2. К духовному образу святителя Филарета

"Glory to God in everything" (19–2:319) Saint Philaret (Drozdov) of Moscow, who served the Holy Russian Church and the Fatherland for 64 years - from the day he was appointed teacher of Greek and Hebrew in 1803 in the Sergius Lavra Seminary he had just graduated from and until his blessed death in 1867 - during his lifetime gained fame in Ecumenical Orthodoxy, although he himself never aspired to it and was, as We will see, the most humble servant of God. His literary creativity is inexhaustible: numerous words, speeches, theological treatises, opinions, reviews, resolutions and, of course, letters - our true treasure 4 . I would like to mention here only one work of the Saint - “Long Christian Catechism of the Orthodox Catholic Eastern Church.” The Catechism was written on behalf of the Holy Governing Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church; it was also reviewed, approved and published for teaching in Schools and for use by all Orthodox Christians. This book, when printed in the Synodal Printing House, aroused gratitude to the author of the Russian Emperor, was translated into different languages ​​of the world, received the widest distribution - it was published many times in the past, is being republished in large editions and today with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' and other Hierarchs. And, what is very important - indicatively - it serves as a textbook for modern Theological Seminaries of our Holy Church. The book is distinguished by its wide coverage of topics (Faith, Hope and Love), clarity and precision of wording, expression of the truth of Holy Orthodoxy, and extreme accessibility. The question-and-answer form of presenting the material helps not only to maintain attention when studying the content, but also to control oneself. The Catechism both affirms Orthodoxy and reveals it to those who do not know it or who misrepresent it. In 1911, Bishop Nikon wrote: “The charm of Metropolitan Philaret’s personality lies in the uniform improvement of two personality traits: the theorist-theologian and the ascetic. And no matter how deep the thought of Metropolitan Philaret strikes our imagination, before us, first of all, his enlightened image appears as the fruit of the highest Orthodox asceticism” (27:5). Even at the dawn of Filaret’s hierarchical ascent, when he, in the rank of archimandrite, began serving as Rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Emperor Alexander I spoke of him this way: “The report on the successful completion of the first Academic course drew my attention to your excellent works and ability to educate youth. The authorities do you justice by entrusting your experience with the success of your second year. May God strengthen your strength to carry out your work in a new field! According to the good dispositions of your soul, I hope that the pupils called to serve the Church will learn from you to walk in the commandments of God, and will be enlightened internally by the light of the Gospel teaching...” (12:190). And the successor of Alexander I, Nicholas I, about whom the Saint with amazing courage will say: “Well, you managed to bring the Orthodox Church of Russia to its knees, but remember, the next turn of your throne” (27:3), awarded the Moscow Archpastor the Order of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, first degree of the great cross, and in the accompanying rescript noted: “Your long-term service to the Church and the Fatherland will always adorned with various and arduous activities, always with a word of conviction and the action of supervision, preserving the value of the flocks entrusted to you and caring to increase the number of sons of Orthodoxy, you also especially brought tribute to the common good of the Church in the rank of member of the Holy Synod with an experienced knowledge of its needs and tireless diligence in various parts of the highest Spiritual Administration...” (7:319). The best and most faithful detection of the inner man, and especially the clergyman, is his attitude towards the holy church - he loves Divine services, performs them with zeal - that means he loves God, lives by Him, walks by Him, carries out feats for Him and for his neighbors - the image of God. And Saint Philaret, despite the illnesses that beset him, tried to constantly perform the Divine Liturgy. He often complains about his malaise: “My cold soreness has become more severe... Soreness... is especially felt in the left half of the body, with pain in the teeth and in the left edge of the tongue, which is why I speak little, so as not to increase the pain” (19–2:25). “The cause of my illness is usually a cold, especially in my legs, which are always weak” (12:350). “From the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, I