a clear thought, a clear consciousness of their insignificance in comparison with the ideal of life and happiness that faith gives us! With God's help, you will overcome these temptations if you vigilantly guard your heart. The strength of a Christian does not lie in himself. His strength is in God and in the institution of which the Lord made him a member, that is, in the holy Orthodox Church. Hold fast to the Church of which you are children. This is why the Lord established the Church, so that we, living its life, would be protected from all the temptations of the world. When it’s raining and windy outside, the walls of a strong house protect us from the weather. Protect yourself with the spiritual walls of the Church of Christ, and you will be protected from spiritual weather. Remember how good we feel on the days of fasting, the days of Holy Week and Holy Easter, when we so vividly feel the best Christian moods... Only the Church alone gives us the opportunity to experience such sensations. Always be faithful children of the Church, and you will always preserve Christian feelings in your soul and will safely cross the sea of ​​life! According to our good custom, come here now to receive the blessing of your native Corps - these icons of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and St. Sampson the Stranger, and say goodbye to your Corps banner, under the shadow of which you received your military education here. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1909 to October 1, 1910. Year seven. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1910. pp. 219–221. August 15, 1910, the day of the Dormition of the Mother of God As we solemnly remember today the day of the Dormition of the Mother of God, let us, children, be transported in thought and heart to the last days of the earthly life of the Most Holy Theotokos. The Gospel tells us that when our Lord Jesus Christ suffered on the cross, He, noticing His grieving Mother and His beloved disciple John at the cross, said to the first: Woman, behold Your son! and to the last: Behold your Mati! And thus he entrusted the Most Holy Virgin Mary to the care of His closest and most devoted Apostle. From that day on, the holy Apostle John took the Most Holy Theotokos into his home, where She remained until Her blessed Dormition, surrounded by the reverent love of the Apostles and all Christians. Tradition says that only once did She leave Jerusalem - during persecution by Herod, and visited the island of Cyprus, where she saw Saint Lazarus of the Four Days, who was the bishop there, Holy Mount Athos, where she converted many pagans to Christ, and the city of Ephesus, where she lived until the time came for Her to return again to Jerusalem. Upon returning to Jerusalem, She spent time in prayer and labor, daily visiting the Garden of Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives and other places sanctified by the prayers and presence of Her beloved Son. When She was thus once in the Garden of Gethsemane, She saw before Her the Archangel Gabriel, who announced to Her the joyful news for Her that in three days She would be taken from the earth to the heavenly abodes. Returning home, the Blessed Virgin Mary reported this news to the Apostle John, other apostles and Christians and began to prepare for Her departure from the earth. She prayerfully wished to say goodbye to all the apostles, most of whom were absent at that time, busy preaching the Gospel in other countries. The desire of the Mother of God was fulfilled, and all the apostles, except Thomas, were miraculously gathered to Jerusalem. The last day of the earthly life of the Mother of God has arrived. Surrounded by the apostles, She blessed them and said goodbye to them. The upper room was filled with light and fragrance. The pure soul of the Ever-Virgin joyfully separated from the body and, accepted by the Lord Jesus Christ, was ascended by Him to the heavenly abodes. The body of the Mother of God was solemnly and with great weeping buried by the apostles in the Garden of Gethsemane. On the third day after the burial, the Apostle Thomas appeared. Grieving that he did not have to say goodbye to the Mother of God, he wished to see at least Her Most Pure Body and worship Him. His wish was fulfilled. But when the stone was rolled away from the cave where the body of the Mother of God lay, the body was not there. It was then revealed to the perplexed apostles that the body of the Mother of God, like Her Most Pure Soul, was taken to heaven. The Mother of God herself appeared to them in a host of angels and announced that She would continually remain with them and with the believers until the end of the age. So, children, you see what the death of the Mother of God was like. It was a calm, bright, joyful migration from earthly life to heavenly life, it was like a quiet, light dream, followed by a joyful, blissful life in heavenly abodes. That is why Her death is called Dormition, that is, sleep. There are two lessons for you and me in this memory. The first lesson is that the Dormition of the Mother of God teaches us to understand death correctly, in a Christian way. Death for a Christian should not seem like some kind of terrible end to life. In this sense, death does not exist. By dying, we only move on to another life. We are crossing a certain line, a line beyond which a new, unknown, but for a true Christian, a bright, beautiful world begins. Of course, because of our sins, we cannot help but be afraid to appear before the face of God, but that is why we must prepare for death by the purity of our earthly life. So, do not forget, children, the words of our Savior, that God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living, and that with Him all are alive. Remember that our earthly life is only the threshold of true, never-ending life. Remember this more often, and you will see how your existence will be transformed, how your existence will brighten in your eyes, and with what high meaning and significance it will be filled! Then you will begin to take yourself and your life much more seriously! The second lesson for us lies in the words of the Mother of God to the apostles: “I will constantly be with you!” These words apply not to just the apostles, but to all of us, and the history of the Christian church clearly testifies to this. How comforting these words are for us children! How pleasant it is to realize that the Mother of God is not far from each of us, that She sees us, hears our prayers, is ready to come to our aid, support us, comfort us! Keep this holy and joyful faith firmly in your young hearts, and it will be easier, warmer, more joyful for you to live in the world! Cling more closely with your heart to the Mother of God, as to your heavenly Mother and Intercessor, and pray to Her that She will help us with Her holy prayers, that She will drive away from you, as the church prayer puts it, all despondency, oblivion and cowardice and give you the strength to live holy and die calmly, with faith in eternal and blissful rest beyond the grave! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1910 to October 1, 1911. Year eight. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1911. pp. 131–133. September 8, 1910, the day of the Nativity of the Mother of God There was great joy on this day in the house of the righteous elders Joachim and Anna - the Lord gave them a daughter, the fruit of their fiery and constant prayers, gave them the consolation they had long desired, and removed from them the “reproach of childlessness.” There should have been great joy on that day and throughout all of humanity, for finally the “dawn of the mysterious day” arose, and She was born who was destined by God to become the Mother of the incarnate Son of God! But humanity did not even then notice that the day of salvation had come for them, that “the favorable time had come.” Overwhelmed by its everyday worries, enslaved by its passions, immersed in the deep darkness of paganism, it seemed to be sleeping in a deep, heavy sleep. Meanwhile, a new life of grace was invisibly ripening within him. The holy fruit of pious parents, the Young Lady who appeared in the world from the first days of Her earthly life was already entirely devoted to God, and when She was three years old, She was brought to the holy temple in Jerusalem, where she remained until the age of fourteen, serving God with prayer, purity, labor, love, humility... Thus, from early childhood, the life path of the Blessed Virgin Mary was determined, from which She never deviated until Her blessed Dormition. The Blessed Virgin Mary is for us an unattainable example of inner, spiritual perfection. Her external position was very modest. This was the usual position of a simple, poor Eastern woman worker. All Her glory, as the church song puts it, is hidden within Her, in Her heart. In Her heart lay that priceless treasure, thanks to which She became the chosen vessel of God's grace and shone forth as a high example to the whole world. The world, as we said, did not understand even then, did not see what treasure was in it. Do we, children, know how to appreciate and love the beauty of the soul that the Blessed Virgin reveals to us? Are those high qualities of heavenly purity, deep faith, sincere humility, unfeigned love, complete devotion to God, with which the soul of the Mother of God shines for us, close to our hearts, sacred, and dear to us? If we don’t know how yet, then, looking at the Most Pure Virgin Mary, pondering the features of Her spiritual image, we will learn to understand and appreciate true good, the good that lives in the depths of the human soul, we will remember the words of the Savior: “The Kingdom of God is within you,” we will treasure this one priceless property, stock up on it in earthly life in order to transfer it with us to eternal life. “For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” And from the depths of believing and loving hearts we will offer up to the Mother of God, our Heavenly Intercessor, the prayer that you offer with one mouth and, I hope, with one heart at the end of each all-night vigil: “We take refuge under Your mercy, Virgin Mary; Do not despise our prayers in sorrows, but deliver us from troubles, O pure and blessed One. Most Holy Theotokos, save us! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1910 to October 1, 1911. Year eight. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1911. pp. 135–136. December 5, 1910, before the memorial service for the slain soldiers, former students of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps Now we will pray for the former students of our corps, who laid down their lives in battle for the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland. They once studied within the same walls where you are now studying, they prayed in the same holy church where you now pray. They entered this corps, like you, as small children, spent their first youth in it, received their first and most important school education here, and left here as adult young men, with established rules of life, with faith in God in their hearts, with love for their homeland, with selfless devotion to the Sovereign Emperor. Having completed their military education, they joined the ranks of the Russian officers and conscientiously performed their modest but responsible duties. But now the moment has come! The will of the Sovereign Emperor called them to the battlefield, and they, obeying the voice of conscience and oath, went and sacrificed their lives to their beloved Motherland and Sovereign - some on the Sevastopol bastions, others on the fields of Bulgaria, on the peaks of the Balkans, others in distant Manchuria, in the waves of the Sea of ​​Japan, and others in their native land, under the treacherous shots of Russian rebels. All of them sacredly fulfilled their duty, they all fulfilled the commandment of the Gospel: “No one has greater love than anyone, but whoever lays down his life for his friends.” Their memory is sacred to us, and they are all the more dear to us because they came from our own environment, from the very walls in which you and I now find ourselves! Imprint, children, in your hearts the memory of these heroes who are dear to you, modest and wonderful in their honesty and selflessness! Be inspired by their example, their spirit! Let the same faithful, valiant servants of the Tsar and Motherland emerge from your ranks! So that the future Petrovian cadets will have the right to pray for you with the same love with which you now pray for your predecessors! Eternal and blessed memory to them forever and ever. Amen! Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1910 to October 1, 1911. Year eight. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1911. pp. 136–137. December 6, 1910, on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps In the current apostolic reading, you have heard, children, the following significant words: “Remember your teachers who spoke the word of God to you, and as they look to the end of their lives, imitate their faith” (Heb. 13:7). These words, first of all, indicate to us our duty to remember those great ascetics of the Christian faith who, by word and example, taught and teach us the faith and Christian life, and looking at how they remained faithful to Christ until the end of their lives, to imitate them in this regard. Such a mentor is for us the now celebrated saint, the great Saint Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra of Lycia, the Wonderworker, whom the Holy Church calls the rule of faith, the image of meekness and abstinence as a teacher. Faith, that is, a proper attitude towards God, meekness, that is, a proper attitude towards people, and abstinence, that is, a proper attitude towards oneself - these are the basic Christian virtues that each of us must strengthen and cultivate in our own hearts. But we can apply the same words of the Apostle, that same holy covenant, in a more private sense, in relation to our public life. In this sense, the words of the apostle remind us of our duty to sacredly preserve the best covenants of our native past, to remember our past public figures, the builders of the spiritual and civil structure of our native land, to remain with them in constant spiritual unity and to continue the work that they initiated or which they accomplished. Each new generation of the Russian people must necessarily have a moral connection with previous generations and, together with them, collect spiritual and material wealth into one, common national treasury. Without this connection of subsequent generations with previous generations there cannot be a complete, well-ordered and fruitful life of the people. Meanwhile, do we now see this strong spiritual connection, this unity of goals, this unanimity of social and state construction in the life of successive generations of our Russian people? No, we don’t see anything like that now. At the dawn of their historical life, the Russian people stood under the sacred banner of the Orthodox Christian faith, united around their autocratic rulers, and under this banner and with these rulers created their own state. But since Peter the Great, and partly even earlier, the highest, most educated classes of Russian society have sharply broken with folk historical legends and covenants. They begin to get carried away by Western customs, Western concepts, Western culture and, rejecting their native, primordial principles of life, move from one Western theory to another, not settling on any one, greedily searching for the truth that constantly eludes them. And when, it seemed, the sought-after truth finally became the property of their fathers, the children rebelled against this truth found by their fathers and began to look for their own truth so that, in the end, they themselves would find themselves in the position of their fathers. This is how generations of the educated classes of the Russian people lived one after another: Voltairianism was replaced by Freemasonry, Freemasonry by Hegelianism, Hegelianism by materialism, materialism by socialism, socialism by Tolstoyanism, Tolstoyanism by Nietzscheanism, and so on and so forth. Each new generation of Russian educated society considered it its duty, first of all, to renounce everything that had been developed by previous generations, to renounce all the traditions of the past and to begin their life’s work as if no one had worked before them, no one had thought, no one had lived, as if the Russian people had no history, as if their past had an absolute void. This, children and brothers, is the main sin of Russian educated society. It does not have folk traditions, does not want to respect its past and value it. It forgets its mentors. This is why we do not develop a powerful and strong Orthodox Christian culture. May the Lord help us to get rid of this shortcoming. To my joy and yours, however, I must make a reservation that this reproach to Russian society does not apply to that small corner of it in which you and I find ourselves. Petrovsky Poltava Corps sacredly preserves its traditions and good comradely ties. Proof of this is the fact that here at the moment we see not only the current students of the corps, but also many gray-haired elders who have long left these walls, in which they received their upbringing, but with unquenchable youthful affection, striving again to these walls on the significant day of the corps holiday, in order to share with each other and with their young successors a common joy and triumph. Appreciate, children, this bright trait of the soul of the old cadets, take care of them, cultivate in yourself the same holy feeling of love for your native corps. “Remember your teachers, and looking at the end of their lives, imitate their faith.” May the great family of the Petrovians grow stronger and multiply, and may this day at all times be a day of fraternal unity for the members of the Petrine corps in all corners of vast Russia, a day when all of them, gathered together, will first of all offer a fervent and warm prayer for their Sovereign Leader, the Most Pious Sovereign Emperor and His entire Reigning Family, for the all-Russian Christ-loving army and for the Petrine army Poltava Corps, to which prayer I now call you! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1910 to October 1, 1911. Eighth year. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1911. pp. 137–139. December 25, 1910, on the day of the Nativity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Great joy today, children, throughout the Christian world. He hears how the humble shepherds once heard the angelic song on the great Christmas night: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will towards men!” He hears the holy words: “I bring you great joy, which will be to all people: for today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, has been born to you in the city of David.” He hears all this, and imagines himself in the deep distance of centuries: a dead night, a harsh cave, a wretched manger, a meek Mother, a Baby illuminated by divine light, the bright star of Bethlehem, humble, reverently bowed shepherds, wise men walking solemnly in the distance, the restless evil Herod, the human race immersed in the deep darkness of paganism, everything happening in deep secrecy the great mystery of piety... How all these holy and deeply significant memories are close, children, to our hearts from the earliest years of our lives! Having barely learned to understand what surrounds us, we already participate, together with the older members of our families, in the joyful celebration of the now remembered event, we hear stories about it, we imprint them in our children’s hearts, we sanctify our thoughts and our feelings with these sacred stories. It becomes joyful and light in our souls, and these childhood impressions of the great holiday of the Nativity of Christ remain our best memories for the rest of our lives and warm our hearts in moments of life’s adversity and difficult trials. Why are the memories of the great events of this day so sacred, so beneficial for our lives, so dear to us? Because, children, in these events the great love of God for us, for the entire human race, was revealed to us with all its strength, with all its inexplicable sweetness. The Son of God appeared among us, and through Him we came to know our Heavenly Father. The Son of God began to live among us and warmed and illuminated our souls, our minds with His bright teaching, His holy life, His great sufferings, His resurrection, His love. He, like the Sun, shone among us and taught us to know and love God, to know, love and expect a future, eternal, blissful life with God. And so our soul, feeling this love of God, feeling God’s closeness to us, rejoices with great joy, just as all living things rejoice, being bathed in the bright, hot rays of the spring sun. Feel, children, always this love of God for you and be filled with gratitude to your Heavenly Father! Unfortunately, in our time, the great significance of the Feast of the Nativity of Christ is often overshadowed in our minds by extraneous and secondary circumstances. We sometimes rejoice at this holiday not so much because it testifies to us of God’s great love for people, of the coming of the Son of God into the world, but because it is accompanied by festive pleasures, gifts, Christmas trees, games, evenings. We wait for the holiday not so much for the sacred memories associated with it, but for the pleasures and entertainment we expect. These pleasures and entertainment sometimes become for us the main content of the upcoming holiday, and its true, spiritual, Christian content is forgotten by us and interests us little. This, children, is one of the great evils of our time, when people value pleasures above all else in life, they only chase after them and are sometimes ready to do bad things for their sake. This happens because modern people remember little about their high, eternal purpose, about the fact that life does not end with earthly existence, about the fact that there is a God before whom we are responsible for our lives and for our deeds... Forgetting about all this, people value only earthly things, they place their happiness only in earthly things, and therefore they value Christian holidays only in terms of the earthly pleasures that accompany them. Remember, children, that it shouldn’t be like this; appreciate the holidays, first of all, for their basic, spiritual content; then they will bring true joy to your soul, a joy deeper, purer and brighter than the most noisy, varied and cheerful earthly pleasures. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all this will be added to you.” Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1910 to October 1, 1911. Eighth year. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1911. pp. 139–141. January 1, 1911 at the New Year's Eve Never have we felt the movement of time so vividly and intensely as in anticipation of the New Year. Minute by minute passes into eternity, and this terrible spirit of eternity covers our soul. Never, it seems, do we feel it, this eternity, so close, so directly, as precisely at the moment of parting with the old year, at the moment of the onset of the New Year. What does this exceptional moment in our life tell our soul? He tells us that, sooner or later, we will all become the property of eternity. Its mysterious gates will open before us, and it will take us into its mysterious, unknown regions. And involuntarily at this moment our soul turns to God, feels as if face to face before Him, strives to pour out before Him in grateful prayer for the mercies of the past year and ask for blessings for the New coming year. At this moment, the soul somehow especially longs to cleave to God, so that under His holy cover it can safely complete the path of its earthly wandering. We, beloved brothers and sisters, have gathered at this moment for such prayer. And I remember how in times long past, in the first times of Christianity, at this same midnight hour, ancient Christians gathered under the arches of the catacombs and fervently prayed to their Heavenly Father, entrusting themselves, each other, their families and their whole lives to Him. They were then surrounded on all sides by cruel and merciless enemies. Every minute they were threatened with death or cruel torture, loss of relatives, friends, property. They were persecuted and despised, and the more ardent was their prayer, the more ardent was their hope in God, their love for Him and for each other! We are not currently being persecuted for our faith, no one is threatening our lives, but it cannot be said that our faith and our Christian feelings would not be subjected to severe testing even now, that they would not be in danger. This danger now threatens us not so much from the outside as from within, from ourselves, for now the living, sincere faith in us often fades away, and along with faith, the pure, holy Christian life weakens in us. We know that true happiness, true life are given only when there is an inner treasure in our souls, the treasure of faith, but how often do we find ourselves unable to protect and preserve this treasure within ourselves, plunging into our ordinary and varied everyday vanity. And it is difficult to say whose situation is sadder: the ancient Christians, persecuted and killed, but shining with inner beauty and the power of faith, or us, modern Christians, enjoying complete freedom in confessing our faith, but cooled down, indifferent, replacing the joys and consolations of faith with the joys and consolations of sensuality, pride and vanity? Cooling down internally, losing the power of faith, what will we give to our families, how will we save our children from the temptations of life, from the emptiness of the heart, from the aimlessness of existence? After all, it is known that the spiritual emptiness cannot be filled either by the education of the mind, or by noisy secularism, or by a brilliant social position, by anything except that wealth of the spirit, which lies primarily in deep and sincere faith in God! This is the concern, brothers and sisters, which at this solemn moment of the onset of the New Year should be especially close to our souls! Just as a mighty tree grows from a seed, so from the grain of sincere faith the entire virtuous life of a Christian grows and makes him a strong, healthy, useful member of Christian society. Standing at this moment, as if before the court of the Almighty, let us subject the past year of our life to an impartial examination, we will condemn ourselves sincerely for the fact that we sought in it other joys, other consolations, other than the consolations of pure, holy faith, let us ask the Lord to forgive us this sin and help us to find and cultivate in our hearts the invaluable treasure of faith, with which no trials of life are terrible... May He incinerate, Dear One, in our hearts everything unclean, everything sinful, everything selfish, may he remove despondency and cowardice from our hearts! Lord, have mercy on us! Heal our souls, for we have sinned against You! Teach us to do Your will, for You are our God, for You are the source of life! In Your light we will see light! Show Thy mercy to those who lead You! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1910 to October 1, 1911. Year eight. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1911. pp. 141–143. February 19, 1911, on the fiftieth anniversary of the liberation of peasants from serfdom Today marks fifty years since that significant day when, by the will of the Great Sovereign, Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich, tens of millions of peasants were freed from serfdom to their landowners. Truly, this was “the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” We can say with confidence that in our entire Russian history, not counting, of course, the day of the baptism of Rus' under Saint Vladimir, there was no other day that was so vividly imprinted by the gracious spirit of the Holy Gospel! As you know, the Holy Gospel nowhere directly condemns slavery; it even instructs slaves to obey their masters as to the Lord. But it does this not because it approves or blesses slavery, but because the Gospel never preaches a change in the social order. The Gospel always addresses the human soul, as the very root of human life. In her, it strives to bring about a beneficial change; it preaches brotherhood and love for one’s neighbor. But it is obvious that by preaching the brotherhood of all people, asserting that we are all children of one Heavenly Father, that we should not do to others what we do not wish for ourselves, that we all bear within ourselves the same image of God, that we should be compassionate and merciful to the unfortunate, it thereby rejects slavery as the brutal violence of some people over others. And so, the significant day of February 19, 1861 is great, bright and joyful because it brought with it into our people’s life the triumph of the Gospel covenant of brotherly love for one’s neighbor. If he had brought with him only freedom to the people, it would not have been so important. Freedom, not meaningful and not directed by the highest divine truth, often entails evil. But here freedom was combined with brotherly love and recognition of human dignity in the peasant, and this was where all the greatness of this historical moment was reflected. The upper classes of Russian society, educated, rich, powerful people, led by the Sovereign Emperor, extended their hand to the disenfranchised, humiliated peasant and told him - from now on you are our brother! You are the same person, created in the image and likeness of God, just like us. Get out of your pitiful, powerless state and take up with us common work for the benefit and happiness of our common dear Motherland! And in this recognition of his human dignity in the peasant, in this recognition of him as his full brother, in this participation in his pitiful situation lies the Christian meaning and high moral significance of an unforgettable day in the annals of Russia! This meaning of the great moment was understood then by Russian society. Deep, sincere joy then gripped all the hearts. Everyone felt as if Easter had arrived, although it was only the first Sunday of Lent. And so people, strangers to each other, on the day of the announcement of the manifesto on the liberation of the peasants joyfully greeted each other and, hugging, said: Christ is risen! And indeed, then the resurrection of Christ took place in the hearts of the Russian people, who awakened to a fraternal, truly Christian, truly human life! According to the poet’s fair expression, on this day, in a fit of brotherly feeling, peace and forgiveness, all the untruths, insults and sorrows of the past serfdom were forgotten. Remembering now this bright, only day of our Russian history, you, of course, will warmly respond with your children's and youthful hearts to those holy feelings that animated Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich, his employees and the best people of the then Russian society. Let this kind response turn into your constant mood. Let the motto of your life, according to the behest of Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich, forever be attention, respect and compassion for the weak, disadvantaged, dark, suffering people, our brothers; May there be no better goal for you in life than to serve these people with your own strength, with your knowledge... To Emperor Alexander the Second, who left us such a bright and holy covenant and who now animates us with holy and good feelings, may there be eternal memory in the hearts of the Russian people, who are infinitely grateful to him! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1910 to October 1, 1911. Year eight. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1911. pp. 143–145. April 8, 1911, Good Friday, after the removal of the Shroud When we lose someone dear to us, we like to remind ourselves of one or another of their good deeds, one or another of their thoughts and words. And remembering this, it is as if we are again living in the company of people dear to us who have left us, as if we are again having an intimate conversation with them. And at this moment we, children, stand with you in front of the Holy Shroud, which depicts the Most Pure Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, taken from the cross; we are reverently transported to the moment of the Savior’s grave suffering on the cross, and we involuntarily recall the words spoken by Him shortly before these sufferings: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to Himself” (John 12:32). These words, children, were fulfilled with all accuracy. Ascended to the cross, the Lord attracted the hearts of people to Himself. From this very moment, from the moment of the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, His glorification on earth begins. “Amen, amen, I say to you, although a grain of wheat falls on the ground and does not die, it remains alone; And if he dies, he produces much fruit” (John 12:24). The Lord died on the cross with a painful, terrible death, and this death brought great fruit - the atonement of the sin of the human race, the beginning of a new holy life of grace for all people. What is the power and salvific value of Christ’s suffering? It lies in the fact that these sufferings and the very death of Jesus Christ were the highest manifestation of God’s infinite love for us. The Lord died for our sins, for the sins of each of us individually, in order to deliver us from them, in order to ignite in our hearts the fire of reciprocal love for our Lord and with this fire to incinerate, destroy, tear out from our hearts all that bad, evil, unclean thing that has made a nest in our heart and reigns there undividedly. Since the fall of the first people, there has been no place for holiness and goodness in human hearts; in their place were rude egoism, pride and sensuality. The man was spiritually dying. Christ came to regenerate man. Just as Adam became the head of sinful humanity in the flesh, so Jesus Christ became the head of the new humanity in spirit and saves all those who spiritually cleave to Him and become one spirit with Him. So, children, seeing the great and innocent suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ, remembering His saving death, cling to Him with all the love of your childish heart. Love Him because He has endlessly loved you. Do not forget that each of your sins brings new suffering to Him, drives a new thorn into His brow, a new nail into His hands and feet. After all, He died for this purpose, so that you would die to sin. Reverently kiss His life-giving wounds and, carrying living love for Him in your heart, ask Him for forgiveness of your sins and help for a good, pure and holy life! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1910 to October 1, 1911. Year eight. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1911. pp. 145–146. August 15, 1911, on the day of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary Humanity does not know a death more peaceful, quiet and grace-filled than the death of the Most Holy Theotokos, which is why, in all fairness, it is called the Dormition. The Word of God tells us that “the death of sinners is cruel.” And this is understandable. The sinner lives entirely in the earthly world, in the world of earthly attachments, and often of the most unbridled passions. All the interests of his heart are concentrated here. He has no business, he is not at all interested, not at all attracted, the afterlife is completely unfamiliar to him, he rarely, and perhaps never, turned his thoughts to it. And so, at the moment of death, he is deprived of everything to which his sin-loving soul was attached, he comes face to face with that mysterious, unknown and endless existence, about which he thought so little before and into which he now has to enter. He involuntarily remembers everything that he has ever read or heard about the judgment of God, to which he will now appear, all his dirty, nasty, vicious deeds, which he did not have time and did not want to repent of, are clearly depicted to him, and his soul begins to tremble with late fear. Verily, “the death of sinners is cruel.” And although repentance is possible at the very last moment of life, is everyone capable of it at this time? The death of a righteous man is completely different, and even more so, of course, of the blessed Virgin Mary. For a righteous person there is never a sharp transition from earthly life to heavenly life. Even while living on earth, he walks with God. The fear of God is his constant companion all the days of his life. This was all the more true for the Mother of God, whose very birth was the fruit of the fervent prayer of Her pious parents. From her earliest childhood, she already loved an inseparable stay in the church of God, prayer was the constant breath of Her soul. From an early age, She became accustomed to the appearances of angels, and the invisible world was Her own, her own, desired world. Living on earth, She was not at all enslaved by earthly passions. Just as a rapidly rotating wheel touches the earth with only one point, and with all other points it rushes to the sky, so the soul of the Most Holy Theotokos was always directed towards the heavenly world, touching the earth only insofar as it was connected with the body. This mood, of course, intensified in Her even more from the moment when She learned from Archangel Gabriel about Her high destiny to be the Mother of the Son of God. Her entire subsequent earthly life was continuous service to Her beloved Son, unceasing care for Him, continuous sorrow, which reached its highest degree at the Cross of the Savior, on Golgotha. After the Ascension of the Lord, the soul of the Blessed Virgin languished with the desire to move on to the future life, in order to unite there again with Her Divine Son. And when, finally, this moment of transmigration into eternity came for Her, there was nothing in the soul of the Most Blessed One that could frighten Her before this fateful moment. Nothing earthly tied Her to itself so much as to obscure the heavenly before Her. Her pure heart had nothing to do with any evil that would frighten Her to appear before the Face of God. She was all striving for that world, where all Her thoughts had long been, where She was to meet Her beloved Son, and although, out of Her love for us, sinful people, She promised the holy apostles to be persistent from the earth, but precisely in order to more fully realize this persistence, She had to become closer to God, move to the heavenly villages. Thus, the death of the Most Holy Theotokos was in the full sense a blessed Assumption on earth for a blessed awakening in heaven! The pious Russian people have always found this kind of death extremely attractive, such a peaceful, shameless, blissful transition to eternal life. This is exactly the death that every Russian Orthodox person has always dreamed and dreams of for himself! This is why the Russian heart so loves the feast of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, this is why there are so many holy monasteries and holy churches across the Russian land dedicated to this holiday! Let us, children, imprint in our hearts this bright image of the blessed Dormition, we wish that our death, in due time, would also be peaceful and holy, and for this, from early childhood, we will preserve purity of heart and life, we will live on earth in such a way that, without fear and shame, we will always be ready to appear before the court of the righteous God and, according to His promise, to enter the bright abodes prepared for the righteous, where we will remain together with The Most Pure Virgin Mary and all the saints forever and ever. Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1911 to October 1, 1912. Year nine. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1912. pp. 191–193. On the day of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist - August 29, 1911 What sorrow and horror emanates, children, from the now remembered event, and at the same time how much light, joyful, deeply comforting and instructive there is in it for your heart! In the now-remembered event, human depravity, malice, cruelty, licentiousness and cowardice and human incorruptible courage, firmness, modesty, abstinence, love for God and truth sharply collided! It is easy for everyone to compare together these and other manifestations of the human soul, everyone has the opportunity to decide which side his sympathy leans on, who he would like to be more like in his life: the dissolute, weak Herod and the cruel, evil Herodias or the holy, righteous, courageous John, who suffered innocently for the truth of God! John's whole crime consisted in the fact that he recognized himself as a Preacher of truth and repentance sent by God. Boldly, despite his position, he denounced Herod for the bad deed he had committed, taking his wife away from his brother Philip. The evil and ambitious Herodias could not bear this reproof, and, at her insistence, the righteous man was imprisoned. But this was not enough for her. She did not want to calm down until she achieved the final death of the person she hated. Taking advantage of the opportunity when Herod, intoxicated by an immoderate feast, made a frivolous promise to his daughter, she demanded through her daughter’s mouth that the head of John the Baptist be given to her immediately on a platter. The insane, cruel demand was fulfilled. All of Judea was struck with horror at the news of this unprecedented atrocity. Only Herodias gloated and celebrated the victory. Aware of the horror of the crime committed, outraged by the insane feast during which the innocent blood of the great prophet of God was shed, reverent before the holy memory of the great faster, the Orthodox Church commemorates this day with strict fasting and abstinence, contrasting them with the insane licentiousness that led to the terrible crime. Today, our Russian Orthodox Church commemorates the soldiers who laid down their lives for the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland. Why did she establish this commemoration on this day? She established it according to the internal connection that exists between the Orthodox warrior and the great prophet of God John. John the Baptist, having renounced all earthly goods, dedicated his life to serving God and his holy truth. And the Orthodox warrior, devoting himself to the defense of the fatherland, renounces his family and all his earthly well-being, taking upon himself the grave obligation at any moment to be ready to expose his chest to bullets, bayonets and cannonballs for the sake of defending the Motherland. He puts into practice the commandment of the Savior: “Greater love has no one to sow, but whoever lays down his life for his friends.” Thus, he sets an example of self-sacrifice for the sake of fulfilling the duty entrusted to him by God, the Tsar and the Motherland. Saint John the Baptist died a martyr's, violent death. And the Orthodox warrior, who lays down his life on the battlefield, also dies a violent, martyr’s death. These similarities between both served as the reason for establishing the commemoration of Orthodox soldiers who died on the battlefield on this day. However, not every warrior is like St. John. Only those who are deeply imbued with strong faith in God, love for God and truth, purity of life, self-sacrifice, selfless readiness to conscientiously perform duty, courage, honesty, and fidelity are like him. Try, children, to preserve and cultivate these lofty traits in your hearts, and, inspired by the example of the great righteous man, grow up as faithful and courageous zealots of the truth of God and selfless, brave defenders of the Faith, the Tsar and the Motherland! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1911 to October 1, 1912. Year nine. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1912. pp. 193–194. On the day of the opening of the holy relics of St. Joseph, Bishop of Belgorod on September 4, 1911 Remember your teachers who preached the Word of God to you, and, looking at the end of their lives, imitate their faith. We often hear complaints about the fact that nowadays there is little in the life of people imbued with the Christian spirit. But if there are few of them, then with greater joy, love and reverence our gaze should dwell on these people when they actually appear among us. They, like bright stars, shine brightly on our spiritual horizon and illuminate the darkness of life for us. What would our life turn into, what a chaos of darkness and evil, if it were not at least occasionally illuminated by the rays of light of truly holy people! The Belgorod Saint Joasaph, now glorified by us, also belongs to the number of such lamps of faith and Christian life. Throughout his life he gives us a shining example of what, to the extent possible, each of us should be. Fiery commitment to God, extreme severity towards himself, zealous and steadfast preservation of the sacred, selfless upholding of the truth of God, tireless prayer before God, merciful active love for the suffering and disadvantaged - these are the main features of his spiritual appearance, by which he is truly likened to the great saint and Wonderworker Nicholas. Here we see him, an eleven-year-old boy, content with crusts of black bread while his family and their friends sit at the dinner feast table. We then see him as an 18-year-old youth, retiring to a gloomy forest cell for fervent, solitary prayer, and over the years this need for prayer turns into a constant inner presence with God, which finds expression in his famous touching prayer. His prophetic dreams are amazing, his deep, reverent love for St. Athanasius, the Wonderworker of Lubny, his humility and awareness of his extreme sinfulness: “Pray for me, St. Athanasius,” he begs, “so that the Lord will not reject me.” How not to be surprised then at his extraordinary spiritual sensitivity when, while spending the night in the priest’s house, he felt that in this house there was a great shrine that had been neglected! Let us remember his fearlessness in denouncing strong people, for example Count Saltykov for breaking his fast, or his compassionate care for Passek, despite the governor’s displeasure; Let us remember his active love for the poor and disadvantaged. He does not limit himself to monetary donations for the benefit of those in need, he himself goes to the poor, looks for them personally, helps them delicately, remaining unrecognized by anyone. And so, when you delve into the holy life of Saint Joasaph, when you remember all these bright features of his moral image, when you see the richly poured out grace of God on him, manifested in numerous miracles, you involuntarily become imbued with reverence and love for him. You too, children, will love him with your pure, responsive hearts, give him a place in the depths of your soul along with the saints of God who are most revered by you - St. Nicholas, St. Sergius of Radonezh, St. Seraphim of Sarov and others, turning to him with warm and earnest prayer in your needs, and, believe me, you will not be abandoned by him. One hundred and fifty years have passed since the death of Saint Joasaph; but he is alive to this day, and is close to us just as he was close to his contemporaries. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living - with Him everyone is alive. Saint Joasaph hears your prayers, looks at you with love from the heights of heaven and expects only one thing from you - that you turn your hearts to God with love and burn with the desire to live according to His holy commandments. Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1911 to October 1, 1912. Year nine. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1912. pp. 194–196. On the day of memory of Sergius of Radonezh, September 25, 1911, Sunday Today the Orthodox Church commemorates St. Sergius of Radonezh, whose name is so close to every Russian Orthodox person, and in particular to every youth, especially to students. St. Sergius of Radonezh is a great prayer book for the Russian land, who saved it with his holy prayers in the most difficult times of its existence, for example, during the struggle of Dmitry Ioannovich Donskoy with the Tatar Khan Mamai or in the era of unrest, impostors and Lithuanian ruin. St. Sergius is close to children, especially students, especially since in his early childhood he himself experienced the difficulties of studying, but overcame them with diligent prayer, work and patience, leaving us a high example in this regard forever. As you know, the Monk Sergius of Radonezh, who was called Bartholomew before becoming a monk, was the son of noble and wealthy parents who tried to give him an education sufficient for that time, but, unfortunately, he was not given a diploma. His parents admonished him, his mentors punished him, but nothing helped. Bartholomew himself was very sad about his inability to learn and earnestly prayed to the Lord to help him. One day, sent by his father to the field on business, he saw a reverent monk standing in prayer under a tree. Bartholomew approached him, waited until the monk finished his prayer, came up to him for a blessing and, revealing to him his childhood grief, with tears asked him to pray for him to the Lord God, so that the Lord would open his mind to the understanding of book wisdom. The monk listened kindly to the boy, calmed him down and began to pray for him, and Bartholomew himself prayed along with the monk. At the end of the prayer, the monk took part of the prosphora from the reliquary and gave it to Bartholomew. He accepted the holy bread with faith and reverence and partook of it. The monk blessed the boy again and wanted to leave, but Bartholomew invited him to his house, saying: “My parents love people like you!” The monk fulfilled the boy’s desire and, entering the house of his parents, first of all began to pray. He blessed the beginning of the hours, and ordered Bartholomew to read a psalm. In vain did the youth excuse himself by not knowing. The monk insisted. Bartholomew opened the book of hours and, to his surprise and joy, began to freely read the book, which had previously presented him with insurmountable difficulties. After spending some time in the house of Bartholomew's parents, the monk left, and from then on Bartholomew began to study with complete success. Looking into the life of St. Sergius, we see, children, that from early childhood he possessed some extremely precious properties: he knew how to pray with ardent faith and love, giving himself up to prayer with all his heart, he was extremely reasonable, modest, obedient, hardworking, patient, persistent. Every year, the desire to serve the one God with fasting and prayer flared up in his soul more and more. Obeying this desire, he withdrew into the impenetrable thicket of the forest, lived there among wild animals, which he conquered and accustomed to himself with his unfailing love and meekness. And so the fame of him, as a great ascetic and man of prayer, spread throughout the Russian land, imitators of his holy life gathered around him, and a holy monastery was created. For the holy life of St. Sergius, the blessing of God rested on this monastery. It grew, expanded, strengthened and finally became famous in the chronicles and in the heart of the Russian people - the Holy Trinity Lavra of Sergius. Of course, children, not everyone is capable of those high feats that the youth Bartholomew undertook. Not everyone and you can be monks, be ascetics. But each of you can, to a greater or lesser extent, borrow from St. Sergius the good things that shone through his holy soul. When you feel that one or another of you is not being taught, do not be discouraged, do not lose heart, do not give up. Remember with what warmth of faith St. Sergius placed all his trust in God! So you, too, ask God for help from the bottom of your heart! And believe, this gracious help will come to you! And at the same time, continue to work patiently and persistently. Seeing your labors and patience, the Lord will help you! Be meek, obedient, reasonable, as St. Sergius teaches you to be! Grow in your spirit constantly, freeing yourself from shortcomings, improving in good things, and although you will not reach the heights of St. Sergius, you will still follow that holy, good path of life that the monk walked, and his holy blessing and the blessing of God will rest on you. Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1911 to October 1, 1912. Year nine. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1912. pp. 196–198. On how to learn fervent prayer - November 6, 1911 One of the shortcomings of our prayer, both at home and in church, is the absent-mindedness and inattentiveness with which we perform our prayer. Only our body, and even then often reluctantly, is present at prayer, but our soul wanders far away, overwhelmed by various memories, dreams, worries, desires of a completely different, non-prayerful content, which do not leave us even during prayer. Why is this happening? Why is it so boring to pray sometimes? Why is it sometimes that you don’t want to go to church, why is it so hard to stand in it? I will tell you one of the main reasons for this sad phenomenon. This happens because when we stand for prayer, we do not think at all about the greatness or the infinite mercy and goodness of the One before whom we stand. If, in ordinary, non-prayerful times, we would more often turn our spiritual gaze to the contemplation of the beauties of the visible world and its majestic phenomena, for example, we would imagine the wondrous beauty of the vast seas and oceans, high picturesque mountains, dense forests, endless rivers, if we were more often immersed in the contemplation of the vault of heaven and the countless stars decorating it, then we would involuntarily think with the greatest reverence and about the One who brought into being all this diverse and wondrous beauty of the universe. We would feel His omnipotence and His intelligence, and our soul would be filled with sacred awe, love and gratitude to the Creator of the world. We would experience the same feeling that Jacob once experienced when, fleeing from his brother Esau in Mesopotamia, he stopped for the night in the desert and saw in a dream a ladder above him, the top reaching heaven, and on it the Lord and angels ascending and descending along the ladder. Jacob woke up and trembled; he felt the presence of the Living God near him and exclaimed: “This place is terrible, but I didn’t know it; this is not an ordinary place: this is the house of God, this is the gates of heaven!” This is the feeling that the wondrous church of the universe conveys to man. It will also be communicated to us if we accustom ourselves, in the greatness and beauty of the world, to understand the perfections of its Creator. But this is not enough. Think, on the other hand, about the greatness of God’s merciful love for us. God loved the world so much that He did not spare His Only Begotten Son and sent Him into the world. And He, to whom legions of angels, seraphim and cherubim reverently sing a song of praise, took upon Himself the image of a man, was born in a wretched cave, walked on our sinful earth, took upon Himself our sins and infirmities, taught us to know God, taught us a good, bright, reasonable life, died for us on the cross and with His Resurrection laid the foundation for our universal blessed resurrection. Think about all this more deeply, and you, of course, will be deeply moved to tears by this great God's love for us and care for us! You will feel God’s closeness to you even more vividly! And so, if, when standing for prayer or entering a church, you would remind yourself before Whom you stand, before Whom you are praying, if at this time you would vividly imagine all the greatness and all the goodness of the Creator of the universe, then coldness, and boredom, and all extraneous, unnecessary and sinful thoughts would fly away from you. Your heart would be inflamed with a warm feeling of reverence, gratitude, love for your heavenly Father, and prayer would not seem long or tedious to you. Let us always try to remember what we have said now, we will try more often to turn our thoughts in the direction we have indicated, and then, with God’s help, we will learn to pray in a real way, and not just be present at prayer. Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1911 to October 1, 1912. Year nine. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1912. pp. 198–199. On the day of remembrance of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious, November 26 [1911] - about the ideal of a warrior Today the Orthodox Church commemorates the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious, and today our valiant Russian army celebrates the day of its main military order. Why was the main military order established in honor of the Holy Great Martyr George? Who was the Holy Great Martyr George? In what spiritual traits is he an example for Russian Orthodox soldiers? The Holy Great Martyr George lived at the beginning of the 4th century after the Nativity of Christ and held a high position at the court of the Roman Emperor Diocletian - he was a member of the highest military council in the state. He was young, handsome, noble, courageous, truthful and philanthropic. He was considered a pagan, but long ago the grace of God touched his soul, and in the depths of his heart he was a sincere Christian. He did not reveal his Christianity not because he was afraid of death, not because he valued his high position under the emperor, but because, being close to the supreme government of the empire, he could to some extent protect Christians from persecution by pagans. But then Emperor Diocletian, under the influence of bad advisers, decided to begin an open persecution of the followers of Christian teaching. The straightforward Georgy could not restrain himself any longer. He firmly and boldly declared in the Supreme Council of State, in the presence of the emperor himself, that it was unfair to persecute people who did no evil. “How long will it be for you, king, and for you, princes and advisers, to commit evil deeds under the pretext of the law? How long will you persecute innocent and virtuous people who do not offend anyone, but, on the contrary, set an example of a pious life? You are mistaken in worshiping idols. Jesus Christ is the true God. Know the truth, or at least stop confusing those who have understood it with your madness! This is what Saint George said. Diocletian, out of surprise, could not utter a word for a long time... Finally, having come to his senses a little, he said: “I have known you for a long time, George, and I respect your courage. I have honored you with a high rank and now I am still ready to forgive you your daring words in memory of your previous merits. As a father, I advise you: do not ruin your youth, do not deprive yourself of our favors, and now make a sacrifice to the gods.” "Tsar! - answered the valiant warrior of Christ, - you better turn to the true God and offer Him a sacrifice of praise. He will make you worthy of the kingdom of heaven. Earthly power is fickle, wealth is not durable; there can be no true happiness in it. No earthly blessings will turn me away from God; no torment will frighten me or shake my faith!” The angry Diocletian ordered Saint George to be imprisoned. There they put his feet in stocks and placed a heavy stone on his chest. Saint George bravely endured suffering and thanked the Lord. Few martyrs were subjected to such terrible torture as St. George; why the church calls him a great martyr. Called after torture to the king for admonition, Saint George invariably told him: “Do you really think, king, that these insignificant sufferings will distract me from my faith? You will sooner tire of tormenting me than I will tire of enduring torment!” He was again sent to the executioners. They put him under a wheel with sharp knives and with these knives they tore out pieces of meat from his body, buried him in a hole with lime, put hot iron shoes with nails inside on his feet, and in these shoes they dragged him through the streets and beat him cruelly. But the Lord protected the sufferer. Many, touched by the suffering and courage of Saint George, came to him in prison and asked him for instructions. He told them about the true God, exhorted them to give up idolatry, and converted many pagans to Christ. They also brought the sick into prison, and Saint George healed them with his prayer. Diocletian's wife herself, Queen Alexandra, touched by the example of the great martyr, turned to Christ. Finally, after numerous and severe tortures, Saint George’s head was cut off. The Holy Great Martyr George is often depicted sitting on a white horse, slaying a terrible serpent with a spear. This image can also be understood in the sense that Saint George, by the power of his courage and faith, crushed the hydra of paganism. But there is a legend that bases this image on the following fact. They say that not far from the place where Saint George was buried, near the city of Beirut, a terrible monster emerged from the lake, which devastated the entire surrounding area and infected the air with its deadly breath. To satisfy the monster, neighboring residents had to bring one of their children to the shore of the lake every day as food for the beast. And so, when one day on the shore of the lake a young Christian girl stood sacrificed to a monster, she saw next to her a holy young man on a white horse, armed with a spear. This was the Holy Great Martyr George. As soon as the monster appeared from the lake, Saint George, making the sign of the cross, rushed at him and mortally struck him with his spear. For this victory he was called the Victorious. Now it is clear to you, children, why the Holy Great Martyr George is the patron of the highest military order. His life serves as a high example for every Christian warrior. His heart was full of the deepest and most sincere faith in God. The truth of God was above all for him. He was not afraid of death, he was not cowardly before the powers that be. He bravely and cheerfully endured the greatest suffering, was patient and enduring. Finally, he had a loving and kind heart and was a fearless defender of the downtrodden. These are the moral traits that adorned Saint George and with which every Orthodox warrior should be adorned. That is why the Russian army has St. George as its patron, and that is why the Order of St. George is given to those warriors who, having suffered wounds in the struggle for the Faith, the Tsar and the Motherland, showed an example of irresistible courage and true philanthropy. May the spiritual image of the Holy Great Martyr George be firmly imprinted in your souls, may he be for you the ideal of military rank and may, inspired by this ideal, you too be, like St. George, victorious in the fight against the evil of the world! Amen! Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1911 to October 1, 1912. Year nine. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1912. pp. 199–201. Before the memorial service for the murdered former students of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps - December 5, 1911 Now, according to our existing custom, we will pray for the former students of our Corps, who laid down their lives in battle for the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland. The history of our Corps has brought many of these glorious names to its pages! The nine mourning plaques in this holy church are inscribed with these names! And they are close to us, these names! They are close to us not only because those who wore them studied within the same walls where you are now studying, not only because here, among us, are their relatives and friends, but because most of all, the same Russian heart beats in us as beat in them, that we love our faith, our Tsar and our Motherland just as much as they loved, and are just as ready to selflessly lay down our heads for them, as they laid down!.. These common feelings with strong, inextricable bonds unite us with them into one friendly blood family! And so, remembering them prayerfully, cultivate in yourself the feelings that animated them, cultivate those feelings for which the Russian Christ-loving warrior was famous from time immemorial! Sincere faith in God, childlike devotion to native Orthodoxy, ardent love for the Motherland, boundless loyalty to the Sovereign, conscientious and strict attitude to duty, modesty, simplicity, selfless courage, exactingness towards inferiors without cruelty, closeness without familiarity - these are the features that have always constituted the moral beauty of the Russian Orthodox warrior, and at the same time his strength, the strength that protected and preserved the independence and prosperity of the Russian land - first from the Tatars, then from the Poles, from the Swedes, from the Turks, from the French. By cultivating these feelings in yourself, you, like them, will be able, at the necessary historical moment, to selflessly stand up for the defense of your national heritage and serve God, the Tsar and the Motherland the same great service as they did! And may the Lord grant them eternal and blissful memory in their heavenly abodes, where there is no illness, no sorrow, no sighing, but endless life! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1911 to October 1, 1912. Year nine. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1912. P. 202. On the day of the Ascension of the Lord, May 3, 1912 “Thou art ascended into heaven, O God, and Thy glory is throughout all the earth!” - this is how the Orthodox Church sings and thereby notes the amazing fact that the Ascension into heaven of our Lord Jesus Christ is at the same time the beginning of His glory throughout the entire earth. It usually happens the other way around: if someone leaves from one place to another, then gradually his ties with the place he left behind weaken, former friends and close people gradually forget the one who left them, and if communication between them is not renewed from time to time, then, finally, any memory of the person who has left for another place completely disappears. This is not what we see in relation to Jesus Christ. Having blessed his disciples, He ascends from them to heaven in their eyes. So what? Not only are they not saddened by this event, but they joyfully return to Jerusalem and, ten days after receiving the power of the Holy Spirit, they disperse throughout the entire universe and fill it with preaching about the Crucified and Risen Lord. “Their words went out into all the earth, and their words into the ends of the world...” Obviously, seeing the Lord ascending, they did not look at this as separation from Him. They understood that, while moving away from them visibly, the Lord invisibly remained with them; they felt His closeness in their hearts, felt it so vividly that involuntary joy made their souls tremble. And preaching His name throughout the entire universe, they continued to feel Him with them, and this gave them strength and courage to endure all the countless sorrows, trials, and difficulties. Why didn’t the Lord remain on earth in a visible, bodily form after His Resurrection? This is also why a mother does not always lead her child, who is just beginning to walk, by the hand, but sometimes leaves him to his own strength. Without losing sight of His disciples, continuing to look down on them from His holy heights, the Lord found it necessary to accustom them to independent action in Christ in order to then accept them into His heavenly abodes, as He told them: “I am going to prepare a place for you.” You and I, children, find ourselves in this same position in relation to Jesus Christ. We do not see Him with our bodily eyes, He seems to have moved away from us, but this is done only so that we, even in His absence, learn to be faithful to Him. In fact, He continues to be with us spiritually, looking at us invisibly, observing our life, our actions, our internal struggle, the fight against evil in our soul and is ready to lend us a helping hand at every moment. One saint, struggling with sinful thoughts, called on the Lord for help for a long time and unsuccessfully, and finally the Lord appeared to her. “Where have you been, Lord, until now? - she said. “Why didn’t you come to help me?” “Yes, I was with you! - answered the Lord. “I was in your heart, and you could have guessed this just by the fact that you did not agree with your bad thoughts.” So, children, the holiday of the Ascension of the Lord is a holiday of joy. This event assures us, on the one hand, that there is another world, a world of blessed life, where the Lord ascended, on the other hand, that the Lord is alive today, as He was alive in the time of the apostles, and on the third hand, that He carefully observes our lives, rejoicing in our victories over evil, grieving over our falls. Let us be inspired by these thoughts and try to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, so that we can always be with Him in the future life! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1911 to October 1, 1912. Year nine. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1912. pp. 205–206). On the anniversary of the Holy Coronation of Their Imperial Majesties on May 14, 1912 Today, on the day of the Holy Coronation of Their Imperial Majesties, when the Orthodox Church, through the anointing with holy myrrh, brings down the grace of the Holy Spirit on the Most Pious Sovereign Emperor and Empress, in order to assist Them in the great feat of government, let us focus our attention on the relationship of the Church to state power. Nowadays, you will often hear from those holding so-called leftist views not only a negative, but downright hostile attitude towards state power, and the famous Russian writer L. N. Tolstoy directly states that recognition of state power is supposedly incompatible with Christian teaching. He resolutely accuses our Orthodox Church of supporting state power and thereby allegedly going against the teachings of Jesus Christ. But is this true? Is it fair that state power is an evil unacceptable by Christianity? The Church never thinks like that and never did. The Church does not agree with those who claim that state power is evil and violence. The Church has a completely different concept of state power, and this concept is clearly revealed in the 13th chapter of the Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Romans, which you will hear today at prayer singing. The Apostle Paul says: let every soul, every person, be subject to the powers that be... Why obey? Because there is no authority established not from God. The existing authorities are established by God. And so, state power is not, as some people think, the result of human violence and seizure, no, it is God’s institution, it is an instrument of Divine Providence, designed to maintain order in the life of human society and establish peace and security. And therefore, he who resists authority resists God's institution. The holy apostle clearly indicates the purpose of power. Leaders, he says, are terrible not for good deeds, but for evil ones. The boss is God's servant, for your good. If you do evil, be afraid: for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is God's servant, an avenger to punish those who do evil (Rom. 13:4). Thus, the purpose of government is to protect what is good, to protect peaceful and honest working citizens from violence and oppression by evil people. This is what the holy apostle says about power in those days when that power was pagan emperors who cruelly persecuted Christians. And in those terrible times, he found it possible to attribute a high and good purpose to state power. Moreover, of course, the words of the apostle refer to Christian authority, which recognizes the law of Christ as the supreme guiding principle of life. It would have been possible to speak about the uselessness of state power even then, if the spirit of the Gospel had penetrated into all hearts and had been deeply imprinted in them, so that all people would have been guided in their mutual relations only by the law of Christ. But even then, someone would still have the responsibility to maintain order in society. How can we do without state coercive power in our times, when many are deterred from violence against their neighbors only by the fear of civil retribution, only by the fear of armed force? State power is, therefore, that external stronghold that makes it possible for everyone within it to peacefully develop and improve in the spirit of the Gospel covenants. This is precisely its high purpose. And therefore she is good, not evil. And one must obey her not only out of fear of punishment, but also out of conscience, out of confidence that she is doing a good and useful deed. The highest power in our fatherland belongs to the Sovereign Emperor. He is entrusted by God with the care of millions of His subjects. Such a great ministry requires special assistance from God. And so our church, fully aware of the great burden and great responsibility of the royal service, through the special sacrament of Chrismation, calls upon God’s chosen one the co-operating power of the Holy Spirit. Let us also pray our, perhaps inept, but sincere prayer, that the Almighty Lord, with His omnipotent grace, will help our Most Pious Sovereign Emperor and Empress in the matters of Their royal service! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1911 to October 1, 1912. Year nine. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1912. pp. 207–208. August 18, 1912, before the start of classes and on the occasion of the bringing of the Gorbanevskaya Icon of the Mother of God to the Corps “And where do I get this, so that the Mother of my Lord may come to me?” (Luke 1:43). So, not believing herself with joy, righteous Elizabeth exclaimed when she saw the Blessed Virgin Mary in her house. So, children, it is natural and fitting for us to say this at this moment, when we stand in this holy church in front of the miraculous Gorbanevsky image of the Mother of God that has just been brought to us. Along with this image, the Mother of God Herself is invisibly present here among us and looks at us with Her loving and caring maternal gaze. Feeling Her presence, rejoicing in the presence of Her Most Pure Image among us, let us turn to Her ourselves, like obedient and loving children, with warm prayer, with complete trust, asking Her for protection, help and support for the labors ahead of us in the coming school year. And our fervent prayer will not remain fruitless. But from the fact that the Queen of Heaven herself visited us on this day in Her miraculous image, another duty follows for us. If the Queen of Heaven has approached us, then we will draw closer to Her with our hearts, we will become closer to God, we will become closer to Jesus Christ, and let this closeness of our hearts to the invisible, spiritual and holy world be the basis of our life and all our activities in the coming school year. We have a lot of work ahead of us. We must do a lot of mental work. We need to work a lot on ourselves and morally. There is, undoubtedly, a lot of chaff in our souls. Our strength, both physical and mental, is small. They'll be torn soon. We will soon weaken in our wonderful impulses to work and study. Where to get animation from? Where to renew your supply of strength and vigor? Let us take them from the inexhaustible source of Reason and Goodness, from the Lord God. Let the living feeling of closeness to Him not become scarce in our hearts, let the constant prayerful appeal to God burn and shine in our hearts, let our trust be placed in Him alone, and, believe me, children, this will be a source of constant spiritual renewal for you! But closeness to God is impossible if we do not fulfill His commandments to the best of our ability. Therefore, let us be careful about our actions. Let us exercise a constant, strict judgment of conscience over ourselves and over our actions and intentions; we will not allow ourselves anything that would be contrary to the commandments of God. By carefully protecting ourselves from bad deeds, doing as much good as we can, maintaining the flame of constant prayer in our hearts, we will strengthen ourselves not only morally, but also mentally and physically, and the coming working school year will not be fruitless for us! And so, with God and under the shelter of the Mother of God, let us begin our work amicably and cheerfully, calling on God’s blessing to our work! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1912 to October 1, 1913. Year ten. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1913. pp. 163–164. August 26, 1912, the centenary of the Battle of Borodino Today marks one hundred years since the famous Battle of Borodino. Today, the attention and feeling of the Russian people are turned in one direction, towards the fields of Borodino, abundantly watered with blood, where numerous representatives of the Russian people, led by their Sovereign Leader, offer a prayer of gratitude to the Lord God for the power and help He has given from above to our Christ-loving army and the entire Russian people in this time of difficult trial. We, too, join this nationwide Russian prayer at this moment and turn our hearts to God with a feeling of great gratitude. A terrible and menacing cloud was approaching us then from the west. The conqueror of almost all of Western Europe, standing at the head of a huge, invincible army, attacked our fatherland. It was something similar to the invasion of Batu, the invasion of Tamerlane. What could we oppose to this proud conqueror? We could not compare with him either in the size of our army or in the quality of our weapons. We could not rely on our own strength. We could do only one thing: realizing our weakness, but at the same time our righteousness, turn with a prayer for help to the One to whom the Russian heart is always accustomed to turn in difficult times. We turned to God: God is our refuge and strength! Every Russian soul was then seized by such a feeling, from the Tsar to the last peasant. There was no fear in anyone, there was no cowardice or timidity in anyone, there was no desire in anyone to give in, to buy the security of the fatherland at the price of humiliation. Everyone was ready to die, but not to lay down their weapons in front of the enemy. “I will not lay down my arms until,” said Alexander the Blessed, “as long as at least one enemy soldier remains in my country.” And these words of the King were an expression of a common feeling, a common desire, a common decision. Everyone united around the Emperor, like children around their father. Everyone was equally selflessly inspired by love for the fatherland, everyone was equally ready to sacrifice both property and life for it. So what? Neither the genius of their commander, nor the numerical superiority of the army, nor the previously acquired confidence in victory helped the French. All their efforts were defeated, and they were defeated not by the strength of our army, but by the strength and strength of our spirit. The strength and fortitude of our spirit came entirely from the sincerity and depth of our trust in God, our love for the Motherland, our devotion to the Tsar! Let us, children, learn from this sacred memory to understand and remember what the strength of the Russian people and the strength of the Russian Christ-loving army consists of. Let us keep within ourselves those same holy feelings that made our ancestors invincible and indestructible. Let us burn with their fiery faith, their unshakable trust in God, as well as in the zealous Intercessor of the Christian race, the Mother of God, who once on this very day, August 26th, having appeared in a menacing vision to another great conqueror Tamerlane, forced him to turn his hordes from the borders of Russia. This hope will not put us to shame! With strong and pure love we will love both the Motherland and its Supreme Leader, our Most Pious Sovereign Emperor, and if the Lord wishes to send down in our days the same difficult test on our Motherland as it experienced a hundred years ago, let the enemy find in us the same feelings, the same animation that the French met in our ancestors! With this wish, let us now begin a prayer of gratitude to the Lord God for the Helping Hand sent to our Fatherland a hundred years ago! Amen! Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1912 to October 1, 1913. Year ten. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1913. pp. 164–165. January 1, 1913, after the liturgy Today's Gospel tells how the 12-year-old boy Jesus traveled to Jerusalem for the holiday of Easter with His Most Pure Mother and Righteous Joseph and what happened. For this day, for the first day of the new year, and for you, children, this Gospel reading is very instructive. Entering the new year of our lives, who should we really learn from if not the Lord Jesus Christ, and you, children, who should you take as an example if not the 12-year-old boy Jesus?! So, what does the boy Jesus teach us? First of all, He teaches us love for the church of God, love for spiritual wisdom. Notice that He goes to the church of God with the greatest eagerness, with such eagerness that when the time came to return home, He did not leave the church, but chose to remain there and spend time there talking with the teachers of the law. Do we, children, have such a desire to visit the church of God? Do we rush to it, as to a place where we can be with God, pour out our souls before Him, and be consoled by sincere prayer? The youth Jesus spent three days talking about the objects of faith with the teachers of the law of the Jewish people. Do we have such an interest in questions of faith, in questions of Christian life, that we willingly and for a long time, and moreover at our own request, talk with experienced people about these subjects? Next, the boy Jesus teaches us obedience to elders. When He was taken from Nazareth to the Temple of Jerusalem for the Passover holiday, He did not refuse to go there; Having remained in the church to talk with the scribes, He did not resist going home when the Blessed Virgin Mary found Him and took Him back to Nazareth. Do we always willingly obey when elders invite us to go to the church of God? Do we then not grumble against them? Don’t we sometimes try, under one plausible pretext or another, to refuse to fulfill their will? Let us learn obedience from Christ! And the boy Jesus teaches us hard work! He diligently helps his imaginary father Joseph in his work - carpentry. Do we willingly carry out the work assigned to us? Don’t we sometimes refuse to prepare lessons under all sorts of excuses? Don't we prefer to spend our time in idleness? Don't we rejoice at every excuse not to work? And so, children, as we begin the new year, let us turn our attention to the child Jesus. May He be our mentor and our guide in the coming year. Let us learn from Him to love the church of God, to love and read the word of God, to delve into Christian life and learn from it, we will learn from Him meekness, patience and obedience, we will learn to work hard... And if, starting the New Year, we set ourselves these good goals, then, undoubtedly, the New Year 1913 will not be fruitless for us, in which may the Lord help us all. Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1912 to October 1, 1913. Year ten. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1913. pp. 171–172). February 2, 1913 - about churching Today we remember how Jesus Christ, as a 40-day-old baby, was brought to the Temple of Jerusalem for dedication to God and how He was met there and received into His arms by the righteous Elder, Simeon the God-Receiver. The separate holidays of almost five branches of our Corps coincide with this holiday. The coincidence is significant! We should focus on it and draw a lesson from it for ourselves. And in our Orthodox Church there is a custom of bringing 40-day-old babies to church. At the same time, the priest meets the mother and child at the entrance to the church and reads the prescribed prayer over them. Then he takes the baby in his arms, draws a cross with them and says: the servant of God such and such or the servant of God such and such is going to church in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. After this, he carries the baby inside the church, saying: He will enter Your house, bow down to Your holy church. Having reached the middle of the church, he says: in the middle of the church he will sing to You. Then the priest says the prayer of the righteous Simeon the God-Receiver, and if the baby is male, he brings him into the altar, but if it is female, he places him at the royal gates, from where his mother takes him, accepts the baby as if from the hands of God Himself. What does this custom of the Orthodox Church mean? It means that every Christian mother, remembering the words of the Lord: whoever loves a son or daughter more than Me is unworthy of Me, brings her baby to the church, as if giving him to God. She no longer considers him hers, she includes him among the members of the church, among those dedicated to God... God, accepting this sacrifice of hers, returns the baby back to her from the altar, and she takes him away with the consciousness that she carries in her arms the gift of God. This custom is called churching. Many of you children are celebrating your separate holiday today. Apply everything I said above to yourself. Once upon a time, your mothers brought you all to the church and churched you, that is, dedicated you to God, thereby expressing the desire for your souls to be completely devoted to God. Then you didn’t understand what they were doing to you and why. Now you have come of age and can consciously relate to what was done to you in infancy. Remember that you were dedicated to God by your mothers. And remembering this consciously, as much as you can, now devote yourself to God, that is, remember your responsibility before God and try to live like a Christian. This is what this holiday reminds us of and this is what our duty it shows us! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1912 to October 1, 1913. Year ten. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1913. pp. 172–173. February 21, 1913, on the day of the 300th anniversary of the prosperous reign of the House of Romanov Today, throughout the Russian land, the three-hundredth anniversary of the prosperous reign of the House of Romanov is solemnly celebrated, a prayer of gratitude is offered to the Lord God for all the good that was sent down to the Russian land over the past period of time. True, over these three hundred years the Russian people have experienced a lot of grief. How could it be otherwise? If in the life of an individual, for all its short duration, there are not only joys, but also sorrows, not only successes, but also failures, then how could all this not be in the life of a great people over the 300 years of its historical existence! With all this, if we compare the state of our fatherland three hundred years ago and now, we cannot help but notice its enormous growth and the improvement of its life in all respects. A detailed picture of this growth and development of the Russian state over the past three hundred years will be presented to you by others - this is not the place or time to dwell on this circumstance for a long time. And therefore I will only show you that inner strength, that inner source, which is the true reason for the mighty growth of our fatherland. Remember what saved Russia in the troubled years of imposture? Just as the cause of the then disorder and the inevitable death of the Russian state was the forgetting of God's truth and the pursuit exclusively of one's narrow, selfish interests, so, on the contrary, the cause of salvation was moral sobering up from this moral intoxication, the turning of all hearts to God, unification in the name of God, humility before God and the desire to selflessly live in the name of God's truth. When such a mood gripped the entire Russian people, under the influence of the calls of Patriarch Hermogenes, Dionysius, Minin and others, then a new healthy, strong life began in Rus'. So, the source of salvation lay in moral regeneration. This holy mood was also invested in the great matter of electing the first tsar from the House of Romanov, Mikhail Fedorovich; The young elected Tsar Michael was also imbued with this mood, accepting the royal service with great tears as a heavy cross of selfless service to his native land. This mood was the good seed from which our entire subsequent national and state life developed, which welded the Russian people into a close, friendly family, united around their kings, God’s anointed. This mood also inspired our great kings in their royal labors - remember, for example, Peter the Great, Alexander the Blessed, Nicholas the First, Alexander the Liberator, Alexander the Peacemaker and the now safely reigning Sovereign Emperor. Thus, the past three hundred years of our historical life clearly reveals to us the driving force of our national development and well-being. This strength is the spirit of renunciation of selfish goals, the spirit of a sincere desire to implement the truth of God in our national life, the spirit of unhypocritical unity among ourselves and with our kings in the name of God, according to the covenant of the Orthodox Church. Keep this spirit in your hearts, children; look in your life not for your own, but for God’s; remain faithful to the kings, devotion to the Motherland, and you will continue the work that the best Russian people did in the past three hundred years. Then you will understand the spirit and strength of our people and merge with them in one common mood and work! Amen. Pech. by: Romashkevich A.D. Materials on the history of the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps from October 1, 1912 to October 1, 1913. Year ten. - Poltava. Electrical printing house of G. I. Markevich. Kotlyarevsky Boulevard. 1913. pp. 175–176. Now the city of Artemovsk, Donetsk region Bulletin of the RSHD. Paris - New York. No. 45, II – 1957. pp. 31–35 Archpriest Sergius Chetverikov. About the difficulties of religious life in childhood and youth // “Russian Revival”. Independent Russian Orthodox national magazine. New York. 1982, no. 17, pp. 62–79. Bulletin of the RSHD. Paris - New York. No. 45, II – 1957. pp. 31–35. Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky). Biography. Letters to various persons. – St. Petersburg: Oleg Abyshko Publishing House, 2006. P. 122. Archpriest Sergius Chetverikov. About faith in Christ: The thousand-year journey of the Russian Orthodox people with Christ, - M.: Valaam Monastery, 1998. Ignatovich N. D. Holy Cross Orthodox Labor Brotherhood of N. N. Neplyuev: life according to the Gospel as a challenge to disunity / / Materials of the XIX International Conference of the Transfiguration Commonwealth of Small Orthodox Communities and St. Philaret Orthodox Christian Institute “So that by looking at the Holy Trinity the fear of the hateful discord of this world can be overcome”: community, community and communication in the modern world.” Moscow, September 30 – October 2, 2009 Ignatovich N.D. Decree. op. Archpriest Sergius Chetverikov. About faith in Christ: The thousand-year journey of the Russian Orthodox people with Christ. Neplyuev N.H. Guardian's report from September 14, 1897 to September 14, 1899 // Collected Works. In 5 volumes - St. Petersburg, 1901–1908. T. 5. P. 152. http: / / drevo-info.ru / articles / 15017. html Lives of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in the 20th century, compiled by Abbot Damaskin (Orlovsky). July. – Tver, 2009. pp. 264–265. Lives of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in the 20th century, compiled by Abbot Damaskin (Orlovsky). June. – Tver, 2008. Mezin S. A., Stupina A. S. Old Saratov in the memoirs of cultural figures. - Saratov. NI SSU im. N.G. Chernyshevsky, 2005. Lives of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in the 20th century, compiled by Abbot Damaskin (Orlovsky). June. http://www.museum.poltava.ua The story was recorded from the words of Father Sergius at a cadet tea in Paris on June 16, 1939 by Colonel B. D. Prikhodkin (http://histpol.pl.ua). http://histpol.pl.ua pp. 25–26. Here Bishop Evlogii apparently means the family of Vera Nikolaevna Orsag, who married the military attache of Czechoslovakia Josef Orsag. Vera Nikolaevna did an extraordinary amount for Russian refugees in the matter of mercy and charity. Metropolitan Evlogy. The path of my life. Memoirs of Metropolitan Eulogius (Georgievsky), based on his stories by T. Manukhina. – M.: Moscow worker, Publishing department of the All-Church Orthodox Youth Movement, 1994. In fact, Father Sergius had two sons - Theodosius and Sergei. – Ed. The dates appear to be inaccurate. – Ed. Prot. V. Zenkovsky. My meetings with outstanding people // Notes of the Russian Academic Group in the USA. T. XXVII. – New York, 1995. Kirlezhev A. Anniversary of the RSHD (1923 – 1998) / / http:// www.religare.ru Ivanen A. Russian student Christian movement in Estonia in the 1930s // Church Bulletin, No. 11 (264), June, 2003. Dimitry Klepinin (Dmitry Andreevich Klepinin) (1904, Pyatigorsk - 1944, Dora concentration camp, Germany). Graduated from the St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris (1929, first graduation). Psalmist at the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Paris (1930–1937). Deacon (1937). The Priest (1937). Assistant rector of the Church of the Entry of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Church (1937–1938). Rector of the Holy Trinity Church in Ozoir-la-Ferrière (near Paris) (1938–1939). One of the founders, together with his mother Maria (Skobtsova), of the charitable and cultural-educational organization helping Russian emigrants “Orthodox Cause”. Canonized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 2004. http: / / www. liveinternet.ru / users / stetoskop3 / blog# post65203981 TsGIA SPb. F. 7131, on. 1. 4, l. 6–7. TsGIA SPb. F. 7131, on. 1. 4, l. 30–36. Volkova V.F. Russian Student Christian Movement and its relationship to the church hierarchy // http: / / zarubezhje.narod.ru, 2004 Makarov L. Mother Mary and the Russian student Christian movement (1932–1935) // Bulletin of the Russian Christian Christian Movement, 1980, No. 131. Berdyaev N. A. About the ideological crisis of the Movement (tasks of the Movement and the dangers that threaten it) // Bulletin of the Russian Christian Democracy, 1993, No. 168. Zander V. A. The path of my life // Bulletin of the Russian Christian Democracy, 1984, No. 142. Newspaper "Izvestia". 12/10/2002 Printed in modern spelling. – Ed.