spent more than three weeks hopelessly in my cell due to illness, which interfered with my home activities” (19–2:77)... He is sick, suffering, but stands at the throne of God, makes the Bloodless Sacrifice for everyone and everything. - “My health remains unsatisfactory... I could only perform the Liturgy with difficulty” (19–2:255). “On the way to church, I became so ill that, upon entering the church, I was perplexed whether to start the service. The service... performed” (4:282). “My health is hardly sufficient for the work of the service. So this day I celebrated the Liturgy; ordained the priest and hurried to the cell” (19–2:54). He spent the Feast of Pentecost “with difficulty, without, however, depriving himself of performing church services” (13:49). He is unwell, but for two days in a row he “consecrates two churches” (12:340). He caught a cold, but hopes that the Lord will not deprive him tomorrow of “the consolation of being in His church and serving His throne” (12:342)... In illness there is not even a shadow of grumbling - there is something else: thanksgiving to God. - “I fulfilled my share of service, thanks to God, without apparently becoming sicker than before” (8:373). “My health continues to suffer from a cold. However, thanks be to God, my infirmities... do not deprive me of the consolation of offering the prayers of the Lord in church” (12:338. See also: 12:346; 9:386; 19–2:319...)... He also thanks those who pray for him. - “Thank you, Father Vicar, for the prayers of you and the brethren for me, a sinner” (17:94)... In his bodily suffering, the Saint sees only the manifestation of God’s Providence and the prayerful intercession of our father Sergius. “The Lord punished me not with anger, but with mercy. Despite the fact that in my normal state of health I soon become exhausted from lack of exercise, I spent about a month almost continuously in bed, and I don’t know how I didn’t completely fall apart. Glory to the long-suffering God and thanks to the prayerful protection of St. Sergius” (17:94). “It’s good that illness helps me spend my time as a recluse almost until Lent; then, I hope fasting will help” (8:67). “Everything is for the better. Sitting at home and not receiving people, I partly give in to the time of illness, and partly I do things more easily than a healthy person” (4:292). The heart of the saint was humane. On the day of the Angel, the Heavenly patron of the saint - the holy righteous Philaret the Merciful, there followed an order that became traditional for the holy monastery of St. Sergius: “On the first day of December, distribute from me and your father to the treasurer up to 300 rubles. ministers, poor people and other poor people" (17:129). Or: “On the first day of December, order to distribute from me what was given to whom in such cases” (10:478). “As usual, for the holiday, give three hundred rubles from me to the ministers and the poor” (17:108). Sometimes it was added: “And if this letter is late, then fulfill this on the feast of the Nativity of Christ” (17:99). Forgetfulness was immediately corrected: “In these carefree days, I forgot about the first of December. Take my three hundred rubles and from Fr. by the treasurer, distribute it to the ministers, the poor and the poor. Or do it not for the holiday, as you judge, and as it happened” (17:141)... It was not typical of the Moscow Hierarch to refuse his neighbor his need. - “It’s easy to refuse... it would be arbitrariness... If you need to love your neighbor as yourself, then you need to wish good for Sarov, like Bethany” (8:12). Helping his neighbor in need, the Saint also takes care of his health. “And because you are unwell, the sicker I am too. If he could, he would have given a doctor's order. Without knowing how, I can only offer thought and advice, the value of which you can define as you wish. Maybe this is no longer the time to joke about illness in hopes of strengthening your body. A kopeck saves the ruble. A little caution and avoidance of neglect protects a considerable amount of health” (4:283). “I wish that the treatment will be useful to you” (8:258). The Moscow Archpastor strives to have peace with everyone - not only to be peaceful with others himself, but so that others will be the same towards him. “Only now I will say: trust me a little more, and what your thoughts are not peaceful towards me, say, without accumulating such thoughts, which causes confusion and difficulty to increase” (8:344). For the attention shown to him, the holy Hierarch sincerely thanks and commends himself to the mercy of God: “May the Lord give you spiritual and gracious consolation” (9:429). “With consolation and gratitude, I accepted the word of your participation in me... and especially the word of your prayer for the strengthening of my strength and the continuation of my service. Whether I dare ask myself for this gift, I don’t know. Having been greatly pardoned by the long-suffering of the Lord, I pray to Him that neither insufficient activity nor idle rest condemn me; But covered by His mercy, may I complete my journey according to His will, and in the end I will find mercy and forgiveness” (10:265). We also see in the letters of the Saint deep humility - the most important spiritual state of an Orthodox Christian. Don't even think about greeting me ceremoniously. “In advance, I ask you not to do this,” writes the holy Archpastor to the abbot of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, Archimandrite Anthony. “And don’t let the people notice the expectations” (10:399). He also asks the steward to be informed that on the day of his Angel “there will be no invitations or demonstrations” (10:258). He is not at all angry with his colleagues who did not notice the 25th anniversary of his service at the Moscow department. Moreover, their inattention turns into a deep moral meaning and conclusion: “To you,” the Saint writes to A.N. Muravyov, “it was given to be merciful to me more than anyone else, because you alone counted my 25 years in Moscow, which, through God’s long-suffering towards me, ended with a prayer service according to the Liturgy in my home church, singing to Saint Philip, who on the day of his memory blessed my assignment to Moscow. The serving hieromonk, and no one else, asked me if there was a special reason for this prayer service? Oh, if only the Lord had not remembered my many sins on the day of judgment, just as on this day no one remembered my twenty-fifth birthday!” (4:203). He humbly asks for forgiveness from the brethren, their prayers, blessings, and he himself forgives and blesses them with fatherly love: “I ask your forgiveness for how I offended you with my impatience, or with what unreasonable, or passionate act, or bad example I gave you temptation” (8:259). “Remember me in your prayers, not only as having a debt, but also as doing me a good deed” (8:389). “I call upon everyone complacency in the feat of fasting, purity of repentance, the consolation of forgiveness and the holy joy of communion with the Lord our Savior” (10:333). “God bless you (the vicar of Archimandrite Anthony. - K.S.) and the brethren, and bless me in the field of fasting and repentance. With His mercy and grace, may God forgive and have mercy on all of us” (8:259)... With His orders, the Saint does not command, but coordinates them with the will of man, as the image of God: “Tell me how these reflections seem to you” (7:173). “I will not contradict the assumption” (7:232). “I do not embarrass you with my bewilderment” (7:234). “I repeat that by offering my thoughts, I do not embarrass yours. Imashi's age itself. Go ask whomever you please” (14:36)... The true humility of the Great Hierarch is also revealed in his reflections on his burial: “As for the burial place: ... I do not want new care... If the fate of God comes, so that there is only dust over my ashes, I do not deserve better” (10:176). And what was unusual for the Moscow Archpastor was briefly but succinctly expressed by the vicar Bishop of Dmitrov Leonid, who was his closest co-celebrant and therefore knew him well. “They think in vain,” His Eminence Leonid testifies, that Metropolitan Philaret loved servility and silence. No, he did not tolerate baseness or meanness, but he pursued pride, conceit, and exaltation. He hated wickedness as much as he loved sincerity” (13:4). The saint died on November 19, 1867 in his study after the Divine Liturgy. The earthly humble man of prayer quietly and peacefully left to become the great Heavenly intercessor for his Holy Church, for his native Fatherland. (See more about the spiritual appearance of the Holy Archpastor in Nalapko Artemy’s candidate dissertation “The Image of St. Philaret (Drozdov) in his Epistolary Heritage.” Sergiev Posad, Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, 2007. – 180 pp. computer text). The publisher of St. Philaret's letters to Stepan Dmitrievich Nechaev notes in the Preface that “His Eminence Philaret is perhaps the most famous as an interpreter of church laws.” Unfortunately, this side of the appearance of the Moscow Archpastor appears only incidentally in letters, and therefore is not highlighted by me as a special chapter. The same could be said about other aspects of the ministry of the glorious Hierarch, to which the same publisher draws attention (see: Correspondence of Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow with S.D. Nechaev. 1895. P. III). – In order for “a wonderful spiritual writer-theologian, preacher, exegete” to appear in all his greatness (see ibid.), one must study all his works, and this must begin in his youth. You might be interested in: