His Eminence Theophan the Recluse and his pastoral activities

Contents Chapter I. The initial period of life, upbringing and education of His Eminence Theophan (1816–1841) Chapter II. Feofan's official activity before his ordination to the rank of bishop (1841–1859) Chapter III. The ministry of the Right Reverend Theophan at the Tambov See (1859–1863) Chapter IV. The ministry of the Right Reverend Theophan at the Vladimir See Chapter V. The ministry of St. Theophan during his stay at the Vyshenskaya monastery (1866–1894) The tenth of January 1915 marked exactly 100 years since the birth of the saint and ascetic of the Russian land, Bishop Theophan the Recluse. Therefore, it is timely to remember and honor with a feasible image his high and prolific pastoral activity in connection with his ascetic life. The pastoral activity of the Right Reverend Theophan, presented in connection with his life, is highly instructive not only for church pastors, but in general for all Orthodox Christians. Chapter I. The initial period of life, upbringing and education of the Right Reverend Theophan (1816–1841) His Grace Theophan, in the world Georgy Vasilyevich Govorov, was born on January 10, 1815 11 in the village of Chernavsk, Eletsk district, Oryol province 22. More than a hundred years ago Chernavok was a city, and was built in 1636 by Mikhail Feodorovich. When the Oryol province was established, in 1778 it was converted into a large village 33. There are three churches in it - Pokrovskaya. Pyatnitskaya and Vladimirskaya, built on the site of the Vladimir Monastery, closed under Catherine II. In this church, from the beginning of the last century, the father of the Right Reverend Theophan, Vasily Timofeevich Govorov, served as priest. His mother was Tatyana Ivanovna. Father Vasily was, at that time, a very educated and outstanding priest. Coming from the village of Foshni (Oryol province), he was educated at the Sevsk Theological Seminary 44. He studied well and graduated from the course as a student. Upon completion of the course, he was left at the same seminary as a senior (something like the current overseers), in which position he served for 2 years. Despite his education, which was very significant at that time, Vasily Timofeevich did not look for a city place, but, having married Tatyana Ivanovna and received holy orders, entered the idle place of the Vladimir Church in the village of Chernavsk. While serving as a priest in one of the significant and populous parishes, he, as an intelligent, educated, piously-minded man, acquired love among the parishioners and sincere respect among the surrounding clergy and diocesan authorities with his exemplary pastoral service. A little later, upon appointment to a priestly position, he was made dean and spent 30 whole years in this important and responsible position. The then Oryol Bishop Nicodemus distinguished Fr. Vasily with his attention and sometimes visited him in Chernavok. Father Vasily was a man of direct and open character, he was distinguished by his love for his subordinates, he reconciled quarrels between members of the clergy in a homely manner, he was a kind-hearted and hospitable person, so that his house was visited by many clergy and secular persons. The wife of Fr. Vasily Tatyana Ivanovna, the daughter of a priest, was a very kind and compassionate woman, deeply religious, modest and extremely hardworking. Having a large family (4 sons and 3 daughters), she devoted all her care to the physical, religious and moral education of her children. She was always cordial and affectionate with everyone; From the means available to her, she tried to help all the poor and orphans 55. Good memories of Fr. Vasily and Tatyana Ivanovna remained for a long time between the surrounding clergy and parishioners of the village of Chernavska. On January 10, 1815, at Fr. Basil and a son was born, named George, later Saint Theophan. Georgy was the fifth (out of 7) child by birth, but in age he was not far behind his older brothers, so he began home upbringing and education almost together with them. Father Vasily and his wife used all means within their control to properly raise and arrange the fate of their children. The sons received a good education in theological schools, took holy orders and occupied good parishes. The daughters were married to priests. Howl children o. Vasily were not far from him. In the same Oryol province there were many other more or less close relatives. The first years of Georgy Vasilyevich’s life passed in the family of his parents and among his relatives. Family traits were reflected in his character and in his initial upbringing and education, which he received under the guidance of his parents. Nature endowed Malchin George with high spiritual gifts. From his father he inherited a bright, sharp and deep mind and a remarkable memory, as well as tireless energy and perseverance in achieving a once-set goal; from the mother - a moral and religious disposition: a tender, loving heart, meekness, modesty, liveliness and impressionability. He also resembled his mother in appearance. From early childhood, George's parents tried to instill in him and strengthen in his heart feelings of true religiosity. Even when George was just born, his father spoke of him with such kindness: “God grant him only reason and a good heart, he will not be lost with them forever” 66. The influence on the youth George in religious and moral terms was primarily exerted by his parent. On all Sundays and holidays, he took the children with him to church and, when they grew up, forced them to read and sing in the choir and serve at the altar. And church, worship, spiritual reading and singing, performed properly, as is known, make a very strong impression on people, and especially on children, arousing and strengthening religious and moral feelings in them. Theophan himself speaks about it this way, meaning himself: “the most effective means for cultivating true taste in the heart is churchliness, in which raised children must initially be supported. Sympathy for everything sacred, the sweetness of being among it... cannot be better imprinted on the heart. Church, spiritual singing, icons are the first most elegant objects in terms of content and power” 77... But Fr. Vasily, constantly busy with his own affairs in the parish and as dean, could not systematically engage in the upbringing of his son. This matter was mainly taken over by mother Tatyana Ivanovna, who was constantly with the children. She taught him how to make the sign of the cross, how to pray, and she also taught him the first prayers; instilled in him obedience, meekness and love for others - all these virtues that later distinguished Georgy Vasilyevich. In addition to his father and mother, his own aunt Marya Nikiforovna Govorova had a great influence on him, who, always in the house of Father Vasily, nursed George during his childhood and raised him physically and spiritually. Being under the guidance of such good educators, George was distinguished by his religious and moral disposition even in childhood. Despite his modesty and religiosity, he stood out from among his brothers for his liveliness and agility, resourcefulness in difficult situations and perseverance in achieving his intended goal. Thus, the following incident is known from his childhood. One day, Georgy sneaked alone into the bell tower after the service and lingered there. The church watchman, thinking that everyone had already left the church, locked the church doors. A playful child, being in a critical situation, descended from the bell tower using a rope. It was possible to seriously hurt himself, but the Lord apparently protected his chosen one: George escaped with only minor damage to the leg veins, which soon completely passed. O. Vasily, having learned about this, said: “Well, Yegorushka, you will be a bell ringer or a bishop!” 88 The boy George loved to play and spend time with fellow peasant children, and was always an inventor and leader of innocent games. When George was 7 years old, his parents tried to give him an initial education at home and taught him literacy, writing, prayers, sacred history and the first operations of arithmetic 99 . The initial home education of children at that time was of a religious nature. We started learning with a primer, which contained stories from the sacred history of the Old and New Testaments and various biblical and wise sayings and was decorated with pictures from biblical events. After the primer, they read the Book of Hours and the Psalter and wrote on lined notebooks. The initial training of Georgy Vasilyevich under the parental roof was carried out in the same order. At the age of 9, in 1823, at the request of his parent, he was assigned to the Livensky Theological School 1010. O. Vasily took care to arrange his beloved son in Livny as best as possible. He knew how far from attractive the apartment life of students of theological schools of that time was: 10–15 students often lived in one small room; adults often offended little ones or set bad examples of rudeness, laziness and disobedience. Fearing these bad influences on his playful and impressionable boy, Fr. Vasily placed him in the apartment of the theological school teacher Ivan Vasilyevich Petin. The latter had a strong beneficial influence on George. He encouraged him to study his lessons regularly and the san helped him in this matter, he taught him obedience to teachers, respect for elders and general good behavior; I also followed his religious mood. Subsequently, His Grace Theophan recalled Ivan Vasilyevich with great gratitude and corresponded with him when he had already left school service and was the archpriest of the Livonian Trinity Cathedral 1111. And the school itself of that time, with many shortcomings, also had its great advantages: it strengthened character, inspired respect for elders, and taught independent and diligent work. This beneficial influence, under the leadership of Ivan Vasilyevich, was especially strong on Georgy Govorov, who was one of the best and most talented students in his class. In 1829, Georgy Govorov entered the Oryol Theological Seminary. The latter was at that time in a flourishing state. Its rector was Isidore, later Metropolitan of St. Petersburg, who raised the seminary to its proper height. “Under him (Rector Isidore),” Bishop Theophan later recalled in a letter to one person in 1892, “I was in the lower and middle departments of the seminary. He often appointed me to read my philosophical scribbles at Saturday meetings” 1212. The seminary teachers in the main subjects were gifted, diligent people and fruitfully went about their work under the leadership of Isidore. Thus, the teacher of literature was Hieromonk Platon, later Metropolitan of Kyiv. He once gave his disciples a sermon to write. Govorov wrote very well and deserved praise, which made him feel at the height of happiness. He himself wrote about this in the above-mentioned letter to one person in 1892: “I also remember in literature, the first class of seminary, for some reason we were assigned at home, in our parents’ house, during Christmas leave, to write a sermon on a subject of our choice. I wrote it with great enthusiasm, for which Father Rector ordered me to present him with the list. Then for a long time I did not walk on the ground, but above the clouds" 1313. Govorov was interested in military sciences at the seminary, but the lessons of psychology, philosophy and Holy Scripture aroused his particular interest. Psychology and philosophy were taught by Ostromyslensky. one of the best students of the 1st graduating class of the Kyiv Theological Academy. He was the beauty of the seminary. The students listened to his lectures, which were presented in a language that was understandable and engaging. He aroused in his students a special interest in questions about God. world, the human soul with all its powers and abilities, and thoroughly resolved these issues from a truly Christian point of view. Govorov listened to Ostromyslensky’s lectures with special attention, often visited him at home and talked with him for several hours about philosophical and psychological issues. Govorov became so interested in these subjects that he himself wanted to stay for a repeat course in the philosophy class, despite the fact that he was always among the best students. Govorov knew the Holy Scriptures so well that one day during an exam he attracted the attention of His Eminence Nicodemus, who was present. In addition, Govorov, possessing a rich memory, knew foreign languages ​​well, especially Greek, so that, in the absence of a teacher, he was sent as a lecturer to the lower department of the seminary. Not only science, but also art interested the inquisitive young man. He especially loved music and church singing. When Georgy Govorov was in the theological class, a big change occurred at the seminary, which almost deprived him of a higher theological education. Rector Isidore was transferred to the post of rector of the Moscow Theological Seminary, and Zephaniah, formerly before, was sent in his place. at that time inspector of the Nizhny Novgorod Seminary. He was distinguished by formalism and, teaching dogmatic theology, demanded that his students memorize the textbook by heart. Govorov taught the assigned lessons well, but not literally, which Zephaniah really did not like. Therefore, when the time came to appoint the best students to the academy, he bypassed Georgy Govorov, and in the list presented by Bishop. Nicodemus, he didn’t place it. But Nicodemus, who knew George as a very capable and well-behaved young man, wished that he too be sent to the academy. The desire of the Right Reverend Nicodemus was fulfilled, and Georgy Govorov was sent to the Kyiv Theological Academy in 1887. Throughout both his school and seminary education, Govorov did not break ties with his home and relatives, so the beneficial family influence on him did not stop. During all the holidays, he went to his homeland and spent time there with his family, visiting other relatives. Here his connection with the common people, whom he loved very much, was maintained. George often became the godfather of the peasants, and together with the workers he was often engaged in rural work, harvesting grain and hay 1414. George's good spiritual qualities, under the good guidance of the seminary authorities and mentors and with the beneficial family influence, developed more and more. He differed from his comrades not only in his academic success, but also in his exemplary behavior. He was distinguished by humility, simplicity, meekness, kindness, and was alien to any kind of pride and exaltation. By nature, being of a cheerful, sociable nature, Govorov, while studying at the seminary, began to reveal a tendency towards solitude, silence, hard work, a serious outlook on life, a religious mood and contemplation. They often saw him immersed in some kind of thoughts, they saw him fervently praying at midnight. At the same time, George declared deep, subsequently increasingly increasing, reverence for the memory of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. Together with his aunt Marfa Nikiforovna, he went on a pilgrimage to Zadonsk in one week to venerate the then-undiscovered relics of the saint in 1515. It is obvious that at that time he was still dominated by the highest aspirations for religious and moral perfection, the desire to realize what he wrote about, characterizing his youth as “a time of struggle and feat to eradicate passions and instill good dispositions” 1616. This was the inner life of Georgy Govorkov during his studies at the seminary. And the seminary authorities noticed his indicated spiritual mood. Thus, already in the first year of study at the seminary, he was noted in the seminary reports as “distinguished by his penchant for solitude and hard work”; in the second year he was noted: “prone to solitude, meek and silent” 1717. At the Kyiv Theological Academy, the spiritual powers of Georgy Govorov developed even more. He began to relate even more deeply and consciously to theological education and to the work of his salvation. The Kiev Theological Academy in the forties of the last century was in the most flourishing state and could well satisfy and did satisfy both the mental needs of Georgy Govorov and his elevated mood and religious aspirations. Metropolitan of Kyiv and, therefore. The main head of the academy was the famous Filaret (Amphitheaters), known for his strict piety, asceticism and the rigor of the Orthodox way of thinking, which did not allow any freethinking, as well as the firmness of the rules of life and activity. The rector of the academy was first the famous Innocent, a doctor of theology, an eloquent speaker and a famous church preacher. He had a marvelous ability to irresistibly influence everyone around him and highly raise the spirit of the students he educated. He gave excellent lectures on basic theology; all the students flocked to listen to his lectures and were delighted with them. After Innocent, the rector (from the end of 1839) was archimandrite, and then bishop. Jeremiah, who from a young age was distinguished by deep religiosity and was a strict ascetic. Under such rectors there were wonderful professors, such as: I. M. Skvortsov, who read metaphysics and the history of philosophy; Archimandrite Dimitri (Muretov), ​​who read dogmatic theology; Y. K. Amphiteatrov, who taught church eloquence; Archimandrite Photius, who taught the Holy Scriptures, and others. Y. K. Amphitheaters had a great influence on Georgy Govorov, both as a good, sincere person, and as an eloquent spiritual speaker and preacher of the word of God. At the same time, he was a fellow countryman of Govorov, and Georgy often visited him at home, and in the summer he often walked with him through the luxurious Kyiv gardens and groves. During these visits, they had heated conversations with each other about church preaching and other subjects of a religious and theological nature, and during their walks, as Bishop Theophan later recalled, they often talked about the appearance in nature of traces of the omnipotence and goodness of God, which was prompted by various objects encountered along the way 1818. With his conversations and animated teachings, Y. K. Amfitheatrov instilled in Govorov a great love for preaching the word of God and taught him, like other students, to speak teachings impromptu. One sermon by Georgy Govorov, “The Sermon on the Ascension of the Lord,” delivered in 1840, has survived from this time. This word is said in response to the text: “And these (the apostles) will worship Him and return to Jerusalem with great joy” and is dedicated to clarifying the question “about the high sign and power of the Ascension” of the Lord “for the Ascended Lord Himself, for the whole world, visible and invisible, and for the human race.” This is Feofan’s first work to see the light of day in print. It was first published only in 1859, when Feofan was already the rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, in a collection entitled: “Words of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy by the rector Archimandrite Feofan” 1919. In addition to preaching, Georgy Govorov’s favorite subjects were Holy Scripture, moral theology and psychology. Georgy Govorov wrote his essays excellently. Under the guidance of good professors, he developed the skill of writing directly to the subject without any digressions, writing logically, briefly, simply, without using unclear and incomprehensible expressions. We see these qualities later in his writings. Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow, a friend of Georgy Govorov at the academy, speaks of his academic works this way: “We studied together, and no one wrote better, only due to his modesty he could not read his works loudly” 2020. Georgy Govorov was in good standing with his superiors. In the inspector’s reports, he was noted as a student with very good abilities and diligence, “very modest”, “honest behavior”, “distinguished by good behavior, love of worship” 2121 It is obvious, therefore, that those good moral qualities and religious aspirations that were noticeable in Georgy Govorov back in the seminary, here at the academy developed even more and began to stand out even more prominently, indicating the path for which he prepared himself - the path of monasticism. The academic environment was very conducive to this. The rector of the academy, Archimandrite Jeremiah, known for his religiosity and strict asceticism, had a particularly great influence in this regard on Georgy Govorov. Georgy Govorov often visited him and had soul-searching conversations with him, after which he became even more strengthened in his intention to devote his life to God. Of no small importance in this case was the Kiev Pechersk Lavra with its shrines, relics, caves and monuments of sacred antiquity, with its pious elders and hermits. In addition, during Georgy Govorov’s studies at the academy, a circumstance occurred in his family life that further severed his connection with the world. In 1838, his mother died, and the following year, 1839, his father also died. This seems to have finally influenced his desire to become a monk. About the death of his parents, Bishop Theophan subsequently wrote in 1877 to V.A.: “Father and mother died within two weeks of each other. When I found out about the atom, what a heavy and gloomy cloud fell over me. But at the same moment, non-gloomy thoughts came and dispersed all the darkness... I believe that this was instilled in me by a guardian angel” 2222. Having arranged, with the assistance of the rector of the academy, Archimandrite Jeremiah, who loved him, the position of the orphaned family, Georgy Govorov, on October 1, 1840, on the day of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, submitted to the academic authorities a petition for monastic vows, in which he wrote, among other things: “having constant zeal for the study of theological subjects and for a solitary life, I, in order to combine both another, at my upcoming church service, I made a vow to devote my life to the monastic rank” 2323. According to this petition, with the permission of the highest spiritual authorities, the following year, 1841, on February 15, Georgy Govorov was tonsured a monk with the name Theophan. The rite of tonsure was performed by the rector of the academy, Archimandrite Jeremiah. Around the same time, three more academy students were tonsured. After tonsure, all four newly tonsured learned monks went, according to the memoirs of His Eminence Theophan himself, to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra to receive blessings and advice from Hieroschemamonk Parthenius, known for his strict piety and asceticism. He gave them, among other things, the following instruction: “Here you are, learned monks; Having set up rules for yourself, remember that one thing is most necessary: ​​to pray and pray unceasingly with your mind in your heart to the Lord - that’s what you strive for” 2424. These words of the ascetic sank deeply into the soul of the monk Theophan and served as a guide for his entire subsequent life and activity. Soon after being tonsured a monk, on April 6, 1841, the monk Theophan was ordained a hierodeacon, and on July 1, a hieromonk. At the same time, Feofan had to intensively write a course essay. He took the topic from one of his favorite subjects - Holy Scripture: “Review of the subordinate religion.” The essay was fully approved by the academic conference and, among others, was sent to St. The Synod, which submitted them for consideration to Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, This strict connoisseur of Theophan’s work gave the following review: “This work contains so much information and considerations about the Law of Moses that they serve as sufficient evidence of the knowledge of the author, giving him the right to a master’s degree”: at the same time, he also noted the “author’s ability” to write good works and his “striving for ideal considerations” 2525. As a result of this approval, Hieromonk Theophan graduated from the academic course as one of the first masters. Thus, the years of his upbringing and education in religious educational institutions passed for the Right Reverend Theophan, the years of his preparation for serving the church and the fatherland. Chapter II. Feofan's service activities before his ordination to the rank of bishop (1841–1859) After completing the course at the Kyiv Theological Academy, Hieromonk Theophan was appointed at the end of August 1841 to the position of rector of the Kiev-Sophia theological (parish and district) schools, and he was also entrusted with teaching Latin in the senior class of these schools. Kyiv Metropolitan Philaret paid special attention to this new school. In September of the same 1841, he wrote to Jeremiah, then already a bishop: “An order has probably already been received regarding the rector of the Sophia School (hieromonk Theophan). I humbly ask you to pay special attention to this new school and to let me know your thoughts about all its needs.”2626 That is why they appointed such an outstanding master as Hieromonk Theophan to this position. The Right Reverend Jeremiah, who dearly loved Theophanes, helped him with his advice in his activities. Thanks to this help, Hieromonk Feofan turned out to be a good educational leader and educator. He recommended that teachers, when teaching, resort to visualization as often as possible, as the best means of quickly assimilating by students the knowledge imparted to them. At the same time, he himself set an example for them, teaching Latin in an exemplary manner, which he knew excellently. About that. how Hieromonk Theophan led the education of the students entrusted to his care, we learn from his thoughts on the Christian education of children, later set out in his essay “The Path to Salvation.” These thoughts, no doubt, were the result of direct observation of children when he was the rector of the Kiev-Sophia schools. “Education,” he says, is the most sacred of all things.” It is necessary to arrange the matter of education in such a way that “faith and life in the spirit of faith rise above everything in the attention of those being taught”... If the matter of education is carried out in this order, then “the principles laid down in childhood will not only be preserved, but will be elevated and strengthened” 2727. When raising children, you need to act “on all the powers of their soul: mind, will and heart.” It is necessary to imprint in the mind “sound concepts and judgments based on Christian principles about everything that occurs or is subject to the attention of children: what is good and evil, what is good and bad.” It is necessary to eradicate self-will in the will, “instructing children not to do anything without permission..., teaching them to do good. To do this, let (educators) themselves present an example of a good life, for children are inquisitive; then you need to call the children themselves to do good deeds and first order them to do them, and then instruct them to do them themselves.” Arouse “healthy, true feelings” in the heart, trying to ensure that children acquire the skill “to enjoy what truly delights, and not at all sympathize with what, under the guise of sweetness, pours poison into the soul and body. The most effective means for cultivating true taste in the heart is churchliness, in which raised children must initially be kept.”2828 Hieromonk Theophan was guided by these lofty views during his teaching career at the Kiev-Sophia schools. Caring for the good mental education of his students, he was especially concerned about their religious and moral education, he gave children books of religious and moral content to read, explained the holiday and Sunday gospels, took care to develop in children a love for prayer and the house of God, and thus reverently performed church services, and forced the children to read and sing in the choir. In addition, he cared about the decency and good behavior of the students, trying to make them obedient, quiet and hardworking children. He believed Christian love to be the basis of his relationship with his students. He knew that only educators who truly love children can have a completely beneficial influence on them. “Love children, and they will love you” - this is the main principle, which he followed and encouraged other teachers and educators to follow. Wanting to be as fruitful as possible in the education and upbringing of students, Hieromonk Theophan, despite all his difficult responsibilities at the schools, was diligently engaged in his spiritual self-development. “An educator,” he wrote when he was a bishop, must go through all degrees of Christian perfection in order to subsequently be able to control himself in his activities, be able to notice the directions of those being educated and then act on them with patience, successfully, strongly, and fruitfully. This must be a class of persons of the purest, God’s chosen, saints” 2929. The very place and environment contributed to Hieromonk Theophan in his spiritual self-improvement. Kyiv with its shrines, churches and monasteries, Kiev Pechersk Lavra with its caves, St. relics; its pious elders and hermits deeply stimulated his religious spirit, encouraged him to high feats of fasting and prayer, and provided him with all possible means for Christian improvement. Feofan subsequently remembered Kyiv with deep love. So in one letter from 1878, when he was already in seclusion at Vyshe, he wrote: “Kyiv is an expensive place. How I would like to visit it. You just have to mentally visit this shrine of the Russian land and be spiritually consoled by the Lavra, and Sophia, and Mikhailovsky and Bratsky” 3030. Hieromonk Theophan had especially close relations with his former teachers and educators - Bishop. Jeremiah, arch. Dimitri (Muretov) and with the Lavra hieroschemamonk Parthenius, whom he revered as his own father. They gave Hieromonk Theophan wise advice and instructions on how to conduct the difficult work of salvation. In addition, the patristic ascetic writings served him as a guide in the matter of salvation, which he began to study with great diligence at this time. Thanks to all this and his selfless work on spiritual self-development, Hieromonk Theophan gradually and steadily walked along the path of moral perfection. The highest spiritual authorities, seeing the high spiritual qualities of Hieromonk Theophan, his wise experience and diligence in the upbringing and education of students, soon appointed him to a higher and more responsible position. In December 1842, he was sent to the Novgorod Theological Seminary as an inspector and professor of psychology and logic. It was painful for Hieromonk Theophan to part with Kiev and his spiritual leaders, but, by the will of God, he had to part forever. A life began for him, full, as he later said, of “frequent and unexpected changes, which taught him to be silently obedient to any destination, like a ball rolling back and forth without a crack, in the direction of the blows communicated to him” 3131. In Novgorod, Hieromonk Feofan with great zeal and diligence began to fulfill his arduous duties as an inspector and professor. The business of education, however, was not new to him, but now he had to educate not children, as was the case in Kyiv, but youths and young men. Hieromonk Theophan deeply understood how dangerous this age is in a person’s life and how necessary the guidance of an experienced educator is for him. We see his thoughts about this in his essay “The Path to Salvation.” “Youth,” he writes, is seething with life. You need to have very solid support to resist the pressure of the waves at this time. The very disorder and impetuosity of movements is dangerous. Added to this is a) a thirst for impressions and b) a tendency to communicate.... The element (of young men) is entertainment. Dreams, light reading, entertainment - all this is almost the same in spirit - children are thirsty for impressions, thirst for something new, diverse.... The very height of danger for a young man is from dealing with the other sex... What a reliable fence in this case - strict discipline in everything, physical labor and, even more, mental.... Besides these dangers, there are two more: firstly... personal comprehension. The young man considers it an advantage to cast a shadow of doubt on everything and to put aside everything that does not coincide with the standard of his understanding. With this alone he cuts off from the heart the entire mood of faith and church... Secondly, secularism.... She introduces him to the world, and the world with all its corrupt concepts and customs is filled into the receptive soul of the young man, and he becomes its child.” Therefore, “how good it is to subject yourself in this case to strict discipline and to be under guidance throughout your youth” 3232. And Hieromonk Theophan used all his strength to properly guide the young men entrusted to his care, trying, on the one hand, to protect them from the dangers and hobbies inherent in adolescence, and on the other, to develop good inclinations and introduce good skills, so that the students, upon completion of the seminary course, would be useful members of the church and the fatherland. Primarily, Hieromonk Theophan tried to arouse and strengthen religiosity in his pupils. He instilled in them a love of church and worship, zeal for prayer, fasting and other church institutions. On Sundays and holidays he performed divine services and the sacrament of St. Eucharist, encouraging students to participate in the service with prayers, reading and singing in the choir. At the same time, he often spoke teachings in the seminary church, in which he instructed students in the truths of faith and piety. Of the sermons of Hieromonk Theophan, spoken during this period, three have been preserved: “Nor the Exaltation of the Honorable Cross of the Lord,” delivered in 1843 and discussing the mystery of the Cross of Christ and teaching this mystery, “to see how true life flows from it (the Cross)” 3333; on the day of Holy Easter, delivered in 1841 and revealing the teaching about “what feelings we should arouse in our hearts, so that from their fusion a song worthy of the glory of the risen Lord can be formed” 3434, and on the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos and the birthday of Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich, said in the same 1844 and discussing the conditions for people to receive God’s mercies and ways to ensure these mercies 3535. The seminaries were conducted with dignity and reverence. Hieromonk Theophan himself was constantly present at them, praying earnestly with the young men and thereby setting an example for them. Hieromonk Theophan paid great attention to the extracurricular reading of books by his pupils, and advised them to read more books with religious and moral content. He allowed him to read books of a secular nature, but those that did not contradict Orthodox Christian teaching. In order for the pupils not to be idle, not to be naughty, not to have fun, Hieromonk Theophan encouraged them to engage in painting, carpentry and bookbinding. He taught psychology and logic lessons excellently, communicating in simple and understandable language quite extensive information about mental phenomena and forces, about mental and logical laws. Hieromonk Theophan based his psychological research on the word of God and the writings of St. fathers, as well as the philosophers’ own introspections and information. But mainly, on the basis of self-awareness, he tried to show his disciples that the human soul is the image of God and that it is intended to fulfill the will of God and move away from sin. Reading his lessons in the spirit of Christianity, Hieromonk Theophan tried to ensure that other professors taught their subjects in the same way. “It must be an immutable law,” he later wrote, that every science taught to a Christian should be imbued with Christian principles and, moreover, Orthodox ones” 3636. He tried to instill the same thing in his students: “It is necessary to arrange the students in such a way,” he wrote there, so that their conviction does not fade that our main business is pleasing God, and scientificity is an additional quality, an accident, suitable only for the time of real life. The activities of Hieromonk Theophan as an inspector of the Novgorod Theological Seminary were very fruitful. One of the hierarchs, who was brought up in the seminary under his leadership, said: “yes, Feofan was a wonderful teacher and a great man!” 3737. And the authorities highly valued the mental and moral merits of Hieromonk Theophan and summoned him on December 18, 1844 to the St. Petersburg Theological Academy to the position of bachelor in the department of moral and pastoral theology. Hieromonk Feofan was not familiar with the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, with its life and order, with its professors and superiors. In addition, he was frightened by the noisy and official life of St. Petersburg. Therefore, he went there not without embarrassment. But he was reassured by the fact that one of his best comrades from the Kyiv Academy, Archimandrite Macarius, who became a monk together with Theophan, served at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. Macarius, later Metropolitan of Moscow, was a professor of the history of the Russian church and the history of the Russian Old Believers at the St. Petersburg Academy, and just before the arrival of Hieromonk Theophan there, he was appointed to the position of inspector. He greeted Hieromonk Theophan in a friendly manner and introduced him to the academic order, his colleagues - professors and superiors. Hieromonk Theophan soon became accustomed to his surroundings and zealously set about his work - compiling and delivering lectures on moral and pastoral theology. These sciences were to his liking; he was well acquainted with them both in theory and in practice. As an ideal person, he is highly tuned. and he delivered his lectures in a sublime tone, giving them the character of an ascetic. Hieromonk Theophan put ascetic and psychological experience, rather than philosophical speculation, at the head of his research. The sources for his lectures after the Holy Scriptures and the works of St. the fathers were served by the writings of other ascetics and psychology, as well as observations of the phenomena of their own truly monastic life and the lives of other religiously moral people; at the same time, he made due use of both scientific and philosophical data. In general, in his lectures the hieromonk. Feofan tried to avoid abstraction and scholasticism; his lectures were distinguished by their vitality, clarity and persuasiveness. He tried to present to students as fully and clearly as possible the true, Orthodox Christian moral teaching and shepherding, as they were commanded by Jesus Christ, His Holy One. the apostles, fathers and teachers of the Orthodox Church, and were carried out in practice by great shepherds and ascetics of faith and piety. Not relying on his personal strength, Hieromonk Theophan gave the lecture notes on moral theology to Archimandrite Ignatius (Brianchaninov), an expert on ascetic works, for review, and he fully approved of them 3838. Feofan made a great impression on students with his lectures. These lectures were not so much about school lessons, but about life lessons. At that time, Theophanes did not publish anything from his lectures in a more or less complete form; but I processed a lot of them for printing later. From lectures on moral theology, he subsequently compiled the most important and most popular of his works, “The Path to Salvation,” published in 1868–1869; “Outline of Christian Moral Teaching,” compiled in 1890–1891. from the previously published (in 1858 and subsequent years) “Letters on Christian Life” (issues 3 and 4), and finally a treatise entitled: “What does one who has repented and entered on the good path of salvation need?” In addition to compiling lectures, Hieromonk Theophan was also engaged in other scientific and literary works at this time. Thus, he collaborated in the academic journal “Christian Reading” and in the magazine “Mayak”, published by a very pious man S.O. Burachkom. He also spoke sermons. Thus, in 1845, he preached a sermon on the day of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos, using the words of the chorus: “O earth, preach great joy, praise the heavens of God’s glory.” In it he talks about the joy with which we are allowed to rejoice in the salvation of us by Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin, and about the foundation of the Church of Christ, which saves us through the sacraments and its other institutions. The spiritual authorities, seeing the zeal of Hieromonk Theophan, soon assigned new responsibilities to him. On March 22, 1845, he was entrusted with the post of inspector of the academy, and on July 3 of the same year he was appointed a member of the committee to review the abstracts of the sciences of seminary education. Hieromonk Theophan zealously fulfilled all the duties assigned to him and for this he was awarded the blessing of the Holy Synod, and then the title of cathedral hieromonk. But these numerous responsibilities weighed heavily on the ideally minded monk, especially given the formalism that then dominated the St. Petersburg Theological Academy under the rector of His Eminence Afanasy (Drozdov), a great formalist who blindly fulfilled all the demands of the chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Protasov. How much Hieromonk Theophan was burdened by these positions can be seen from the following lines of his letter to the Right Reverend Jeremiah: “Forgive the Lord for the sake of; I keep bothering you, either with my lewdness, or perhaps with arrogant enterprises. I say maybe. For they are not invented, but lie on the soul, they bore and languish; They don’t subside, but they keep growing and growing... I’m beginning to become unbearably burdened by my academic position. I would have gone to church and sat there” 3939. And soon the most favorable opportunity presented itself for a way out of the situation that was weighing him down. In 1847, the Russian government established a spiritual mission in Jerusalem. Hieromonk Theophan voluntarily wished to join this mission as its member. The purpose of this mission was quite suitable to his character and ascetic inclinations. It was caused by the situation of Orthodoxy in Palestine. The Orthodox Christian Church was not in a flourishing state here - everything was under the rule of the Mohammedans. The very Church of the Resurrection of Christ was guarded by Turkish guards. Holy places were desecrated by the Turks; the local Christians and pilgrims suffered from them all kinds of oppression and bullying; often even their very lives were in danger. During worship, the native worshipers - Greeks, Arabs and Armenians - often quarreled with each other, leading to fights, even bloodshed. In addition, there was great rivalry between various Christian communities because of the primacy of position and because of the possession of the holy places, both in Jerusalem and its environs. The heterodox Christian denominations tried to seize the shrines into their own hands, using for this purpose all kinds of purely reprehensible measures and means. Heterodox propaganda intensified. Orthodoxy was oppressed. In view of all this, the Russian government, considering itself the main patron of the Eastern Orthodox confession, decided to establish a spiritual mission in Jerusalem, endowed with the rights of representation under the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem. For this mission, special instructions were drawn up, according to which the purpose of appointing the mission was 1) “to have in Jerusalem, as the center of the Orthodox confession in the east, representatives of the Russian Church and a model of our splendid worship; 2) to transform little by little the Greek clergy itself, to exalt it in its own eyes and in the eyes of the Orthodox flock; and 3) to attract to Orthodoxy and establish in it those local folk elements who constantly waver in their faith under the influence of agents of different confessions and too easily deviate from Orthodoxy due to distrust of the Greek clergy and the unreasonable behavior of this latter 4040. This lofty goal of the mission was of decisive importance for Feofan. In addition, he was drawn to Palestine by the desire to see Palestine, dear to every true Christian. Archimandrite (later bishop) Porfiry (Uspensky), a man of great intelligence and energy and experienced in the East, was appointed head of the mission; and mentors and students of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy and Seminary were invited to work with him. In addition to Hieromonk Theophan, two seminary students wished to go. Hieromonk Theophan was dismissed from all academic positions and, with the permission of the Holy Synod, in August 1847 he decided to go to Jerusalem as part of the said mission. The then rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, His Eminence Eusebius, wrote to the professor of the Moscow Theological Academy A.V. Gorsky: “Father Porfiry... is going to Jerusalem again; accompanied by our bachelor, Hieromonk Theophan, and two more students from the seminary, under the guise of pilgrims; and the goal is to stay there and form a mission... O. Theophan is a wonderful monk and ascetic. They seem to be recovering around the middle of August” 4141. But some circumstances delayed the mission in St. Petersburg, and it went to Jerusalem already in mid-October 1847. We drove through Kyiv, Odessa and Constantinople. Dear Hieromonk Theophan became acquainted with the outskirts of Russia, with the situation of the Russian people and clergy there, with the sad state of Orthodoxy. This journey developed in him deep patriotic feelings, which he expressed in his letters, which aroused in others an ardent love for the fatherland. From Odessa, Hieromonk Feofan wrote to St. Petersburg to the then famous deep patriot S.O. Burachka, by the way, the following: “Up until now, it’s been good on the road;... I’ve seen a lot of things that need to be reeled in, - and reeled in... The strip of Mother Rus' is wide - and the Holy Church. But how sad and pitiful, when you think that everyone is almost in a doze - they only snore occasionally. What do we not have, and what are we not fit for? But the damned one ran across the road, and everything went wrong... I didn’t see this in St. Petersburg, but now it’s clearer to me... The priests... are in an extremely poor situation... Another evil is separation from the east or the Greek church. Darkness comes from the west, but the light does not want to accept from the east... do not praise the real Russia. Write her an accusatory reproach that she has gone in the wrong direction since meeting the West” 4242. In February 1848, members of the mission arrived in Jerusalem. The purpose of the mission was, among other things, pilgrimage; In view of this, its members tried to visit all the places consecrated by the life and work of Jesus Christ and His apostles. Fulfilling this instruction, members of the mission often participated in general cathedral services together with the Jerusalem clergy, and also performed church services alone without Greek shepherds, trying to show with their magnificent, earnest worship the full height and purity of Orthodoxy, taking care that the Greek shepherds, looking at them, also ceremoniously performed church services. With their solemn worship, they also influenced the laity, attracting them to Orthodox churches and distracting them from churches of other confessions, which tried to seduce the Orthodox with their church services. In addition, they often had conversations both with Greek clergy and with Russian pilgrims, whom they visited for this purpose in hospices. Finally, by virtue of the instructions, the mission members had to weaken the influence and propaganda of heterodox religions, which tried to show everyone that they alone professed true Christianity. It was necessary to show the height and purity of Orthodoxy and expose the lies of attacks on it by non-Orthodox people. The members of the mission actively took on the implementation of these tasks of their activities. In conversations they revealed the truth of Orthodoxy - its doctrines and moral teachings and the falsity of heterodox confessions; and through their religious and moral life they showed the height and superiority of their religion. In addition, they entered into official relations with representatives of heterodox confessions and defended the rights of the Orthodox and their clergy. For the zealous performance of his duties, Hieromonk Theophan was awarded a gold pectoral cross 4343 from His Majesty's office on May 5, 1851. Along with purely official activities, Hieromonk Theophan tried to carry out what his heart was drawn to. In Palestine, he became acquainted with the ancient asceticism of the eastern monasteries, especially Sava the Sanctified and St. Mount Athos, entered into a close spiritual connection with the monks of these monasteries, tried to imitate them in their ascetic deeds. Here he studied the ascetic writings of ancient ascetics, rummaged through various libraries, looked for ancient manuscripts; collected Fatherland books, collections of the writings of St. ascetics, works of St. Fathers of the Greek Philokalia, ancient monastic regulations. Here he began to translate the patristic works from Greek into Russian. Hieromonk Theophan Tik translated and compiled a “Collection of ascetic writings extracted from the patericon of the monastery of Sava the Sanctified, which is near Jerusalem.” There he translated another ascetic collection, under the title: “Materikon - a collection of instructions from Abba Isaiah to the honorable nun Theodora 4444. Thanks to these translations and contact with educated Greeks, Hieromonk Theophan mastered the Greek language well, so that he could freely communicate in this dialect. In addition to Greek, he studied French well, which was then the language of all official international relations, and partially became acquainted with the language of the Jews and Arabs, who make up a significant part of the population of Jerusalem and its environs. Here, in Jerusalem, Hieromonk Theophan learned icon painting very well and supplied poor churches with his icons and even entire iconostases 4545. Finally, in Jerusalem, Hieromonk Theophan experiencedly became acquainted with heterodox confessions - Catholicism, Lutheranism, Armenian-Gregorian and in fact learned what both the strength of their propaganda and weakness were. After this, he himself could successfully fight their propaganda, and he could give good advice and guidance to others. Such was the general nature of the missionary activity of Hieromonk Theophan in Palestine. He fulfilled his purpose religiously and honestly. Here is the testimony of Archimandrite Anthony, later Archbishop of Kazan (d. 1879), in a letter to S.O. Burachk dated January 22, 1852: “(Fr. Theophan) of Jerusalem labors wonderfully in his place... Fr. Porfiry does not boast enough about him, he says that Father Theophan has a very good influence and does good - both with his strict life and work” 4646. On May 3, 1854, due to the outbreak of the Crimean War, the mission was recalled from Jerusalem. Due to military operations, the mission members had to travel not directly through the Black Sea, but through Western Europe. On his way to Russia, Hieromonk Theophan visited many significant cities of Catholicism and Protestantism, and everywhere he examined churches, libraries, museums and other attractions, visited various scientists and educational institutions in order to get acquainted with the situation of Western theological science. This journey was of great educational importance for Hieromonk Theophan. Upon his return from Jerusalem, for his labors and merits in the East, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite in 1855. On April 12, 1855, Archimandrite Theophan was appointed bachelor in the department of canon law at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, instead of Hieromonk John, the famous canonist, transferred to Kazan. Archimandrite Theophan's lectures on canon law have not survived, so it is impossible to accurately determine their nature. But from the many passages on this subject preserved in his numerous subsequent writings, we can still indicate the general idea of ​​his lectures. In them he held the basic position that salvation is possible only in the church, under the leadership of legal shepherds who received their authority by succession from the apostles of Christ in the sacrament of the priesthood; that the power to make laws and rules for the moral and religious life of Christians belongs to the church; that the very church rule is the same moral teaching, only in practical application to life and activity. In addition to teaching canon law, Archimandrite Theophan was also involved in preaching here. From this time on, there is only one of his sermons in print - on the day of the descent of St. Spirit on the apostles. In this word, Archimandrite Theophan, pointing to the life-giving action of the Holy Spirit in human nature from the creation of the world until now, reveals the secret and order of this action in man itself. “The beginning of everything,” he says briefly, is repentance, ... the middle is labors and exploits in cleansing the heart from passions by planting virtues in it, the end is sacred and secret communion with God” 4747. At this time, Archimandrite Feofan’s acquaintance with some high-society persons of St. Petersburg grew. His high mental and moral qualities, his understanding of the religious and moral needs of his interlocutors, his ability to speak, his ability to encourage and dispose to repentance and correction, his courtesy and sociability attracted many people from the highest secular circle to him. Of these persons, Princess Lukomskaya, a close relative of the famous dignitary Ya. I. Rostovtsev, enjoyed special leadership from Archimandrite Theophan. With her, Archimandrite Theophan, I subsequently carried on an extensive correspondence, giving her advice and instructions in faith and piety. But this time Archimandrite Feofan had to stay in St. Petersburg for very little time, less than six months. On September 12, 1855, he was appointed to the position of rector of the Olonets Theological Seminary, but he also did not remain in this position for long, less than a year. Here, Archimandrite Theophan had a lot of work and troubles ahead of him. Just at this time, the Olonets Eminence Arkady was summoned to attend the Holy Synod, and Archimandrite Theophan was entrusted with not only all the affairs of the seminary and theological school, but also many affairs of the diocese, its supervision and leadership, about which Archimandrite Theophan had to constantly write to the Eminence Arkady. The Olonets Theological Seminary was located at that time in an apartment, since there was no government building yet, so it was very inconvenient. Therefore, the authorities entrusted Archimandrite Theophan with the responsibility to arrange his own building for the seminary. Fulfilling this order from his superiors, Archimandrite Feofan chose a location for the seminary building, drew up plans with the architect, hired a contractor at auction, and personally supervised all the robots. In addition to the construction of the seminary building, Archimandrite Feofan put a lot of effort into setting up the Svir Theological School, which was very dilapidated. Archimandrite Feofan examined it and found that it was not worth repairing, but that he should petition for the construction of a new building, and in the meantime, transfer the school to an apartment. He reported all this to His Eminence Arkady and then, with his consent, began to look for a house suitable for the school. He found it in Lodeynoye Pole and rented it for 100 rubles a year for several years, until the establishment of a government building 4848. In addition to the affairs of arranging the buildings of the seminary and theological school, Archimandrite Theophan was entrusted with many other matters. He had to monitor and monitored the immediate and proper execution of the orders of the Right Reverend Arkady during his absence, the progress of affairs in the consistory, for which he often saw the secretary and spoke with him on consistory matters 4949, monitored the clergy, the performance of their duties, especially the preaching of the word of God, which was very weak in the Olonets diocese. For this purpose, Archimandrite Theophan recommended in a letter to His Grace Arkady “to distribute (among capable priests) the subjects of Christian teaching in small parts, in order to compile teachings on them” 5050. Archimandrite Feofan himself delivered sermons. So he said the word for the New Year (1856) and Great Friday. The first word is devoted to reasoning about the present, past and future in their meaning, both in themselves and in relation to man and the Divine world government 5151. The word on Great Heel is of an even more repentant nature. In it, he discusses “what the blood of Jesus Christ tells us, crying out louder than the blood of Abel” and reveals the ways of our active compassion and co-crucifixion with Christ. Archimandrite Theophan indicates three of these methods: 1) a firm intention, after repentance for sins, not to sin again, 2) patient bearing of one’s cross and living communion with the passions of the Lord” 5252. Archimandrite Theophan worked a lot in the Olonets diocese and in the fight against the schism. He became closely acquainted with the position of the schism, which was firmly established here, especially lack of priesthood in its four types - Danilovism, Filippovism, Aristovism and wandering 5353. To combat the schism in the Olonets diocese, a special mission was formed with a missionary (Fr. Meletius), his assistant and three deans with their assistants 5454. They were still inexperienced in missionary work, and Archimandrite Theophan took over their leadership. He often talked with them, gave them good advice and instructions 5555. In the same way, he invited the rural priests of those parishes that were strongly infected by the schism, and gave them proper instructions on how to fight the schism, how to weaken its propaganda and protect the children of the Orthodox Church from it. For this purpose, he advised them to lead the strictest way of life, so that there would be no reproach from schismatics and temptation for the Orthodox, to perform divine services diligently, according to the rules; more often teach parishioners the truths of the Orthodox faith and convince them to firmly adhere to this teaching, conduct interviews with schismatics and expose their errors; and in order to be more skillful in this matter, he advised to subscribe to church libraries and read anti-schismatic and religious-moral books 5656. For more successful activities of the anti-schismatic mission, Archimandrite Theophan started a library in the Paleostrovsky monastery, which contained both schismatic and anti-schismatic books and manuscripts, so that the missionary could have them at hand every time. To replenish this library, Archimandrite Theophan invited donors and opened subscriptions. He tried to acquaint rural children with the schism; rural parish schools were obliged to impart to their students the necessary knowledge about the schism and, mainly, about the meaning of it that exists in the lower regions. For this purpose, the missionary, with the help and advice of Archimandrite Theophan, compiled a special manual, adapted to local rural schools. The information he needed for this guide was collected from the local clergy 5757. In order to prepare pastors capable of fighting the schism, Archimandrite Theophan, with the approval of the spiritual authorities, opened a missionary class at the Olonets Seminary for students of the higher department 5858. Since the seminary did not even have the main schismatic books: Kirillova, the Book of Faith, old printed liturgical books, catechisms, etc., Archimandrite Theophan, in order to form a seminary anti-schism library, asked His Eminence Arkady to allow the transfer to the seminary library of those schismatic books that were kept in the cathedral 5959, and, in addition, together with the teacher of the schism Tsitov, he appealed to the boards of the academies with a request to send to the seminary the extra books available in the academies. The Academies granted his request and sent many early printed and handwritten books on the schism of 6060. Many necessary books and manuals on the schism were also purchased with money. In a letter to His Eminence Arkady dated March 6, 1856, Archimandrite Feofan wrote: “Now we have it at hand, it seems. all the most necessary books" 6161. The ability of priests to properly conduct church services is very important for weakening schismatic propaganda and for combating schism. For this purpose, Archimandrite Theophan conceived the idea of ​​opening classes for practical worship and church singing at the seminary. But he never managed to carry out this idea after transferring from the Olonets Seminary 6262. But Archimandrite Theophan introduced a drawing and icon painting class at the Olonets Seminary. There were many people willing to learn drawing, and for them the arch. Theophanes set aside a special room and himself supervised their studies 6363. The general educational and educational activities of Archimandrite Theophan at the Olonets Seminary were of the same nature as his activities at the Novgorod Seminary when he was an inspector there. And here he soon managed to get along with his new fellow professors and win from them the most sincere love and gratitude. His students also loved him. Distinguished by his special love for his students, Archimandrite Theophan, in addition to their upbringing and education, tried in every possible way to improve their external lives - about their health, about improving clothes, the environment, etc. In a letter to His Eminence Arkady dated November 12, 1855, he wrote: “Our hospital is not entirely in working order. The room... is downstairs, gloomy, cramped, it’s almost impossible to maintain clean air... I suppose it would be nice to build a hospital separately... with all the amenities for it” 6565. “I would like to build linen, sheets and pillowcases from the best canvas... buy flannel blankets... arrange new tables, strong and decent, and with them stools all in the same shape,... arrange closets for hanging official clothes" 6666. But all this activity, especially administrative and economic, greatly burdened Archimandrite Theophan and interfered with his desire for moral perfection and ascetic deeds. One thing concerning the construction of the seminary building worried him greatly. On March 20, 1856, he wrote to S.O. Burachka: “My indecision is now overwhelming me to the extreme. So many questions! - And fear? Well, that's the problem! It’s not for nothing that I wrote to you about the urge to run away from the rector’s office” 6767. But Archimandrite Feofan did not have to bear the burdens of administrative activity for long with the rank of rector. On May 21, 1856, at the end of the Crimean War, he was appointed to the post of rector of the Russian embassy church in Constantinople. It is clear how much Archimandrite Feofan was happy about this new appointment. On May 29 of this year, he wrote to Eminence Arkady: “I would be deeply grieved if they would move me somewhere again to the rector’s office, but I prefer the place where, God willing, I will now be to everything else for myself.”6868 The choice of Archimandrite Theophan to take the important and responsible post of rector of the embassy church in Constantinople was undoubtedly determined by that circumstance. that he was well acquainted with the Orthodox East and was fully prepared for this position. During his previous stay in Jerusalem, under the command and guidance of Archimandrite Porfiry, Archimandrite Theophan acquired great missionary experience there and became thoroughly familiar with the main heterodox confessions. He knew Greek and French well and could communicate freely and in writing with Greeks, Turks, and representatives of heterodox faiths. This time, Archimandrite Theophan was entrusted with an independent and very responsible post. The importance of serving in the post of embassy church in Constantinople was determined by the conditions of the then political and church life of the Orthodox East. On the one hand, the Russian government at that time was seriously concerned about the rise of Russian influence in the East, which had been shaken by the previous Crimean War; on the other hand, as soon as the conflict between the Greeks and Bulgarians began, which subsequently ended in the Greek-Bulgarian schism. The religious enmity between the Greeks and Bulgarians deeply outraged the highest representatives of our government and the highest hierarchs of our church, and they, especially the Kherson Archbishop Innocent, tried in every possible way for the speedy reconciliation of the warring peoples. The Sovereign Emperor Alexander II himself wanted the people who served in our spiritual missions in the East to contribute to its cessation. One of these persons was Archimandrite Feofan. As a good expert on the life of the East, as an architect. Feofan was entrusted with the task of collecting information that could illuminate the situation of the Greek-Bulgarian feud. For this purpose, when leaving for the East, he was given special instructions by Kherson Archbishop Innocent. Archimandrite Theophan fulfilled the mission entrusted to him in the best possible way and presented Archbishop Innocent with a thorough and detailed report - a “report” written on March 9, 1857 6969. This report is divided into two halves: in the 1st, Archimandrite Theophan speaks about the movement that was then taking place among the Bulgarians; and in the 2nd - about the state of the Eastern Orthodox Church, mainly the Patriarchate of Constantinople. From this report we learn about the general nature of the activities of Archimandrite Theophan in Constantinople. Upon arrival in Constantinople, Archimandrite Theophan took all measures to find out the true state of the strife - its causes, goals, means, results to which it leads and can lead. This was a very difficult matter, especially since the Bulgarians, apparently, did not have a particularly friendly attitude towards Russia and the Russians, who in the previous Russian-Turkish war did not justify all the hopes placed on them. As a result, the Bulgarians avoided the Russian embassy. “Just think, what is our position?” – Archimandrite Feofan writes in the report. “At the end of January, Izvorsky arrived from St. Petersburg - and this was the first Bulgarian whom not only I, but everyone saw at the embassy” 7070. Through him, Archimandrite Feofan and the rest of the mission members met other Bulgarians. But even from them it was difficult to find out the true state of affairs. Some said one thing, others said another. Some are against their metropolitan and the Greeks; others - in defense of their metropolitan and the Greeks. “If you listen to some, writes Archimandrite Theophan, then the Greek shepherds are no good” 7171 “led to listen to others, then the only salvation is from the Greeks” 7272. Due to this disagreement among the Bulgarians themselves, Archimandrite Theophan did not generalize either this or any other review. He thoroughly concluded that there are good Greek bishops, and there are also bad ones; There are Bulgarians happy with the Greek bishops, and there are also dissatisfied. “The people in general,” writes Archimandrite Theophan, are blissfully unaware of this movement, live content with what they have, and thank God” 7373. In order to more thoroughly learn the true state of affairs, Archimandrite Theophan wanted to collect accurate information on the spot throughout Bulgaria, but this was not possible. The Bulgarians would immediately suspect a Russian and stop him. Archimandrite Theophan tried in every possible way to find out where the movement among the Bulgarians began, and came to the conclusion that it was instilled in the Bulgarians by Catholics and Protestants. “You can hear, he writes, that during the war some Frankish travelers traveled around Bulgaria. It could turn out that they gave the idea and aroused the courage to ask for what they ask for - with the promise of help.” Having aroused discord between the Orthodox churches, Catholics and Protestants began to use it to their advantage, seducing the Orthodox into their confessions, and used all kinds of means for this. And they often carried out their propaganda with great success. “In the places neighboring the Bosnian parishes – the Catholic ones – it is noticeable, writes Archimandrite Theophan, that there is a great disposition towards Catholicism... The people of Shumli can be directly suspected of an inclination towards Catholicism” 7474. Heterodox embassies supported their co-religionists: the French ambassador supported the aspirations of Catholics and took under his wing those who converted to Catholicism; English patronized Protestants 7575. At the same time, there were, of course, political goals - to reject the Bulgarians from Russia and attract them to France or England. These parties were joined by noble Bulgarians and even high-ranking hierarchical officials, such as Exarch Alexander, who belonged to the French party 7676. For greater success in their propaganda, Catholics opened schools and boarding schools in Bulgaria, such as this one. boarding house Bor in Vebek on the Bosphorus, and they lured Bulgarian children there, especially noble parents, to study the then fashionable French language. Along with the French language, they were also instilled with a penchant for Catholicism. “In the Bor boarding school, writes Archimandrite Theophan, up to 20 Bulgarians are studying, as they say, more for studying the French language..., it is very difficult to resist the infection... The most devoted to his faith will leave school without turning away from Catholicism” 7777. What did the Bulgarians strive for? Archimandrite Feofin carefully tried to investigate this issue. But at that time it had not yet been finally clarified among the Bulgarians themselves, and there were disagreements among them. •Some demanded only bishops from the Bulgarians, or Greeks who knew the Bulgarian language, others wanted all the church affairs of Bulgaria to be managed by a single Bulgarian metropolitan, dependent on the ecumenical patriarch; the third wanted an independent Bulgarian patriarch, equal to the other patriarch. In general, the Bulgarians demonstrated their religious independence and demanded worship in their native language 7878. How did the Greeks and the Turkish government view this movement of the Bulgarians? Archimandrite Theophan learned in detail that at first the Greeks did not consider this matter important, but then they realized its significance and decided not to yield to the Bulgarians in anything 7979. The Turkish government paid attention to the Bulgarians' complaints and supported their legitimate demands. But, on the other hand, the Porte, taking advantage of the movement of the Bulgarians, began to allow illegal actions in relation to the Greek Church of Constantinople; she began to interfere in the affairs of the church and decide them apart from the patriarch and the synod. About this, Archimandrite Theophan writes, among other things: “A berat was given to each newly installed bishop... with the end of the war, this extradition was stopped. They suspected that they wanted to destroy episcopal rights; the great church asked for an explanation of why this was being done. She was answered: we know why we are doing this... The local church authorities... are expecting with fear large intrusions of the Turkish authorities into the affairs of the church - (we are waiting, she says that a Turkish official will be imprisoned in the synod); but she herself does not have the strength and courage to resist, nor does she hope for outside help from anywhere... It’s a pitiful situation!” 8080. This was the true state of affairs in the East during Archimandrite Theophan’s stay there, as he himself describes it. It was very serious and sad! How the Greek-Bulgarian feud would end, Archimandrite Theophan absolutely could not say anything 8181. But he treated it with due attention and with all the strength of his soul stood for the justice and legality of the Bulgarians’ demands, while at the same time caring about improving the situation of the Church of Constantinople in the Turkish Empire. Archimandrite Theophan strongly wished and tried for the Bulgarians to have their own bishops and priests from the Bulgarians, so that the latter would speak and serve in the national language. As a last resort, he considered it desirable that in Bulgaria there should be Greek bishops and priests together with the Bulgarians, but only those who know the Bulgarian and Slavic languages ​​well, and to send back to the Greek dioceses those Bulgarian bishops and priests who know the Greek language well.”8282 Along with the people's clergy, Archimandrite Theophan strongly desired and cared for the development of Bulgarian education, so that through this the Bulgarians would “grow into a people reasonably firm in Orthodoxy” 8383 Archimandrite Theophan would become well acquainted with Bulgarian schools. In his report to Archbishop Innocent, he writes that there are many schools in Bulgaria - at almost every church. All schools are divided into two categories: some allylodidactic - primary, corresponding to our parochial schools; other Hellenic ones, in which the ancient Hellenic language, catechism, sacred history, arithmetic, etc. are taught, they can be compared with our district schools. But there were no higher schools in Bulgaria. Archimandrite Theophan strongly desired that there should be such a school here, and even drew up a project on how to form it. He proposed choosing one more well-organized school and adding to it from time to time subjects and years of the course, depending on the how they would look for capable teachers and find material resources 8484. Archimandrite Theophan realized that these schools, while strengthening the Bulgarians in Orthodoxy, at the same time would be the best means to counteract the above-mentioned heterodox propaganda - Catholicism and Protestantism - that was intensifying in Bulgaria. For the same purposes, Archimandrite Theophan advised to establish a good boarding school in Constantinople exclusively for Bulgarians, as opposed to the French boarding school Born, which served the purposes of Catholic propaganda among Bulgarian boys. The proposed Bulgarian boarding school, according to the project of Archimandrite Feofan, should not only combine the advantages of the Born boarding school, but also surpass it with a lower tuition fee. Archimandrite Theophan recommended, in addition, that several poor boys be supported for free. With his sympathy for the Bulgarian people, sympathy for their legitimate aspirations, and his sincere desire to help them, Archimandrite Theophan gained great love among the Bulgarians. Of the noble secular persons, he had a particularly close relationship with the Samian prince Bogoridi, a Bulgarian by birth, who strongly interceded for the Bulgarians before the Porte 8585. The latter at all respected Archimandrite Theophan and valued his opinion, as can be seen from the fact that he sent him Bulgarian works and books for review. Archimandrite Theophan writes in his report: “Bogoridi sent me to review the book - a collection of conversations on the Sunday Gospels all year round, compiled by his grandfather Vratsa Bishop Sophrony in the Bulgarian language... The conversations are edifying” 8686. Concerned especially about the position of the Bulgarian Church, Archimandrite Theophan did not forget the Church of Constantinople. He became closely acquainted with the church life of the Patriarchate of Constantinople - with the state of the synod, the position of the patriarch, metropolitans, bishops, priests, with the maintenance of churches and clergy, and found all this in a very sad situation 8787. Archimandrite Theophan wrote about all this in his report, expressing a desire to somehow improve the situation of the Eastern Churches and their Christians. Archimandrite Feofan himself, of course, could not do anything personally, as the rector of the Russian embassy church. It was not in his power. He could only wish for the improvement of the situation of the Eastern Churches and their Christians, indicate the means for this and ask for help from the highest authorities. Archimandrite Feofan did all this. Describing the sad situation of the Eastern Churches, he appeals for help to “magnanimous” Russia, which, by faith, should not leave its mother in a helpless state” 8888. The entire report of Archimandrite Theophan expresses his deep love for the Slavic brothers and his sincere desire for Russia to help them. Concerned about improving the situation of the Eastern Churches and their Christians, Archimandrite Theophan, during his stay in Constantinople, also took care of the Russians who were here. Thus, he proposed to the Russian government to establish a hospital in Constantinople for Russian sailors and fans of 8989. He also asked to arrange “brotherhood with the church” 9090. The said report of Archimandrite Theophan, written to Archbishop Innocent, as being completely thorough and impartial, was later of great importance in discussing the Greek-Bulgarian feud on the part of our Holy Synod. The Greek-Bulgarian feud, which began before the eyes of Archimandrite Theophan, ended in the 70s of the last century with the Bulgarian schism. The Ecumenical Patriarch reported this unfortunate event, among other things, to our Holy Synod, which had to express its judgment on this matter. The matter was entrusted to His Eminence Macarius, at that time Archbishop of Lithuania. The latter collected a lot of different material to familiarize himself with the schism and, among the most important documents, used the indicated report of Archimandrite Theophan. This thorough and impartial report greatly influenced the judgment of the Most Reverend Macarius on the issue of the Bulgarian schism. He fully agreed with the opinion of Archimandrite Theophan and himself spoke out for the fairness and legality of the Bulgarians’ demands. It was in this spirit that the response was given by the Russian Church to the Church of Constantinople. During Archimandrite Theophan's stay in Constantinople, he began a correspondence with Princess Lukomskaya, the fruit of which was “Letters on Christian Life.” Here in Constantinople, Archimandrite Theophan met Count A.P. Tolstoy, who was a passionate admirer of the Greeks and the Greek Church. This acquaintance later, when the count became chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod, had a greater influence on the subsequent ministry of Archimandrite Theophan. However, Archimandrite Theophan did not have to stay in Constantinople for long: a new, more prominent field of service to the church and fatherland opened up for him. The rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Bishop Macarius, was appointed to an independent see in Tambov in May 1857. Archimandrite Feofan was appointed to the vacant position of rector of the St. Petersburg Academy by decree of June 18, 1857. St. Petersburg Metropolitan Gregory preferred him to another available candidate, the rector of the Moscow Academy Eugene, probably under the influence of the chief prosecutor St. Synod of Count A.P. Tolstoy, who was very friendly to Archimandrite Feofan. The rector's position at the St. Petersburg Academy, in addition to reading dogmatic theology, was then accompanied by many other complex responsibilities - chairmanship of the committees established at the academy for the translation of St. Scriptures into Russian and according to the publication of Byzantine historians in Russian translation, editorship of “Christian Reading”, observation of the teaching of the law of God in secular educational institutions of the capital and its environs. But mainly, Archimandrite Feofan, when he was rector, paid attention to the educational part of the academy entrusted to him: he was a true leader and father of academic students, he treated them easily, like a father with his children. Students had constant and free access to it and turned to it with all their needs and perplexities. In his “home conversations with them, Rector Theophan discussed the professors’ readings, inspired them to independently think and work, pointed out sources and manuals (especially patristic ones) on this or that subject; He talked a lot with students regarding semester and course essays and sermons, giving them useful advice and instructions. Rector Feofan especially loved to talk with students on issues of Christian psychology. Being an excellent psychologist and observer of religious and moral life, he clearly, in detail and fascinatingly revealed to his listeners the human soul with its highest aspirations and abilities; encouraged them to a high religious and moral life and pointed out the path and means to it. The students really liked these conversations and had a strong beneficial effect on them. One of the students who listened to these conversations of the rector Feofan (Lebedev, later an archpriest in St. Petersburg), recalled them as the most precious minutes of his academic life 9191). In all these conversations, Rector Feofan tried mainly to instill and strengthen a good, truly Christian direction in the students. He was confident that if the students were now established in this direction, then nothing would seduce them from the true path - they would be true Christians in life, worthy sons of the church and the fatherland. And that time—the 50s and 60s—was especially dangerous for Russian society and mainly for youth. Then the spirit of freedom, the spirit of freethinking, blew; Thoughts of unbelief, rationalism, and denial of the monarchical state system penetrated from the West. Then there were unrest among students in higher and even some secondary secular educational institutions in the capitals and some provincial cities. The unrest even affected students of theological and academic institutions and, in particular, students of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, who were influenced by students of St. Petersburg University. At least, Moscow Metropolitan Philaret, in a letter to the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod dated October 10, 1858, speaks of “self-indulgence” discovered between students of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, who became infected from university students. Turning students away from fashionable current ideas, rector Feofan in his conversations pointed out the harmfulness of these ideas, forbade students to meet unknown young people of suspicious behavior, go to public libraries, etc. And here the 50th anniversary of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy was just approaching, which fell on February 17, 1859. Fearing for the peace of the academy in view of the upcoming anniversary, rector Feofan conveyed his fears to Metropolitan Gregory of St. Petersburg, who himself was a student, and then mentor and head of the same academy. The venerable elder Metropolitan Gregory, on one Sunday in November 1858, personally arrived at the academic church for the liturgy and after it in the academic hall he convinced students to remain faithful to their upbringing and calling and not to get carried away by the false teachings of ill-intentioned people 9292. On the occasion of the anniversary, Rector Feofan generally had to experience a lot of work and trouble. It was necessary to take care of compiling a historical note, which was entrusted to Professor Chistovich; but this note was edited by Feofan himself. In addition, it was necessary to properly prepare for the reception of many distinguished guests during the anniversary; for this it was necessary to give a festive look to the premises of the academy itself. All these works and troubles fell mainly on the rector Feofan. He also had the honor of standing at the head of the academic corporation during the anniversary celebrations, when many noble dignitaries and clergy came to the academy, when many congratulatory addresses and telegrams were sent 9393. The Divine Liturgy on the day of the anniversary was celebrated by Metropolitan Gregory of St. Petersburg with many bishops, archimandrites and priests, and the sermon was delivered by the rector, Archimandrite Theophan. Bearing in mind the celebrated event and the above-mentioned troubled nature of the times, he defined in his sermon the high goal of the activity of the theological academy, as a solid stronghold of Orthodoxy and a nursery that prepares shepherds and mentors for shepherds, and also determined the main tasks of the activity of spiritual shepherds, in accordance with modern needs. Turning to the hysteria of the academy, Archimandrite Theophan found that the academy was always faithful to its purpose, always taught one true Divine teaching. “If there is a doubt whether something new has come to us, says Archimandrite Theophan, whether truth has not been given over to superstition... then we are all open to each other - we will all judge together and return to the truth what is its own, so that it may go to its own place and to its own fatherland.” Pointing to the modern “spirit of lies” penetrating from the West - unbelief, indifferentism, free-thinking, Archimandrite Theophan calls for intensified preaching and defense of the word of God. “Let us preach, brethren, in churches and homes, in general meetings and private conversations, orally, in writing, in print... let us proclaim the truth to the ears of all, and it itself will attract, as our Heavenly Father has forewarned. Let’s just conduct this matter in such a way that no one can tell the truth: doctor, heal yourself... We are the light of the world: we will shine. We are salt: let us not enchant you!” 9494. On the occasion of the anniversary, Rector Theophan was most mercifully awarded the Order of Vladimir, 3rd degree, for his labors and zealous service for the benefit of the church and the spiritual enlightenment of youth. This anniversary was not in vain for Rector Feofan. From excitement and anxiety and from a cold, he soon fell ill with a dangerous form of typhoid fever, which, given his weak physique, threatened his life. But the Lord God was pleased to save his chosen one. The crisis passed safely, and the patient began to recover, although very slowly. As rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Archimandrite Theophan was intensively engaged in scientific and literary activities, which were even more prolific than before. Its character was determined by the anti-religious and anti-state direction of the then society in general and youth in particular. At this time, Archimandrite Theophan published his works mainly in the academic journal "Christian Reading", which was then published under his main supervision. These works were later published in separate collections. Thus, a small collection: "A Warning against Infatuation with the Spirit of the Present Time" (St. Petersburg, 1858) was compiled from the following articles published in "Christian Reading": 1) “A letter from a spiritual father to one confused by the speeches of freethinkers” 2) “On progress”, 3) “On revival” and 4) “On the Holy Church.” The last three articles are actual sermons that were delivered by him at different times during the first half of 1858. All these articles were written vividly, with great feeling, with ardent zeal for the truth and glory of God. In them, Archimandrite Theophan protects all the children of the Orthodox Church from the harmful thoughts of unbelief and rationalism and thoroughly refutes these modern misconceptions. Regarding the modern desire for so-called progress, Archimandrite Theophan refutes false concepts about them and establishes a true concept of what true development and improvement consists of. True progress according to it consists in striving to achieve “to the extent of the age of the fulfillment of Christ” 9595. In his sermon “on revival,” Archimandrite Theophan discusses in detail “how the true revival of humanity took place, what is the nature of that revival, what our teachers boast of, and what we should do after that” 9696. “Put, he says, on the one hand, restorative divine institutions, on the other, the needs of our universal human life, and you will see how some can guide others and... create a grace-filled life in all its fullness and in the entire body of our fatherland. For whatever we seek, we will find in them the right guidance and indications of the most durable principles” 9797. This collection by Archimandrite Theophan had a great influence on modern society and earned him great gratitude from people who sincerely cared about the good of the church and the fatherland. So, for example, Moscow Metropolitan Philaret wrote on July 23, 1858 to the abbot of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Archimandrite Anthony, who sent him a copy of this book: “Thank you for the book - “A Warning.” The teaching there is good" 9898. During his rectorship at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Archimandrite Feofan delivered many other sermons: two sermons on the day of the accession to the throne of Sovereign Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich, a word on the birthday of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, a word on the day of St. Pentecost, a word on the day of the namesake of Grand Duchesses Olga Nikolaevna, a word on the day of the sacred wedding and anointing of the Sovereign Emperor, a word on the day of the transfer of the relics of St. Blessed Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky, two words in memory of the Venerable Varlaam of Khutyn, a word on the XXVII week after Pentecost and a word on the XXXI week after Pentecost. All these sermons, along with others from the previous and several later ones, were published in 1859 by Archimandrite Feofan in a special book entitled: “Words of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy by the Rector Archimandrite Feofan.” These sermons, as previously discussed, on the one hand, deeply touch on issues of religious and moral life, and on the other, represent a lively attitude to the issues of modern thought and life, exposing its ills, warning against getting carried away by the spirit of the time, with an animated call to struggle, indicating the ways and means of this struggle. “Let us not fear the enemy,” he says, for example, in the word on the day of the transfer of the relics of St. Alexander Nevsky,... Let us contrast this spirit of forgetfulness and unbelief by walking in the purifying fear of God, living faith and living by faith... Let us contrast the spirit of worldly mutual coolness with brotherly love for each other, all-round carnal lust - sobriety, abstinence in everything, and self-mortification proper for Christians... But our good works should not consist of personal withdrawal from the spirit of the world and resistance to it: parents and educators should raise children in faith and piety. Most of all, let us shed tears of prayer to the Lord God... that He may raise up among us good workers, zealots of faith and piety.” Archimandrite Theophan carried out the same lofty thoughts in his “Letters on Christian Life,” written at this time, the first volume of which was published in 1859; and the following volumes are later than 9999. Chapter III. The ministry of His Grace Theophan at the Tambov See (1859–1863) On May 9, 1859, by the Highest command, the rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Archimandrite Feofan, was made Bishop of Tambov and Shatsk, instead of his predecessor and comrade, the Right Reverend Macarius, who was transferred to the Kharkov see. Thus, Archimandrite Theophan was directly appointed to an independent episcopal see, while his mentioned comrade and most of the other bishops of his time began their episcopal service with the rank of vicars. On May 29, Archimandrite Theophan was named bishop, and on June 1, the consecration took place, which was performed by Metropolitan Gregory with other bishops in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. When he was ordained bishop, after the solemn pronouncement of the confession of faith, in the presence of all members of the Holy Synod, Theophan delivered a speech beginning with the words: “I thank, I accept, and not at all contrary to the verb,” in which he expressed his submission to the will of God, his humility and unworthiness 100100. Soon after his consecration, Bishop Theophan went to Tambov, where he arrived at the beginning of July. On July 5, on the day of remembrance of St. Sergius of Radonezh, the Right Reverend Theophan entered into communication with his flock through a word spoken from the church pulpit. After greeting and wishing his flock “every good of soul and body,” His Grace Theophan in this word first of all indicates what the mutual relationship should be between him, as an archpastor, and them, as his flock. “We are no longer strangers to each other,” he said. At the hour of the naming, not yet knowing you, I had already entered into communication with you, having made a vow to God and St. church - you belong with your care, your labors and even your life”... In the same way, you must “determine yourself to pay attention and, if necessary, to obey my weak word and deed of faith in love... From this moment we have both good and evil in common... In this, it seems, there is enough incentive for us to walk before each other, as before the face of God... and in mutual assistance to each other, with fear and trembling, to do our salvation." Having further offered his confession of the Orthodox faith in all its main features in connection with the basic rules of Christian morality, the Right Reverend Theophan convinces his listeners to hold on to this faith, “as our fathers held on to it,” and to avoid “new things in matters of faith and piety,” to guard “from false prophets who come in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves,” whom he then lists according to the types of their false teaching. In conclusion, he prays to God to give to his flock “the spirit of wisdom and revelation to know Him, with the enlightened aim of the heart, so as to know what is the hope of his calling.” In this opening speech, His Eminence Theophan outlined, as it were, a program of his pastoral activity. The work and worries at the Tambov See of the Right Reverend Theophan had something else to do. The Tambov diocese itself is one of the largest and most populous; There are many schismatics and sectarians in it. In addition, Theophan’s episcopacy in Tambov coincided with the time of the introduction of various kinds of reforms not only in the civil, but also in the church life of Russia. These are especially the liberation of peasants from serfdom, the improvement of their life in various respects, and the raising of the level of their mental development. And the diocesan bishop had to respond to all these reforms in one way or another. One of the first concerns of Bishop Theophan was the desire to raise the level of public education. To achieve this goal, Bishop Theophan took special care to increase parochial schools, of which a lot were opened under him. In the Tambov Diocesan Gazette for 1861–1863. Almost every issue talks about several newly opened parochial schools. It should be noted that at that time parochial schools were just being established; The peasants were little aware of the need for teaching and did not themselves at all strive for it, and therefore the opening of parochial schools cost the clergy a lot of work. Convincing the priests to take care of the opening of schools, His Grace Theophan at the same time, both verbally and in writing, gave them instructions on how to conduct the education and upbringing of peasant children in them in the spirit of the Orthodox Church. For example, his letter dated December 2, 1859 to the priest of the village of Kriushi, Temnikovsky district, is known. In it he talks about the nature of learning, about subjects, methods of learning and about books that need to be assigned to school. “Just as children are simple, their education should be the simplest, childish. Love children, and love will teach you how to descend to their meaning and become understandable to them... It seems to me that it is enough that children leave school knowing how to read, write, knowing prayers, some from memory, others from a book... and those who know how to pray, who know the Creed, the commandments, the Lord's Prayer, a brief sacred history... and how to know the church (holidays, prayer, honoring of shrines, and especially fasting) and who understand all that... The main thing is to form a character and heart... The main thing here is the fear of God and piety, and love for others... Prayer with singing in class, frequent going to church and Let the skill of home prayer be the subject of your concern... If you make children fall in love with church singing, you will see how the fields and crowbars will be resounding with sacred hymns. And you will rejoice... Distribute the students according to the degree of intelligence - and conduct a conversation with one this way, with another differently... Do not burden the child’s head... Make sure that the children in the class, in your conversation with them and in the teachings, find joy. Regarding books... Start writing out “Home Conversations” and “Spiritual Reading.” These are magazines. Buy books: School of Piety of St. Tikhon, or all 9 volumes, or the last two parts. Letters to Friends and Cell Letters - his - About the Duties of Christians.... Selected articles by the Right Reverend Tikhon are from his Spiritual Treasures collected from the world... Honored Menaion... And that’s enough for the first time” 101101. Finally, in 1862, Bishop Theophan issued a special order for the diocese with “rules for rural parochial schools 102102. According to these rules, local parish priests were appointed heads of parochial schools and chief teachers; and so that classes in schools do not stop on the occasion, for example, of priests leaving for corrections, deans should assign them assistants from the church clergy. Before the cessation of classes in schools, with the onset of summer work, the priest-teacher must test the students in the presence of their parents and report the results of the test to the authorities. The main supervision of all parochial schools of the diocese was entrusted to the rector of the seminary, who was supposed to enter into discussions on the affairs of the schools with all deans and parish priests, both orally and in writing. These conversations and correspondence, according to Pr. Feofan, must be completely sincere and free from any constraint. Parish priests should freely communicate all their needs, concerns and concerns, and be assured that their frankness will be guarded with care. This measure was very important. Correspondence conducted in a similar spirit contributed to the disclosure of the current state of the schools, their essential needs and requirements and the means to satisfy them. According to these “rules,” deans were appointed as local observers of schools. Their duties lay chiefly in the supervision of schools and instruction; they were also supposed to give advice and instructions to teachers. In order to streamline teaching in parochial schools and put it at the proper level, the rector of the seminary, as the main observer, was obliged to draw up general rules for teaching and indicate textbooks and manuals. In addition, to guide priests in teaching various subjects and raising children in parochial schools, according to the thought of His Eminence Theophan, local teachers and priests compiled pedagogical articles, which were then published in the Tambov Diocesan Gazette. So, for example, the following articles were compiled and published: “On teaching the law of God to children” 103103, “Teaching church and civil reading in villages” 104104 “Teaching in rural schools” 105105 and others. Many schools were very poor and could not acquire the necessary textbooks and aids themselves. Therefore, Bishop Theophan communicated with the Literacy Committee and asked for its “assistance in providing the poorest schools of the Tambov diocese with approved teaching aids.” 106106 In addition, he encouraged priests to invite parishioners to donate to schools and, with their consent, to elect a reliable school trustee. And Feofan himself, at every opportunity, invited donations for the great and godly cause of public education. And, indeed, there were a lot of donations: they donated money, publications for schools, and various materials for their construction, educational books and other school supplies. Due to the intense care of St. Feofan, the condition of parochial schools in the Tambov diocese soon improved significantly. To help parish schools, St. Feofan encouraged the clergy to open private literacy schools in villages. Under him, many 107,107 such schools were opened in the Tambov diocese. They were opened mainly by priests and other members of the clergy under the supervision of a priest, most often in their homes 108108, or in rented premises 109109. Priests in teaching in these schools were often assisted by sextons and sextons 110110, and sometimes by more or less literate parishioners 111111. They taught children of different classes, both sexes, from 10 to 30 or more people free of charge. Education took place at approximately the same rate in parochial schools 112112, into which they were then transformed. In addition to these schools, with the assistance of His Grace Theophan in the Tambov diocese, the clergy began to open Sunday schools in cities and large villages, in which on Sundays not only children, but also adults of both sexes could study literacy, writing, the law of God and arithmetic 113113. In order to promote public education, His Grace Theophan also took care of the arrangement and splendor of the churches of God - these ancient and best schools of spiritual enlightenment. How many churches were built and repaired in the Tambov diocese under the Right Reverend Theophan, this can be seen from the “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” 114114. The church preaching of the word of God is of great importance in the matter of religious and moral education of the people. Ave. Feofan paid especially serious attention to this matter. At every opportunity, he encouraged the priests to be as zealous as possible in church preaching and to teach their parishioners “in the right time and in the wrong time.” He encouraged them, if possible, to compose teachings themselves, in relation to popular understanding and the needs of the time. As a guide in preaching activities, by order of Rev. Feofan, under the “Tambov Diocesan Gazette”, a “Collection of short teachings from St. fathers", with special page numbering 115115. In order to teach priests how to compose and deliver sermons, St. Theophan, perhaps even a san, wrote and published instructions on “how to compose a sermon” in the “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1862. Here the distinctive features of the sermon from other verbal works, its nature, purpose, properties are indicated, the means to achieve these properties are recommended, and its form is also indicated. Here are the main provisions of this instruction: “The essential character of preaching is edification,... it should consist in enlightening a blind mind, in reviving a dead feeling, in strengthening a weak will and directing it to deeds pleasing to God.... How to achieve this?... Only one who has himself been recreated, whose mind brightly contemplates the truths, whose heart is warmed by a warm love for these truths,... whose will is disposed to these truths, lives by them, is affirmed by them... It is also necessary that the heart of the preacher be filled with love for the listeners, so that he... desires... to raise them into that good mood in which he himself stands... How to get into the mood shown?... The Spirit of God revives our spirit and fills it with love and jealousy... He teaches the worthy both what to talk about and how to speak... The sermon should be a harmonious combination of thoughts about one subject... Sermon... the form of an interview or conversational speech is decent... The preacher introduces the listeners into the speech... and generally does everything with them, as in a friendly conversation... However... this does not prohibit the sermon from allowing techniques of eloquence. Only they are not recognized as essential in it.”... 116116 Pr. Feofan strictly monitored the preaching activities of the priests. He encouraged zealous preachers with his gratitude, archpastoral blessing and nomination for awards 117117; those who were negligent in this matter were subject to fines and other punishments 118118. But in order for the clergy to fulfill their duty of teaching and preaching the word of God with honor, benefit and dignity, Rev. Theophan needed to be concerned about raising the level of development and education of the clergy itself. In view of this, the religious and educational institutions of the diocese were the subject of his special concerns. He actively followed the organization of education and upbringing in them, and in this regard he held the same lofty views that he had developed even earlier on the basis of his pedagogical activities, when he was the rector of the Kyiv-Sophia schools, the inspector of the Novgorod Theological Seminary and the rector of the Olonets Theological Seminary. Caring for the Christian education of children, youth and young men in the spirit of churchliness, he tried to provide students of theological seminaries and theological schools with a monastic environment. He was not averse to introducing cassocks as clothing for pupils. Although the implementation of this measure presented difficulties and inconveniences, His Eminence Theophan sincerely adhered to this view: at least he led his nephew, who studied school subjects in his house, in cassocks and skufia. His Eminence Theophan also tried to improve the external improvement of religious and educational institutions. Thus, he prompted a major overhaul of the seminary church, which was poor in its external structure. The main shortcomings in it were: the crampedness of the altar, the lack of light and the enormity of the choirs. And so, when in 1861 one respectable citizen, I.K. Malin, was found who expressed a good intention to take care of decorating the seminary church, with the blessing of St. Theophan, work was immediately started. All the mentioned shortcomings were eliminated: the altar was enlarged, the heavy choirs were destroyed, and the church was given light and space by connecting it with two adjacent corridors. In addition, a beautiful new iconostasis was built, all the icons of which were painted in the Greek style, a new crystal chandelier was hung in front of the royal doors, and new candlesticks were placed in front of all the icons. On September 28, 1862, Ave. Theophanes himself solemnly consecrated the renovated church 119119. St. Feofan also took care of the establishment of female education in the Tambov diocese. He was clearly aware of the great importance of education for girls of the clergy. By the way, he briefly spoke about this issue in a letter to I.I. Shumov: “If the husband goes astray, the wife will know what to remind him if necessary. And when God gives children, the mother is literate and will teach them to read and write in between... Whoever keeps his children in the dark, he... commits a sin - he doesn’t teach boys or girls” 120120. Ave. Feofan made every effort to fulfill his cherished dream of establishing a women's diocesan school in Tambov. He himself wrote about this to Elagin: “I’m making a wish, and not just somehow; and it’s so cool... to start a school for girls of the clergy.... Only a stop for the sources of the invention of money, but a short one. Maybe!” 121121 Ave. Feofan endeared the local clergy to this matter and began to seek the funds necessary for the school. In addition to imposing certain taxes on churches and clergy, funds were collected mainly through donations, which were requested by St. Theophan himself. Donations began to quickly flow in, and especially large ones were made by Mr. Ryndina, who donated 80 acres of land and a significant amount of money to the school, and by Eminence Nicholas, who served in 1841–1887. Bishop of Tambov, who donated 1348 rubles. Seeing that the start of a good deed was assured, St. Theophan in 1862 established a special council to discuss all subjects related to the structure of the proposed Diocesan Women's School 122122. This council, under the main leadership of Ave. Feofan, began, first of all, to find a house convenient for the school and further collect the necessary funds. A suitable house was found in Tambov near the town of Migrina 123123. It was then that Ave. Theophan made a formal proposal to the Holy Synod with the need to establish a school for girls of the clergy in Tambov, asking permission for this, as well as permission to buy from the city. Migrina for the said school a house with land and buildings and to strengthen behind the school the land donated by the city of Ryndan in the amount of 80 acres. The Holy Synod, with the Highest permission, gave permission for all this by determination of February 7/26, 1862 124124. Migrina's house was purchased and adapted to the needs of the school; A church was also built under him. Local funds in the amount of 6,215 rubles were found for the maintenance of the school. per year. At the beginning of 1863, Ave. Theophanes presented to the Holy Synod the very “draft charter of the Tambov school for maidens of the clergy,” with a statement that premises for the school had been found and adapted to the needs of the latter and that local funds in the amount of 6215 rubles were available for the maintenance of the school. per year. The charter was drawn up by His Eminence Theophan on the model of the Tsarsko-Selo school. He himself wrote about this to Elagin then: “I’m going to start a school, but I don’t know its charter. Kindly search, if possible and not too difficult, for the Tsarskoye Selo charter and send it to me to draw up our charter, which, of course, in some points should be different from the local one. The general principles, however, should be the same" 125125. The content of the charter drawn up by the Most Reverend Theophan, in its main points, is as follows: “Education in this institution should be aimed at preparing in those being educated: a) worthy spouses for servants of the throne of the Lord and assistants to them in the matter of moral and Christian education of parishioners, b) caring mothers capable of facilitating and replacing their labors in raising children at home, and c) knowledgeable housewives.” Among the teaching subjects, in addition to the usual ones, are included: “a complete course in drawing,” handicrafts to the greatest possible extent, “accustoming girls to an experienced household in all types and to maintaining the accounts necessary for this,” in addition, if possible, imparting to students “the concept of raising children, the properties and use of domestic medicinal plants, and caring for the sick, which they will be practically accustomed to in their hospital.” The set of full-time pupils, according to the Reverend’s design, was designed for 40 people. The education course is six years. “The main concern of the diocesan authorities is to ensure that all those who have completed their course at the school are given a worthy education, mainly by marrying them off to those who want to enter the priesthood. In order to arrange them in this way, orphans will have priority over those who have fathers.” Particularly noteworthy are two points of this charter, in which the views of St. Theophan on the education of girls of clergy are clearly expressed. Both in the seminary and in the women's diocesan school, he tried to introduce a monastic atmosphere and in every possible way promote the development of religiosity and churchliness. One of these points (39th) states that students are not allowed to go home at all until the end of their six-year course of study; and the other (27th) says: “orphans (at the end of the course) will be distributed for a time (until marriage) to women’s diocesan monasteries” 126126. The Synod, having considered this charter, by its resolution dated June 12, 1868, decided, with the Highest permission, to open a school for girls of clergy in Tambov. But at the same time, the two indicated points (39 and 27) were limited in the sense that “the power of § 39 of the charter should not be unconditionally extended to all pupils, that is, so that those who have relatives known for their good behavior and good behavior should not be kept in the school for the entire 6-year course of education”; and when executing § 27 of the charter, the authorities must distribute “pupils who have completed the course to women’s diocesan monasteries pending the arrangement of their fate, always in accordance with the consent of the pupils themselves 127127. After the construction of the building for the women's diocesan school, St. Feofan closed the council, since it had completely completed the duties assigned to it, and on February 1, 1863, it established the administration of the school in its place 128128. Finally, the formal opening of the school from the beginning of 1864 was announced. At the same time, all clergy of the Tambov diocese were invited to place their daughters in this school. “In addition, the thoughts of St. Theophan, invitations were sent out to see if any of the priests and deacons who had completed the seminary course would be willing to take the position of mentor in any subject at the school free of charge; Moreover, it was said that the diocesan authorities would pay special attention to their labors and would not leave them without an appropriate reward 129129. But the very opening of the school took place after the departure of His Grace Theophan from the Tambov diocese to Vladimir. Taking care of the proper education of the children of the local clergy - his sons and daughters, His Grace Theophan at the same time cared about replenishing the education of the clergy themselves, about their self-education. For this purpose, by the way, he opened the “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” in 1864, which, according to his project, was supposed to serve other goals and needs of the local clergy. They were supposed to acquaint the local clergy with the most important manifestations of Russian public religious life and, in particular, diocesan spiritual life. They were supposed to gradually clarify the modern religious and moral needs of pastors and flocks and thus contribute to the revitalization of all pastoral activities of the local clergy. The need for the establishment of such a local body began to be felt especially strongly in the last century, when, as a result of peasant and zemstvo reforms, our popular and social forces arose from their long spiritual sleep and rushed to an independent and conscious life, and when naturally the pastoral religious, moral and educational activities of the clergy should have been even more revived in order to direct the spiritual forces of society on the true path, putting on the good, in accordance with the life-giving principles of Christianity. Realizing this need and the essential importance of establishing a local spiritual body, Bishop Theophan began to petition the Holy Synod for permission to publish the Tambov Diocesan Gazette. Permission was given. Then the Right Reverend Theophan himself compiled the program of the Diocesan Gazette, giving them the appearance of a more literary than official journal. “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” began to be published on July 1, 1861 in two books a month, and each book was divided into two parts: the 1st was the “official part” and the 2nd “addition to the Tambov Diocesan Gazette”. They were published at the Tambov Theological Seminary under the editorship of the rector and under the censorship of the seminary inspector. Ave. Feofan was the most active employee of the magazine and published his articles and sermons in it 130130. Collaborating in it himself, he also attracted seminary mentors and subordinate priests, urban and rural, capable of literary work. Everyone worked in this way, from the bishop to the priests of the most remote parishes. This is how it should be according to the very idea of ​​a local body, and in this one cannot help but see the wisdom of a high leader - His Eminence Theophan. They collaborated in the magazine for free, and the entire amount remaining from the costs of its publication was determined in favor of the Tambov school for girls of clergy 131131 being established. In order to fully determine the merits of Eminence Theophan in publishing the Tambov Diocesan Gazette, we will make a general overview of their content for the first three years. The first department (official) contains mainly official news and orders from the authorities. Advertisements about various magazines and newspapers and about the sale of books are also placed here, and advice is often given on what books would be useful for the clergy to subscribe to, suitable for their self-education and for pastoral practice. The second section – “Addition to the Tambov Diocesan Gazette” – is very informative. At the beginning there is the “Paterikon, or instructions of St. fathers", eg. “On lack of will”, “On contrition of the heart” and moralizing incidents from their lives, conducive to faith and piety; then there are “speeches and sermons” first by St. fathers, for example John Chrysostom Fr. Ephraim the Syrian and others, and then new and modern preachers, for example. – His Eminence Nicholas, His Eminence Jacob of Nizhny Novgorod, His Eminence Theophan himself and various clergy of the Tambov diocese. After these articles there was a section entitled: “Explanation of the Holidays”, in which the various holidays were described and explained (for example, “The Presentation of the Lord”, “The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary”, etc., the appearance of miraculous icons, for example, the icon of the Kazan Mother of God), sacred hymns were explained (for example, “The Song of the Most Holy Trinity”), troparion (for example. “Troparion to the Righteous Job”), kontakion (for example, “Kontakion on the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit”); then there were historical articles (for example, “History of the Tambov Diocese,” “Tambov Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior,” “Tikhvin-Bogoroditsky Convent,” “History of the Tambov Theological Seminary,” etc.); information on sectarianism and schism in the Tambov diocese (for example, “Baku Molokans”), etc.; obituaries (eg, Evgeniy Bozhenov, Fr. Vishnevsky); articles of a scientific nature (for example, “Conversations about the properties of God”, “The concept of the soul according to the teachings of philosophers and physicians”); finally, instructive stories and incidents from the lives of modern Christians were offered, clearly pointing to the path of God's Providence in human life, the intercession of the Mother of God and St. saints and punishments for violation of faith and piety (for example, “Admonishment from Above,” “The Power of Faith,” “Help from Above,” “God’s Punishment,” etc.) and included poems of religious and moral content (for example, “The Morning of the Bright Resurrection of Christ,” “The Mystery of Death,” “Open the Doors of Repentance,” “Spring,” “Blagovest,” etc.). This is how broadly the program of the “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” was set up by His Eminence Theophan and how zealously it was carried out under the direct supervision of His Eminence Theophan himself. This is his invaluable service for the Tambov diocese. How great his efforts were with the “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” is evident from the fact that he diligently cared even about the correct delivery of this magazine to subscribers. By his order, an announcement was published in Vedomosti asking deans to “immediately upon receipt send out the numbers according to their belongings, so that faulty delivery does not cool attention to the work undertaken for the hostel’s spiritual interest” 132132. St. Theophan cared a lot about the charity of orphans and unfortunate families of the clergy of the Tambov diocese, inviting pious donors to this holy cause 133133. St. Theophan had a lot of concerns about the improvement of monasteries. He had to work especially hard regarding the Diveevo Convent, where great unrest occurred at that time. The Diveevo Convent was founded by St. Seraphim, ascetic of the Sarov monastery. This monastery belonged (and still belongs) to the Nizhny Novgorod diocese, but in terms of location and internal structure it is closely related to the Sarov monastery of the Tambov province. Hieromonk Joasaph was to blame for the unrest that arose in the Diveyevo hostel in the late 40s and early 50s of the last century. Considering himself a disciple of Elder Seraphim and a continuator of his work in relation to the Diveyevo monastery, he began to boldly, at his own discretion, act and manage in it, pursuing his own interests, and not the interests of the Diveyevo hostel. Moreover, his unreasonable and even illegal actions in some respects were even harmful to the morality of the sisters of this monastery. He showed particular self-will during the elections of a new abbess in the monastery at that time. He did not like Elizaveta Ushakova, who was elected by the majority of sisters (out of 500 - 400), and he tried to appoint his chosen one Glikeria Lodyzhenskaya as abbess, in whose favor there were only 40 sisters. To achieve his goal, Joasaph attracted to his side the Nizhny Novgorod Eminence Nektarios, who was under his influence and even had him as his confessor. This matter, in connection with other circumstances, caused unrest in the community that lasted quite a long time. The matter of the Diveyevo riots reached the Holy Synod, which entrusted St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, to resolve it. The latter decided to remove Hieromonk Joasaph from direct influence on the Diveyevo Monastery; his chosen one, Glykeria Lodyzhenskaya, should be removed from command at the monastery, and the monastery itself should be removed from the jurisdiction and subordination of the authority of the Nizhny Novgorod bishop for several months and transferred to the jurisdiction of the Right Reverend Theophan. The Synod did just that. It goes without saying that the Diveyevo case could not help but upset St. Feofan. He suffered a lot of unrest because of this matter, and when the Diveyevo Monastery was transferred to his jurisdiction, he used all his worries and efforts to stop the unrest and machinations of the opposing party that continued in the monastery and restore complete order in it. He first of all took care of the new legal election of abbess for him, and Elizaveta Ushakova was elected by a majority vote, and she was confirmed in office by the Holy Synod. As a result of the unrest, there were material needs and shortcomings in the monastery, etc. Theophan tried to satisfy them. “The Right Reverend Theophan wrote to me about the Diveyevo Monastery,” we read in a letter from Metropolitan Philaret to the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Count A.P. Tolstoy dated January 8, 1862: “Elizabeth, taking over the monastery, did not find any money. The builder of Sarov (hieromonk Seraphim, who was a builder from 1858–1868), concerned about slander, wanted to stop all relations with the Diveyevo monastery and all support to it, as a result of which 500 sisters would freeze to death without Sarov firewood. Thanks to His Eminence Theophan, who advised the builder not to leave the needy without help.” But the stay of the Right Reverend Theophan at the Tambov See was also marked by joyful events that brought him great consolation. The greatest of these consolations for the Right Reverend Theophan was the grand opening of the relics of St. on August 13, 1861. Tikhon of Zadonsk, who has long been so deeply revered by St. Theophan. Initially, St. Theophan was not appointed by the Holy Synod to the opening ceremony, but then, by a special Highest order, communicated through the chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Count A.P. Tolstoy, he was added to the number of those appointed: Isidore, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg, Joseph, Archbishop of Voronezh and Zadonsk, and Sergius, Bishop. Kursky. His Grace Theophan went to Zadonsk on August 10th, 1861 134134. “It is impossible to describe the joy of the Eminence on this occasion!” - writes about the Right Reverend Theophan in relation to his participation in the discovery of the relics of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, who was then with him in Zadonsk, was his nephew L.G. Govorov. “He often told me that from his early youth he deeply revered the memory of St. Tikhon and went from his home to Zadonsk entirely to venerate the saint.” On August 12, St. Theophan celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the main cathedral, where it was planned to install St. the relics of St. Tikhon, and on the 13th, together with other archpastors, he unveiled them in front of a huge crowd of people who came from all over Orthodox Russia. Returning to Tambov, St. Theophanes set about his affairs in the diocese with renewed zeal. With all his numerous and varied affairs and concerns regarding the management of the Tambov diocese, St. Feefan also found time for scientific and literary activities, which occupied a very prominent place in this period of his life. In fact, his major work “Letters on Christian Life” dates back to this time. These “Letters” were compiled, as we have already mentioned, at various times before 1860 for Princess P.S. Lukomskaya; They were collected and processed for printing in 1859, and everything of no general significance was removed from them, and various kinds of appendices and additions were added. some of which were already compiled right at the Tambov pulpit, such as, for example, the sermons included in them. “Letters on Christian Life” contain an entire system of Christian moral teaching, and on the basis of them the later works of St. Theophan were compiled: “The Path to Salvation” and “The Outline of Christian Moral Teaching” 135135. The “Letters” are distinguished by their remarkable depth of psychological analysis, warmth and cordiality, and, in literary terms, clarity and simplicity of presentation. Already the publication of the first issue of "Letters" aroused keen interest in society. Thus, the editor of "Home Conversation" V.I. Askochensky writes about them in his magazine: "we recommend this wonderful book to all Orthodox Christians. Nothing better, smarter and more useful than it has come out for us this year (1858) in the secular part in the written world." all his modesty, speaks of this public interest in his letters in the very first letter of the second issue: “You write that the Letters are not read without desire! What is found there? In every possible way this should be attributed to the kindness of the readers, and not to the dignity of the book. Feofan. About their origin he writes: “There was a time when I had to study the doctrine of asceticism. Then two or three persons quite familiar with this subject met. They introduced me to him too. So, I heard other things, read others, and came up with others myself. That’s all the sources!” 138138. Due to the great public interest in the “Letters,” they went through a number of editions 139139. The second major work of St. Feofan during his stay at the Tambov department consists of his words to the Tambov flock. At first they were published separately in “Christian Reading”, “Home Conversation” and in the “Tambov Diocesan Gazette”. But then they were published in two editions, of which the first, under the title: “Words to the Tambov flock of Feofan, Bishop of Tambov and Shatsky in 1859 and 1860,” was published in St. Petersburg in 1861 and contains 63 sermons; and the second, under the title: “Words to the Tambov flock of the Right Reverend Theophan,” spoken in 1861–1863, was published in Moscow in 1867. and contains 47 sermons. The content of the words to the Tambov flock is very diverse. Ave. Feofan, being a lively and responsive man, took every opportunity to give instruction to his flock. Therefore, in these “Words” we find sermons on various occasions, such as, for example, on the consecration of churches, on various burials, on tonsure as a monk, etc., and on the feasts of the Lord, the Mother of God and Saints, and on royal days. But with all its diversity, the sermons of St. Theophanes are animated by one main thought - the thought of salvation. The dispensation of salvation is the main subject of his sermons. Composing sermons for St. Theophan was very easy. He usually composed them in the evening, on the eve of their pronouncement. He subsequently wrote about this rank in one letter in 1893: “The peculiarity of my sermons is that they are not composed. It usually happened in the evening, after the all-night vigil, I’d drink a glass of tea, read tomorrow’s Gospel, then the Apostle... and whatever thought came in and occupied my attention and heart, I took that into the topic... and the sermon built itself up inside itself. An hour, an hour and a half, a lot of two... and the sermon is ready..., read it in the morning, tweak it a little” 140140. The sermons of the Right Reverend Theophan, with his eloquence, clarity, liveliness and simplicity of presentation, with his deep experienced acquaintance with the spiritual life of man and its needs, with his extensive knowledge of Holy Scripture and patristic works, made an extremely strong impression on the listeners. She so captured the attention of the listeners that a dead silence settled in the church, as a result of which even his weak voice could be heard in the most remote corners of the church 141141. With his heartfelt and convincing sermons, Rev. Feofan gained great love among the Tambov flock. People were attracted to him by his simple, highly religious life in Tambov and his purely paternal relations. Regarding the private life of St. Feofan in Tambov, we learn from “Memoirs of the Right Reverend Theophan,” recorded by his nephew A.G. Govorov, who in 1860. when he was 9 years old, he was summoned by Bishop Theophan to Tambov and lived here with him all the time. “The Eminence,” he says, led a very simple lifestyle and dressed simply. His daily home suit was a cassock, and on top - a half cassock made of black woolen material... He always dined at one o'clock and ate little, never had dinner. He drank tea twice a day: in the morning after early mass and at five o'clock in the afternoon... During morning tea, he forced me to read aloud any book of sacred content and himself explained to me what I had read. At dinner and evening tea he always told me something from sacred history or from the field of secular sciences. The Reverend loved to study astronomy and almost every day in the summer, in clear weather, in the evenings he made observations of the celestial bodies using a fairly large telescope. I had to be with him and listen to his explanations. “The heavens will tell the plum of God,” he said. The Right Reverend knew many handicrafts - carpentry, wood carving, wood turning, and he taught me the latter... Self-taught, he learned painting and photography... The Right Reverend was constantly in prayer and labor. He had an excellent library, which was replenished with new publications. Only for a short time did he go for a walk in the garden at the bishop’s house, and in the summer he sometimes allowed himself to go somewhere and almost always took me with him. He passionately loved nature, admired it and saw traces of the Creator’s wisdom in everything, which he tried to instill in me.” The relationship between St. Feofan and his subordinates was purely family. He lived with everyone in love and harmony, was accessible to everyone, especially the poor and mourning; to the latter he provided all possible assistance, and took some orphan boys to him for upbringing. He treated everyone kindly, lovingly, with the greatest humility and meekness. No one had ever heard his boss's menacing words. His usual meekness was not disturbed even when he had to receive insults from lower members of the clergy: St. Theophan knew how to tolerate weaknesses and lack of education, knew how to forgive and remember only goodness 142142. “Forgive me,” he said, parting with his flock, “but I have no one and nothing to forgive, for I have seen nothing but goodness from you and in you” 143143. And if, according to the law of justice, someone needed to be punished with a reprimand, then he instructed the key 144144 to do this. It is not surprising after this that St. Theophan enjoyed the general love of his flock. During the 4 years of his stay in Tambov, everyone became close to him as to their father. In this regard, the words of his predecessor in the department, the Most Reverend Macarius, were completely fulfilled. When in 1859 he left the Tambov flock, all the residents cried, lamented and said that they would never forget him. “And I will tell you,” His Grace Macarius remarked to this, “that you will forget me very soon, Bishop Theophan will be appointed to you. This is a wonderful person 145145. But it didn’t take long for the Tambov flock to have such a famous and beloved archpastor. On July 22, 1863, Feofan was moved to the Vladimir See. The separation of Right Reverend Theophan from the Tambov flock was extremely touching. It was a great grief both for the most loving archpastor and for the flock who sincerely loved him. Even two weeks before his departure, St. Theophan began to prepare both himself and his flock for the upcoming separation. At this time, he performed frequent sacred services and during the liturgy he pronounced words of edification, in which he seemed to gather into one those thoughts of true Christian life and strictly Orthodox teaching, which he revealed to the flock during his 4-year stay in Tambov. On August 16, the clergy held a farewell dinner for Rev. Feofan, which was attended by the first dignitaries of the city and honorary persons of the merchants, in addition to the clergy. At this last “supper of love,” according to the short speech given by priest Sladkopevtsev, in the proper sense there was “a supper of students with a teacher, children with a father, shepherds with an archpastor” 146146. In the speech offered to St. Feofan, the Tambov clergy thanked him for his zealous labors and fatherly concerns for the diocese. On Sunday, August 18, His Grace Theophan performed his last divine service in the cathedral. Here they were told a farewell word, truly apostolic in spirit and content, to the flock he was leaving behind. “Behold, I am performing my last service with you and I am addressing my last word to you,” he said. “But for a long time I enjoyed your love; but for that I offer thanksgiving to the Lord and your kindness... God's will be done! I follow what has been written about me. But I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to reward and give you an inheritance among those who are sanctified” (Acts. 20:32 ) 147147 An eyewitness says that tears flowed down the meek face of the saint while pronouncing his farewell words and involuntarily caused streams of tears from the listeners. The very departure of St. Theophan from Tambov took place on August 22, after the liturgy in the bishop's church, as the rector of the seminary in the service of the clergy and in the presence of many people. After the liturgy, the clergy performed a prayer for the safe journey of St. Theophan. After the parting prayer, St. Theophan, with tears in his eyes, said his last “farewell” to his flock and, accompanied by many people, left Tambov for Vladimir through the city of Morshansk (See “Farewell of Tambov to St. Theophan” in Tamb. Ep. Ved. for 186V, pp. 530–541) Chapter IV. The service of His Grace Theophan at the Vladimir See The ministry of the Right Reverend Theophan at the Vladimir See was even more varied and fruitful than the Tambov ministry due to the very situation of the Vladimir diocese. The fight against the schism, which had built a strong nest for itself in the Vladimir diocese, promised him especially a lot of work. This circumstance greatly embarrassed Feofan upon his very accession to the Vladimir department. But, on the other hand, the Vladimir diocese made him happy. There are many ancient churches here, there are miraculous icons and the relics of some ancient ascetics from the princely and boyar families. In the Vladimir Assumption Cathedral itself the relics of St. princes: Andrei Georgievich Bogolyubsky, his son Gleb and Georgy Vsevolodovich; There are revered icons of the Mother of God: Vladimirskaya, Maksimovskaya, etc. There are many large and glorious monasteries here. Not only Vladimir, but also the district towns of this diocese were and are famous for the monasteries and piety of their ancestors. Joy over this was expressed by His Grace Theophan, among other things, in his welcoming speech to the Vladimir flock, delivered after the liturgy on September 1, 1863, the day after his arrival in Vladimir. Having praised the faith and piety of his flock, His Grace Theophan invites them to forever preserve the spirit of peace and love, firmly adhere to the fundamental principles of faith and Christian life, and unwaveringly follow the “royal path indicated by St. the Orthodox Church, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth,” and run away from all kinds of deception and false teachings. For his part, Eminence Theophan promises to unswervingly follow the principles of true faith and piety during his archpastoral service, the first duty of which he makes the preaching of the word of God, and asks his flock to “try to find out the will of God (preached by him) and, having learned it, to fulfill the instructions in all their breadth and with all the strength of zeal.” “Let us pray, brethren,” says the Right Reverend Theophan in conclusion, “that the Lord may bless this new summer of our lives and grant us, in mutual attention to each other, amicable passage through the time destined for our cohabitation into God’s plum and the common salvation of all of us. The protection of the Mother of God, the prayers of all the saints who rest here, may they overshadow us and, constantly warming us, may they excite us to work and strengthen us in them. Amen" 148148. With this opening speech, St. Theophan, as it were, outlined a program for his upcoming arduous archpastoral activity at the Vladimir See, and he remained faithful to the specified program to the end. The Right Reverend Theophan had a lot of work to do in Vladimir, but it was made easier for him by the silent experience that he acquired during his archpastoral service in Tambov. In Vladimir, as in Tambov, St. Theophan zealously cared for the rise of public education, using the same means as there, increasing the number of parochial schools, building and beautifying the churches of God and strengthening the preaching activities of pastors. Here, just as there, he encouraged pastors to open new parochial, free and Sunday schools; gave them rules and instructions on how to conduct the work of Christian education and remembrance of children; invited pious people to donate to the cause of public education; encouraged them with his gratitude, archpastoral blessings and presentation to the highest authorities for appropriate awards. During the reign of Bishop Theophan, many churches were also built and decorated. Through his personal care, a church was built in the name of the Nativity of Christ at the Vladimir bishop's house, the former one having fallen into disrepair. Thanks to his efforts and the zeal of his admirers, the Church of the Cross was remodeled anew and became much larger and brighter. Feofan himself wrote about this to V.A. dated December 29, 1863: “In Vladimir there is nowhere to serve in winter... Remember the Crusade? So clumsy... Let's redo it. The plan has already been drawn up. By August 80 there will be a new one... without a pillar, with a new iconostasis... we'll decorate it a little. Collected money from monasteries" 149149. Right Reverend Theophan paid special attention to the preaching of the word of God by priests here, as in Tambov. Here he recognized the need for preaching even more strongly than in Tambov, because the Vladimir department was larger than the Tambov one both in space and population, and moreover, it was infected with schism. In order to streamline and strengthen the preaching activities of the parish priests, His Grace Theophan, on November 27, 1864, published “Instructions for preaching the word of God,” which was published in the “Vladimir Diocesan Gazette” for 1865. 150150 This instruction talks about 1) catechetical teachings and 2) “the ordinary preaching of the word of God by each parish priest.” Catechesis was established not only in Vladimir, but also in all district cities, towns and significant villages. The subject of catechetical teachings should be the truths of faith as directed by the Orthodox Catechism, the interpretation of the Sunday Gospels and the Apostles, and a conversation about worship. Speaking about the quality of teachings, the instructions especially insist on simplicity, sincerity and clarity of speech, pointing as examples to the works of the holy fathers - John Chrysostom, Tikhon of Voronezh, etc. In order for catechesis to proceed more thoroughly and successfully, the instructions suggest appointing two, three, and where possible more catechists in one place for each year, so that they share the subjects of teaching among themselves: one takes a dogmatic part, another moral, etc. All parish priests, according to instructions, must recite the usual teachings on every Sunday, on every significant church holiday, and especially on St. Pentecost. Capable deacons, as well as village teachers who have completed a seminary course, are invited to preach the word of God under the leadership of a local priest. If preachers for some reason cannot compose their teachings, then, according to the instructions, they must read ready-made printed sermons by famous preachers in relation to the time and moral needs of the parishioners. The instructions instruct local deans to strictly monitor the preaching activities of priests, draw up a special report on this subject and submit it to their superiors. To monitor preaching in the entire Vladimir diocese, St. Theophan also established a special “censorship committee” under the Spiritual Consistory, to which he appointed the highest sacred persons of the city clergy and mentors of the seminary, theological school and gymnasium, having the priesthood 151151. This committee was obliged to appoint catechists, examine the teachings presented to it, formulate its opinion on their merits and demerits, as well as on measures to eliminate the latter, and monitor the strict performance of the preaching duties by the priests. The Committee had to annually draw up a statement about all this and present it to the Reverend. Based on these reports, His Grace Theophan rewarded zealous preachers of the word of God, and punished and fined those who were careless in this matter 152152. The specified instructions etc. Feofana was of enormous importance for the elevation of the preaching activities of the clergy of the Vladimir diocese. Here is an impartial review of this by one contemporary - a priest of the same diocese: “This circular, like the caring voice of a faithful Archpastor, admittedly, forced many of us to take up preaching more intensively.” 153153. And the author of “Letters from Vladimir” writes in the “Orthodox Review” for 1863. “A permanent preacher from learned priests, and sometimes alternate preachers, by order of the Right Reverend, speak their teachings during the all-night vigil during the bishop’s service” 154154. In addition, for the same purposes of enhancing the preaching activity of the clergy, the Right Reverend Theophan encouraged local knowledgeable people to write articles on this subject and publish them in the local diocesan Gazette. This is how the articles “Some of the duties of a priest to preach the word of God” appeared - Priest. M. Panfilova 155155. “Under what conditions can rural priests more correctly and successfully fulfill the duty of communicating the word of God to parishioners on all holidays and Sundays” - Priest. Alexandra Tsvetaeva 156156, etc. They develop thoughts briefly outlined in the indicated instructions. Finally; as in Tambov, as models for the compilation of sermons by priests, the Right Reverend Theophan ordered that both his sermons 157157 and the best sermons of local priests 158158 be printed in the “Vladimir Diocesan Gazette”, and also ordered the compilation of a collection of the teachings of St. fathers, mainly St. John Chrysostom, St. Tikhon of Zadonsk and St. Demetrius of Rostov 159159. Caring for the religious and moral education of his flock, His Grace Theophan, in particular, zealously cared for the education of local schismatics, of whom there were a lot here. With this mainly missionary purpose, Theophan traveled several times throughout the Vladimir diocese and visited many cities and villages infected with schism. Here, Bishop Theophan denounced and admonished the schismatics, entered into conversations with them and tried to show the incorrectness of their teaching and the disastrousness of the path they were following. So, for example, on the evening of August 30, 1864, His Grace Theophan arrived in the large village of Mstera, Vyazniki district, where the schism had built a particularly strong nest for itself and was distinguished by its stubbornness and hostility towards the Orthodox Church. On this day, Theophan held an all-night vigil here, after which he had a long conversation with local schismatics, and the next day he performed the Divine Liturgy and at the same time delivered a deliberate sermon of a missionary, anti-schismist nature 160160. He did the same in other villages and cities infected with schism, for example in the city of Sudogda 161161, in the village of Nizhny Landekhe, where, among other things, in order to successfully fight the schism, he advised purchasing books for the local library aimed at exposing the schism 162162, in the cities of Vyazniki, Murom, Kovrov, etc. 163163 Trying himself to eradicate the schism, His Grace Theophan encouraged the local clergy to do the same. He obliged the priests to especially preach the word of God in places infected with schism, to conduct pure conversations with schismatics, in which to point out the falsity of their teaching and the truth of the Orthodox teaching, and thereby try to bring them into the bosom of St. churches, to protect the Orthodox in every possible way from schismatic propaganda and to convince them to stand firmly in Orthodoxy. Ave. Feofan distinguished and awarded zealous fighters against the schism in every possible way 164164. Finally, in order, mainly, to combat the schism and spread spiritual enlightenment among the people, His Eminence Theophan at the end of 1864, with the permission of St. Synod, opened the Epiphany Orthodox Brotherhood in the village of Mstera, Vyaznikovsky district, already indicated by us, for which charter 165165 was drawn up. According to it, the purpose of establishing the Epiphany Brotherhood is “to serve the needs and benefits of the Orthodox Church, to counteract encroachments on its rights by infidels and schismatics, for the creation and decoration of the churches of God, for the works of Christian charity and for the dissemination and establishment of spiritual enlightenment.” The brotherhood had a sum of money, which consisted of annual three-ruble membership fees and voluntary donations. It compiled annual reports on its actions and presented them to the Eminence. Of the secular people, Governor Samsonov, the patron of the brotherhood, his successor Shatokhin, the honorary trustee of the brotherhood, and especially the local resident of the village of Mstera A.K. Golyshev, the founder and trustee of the brotherhood, took an active part in the Epiphany Brotherhood. Many people from different places in the Vladimir province became members of the brotherhood with a sincere desire to contribute in one way or another to the goals of the brotherhood. The ceremonial opening of the Epiphany Brotherhood took place on October 14, 1864. For this celebration, the Right Reverend Theophan sent himself to Mstera, his spiritual father, hieromonks Moses and with him the icon of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos as a blessing to the brotherhood, greetings to the brotherhood and a letter to the founder Golyshev, in which he expresses his joy at the opening of the brotherhood and gives permission “from now on to begin to act according to the charter and with God’s help – bringing good intentions into fulfillment.” In conclusion, he conveys his archpastoral blessing to the brotherhood. Upon the opening of the brotherhood, St. Theophanes appeared as its venerable trustee. He monitored the progress of all his affairs, directed them, mediated for him before the authorities, inspired his leaders with letters, contributed to strengthening his funds with monetary donations, provided him with his patronage and consoled him when schismatics insulted him. To combat the schism, His Grace Theophan sent a dedicated missionary, Mr. John the Uspensky, to Mstera from the bishop’s house. Thanks to the diligent activity of the closest participants and the zealous assistance of St. Theophan himself, the Epiphany Brotherhood in Mstera, despite the limited funds at first, soon began to bear great fruit. It contributed to the improvement of the parish school in Mstera, and books that were very necessary for it were purchased, and subsequently it organized a special women’s school here; provided benefits to the poor and victims of fires, drew attention to the shortcomings of the local almshouse and took it under its patronage, undertook the expansion and beautification of the Mstera Church, assisted in collecting donations for the purchase of a house for a women's religious school in the city of Vladimir, etc. As for its main task - the fight against the schism, the brotherhood was diligently engaged in this matter. When the schismatics learned about the opening of the Epiphany Brotherhood, they strongly armed themselves against it, trying to upset and even destroy it. But the brotherhood firmly defended the rights of Orthodoxy, without taking repressive measures against schismatics, which could only embitter them. To admonish schismatics and to confirm those who waver in Orthodoxy and keep them from falling into schism, the brotherhood often organized public conversations, which were conducted by the missionary Mr. Uspensky, specially sent for this purpose by St. Theophan. In addition, the brotherhood vigilantly monitored open schismatic chapels so that loud singing and schismatic services would not take place in them, stopped public schismatic burials that served as a temptation for the Orthodox, stopped schismatics’ violation of the rites of the Holy Orthodox Church, etc. 167167 As in Tambov, one of the sincere concerns of His Grace Theophan in Vladimir was concern for the rise of education in local religious educational institutions - seminaries and religious schools, concern for their internal and external improvement. At this very time, a discussion was underway on a new charter designed for male spiritual educational institutions (lower and secondary) and His Eminence Theophan energetically contributed to the solution of this, then urgent, issue. Before him, the discussion of the new charter in Vladimir, according to the author of “Letters from Vladimir” 168168, was slow and incorrect. Ave. Feofan, soon after arriving in Vladimir, formed a permanent committee on this matter at the local theological seminary, to which all the seminary mentors headed by the rector, the heads of the Vladimir district school and the law teacher of the local gymnasium were appointed. Wanting to finish the matter as quickly as possible, the committee, at the suggestion of His Eminence Theophan, met every day from 5 to 7 pm, excluding Sundays, holidays and days preceding holidays. Under the direct supervision and leadership of Ave. Feofan, the discussion of the draft charter moved quickly. In the aforementioned “Letters from Vladimir” it is noted in passing about this: “Now the discussion is already over; All that remains is to process the draft minutes of the meetings and rewrite them” 169169. This new charter, having been again revised under the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod D. A. Tolstoy, was put into effect in secondary and lower ecclesiastical educational institutions in 1867, when St. Theophan was no longer a diocesan bishop. But St. Theophan completed the construction of a dormitory for students of the Vladimir Theological Seminary, begun by his predecessor, the Right Reverend Justin, and consecrated and opened it in the very first year of his stay in Vladimir (November 8, 1868). This dormitory accommodated 150 students; in addition, there were premises for the rector, inspector, economist, as well as for the board, library, and hospital. The opening of a hostel at the seminary was of great educational and economic importance. Here the students were under constant supervision and guidance from the authorities and teachers, they enjoyed cleaner and more comfortable premises and an incomparably better table than in the seminary apartments. The indicated correspondent from Vladimir speaks about it this way: “In the bursa, seminarians eat meat, but in apartments, not only orphans, but also children with fathers who are village priests do not eat meat during the entire school year. The premises in the building are also incomparably cleaner and more comfortable than in the seminary apartments, where it is cramped, damp, and dirty” 170170. Regarding upbringing and education in religious educational institutions, St. Theophan held the same, already known to us, lofty views. He among other things expressed these views to the leaders, teachers and students at the theological seminary in his speech at the consecration of the new seminary dormitory we indicated. Having congratulated the rulers, teachers and students on their housewarming and expressing his wishes for all the best, St. Theophan said: “But on your part I also expect one good desire - a strong desire - to correspond to the views and intentions of our church, which cares about you. You are children of the church. Show yourself to be churchmen not only in name, but more importantly - but in the spirit and mood of the mind, heart, character... Let everything move around you, do not get carried away by it, because in all this there is a lot that goes against the truth of Christ.” And then he sets out, already familiar to us from the St. Petersburg period of his activity, the idea of ​​progress in its modern and true understanding and indicates the high mission of persons of clergy - to be teachers of Divine truth. For their internal and external improvement, the extensive spiritual and educational institutions of the Vladimir diocese, like other dioceses, were in great need of funds. Therefore, St. Theophan put great care and effort into finding and strengthening local funds for religious educational institutions. At the beginning of January 1865 he, in one of the resolutions of the spiritual consistory, pointed out to it the urgent need to either strengthen the candle collection for the diocese, or a certain salary from the church income of all churches of the diocese to improve the life of Vladimir theological educational institutions and demanded from her immediate considerations on this issue. Having received a favorable response in the positive sense, he ordered that the project be presented for discussion by the deans of each district, chaired by the local city archpriest. The dean unanimously expressed in their reviews full sympathy for the cause of improving the life of their religious and educational institutions. Of the proposed etc. They chose the second as the source for improving the life of religious educational institutions, namely, the well-known salary from all the churches of the Vladimir diocese, in accordance with the amount of their total income and all their material conditions 171171. Ave. Feofan, from his bishop’s house, annually donated 200 rubles to this cause. and invited abbots and abbess of male and female monasteries, deans, clergy subordinate to them, church elders and other benefactors to make a feasible sacrifice for the cause of spiritual enlightenment 172172. Before the arrival of St. Feofan, there was no school for girls of clergy in Vladimir. Aware of its need and importance for the local clergy, His Grace Theophan, as in Tambov, zealously took care of its construction and opening. He began the matter of establishing a women's diocesan school right after his arrival in Vladimir. Having not lived to see the opening of a school for girls of clergy in Tambov, he, under a fresh impression, apparently, was in a particular hurry to establish and open it in Vladimir. The same correspondent who reported in “Letters from Vladimir” about the Vladimir Seminary tells us the following: “We heard that a house was purchased for a school for girls of the clergy. But how the matter about the school will be handled and when it may open remains unknown.” 173173 However, with God’s help, St. Theophanes quite soon established this school. So he wrote about this, among other things, to V.A. on December 29, 1863: “And here (in Vladimir) we are planning (a school for girls of the clergy) ... The house has already been sold. Next year we will open" 174174, and dated March 16, 1864. he already wrote to her: “The maiden school was opened, the church was consecrated” 175175. Using the funds of the clergy and voluntary donations (one of the high-ranking inhabitants of the city of Vladimir donated 7,000 rubles to support the school), a suitable house was purchased for the school from the city of Solenikov and adapted to the school’s needs: a church was built in the house in honor of the Entry into the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. At the beginning of 1865 the school was fully established and then permission from the Holy Synod had already been received to open it. The charter of the Vladimir School, educational and educational affairs were the same as in Tambov, so we will not talk about them. The opening of the school took place on February 11, 1864. On the same day, the school church was consecrated. The consecration of the church and the opening of the school were carried out by St. Feofan himself. During the liturgy, he said a word in which he presented a brief and very understandable instruction for children on how to behave in the church and in relation to the church of God, in order to be worthy of the mercies of God and the intercession of the Mother of God, in the name of whose Entry into the church a home school church was built 176176. At the end of the liturgy, St. Theophan and all the concelebrants performed a prayer service before the beginning of the teaching and ended it with an excellent prayer, composed by himself, addressed to Christ and the Mother of God. In this prayer, he asks “to make wise those to whom education is entrusted, turn the minds of those being brought up to accept saving teachings and decorate their hearts with good morals..., plant in their hearts every kind of good thinking and good disposition, sheltered from every harmful attack that can hide from the eye of those watching - so that both visibly and invisibly nourished and guided, they will grow harmlessly and the fruit of a good life and good Christian deeds will be brought to the Most Holy Name" 177177. Ave. Feofan often visited his beloved Diocesan Women's School, attended classes, talked with children and school authorities. He also often performed divine services there, delivering edifying sermons 178178. After the first half of the year from the opening of the school, it was on July 12, 1865 that Ave. Feofan himself personally examined the girls in the presence of all members of the school council and school mentors. The exam in Sacred History went especially well. She, on the instructions of St. Feofan, was taught at the school using pictures depicting sacred history in faces and actions. And this advice of St. Theophan brought good results, which were revealed in the exam. And the exam itself on sacred history was carried out using these pictures. Each girl was randomly offered, in the form of an exam card, some picture, which she had to explain and tell the whole known story from it. Taking care of the education of the children of the clergy, St. Feofan at the same time, as in Tambov, took care of. replenishment of education and the Vladimir clergy itself - about its self-education. For this purpose, soon after arriving in Vladimir, he decided to found a local spiritual body. At first he wanted to publish a spiritual magazine in Vladimir, similar to the “Spiritual Messenger”. Thus, in the “Letters from Vladimir” known to us, it is said about this: “We do not yet know the name of the spiritual magazine that is supposed to be published next year in Vladimir. The initiative for this case belongs to St. Feofan. The publication, as far as we know, will be monthly and will consist of the following sections: interpretation of Holy Scripture, church history, church worship and archeology, bibliography and a mixture that will probably be filled with internal correspondence of the diocese on current affairs and issues. For this magazine, the Right Reverend intends to start his own printing house... It seems to us that the publication of a spiritual magazine will be more difficult for a provincial diocese than the publication of diocesan bulletins 179179. And indeed, the publication of the proposed journal did not materialize; instead, by decree of the Holy Synod of September 21, 1864, it was allowed to publish the “Vladimir Diocesan Gazette,” which began to be published from the beginning of 1865. In their form, volume and content, they were similar to the “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” that we had already discussed, opened by the same Ave. Feofan. Their unofficial part, like the Tambov Diocesan Gazette, was distinguished by a very extensive program, which included articles on Holy Scripture and patristic works, and original articles of dogmatic, moral, church-historical and general spiritual-literary content, and the best of the teachings and conversations of the Vladimir clergy, and local history, schism and statistics, and bibliography, as well as edifying reflections, pedagogical articles and generally useful natural science information 180180. Ave. Feofan took an active part in them, as before in the Tambov Diocesan Gazette, and published his articles and sermons 181181 in them and also encouraged mentors of theological educational institutions and capable city and rural priests to cooperate. With the same goal of enhancing education among the local clergy, St. Theophan zealously tried to open and replenish public and private libraries at the city and rural churches of the Vladimir diocese. How important this measure is is obvious. In most cases, the church library in a village is the only means for the clergy to maintain and replenish the knowledge acquired in the seminary. Meanwhile, in the Vladimir diocese up to St. Feofan Ave., in many rural parishes there were no libraries at all, and those that did have libraries were distinguished by great poverty. Thus, priest Panfilov in his article: “A few words about the indispensable duty of every rural priest to preach the word of God to parishioners on all Sundays and holidays” - says: “many rural churches do not have any of the necessary books in their libraries,” and the editors add to this in a footnote: “How many churches have libraries, or even something similar to them?” 182182. And so, Ave. Theophan, upon his arrival in Vladimir, zealously took up the matter of opening and replenishing church libraries in his diocese. In private conversations, he encouraged the clergy to establish and replenish both private church libraries and general libraries for entire deanery districts, and he also indicated the books that needed to be purchased for these libraries. In “Vlad. Diocesan Gazette" and the very "Project for opening public and private libraries at city and rural churches" 183183 was published. General libraries under this project are opened in dean districts and, moreover, in more central villages, and it is allowed to establish two or three general libraries in the same district, depending on convenience. Church purses and monetary donations from clergy and other persons are used to check out books for the library. The library also gratefully accepts donated books of spiritual content. Distributing reading books to rural parishioners is the responsibility of the priest of each church, who recommends this or that book to them. And in order for the priests to know what books and magazines they need to check out for libraries, St. Theophan ordered that the editors of the Vladimir Diocesan Gazette print a register of previously published, especially important books, magazines and brochures with spiritual content and anti-schism writings 184184; and about the newest works so that it would place in its organ, according to the time of their publication, bibliographic information, as well as reviews of spiritual magazines and newspapers 185185. During the stay of St. Feofan at the Vladimir Department, nationwide reforms continued to be carried out and introduced; At the same time, other important events took place in the life of the Russian state, such as the untimely death of the heir to the throne Nikolai Alexandrovich on April 12, 1865 and the subsequent announcement of the heir to Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich, the attempt on the life of Emperor Alexander II, etc. St. Feofan treated state reforms as a true shepherd of the Orthodox Russian Church: welcoming them, as the mercy of God and the paternal concerns of the Sovereign, in his sermons he indicated their true meaning and significance and instructed how the Russian people should treat and accept them in order to be true children of the Russian Church and faithful sons of their fatherland. Thus, in a sermon on August 30, 1864, on the name day of the Sovereign Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich, pr. Theophan convinces his listeners that all the reforms of the Sovereign Emperor will not have power if we do not try to “promote the Sovereign’s concerns for us and make ourselves worthy of heavenly guidance through humble submission to the order established by God on earth, embracing the works of the mind and the affairs of life,” and through the firm and unshakable content of the basic tenets of Christian faith and piety 186186. Similar thoughts are held by Rev. Feofan in a sermon on September 8, 1864 - on the day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the birth of the heirs of Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich. Here he said among other things: “Seated firmly on the throne, the Most Pious Sovereign introduces reforms and new orders in all parts. The fruits from them will most likely be reaped in full by the coming reign... But the people must preserve themselves as the Russian people. Orthodoxy, autocracy and nationality: this is what needs to be preserved. When these principles weaken or change, the Russian people will cease to be Russian. He will then lose his sacred tricolor banner" 187187. The most important of the national reforms of this time was the zemstvo reform. The “Regulations on provincial and district zemstvo institutions”, approved by the highest on January 1, 1864, was ordered to be introduced within the Vladimir province in 1865, which was made known to both the secular and ecclesiastical authorities of the province. Ave. Feofan took due part in this matter. To the first meeting opened on this case on May 4, 1865. He sent a letter to the “Provisional Provincial Committee” addressed to the governors of the province with no content: “May God bless the beginning of your work on an institution that promises us so much good, and may He preserve in you and your employees throughout your studies the same spirit with which you begin them. As a blessing you will be given Fr. archpriest the icon of the Mother of God, called the Maximovskaya, depicting the appearance of the Mother of God to Metropolitan Maxim, by which he was inspired to take up the work of restoring church order in our countries, upset by the invasion of the Mongols" 188188. This letter was read after the prayer service before the opening of the Committee meeting. In addition, Ave. Theophan ordered to publish in the “Vladimir Diocesan Gazette” both the “Regulations on provincial and district zemstvo institutions” 189189 and articles devoted to revealing its meaning and significance 190190. Already from the sermons we have examined, it is clear how extensive the literary activity of St. Theophan was during his stay in Vladimir. Ave. Theophan was even more zealous here in preaching the word of God than in Tambov. During the 8 years of his stay in Vladimir (1863–1866), he preached even more sermons than during the 4 years in Tambov. From the Tambov period we have only 110 sermons in print, while from the Vladimir period we have 138 sermons. St. Theophanes considered the fear of his flock through the edification of the word of sermon to be his first and main task, as he and the rank declared in his speech upon entering the Vladimir See. And this zeal of his for preaching the word of God was noted in Vladimir already at first, after his arrival. “Soon after his arrival,” wrote the Vladimir correspondent, “Reverend Theophan made an impression on the local society with his sermons. He accompanies each service with an archpastoral conversation. His word captures the attention of the listeners to the point that even with the weakness of his voice, it can be heard by the last beggar at the church threshold; the speech is so generally understandable that it attracts many listeners from the common people" 191191. And St. Theophanes noted this in one letter to V.A. dated December 29, 1863: “The people here seem to be good... they are amazed... Since their arrival, there has never been a single service without a sermon... and they listen” 192192. As in Tambov, the subjects of St. Theophan’s Vladimir sermons are very diverse, but they are all imbued with one common thought - the salvation of others. Most of his sermons are of a moralizing nature. In them he teaches how to lead a true Christian life in order to achieve the kingdom of heaven; indicates the true path to salvation - this is the path brought to earth by the Lord Jesus Christ, explained by Him in His teaching and implemented in His life and the life of the apostles and saints. ascetics. These sermons of St. Theophan breathe the spirit of asceticism and asceticism. Some Vladimir sermons by St. Feofana, like some Tambov ones, relate to one specific subject, develop one specific theme. They were pronounced in several stages in a row. Such, for example, are the sermons on the Holy Pentecost and the weeks of preparation for it, later published by Athonite monks separately, under the title: “On repentance, communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ and the correction of life.” All the sermons of St. Theophan for the Vladimir period in their entirety were published already in 1869, under the title: “Words to the Vladimir flock of St. Theophan.” With his zealous, heartfelt and highly edifying preaching of the word of God, St. Theophan in Vladimir, as in Tambov, gained himself the glory of a preacher and great love from his flock. The everyday life of Bishop Theophan in Vladimir and his relationship with the subordinate clergy and all his flock were the same as in Tambov. The first, as already indicated, is evidenced by his nephew Govorov 193193; and about the latter we find evidence from one contemporary who served under St. Theophan as a teacher at the Vladimir Theological Seminary. He says, among other things: “The Most Reverend Theophan lived as a true bishop of God, well remembering the God-wise apostolic word of Paul: “not arrogant, but humbly led (Rom. 12:16). Compassion, kindness and friendliness did not leave his lips. Going to him for any explanation, anyone, even a positively guilty person, could be sure that this wise and self-controlled judge - the saint - would not allow himself a single cruel, or even rude or arrogant word. He freely accepted everyone, did not move away from people, and was sociable. But over time, in the personal character of pr. Feofan began to notice big changes: he became less sociable, more often he went to solitude for prayer, contemplation and soul-saving reflections, he never let go of books from his hands, he began to take walks outside the city more often, sometimes he even went as far as the Bogolyubov Monastery, located 7 miles from Vladimir. The religious desire for a highly ascetic life intensified in him more and more, which desire, as we know, was revealed even in the first years of his service in the educational field, when he expressed the desire to sit all the time in church and pray, renouncing everything extraneous. In addition, he strongly wanted to devote himself to the labors of spiritual writing in solitude, peace and silence and thereby serve St. the church and the salvation of others. But both were greatly hampered by his extensive practical activities as a diocesan bishop, as we have indicated. Moreover, according to his position, he was obliged to engage here in such matters that were completely out of character with his character and which often violated his high spiritual mood and brought grief to his loving heart. He strongly disliked all sorts of hassles regarding monetary capital, church property, household expenses for the bishop’s house, etc.” 195195. Particularly burdensome to Ave. Feofan were administrative, consistory, and often slanderous cases, as well as various measures of punishment for those or other guilty persons 196196. He wrote, among other things, about his burden with consistory affairs to V.A. on March 16, 1864: “And then it happened that Lenten services were not at all in tune with consistory affairs. Our head is bitter! This is how you toil - you toil for a whole century, but it’s all of little use.” 197197 And in general, managing such a vast diocese as Vladimir was not an easy task; Moreover, it was not without some troubles from the authorities. Therefore, His Eminence Theophan Vs. He became more and more firmly convinced of the idea of ​​retiring from the affairs of the diocesan administration and of choosing a place for retirement where he could freely indulge in pursuits of his heart - monastic deeds for the salvation of his soul and the labors of spiritual writing for the salvation of his neighbors. In addition, his health, which was upset by intense labors and exploits, also encouraged him. He chose the Vyshinsky hermitage of the Tambov diocese as a place for his retirement, which hermitage, like the Sarov hermitage, was and is now distinguished by its strict monastic rules and regulations, as well as its beautiful location. St. Feofan noticed this hermitage back when he was at the Tambov department. His nephew Govorov says that he “often thought about her in Tambov and Vladimir and more than once told him that there is no place better than Vysha” 198198. Finally, surrendering to the will of God, St. Theophan decided to fulfill his innermost desire and on March 12, 1866 - in memory of Theophan of Sigrian, on the day of his angel 199199 after the Divine Liturgy, he sent to St. The Synod's request is to retire him from the affairs of the diocesan administration due to poor health and allow him to settle in the Vyshinsky hermitage of the Tambov diocese. At this time he was in his 52nd year of life. In this decisive step - to leave the pulpit and retire to a secluded monastery, he obviously imitated St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, who, after three years of ruling the Voronezh diocese, settled in Zadonsk for devotion to God and monastic deeds. No one in Vladimir knew about the submission of this petition. There was a certain rumor about this already in the month of May. “And they began to attack me from all sides,” he says in a letter to Isidore, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg 200200. Many regretted the kind and loving ruler, others condemned him, taking into account his relatively old age and rich spiritual gifts. The usual rumors, trials and gossip began in such cases, often incorrect and not based on anything. Some put this in connection with the investigation assigned to St. Theophan by the Holy Synod regarding the disorder in the Diveyevo Monastery; others explained that pr. Feofan is not on very friendly terms with Nektary, the Archbishop of Nizhny Novgorod, who was then sitting in the Holy Synod, etc. Ave. Feofan heard all these judgments, but did not answer them and did not talk to anyone about his retirement. “I didn’t ask anyone for advice,” he says in a letter to Isidore, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg, “.... It’s a difficult matter, which is why I took it upon myself” 201201. Many of the highest hierarchs of the Russian Church were surprised by St. Theophan’s petition and addressed him in writing with their perplexities about this, such as Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, and Isidore, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg. Philaret at first condemned St. Theophan for his desire to retire, but then, when he learned the true reasons and goals of this lofty act, he calmed down and approved of his asceticism 202202. Metropolitan Isidore also initially disapproved of this act. He initially considered the reason for St. Theophan’s removal from diocesan administration to be his simple desire for undisturbed silence, peace, and doing nothing. So, having learned about his request for retirement, he wrote to him on April 26, 1866: “If you believe the rumor that you are asking for retirement, just for peace, then I doubt that the Holy Synod will grant the request. Who among us would not wish for peace of mind, especially in these very stressful and difficult times! But someone must work for others, even with sorrow and sighing” 203203. Then St. Theophan, in response to this letter from Metropolitan Isidore, revealed the real reason for his removal to Vysha. We will present only the main thoughts of this remarkable letter from the Right Reverend Theophan: “My desire in the petition,” he writes, “I expressed in the word: compulsion. That's how it is. Like a burden on your shoulders, you always feel this compulsion: quit, go... quit, go... So think about it: what is this? From the beginning of Lent, this burden became heavier and became heavier and heavier... I discussed all the troubles and difficulties that might encounter me. I express readiness for everything - I raised everything. I don’t relate to difficulties in business, I just have my heart set on them. In my free time, I don’t sit idly by – minutes don’t pass in vain. But the incessant interruptions do not allow me to do anything I would like to do. The fulfillment of this is expected from the monastery, and everything necessary for this has been prepared in large quantities. I am looking for peace so that I can more calmly indulge in the activities I want, but not for the sake of amateurism, and with the indispensable intention that there will be a fruit of labor that is not useless and not unnecessary for. Church of God. I have in mind to serve the Church of God, but to serve in a different way. Grant, Lord, that this intention may not be laughed off, the whole Court is granted peace.” 204204. This is how Ave. Theophan understood his peace. He strove for peace, full of great works and exploits. For this reason, he withdrew from the world so that, from the height of his ascetic life, he could more clearly see the urgent needs and ailments of his contemporary society and, if possible, more fully provide him with the necessary help. But many of those close to St. Theophan, not understanding his aspirations, tried to dissuade him from retiring and convinced him to remain in the department and still serve the Vladimir flock, which loved him so dearly. And these convictions, coming from the pure hearts of people who sincerely loved, although they did not understand him in this case, greatly shook his intention. In the above letter to Metropolitan Isidore, he notes about this: “in the end, it seems, I am equally ready to accept both the satisfaction of the request and the refusal” 205205. But the Lord God wanted His great saint to follow the path of asceticism to which he had long strived. The Holy Synod respected the request of St. Theophan. By a decree of July 5, 1866, he let the Vladimir Spiritual Consistory know that St. Theophan, according to his request, on June 17 of the same year was most mercifully dismissed from the administration of the Vladimir diocese with his appointment as rector of the Shatsk, Tambov diocese, the cenobitic Vyshinsky hermitage, and in his place to the Vladimir see Archbishop Anthony of Volyn was moved 206206. One can imagine the grief that enveloped the hearts of all Vladimir residents at this news of the removal of their beloved and loving archpastor from them. On July 24 (Sunday), Bishop Theophan celebrated what he expected to be the last liturgy in Vladimir in concelebration with many members of the local clergy. At the ringing of the bell for the late liturgy at 9 o’clock in the morning, the people of Vladimir, as reported by a contemporary eyewitness (Archpriest N. I. Florinsky) 207207, began to flock in large numbers to the majestic Assumption Cathedral. Everyone knew that they were going to see and hear their beloved archpastor for the last time, and therefore everyone walked with a preliminary sad mood in their hearts. After the prayer behind the pulpit, His Grace Theophan said a deeply touching farewell word to his beloved Vladimir flock. In this word, expressing gratitude to God for His mercies to him, shown during the three-year management of his Vladimir diocese, and to the Vladimir people for their love for him, for their “attention to his weak word,” for their zeal for the splendor of God’s churches, etc. etc., Bishop Theophan said to the listeners: “Don’t blame me. For the Lord's sake, I'm leaving you. I am not leaving so that I will be forced to leave you. Your kindness would not allow me to change you to another flock. But as a follower, I am led to a time free from worries, looking for the best tea, as is akin to our nature. How this could have formed, I cannot explain. I will say one thing: in addition to external necessity, there is an internal necessity, which the conscience heeds and which the heart does not greatly contradict. Finding myself in this situation, I ask your love for one thing - leaving aside the judgment and condemnation of the step already taken by another - to deepen your prayers, so that the Lord will not snatch away my aspirations and grant me, although not without difficulty, to find what I am looking for. And I will pray for you”... Having then, according to custom, given a brief archpastoral instruction on maintaining the right faith and good morality, St. Theophan remarked: “I ask you to accept this small reminder as your last testament.” Then, bowing to all four sides, etc. Feofan, in conclusion, uttered the following touchingly touching words: “Forgive me, forgive me, to everyone I have offended, offended, lied to, or seduced in any way. May the Lord, by his grace, forgive and have mercy on all of you" 208208. Deep silence, interrupted only by muffled sighs and quiet sobs, made it impossible for listeners to hear every word of the farewell conversation. Many showed tears in their eyes during and after pronouncing it. After the liturgy and thanksgiving prayer, priest N. I. Florinsky, on behalf of the entire Vladimir flock, delivered a heartfelt speech at farewell to the archpastor, in which he pointed out the high merits of the Right Reverend Theophan, the love for him on the part of his flock and the deep sorrow of separation from the “priceless archpastor” 209209. The farewell that followed was most touching. Everyone felt that they were parting like children with their beloved father. But July 24 was not the last day of St. Theophan’s ministry in Vladimir. At the request of the Vladimir clergy, who wanted to slow down the departure of the dear archpastor for at least a few days, etc. Feofan once again served the Divine Liturgy at Vladimir Cathedral on July 27th. At the end of the mass and prayer service, all the Vladimir clergy went to the chambers of St. Feofan, and here the cathedral archpriest F.M. Nadezhdiv, on behalf of the entire Vladimir clergy, delivered a small, but deeply felt farewell speech to St. Feofan 210210. On July 28, St. Theophan served an early liturgy in his home church, and after a parting prayer, a new, heartfelt farewell speech was delivered to him by the housekeeper of the bishop's house, Hieromonk Moses 211211. After the prayer service, St. Theophan directly set off on the road to Vysha, accompanied by the clergy and many people. On the way to the Bogolyubov Monastery, the towns of Vyazniki and Murom, St. Feofan made short stops. Everywhere he was greeted with greetings, sincere love and deep regrets about leaving his flock. In those numerous speeches that were delivered by various persons from the Vladimir clergy at farewell to St. Feofan, clearly expressed the genuine sincerity and ardent love that he aroused for himself in his flock. From them we see how highly they valued St. Theophan - his many useful extensive pastoral activities aimed at saving his flock, his sublime personal qualities, his truly Christian meekness and wisdom, which he showed to everyone, even those unable to feel and appreciate them, his pious life and desire for solitary ascetic deeds, which culminated in the Vyshensky retreat. Retiring from the world to the Vyshinskaya Hermitage, St. Theophanes also took care of his relatives, who were in his care. He took one of his nephews, A.G. Govorov, with him to Vysha 212212, and sent the other, N.A. Krutikov, who had completed a course at the Oryol Theological Seminary as a student, to the Moscow Theological Academy, entrusting him to the attention of Fr. the rector of this academy, Archpriest A.V. Gorskago. On the penultimate day of his stay in Vladimir, St. Feofan wrote him a letter on this occasion, which he concluded with the words: “I’m leaving, pray for me” 213213. At the same time, he wrote farewell letters to other close people, among other things - E.V. Amfitheatrov, a professor at the Moscow Theological Academy, and his friend at the Oryol Seminary 214214. Chapter V. The ministry of Saint Theophan during his stay at the Vyshenskaya monastery (1866–1894) Vyshenskaya Hermitage is one of the beautiful and secluded areas in the Tambov diocese. It is located 25 versts from the district town of Shatsk, Tambov province and is located on the right bank of the Vysha River, which flows into the Tsna River. Pine forest surrounds it on all sides. There is nothing outstanding or striking around. The surrounding nature is distinguished by its quiet, majestic beauty, which has a calming and elevating effect on the human soul. In general, the geographical position of the Vyshenskaya Hermitage left nothing better to be desired for such a deep connoisseur and lover of nature as St. Feofan was. The Vyshenskaya hermitage was also distinguished by its external and internal amenities. Its external prosperity and other splendor were facilitated by the fact that it contains the famous miraculous Vyshenskaya Icon of the Kazan Mother of God, brought as a gift by the nun of the Moscow monastery Mironia 215215. This icon enjoyed and enjoys veneration not only by the local population, but throughout Orthodox Russia in general. A lot of people come to worship her in the Vyshenskaya hermitage, especially on July 8th on the feast of the Kazan Mother of God 216216. All this, of course, generated large collections and donations, which were used to beautify the Vyshenskaya Hermitage. In terms of its internal structure, the Vyshenskaya Hermitage is a communal monastery: all income goes into the general monastery treasury, and the monks are given everything they need - a cell, meals, clothes, etc. but no money is given in hand. Its charter and customs were distinguished by great severity. The order of life of the monks, as described by St. Theophan himself - in a letter to Metropolitan Isidore, is as follows: “The monastic order here is excellent, the brethren are good. The service is long... matins at 3 o'clock. An early one follows immediately. Late – at 8 am. Vespers at 4 o'clock. At 7, they are still going to pray before bed. There are strong workers who stand during all services and do not sit down, they even get angry if someone asks you to sit down.... Therefore, the Most Comfortable and Blessed Abode” 217217. And Saint Theophan, until the very end of his life, felt quite happy on Higher. “You call me happy. I feel like that, he wrote in 1892, “and I wouldn’t exchange my Highness not only for the St. Petersburg Metropolis, but also for the patriarchate, everyone would restore it to us and appoint me to it” 218218. Upon arrival at Vyshu, Saint Theophan, as his nephew Govorov testifies, first settled in the abbot’s cells, and then moved to the newly prepared room 219219 for him. This room was located on the upper wooden floor of a two-story outbuilding adjacent to the monastery fence. On the lower, stone floor there was a monastery prosphora and two monastic cells. The furnishings of St. Theophan's room were the simplest, alien not only to luxury, but also to ordinary amenities. The walls are wooden, without wallpaper. The furniture is all very simple, wooden, and only the folding bed is iron; the sofas are birch wood with tin seats, but even then everything is cheap, and in other cases, homemade. In this modest room Saint Theophan spent 28 whole years, being content with the least in his bodily life. As we have already indicated, Saint Theophan was first appointed rector of the Vyshinsk Hermitage. But he strove for the most complete solitude, he wanted to give himself entirely as a sacrifice to God; and yet the position of rector required many concerns that were not akin to this desire of his. Therefore, soon after arriving at Vysha, Saint Theophan decided to resign as abbot. In a letter to Elagin in 1866, he wrote about this, among other things: “It is clear that the management (of the Vyshinsky monastery), to which it is necessary to take care of the maintenance of the monastery, will cause a lot of trouble and sorrowful worries. For this reason, my intention has already matured to give up managing the monastery... I need a pension” 220220. In September 1886, Saint Theophan sent a petition to the Holy Synod to dismiss him from the management of the Vyshinsky monastery and to request a pension for him, since “the poverty of the contents in the monastery and the troublesome methods of obtaining it will not give him peace when managing the monastery.” At the same time, he asked: “1) to be given the right to serve whenever he wishes; 2) to leave behind him any influence on the monastic authorities, without interfering in the affairs of the monastic administration, and 3) to leave behind him the wing he occupied, so that the monastery would adapt this wing to his premises, fix it as needed every year, and heat it, so I would help him, the Right Reverend, in obtaining what he needed for the meal, or even deliver the entire meal” 221221. The Holy Synod, by resolution dated September 19–28 of the same year, 1866, decided to fulfill all the wishes of Bishop Theophan stated above with the subordination of the brethren of the Vyshenskaya Hermitage to him in the church service department, and assigned him a pension of 1000 rubles. per year from the date of retirement, i.e. from June 17th of the same year 222222. In view of the same complete solitude, Saint Theophan, soon after moving to Vysha, sent his nephew Govorov, who was with him, to Moscow and settled there with one of his admirers, Princess Lukomskaya 223223; and then contributed to his admission to the Moscow Theological Seminary. This nephew, however, even after that came to see him at Vysha every year, during the vacation time of 224224. And when Govorov arrived at the place, Saint Theophan carried on an active correspondence with him and... I helped him as much as I could - both with advice and financially 225225; blessed his marriage 226226, and when his son (Tikhon) was born, he signed up as his godfather 227227. Freed from the worries of managing the monastery and left alone, Bishop Theophan began his truly ascetic life, which lasted almost 28 years. At first, until 1872, this life of St. Theophan was open to the inhabitants and visitors of the Vyshenskaya Hermitage. At this time, Saint Theophan did not completely seclude himself from others. He, like an ordinary monk, fulfilled all monastic rules and orders: he attended all church services, and on Sundays and holidays he himself performed the liturgy together with the monastery brethren. 228228 He willingly received visitors - relatives and admirers who sought his spiritual advice, admonitions and instructions; he left his cell openly for a walk, and sometimes, although very rarely, he went out 229229. In 1871, he even consecrated the church at the Catherine Plant, at which he uttered an excellent word about the significance of the church in general and in particular the newly created church 230230. There is also news that Saint Theophan once traveled from Vysha to Tambov, where he stayed for a week - he served there, and they saw tears in his eyes 231231. Obviously, Saint Theophan, at first, while he had not yet gotten used to the new order of his life, experienced slight struggles and regrets about leaving the see early. But with the feats of fasting and prayer and constant intensive scientific and literary works, all this quickly passed. At least in 1870, according to one eyewitness, Saint Theophan “had become so accustomed to his life in Vyshe that it was as if he had settled there since childhood.”232232 In 1872, the authorities invited him to re-enter the diocese, even to Moscow, and then in the same year invited him to sit in the judicial department of St. Synod - but he refused both. On March 15, 1872, Saint Theophan wrote to Elagin: “Well,” I decided with the white stone. My beauty died. Well - and adieu! I wrote about this to the Bishop (Metropolitan) himself, assuring the yoke that I am as well as I really am at Above, as indeed I am. He already said through Askochensky that he accepted my refusal as reasonable. But he drags out his speech about how to attract my honor to sit in the judicial department of the Holy Synod. He refused this only with his pen, but this with his hands and feet” 233233. The main occupation of Saint Theophan at this time was prayer and divine services. He firmly remembered the commandment of the Kyiv elder Parthenius that one thing is most necessary: ​​to pray and pray unceasingly with the mind in the heart to God. An eyewitness, one of the monks of the Vyshinsky monastery, spoke well about him in this regard, saying that he “burned like a candle and an unquenchable lamp before the faces of Christ, the Mother of God the Intercessor and the saints of God” 234234. When he attended services, according to the testimony of the same monk, he stood reverently and quietly. without looking around anywhere, cheerfully, like a warrior before the king, so he did before Christ the King of Heaven, he closed his eyes for the sake of collecting his mind and heart in prayer, it happened that after the liturgy, the one who brought the antidor to the bishop stood before him for about two minutes, and the pilgrim, immersed in prayer, opened his eyes and took what was offered... With his reverent priestly service, the saint instilled in those who served with him reverence and fear of God. Hardly any of us, the Vyshinsky monks, have ever heard in St. at the altar, what extraneous word from the lips of St. Theophan, other than the sequence of the liturgical service. And he did not speak any teachings, but his very service before the throne of God was a living teaching for everyone. It used to be that among the believing common people all that could be heard were heartfelt sighs of tenderness and exclamations: “Lord have mercy” 235235. “The Right Reverend,” says another eyewitness, who was a subdeacon under Saint Theophan, dressed in bishop’s vestments, was the personification of reverence, fear of God, and complete composure. His face, as he approached the main moments of the priestly service, became brighter and scarlet from the inner fulfillment of the goodness of the Lord. After communion of St. Mystery, he was completely imbued with the inner peace of Christ, clothed with meekness and humility” 236236. After Easter in 1872, Saint Theophan decided to go into complete seclusion. He incidentally wrote about this decision on March 3, 1873 to a respectable person in the city of Tambov: “During the current Lent, I reported not to show myself to people and not to receive anyone. Two weeks passed, although not without attacks, but they were easy. How No. No. swooped in, and didn’t know what to do. Nasyadu resisted, my persistence was in the balance. Still, I resisted... If God bless me to endure so well until Easter, then it will be like this forever” 237237. Saint Theophan built himself a small church in one of his rooms and in it he became the only one to perform all church services. He had already stopped going to monastery churches. He completely stopped personal relations with strangers. Saint Theophan received to himself only the rector of the desert, his confessor and his cell attendant, and even then rarely. He didn’t even order his beloved nephew, Govorov, to come to him anymore 238238. Noble persons wanted to see him, but Saint Theophan did not break his vow for anyone; Relatives and loved ones wrote letters, asking permission to see each other, but the ascetic refused them too. One of his close relatives came to him from afar, and through the cell attendant I asked for a meeting, but the Recluse did not come to him either, but only blessed him in absentia. Often in letters he reminded those planning to visit him about his retreat. So, for example, he wrote to one person: “I flatly refuse everyone, although sometimes it is very bitter, it will be bitter to refuse you too. But still, I will refuse you" 239239. And only in 1878–1879. an eye disease, aggravated by long-term winter reading and writing, forced him to leave his cell for a while and go for consultation with doctors, first to Tambov (in 1878), and then to Moscow (in 1879). Saint Theophan wrote about this, among other things, to his nephew Govorov on April 24, 1879: “I went to Tambov not for treatment, but to find out what was in my eye. They found a cataract. She needs to mature for a year, and then remove it with surgery. Then we need to go to Moscow” 240240. And in August 1879, Saint Theophan went to Moscow. Here, according to the testimony of the nephews of Govorov, who was constantly in Moscow with St. Theophan, “The Eminence stayed in the house of the Athos Monastery... and strictly ordered me not to tell anyone about my stay in Moscow. At this time, he visited only one Metropolitan Macarius in Moscow, his former comrade. For that, accompanied by me, the Athonite monk Fr. Vladimir and his cell monk Evlampius, walked to the Kremlin to worship St. relics and Moscow saints" 241241. The cataract from the eye was not removed in Moscow, since it turned out to be not yet mature. Later, this (right) eye completely closed, but he no longer went to the doctors to have his cataract removed. For some time he was treated in absentia with Vrevsky water 242242, but the cataracts did not go away. However, Saint Theophan continued to tirelessly read and write, using one left eye, although towards the end of his life even that one began to be obscured by cataracts 243243. Returning from Moscow to Vysha, Saint Theophan continued his reclusive life, never leaving his cell, remaining in complete seclusion until his death. Thus, from the time of Saint Theophan’s settlement on Vyshe, his official public pastoral service ended. But in general, so to speak, his unofficial pastoral activity continued at Higher and was extremely extensive and fruitful. She was entirely aimed at serving God and people, at saving herself and her neighbors. Saint Theophan devoted all his mental and physical strength to this activity and pursued it steadily until the very end of his life, until his last sigh. – With God’s help, he accomplished the salvation of himself through the great ascetic feats of his reclusive life, and the salvation of others through guidance in their spiritual life, which guidance he offered in abundance in his numerous letters to various persons and in other literary works. How was the life of Saint Theophan in seclusion? How did he achieve his personal salvation, what were his ascetic deeds and what was his leadership in the salvation of others? Little is known about the life of Saint Theophan in complete seclusion. Even the monks of the Vyshenskaya monastery knew little about it; Even the cell attendant of Saint Theophan, the person closest to him, was not initiated into this life, appearing to Saint Theophan only when called and for a short time. However, it is false to form some idea about the reclusive life of Saint Theophan. It is false to judge her partly from some of his own messages in letters and other works, partly from the testimony of the above-mentioned persons who occasionally saw him; partly because it was revealed in his cells after his death. The order of the everyday external life of Saint Theophan was very simple, but strictly observed. Saint Theophan got up very early and, having completed his cell rule, went to his home church, where he performed divine services. At the end of the service, Saint Theophan returned from the church to his rooms and here for a long time he devoted himself to thoughts of God and intelligent heartfelt prayers. Having fortified himself with morning tea, he engaged in mental work, the fruits of which were his numerous writings and letters. These labors passed all the time until lunch, which usually took place at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. After lunch, having rested for a while, sitting on a chair, according to the custom of the ancient eastern elders, Saint Theophan was engaged in needlework. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon he drank evening tea, and then performed evening worship in his church, and prepared for the liturgy the next day. Saint Theophan used his free evening time for reading books and magazines, thinking about what to write from his divinely-wise works and letters, for intelligent-heart prayer and contemplation of God. Having then completed the usual cell rule, he went to bed. This is how simple the everyday external life of Saint Theophan was in seclusion. But she was rich in high, invaluable ascetic deeds: feats of prayer and sacred service, deeds of contemplation of God, spiritual reading and writing, feats of needlework, fasting, good thinking and good deeds. Saint Theophan devoted himself to prayer throughout the day and often at night. Having risen early in the morning, he immediately performed a long morning prayer, preceded and accompanied by a large number of bows. So, in “letters on Christian life”, from his own experience, of course, he writes: “As soon as you wake up... now and pray... Bowing is a very important matter. We need to start with them - three, five, ten -... until the heart warms up; for when you wake up it is always sluggish and cold. Then the morning prayers slowly, with attention, accompany the reading with bows from the waist, or to the ground... Conclude the reading again with bows” 244244. After the church service was completed, Saint Theophan, as we said, again indulged in prayer. She did not leave his lips. In the aforementioned “Letters on Christian Life” he talks about this: “After praying, it is good to spend some time in the creation of the Jesus Prayer - saying while sitting, or walking, or standing: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me... Then during the day, as often as possible, he says this prayer. And it’s good to approach the icon more often during the day and bow down with zeal, five, ten or more, with the prayer: Lord have mercy, God be merciful." Let him impose it on his tongue so that he consciously and unconsciously repeats it. This is not suddenly... this work is hard for the first time... And before going to bed, a few bows at the beginning, prayers for those coming to bed, a few bows again, and at least a hundred Jesus prayers.” And at night Saint Theophan often spent time in fervent prayer. “It’s not enough to pray during the day,” he says when explaining the 62nd verse of Psalm 119, “you need to get up at night and at midnight.... At this most important time, you need to pray to God..., not only to ask for forgiveness for past sins, but through prayer to turn away present sins and protect yourself from future ones, for at that time other temptations approach them... Consider all this and cheerfully soar then with a thought to God, so that the enemy will flee from you, and you will cross the midnight time without temptation.” Not infrequently, during prayer, Saint Theophan shed tears of contrition for his sins and the sins of his neighbors. When explaining the same 62nd verse of Psalm 118, he says that at night you need not only to pray, but also to “mourn your sins”; and in a letter to Kyiv in 1891, he wrote: “I can’t stop crying, seeing how Christian souls are dying” 246246. Saint Theophan performed church services with great reverence, strictly according to church rules, earnestly praying to the Lord not only for himself, but also for his relatives and all Orthodox Christians. After the death of Saint Theophan, a handbag was found hanging near the altar, in which there was another note about the health and repose of the servants of God, whom he commemorated at his church service. In the first 10 years of his complete seclusion, Saint Theophan celebrated the Liturgy every Sunday and holiday, and in the last 11 years - every day, usually early in the morning. In the evening, his cell attendant Evlampius prepared everything necessary for the liturgy: vestments, church wine and prosphora. Saint Theophan performed the divine service alone, “in the concelebration of angels,” as the Vyshinsky monk says in his “Memoirs” 247247. When asked by one monk close to him how he served the liturgy, Saint Theophan answered: “I serve according to the service book in silence, and sometimes I sing.” 248248 When, for some reason, Saint Theophan could not perform the usual divine services, he limited himself to the mental prayer of Jesus. - “When I cannot read all the services from the church books, I fulfill the known number of Jesus prayers prescribed in the church rules” 249249. And in addition to prayer and worship, Saint Theophan constantly devoted himself to the thought of God - thinking about God and the works of God. Everywhere he sought to sit in the footsteps of God, the wise Creator, Provider and Savior of people, everywhere he contemplated the secrets of the economy of our salvation. “Do not deviate from the Lord with your mind,” he wrote in one letter, whether you stand in prayer or go do something else.” 250250 “It is necessary to interpret all things, he writes in another place, in a spiritual sense... the very house... relatives... visitors... the ordinary course of life... and so on... When you do this, then every thing will be like a holy book... Then every thing will lead you to the thought of God.... Everything will speak to you. about God and maintain your attention to Him" 251251. Saint Theophan warmed and nourished his unceasing contemplation of God in himself by publicly reading books of spiritual content. “When you assimilate what you read with your mind and heart,” he wrote in one letter, the thought of God should naturally appear... the poems that fall on the heart while reading are the best subject for thought of God. Saint Theophan possessed an extensive and varied cell library, which he constantly replenished by ordering Russian and foreign books, for which he spent most of his pension. The main wealth of his library consisted of books of spiritual content: on the Holy Scriptures (up to 280 titles), on Dogmatic, Moral and Accusatory Theology (140 titles); on Christian apologetics (up to 90 titles); on Patrology (up to 80 titles). – Here were the works of St. Fathers of the Church of the Ecumenical (St. Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Isaac the Syrian, etc.) and Russian (St. Nilus of Sora, Demetrius of Rostov, Tikhon of Zadonsk, etc.). On the history of Western confessions (up to 40 titles), but Russian church history (up to 50 titles), on homiletics (up to 80 titles), etc.; mail all spiritual magazines 253253. But besides spiritual books, there were many books and secular ones of different content: historical (for example, World History by Schlosser, History of Russia by Solovyov, etc.), philosophical (works by philosophers - Kant, Hegel, Fichte, Ulrici, Jacob, Kudryavtsev, etc.), natural science (physics courses by Lyubimov, Pisarev, works by Darwin, Vogt, Humboldt, etc.), literary (works by Shakespeare, Pushkin, Griboedov, etc.), books on medicine (especially on Homeopathy), anatomy, hygiene and pharmacology. All these books did not lie idle in their places, but were in his hands with more or less frequent use, and some were in constant use. The very appearance of the books indicates this. Many of them have in the margins various remarks by St. Theophan, written in pencil 254254. Saint Theophan did not reject books of secular content. We find his own testimony about this. “And books with human wisdom,” he says in one letter, can kick the spirit. These are those who, in nature and history, show us traces of wisdom, goodness, truth and God’s abundant providence for us” 255255. In the cells of St. Theophan, after his death, among other things, teaching aids related to secular sciences were found: a telescope, two microscopes, an anatomical atlas, six atlases of geography and history. Obviously, Saint Theophan devoted a lot of time and labor to reading and studying various books of a spiritual and secular nature. He read all the books thoroughly and absorbed them with his mind and heart. “You need to read, he says in one letter, with assimilation and feeling... without this, reading will be a waste of time on the road... Take what you read to the senses and draw lessons for yourself... you should read not in order to fill your memory with various information and concepts, but in order to receive edification 256256. Reading books was a great feat of the reclusive life of Saint Theophan. But his feat of spiritual writing was especially great. In this feat, Saint Theophan himself saw a great service to the Church of God. This is how he talks about it in one of his letters: “Is writing a service of the Church, or not? If the service is at hand, but at the same time necessary for the Church; but what is there to look for or desire for another? 257257. During his stay on Above, Saint Theophan created so many large and small works that it is difficult for me to count them. We will indicate only the more important of his works for this period. We will follow the chronological order of their appearance in print. 1) “The Soul and the Angel are not the body, but the Spirit” is a work of a polemical nature, which appeared in print for the first time in 1867. In it, Saint Theophan, on the basis of the word of God, patristic writings and considerations of reason, proves the idea of ​​the complete incorporeality of angels and human souls. 2) “Why a special guide to Christian life with the commandments,” or “The narrow and sorrowful path,” first published in 1868. This work, outlining the order of a godly life, made a deep impression on readers and caused many written statements of gratitude to the author 258258. 3) “The Path to Salvation” (a short essay on asceticism), published for the first time in 1868–1869. This work by Saint Theophan was compiled from his lectures at the Department of Moral Theology at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. “The Path to Salvation” is the most famous and popular work of St. Theophan. It sets out the entire essence of his moral teaching. He himself spoke about this in his essay - “here everything that I wrote, is being written and will be written” 259259. It depicts the entire path of Christian life, the entire life of a Christian in all its degrees and manifestations. This is how the author himself reveals in the preface the task of his work: “This leadership must take a person outside of God, turn him to Him and then bring him before His Face; must trace the Christian life in its phenomena in practice - from beginning to end, i.e. how it is replaced, develops, matures and comes to fullness, or, what is the same thing, to write the history of the actual life of every Christian, showing how in what case he should act in order to maintain his rank.... Christian life has three degrees, which, according to their nature, it is false to call this: the first - turning to God, the second - purification, or self-direction, the third - sanctification.... Depict all this and define rules and will mean - to indicate the path to salvation "... This essay "should show: 1) how Christian life begins in us, 2) how it improves, warms and grows stronger, and 3) what it is like in its full perfection." – 4) “Conscience” is an article of a moralizing nature, published since 1868. 5) “The Thirty-third Psalm”, Interpretation, published from the beginning under the title: “Instructive and explanatory notes on the 33rd Psalm” - in 1869. This is not so much a scientific as a spiritual and edifying interpretation. In the preface to it, the author says: “The supposed notes are caused by the desire not so much to give a scientific interpretation of the psalm, but to present... into spiritual creation... There is rarely a thought here... The main thing is taken from St. fathers: Basil the Great, Athanasius the Great, Blessed Theodoret, Blessed Augustine and others.” 6) Thoughts for every day of the year according to church readings from the word of God” - 1870. This work was compiled from individual thoughts, or aphorisms of St. Theophan, which were published in 1869 in “Home Conversation”, under different titles, such as: “Alpha and Omega”, “Renewal of the World”, “Natural Faith”, etc. These thoughts are distinguished by great edification and depth content, accuracy and wit. 7) “Apothems” printed in 1871 in Home Conversation”, and then published as a separate book, under the title: “Brief thoughts for each day of the year, arranged according to the numbers of the months” - 1882. These are also short sayings, or aphorisms of St. Theophan, even more fragmentary than “Thoughts for each day of the year..”, but no less meaningful and meaningful edifying. 8) “Letters about spiritual life”, which began publication in the same magazine – “Home Conversation” in 1870. In the preface to them, Saint Theophan says: “The proposed letters about spiritual life were compiled in relation to the letters of Count M. M. Speransky... I had the intention of presenting a picture of spiritual life in its various shades. Speransky’s letter served only as a reason for this.” And indeed, here we find a huge collection and a deeply meaningful presentation of the phenomena and facts of spiritual life, starting with the first grace-filled movements of the Christian heart towards communion with God and ending with the highest moral perfection of man 9) “Arise from sleep and rise from the dead and Christ will illuminate you. Eph. 5:14. A collection of patristic writings aimed at awakening man from the sleep of sin to wakefulness in Christ,” published in 1871. In first place here are the writings of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. and then extracts from the works of St. Ephraim the Syrian, John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Demetrius of Rostov, etc. The preface states that this collection is intended “to assist both oneself and others in persuading the soul, i.e. in persuading them to awaken from the sleep of sin and follow the commandments of God...may it serve to admonish sinners like us and help them turn to the path of repentance and Christian living.” And indeed this collection is of great importance for the moral awakening of man. Here are collected the best reflections and exhortations of St. fathers directed towards this goal. 10) “Instructions by which anyone for himself can compose one consistent Gospel story from the four Gospels.” This work was first published in the “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1871. Attached to the end of the article is a plan or visual outline of the Gospel story in four parallel columns. This work is of great importance, which, among other things, is indicated by the author himself in the preface: “It is very important that everyone follow the same order in the life of Christ the Savior, and not like the Germans.” 11) “Six Psalms”, originally published in the “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1871. It explains Psalms 3, 87, 62, 87, 102 and 142, which are part of the Six Psalms. The interpretation is similar to the above interpretation of the 33rd Psalm. The further scientific and literary activity of Saint Theophan comes down almost exclusively to the explanation of the Holy Scriptures and to the translation of the patristic works. He made interpretations on the epistles of the Apostle Paul to the Romans in 2 books, to the Corinthians 1st epistle, to the Corinthians 2nd epistle, to Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Colossians, to Philemon, to Thessalonians 1st and 2nd epistle and Philippians, to Titus and Timothy (pastoral epistles), interpretation on the psalm 118th, interpretation of the Gospel parable about the unrighteous overseer. The interpretative works of Saint Theophan began in 1872. Regarding these works, he wrote to Elagin in 1875: “I will sing a song... the abbreviated interpretation given to the two epistles - to the Philippians and especially to the first Corinthians... is not suitable. I’ll somehow keep the middle halfway... we’ll trudge along little by little... wherever we want to perform. But I won’t open the hut until I finish” 260260. These works ended in 1882. The interpretative works of Saint Theophan, by their nature, come especially close to the interpretations of St. John Chrysostom. They are distinguished by depth, thoroughness, completeness, remarkable accuracy and clarity of presentation. They contain not only everything necessary for a complete and clear understanding of the sacred text, but at the same time there is also an explanation of many different kinds of dogmatic, especially moral, Christian truths and questions, for example: about sin and evil, about our redemption and justification in Christ Jesus, about the relationship between the grace of God and human freedom, about predestination, etc. In 1885, a wonderful theological work by St. Theophan was published, under the title: “The Gospel Story of God the Son,” who became incarnate for the sake of our salvation, set out in sequential order in the words of St. evangelists, indicating the reasons why this particular order, and no other, was chosen in order of the evangelical events one after the other. Saint Theophan speaks about the writing of this work, among other things, in a letter to Elagin dated May 18, 1884: “When the Passion Day came, when all the Gospels were being read, it occurred to me to finally fulfill the desire that had not given up on me to compose the Gospel history in the words of the Evangelists. “I made up my mind,” and sat down, thinking to myself: “How long?” I'll finish by the end of the week. But the end of the week has come, the end is still far away... Well, by the end of Easter, of course, I’ll have sorted everything out... And I’m sulking. But the end of Easter left the matter far from over. Fomina didn’t decide, and Mironositskaya didn’t decide, and further... and she rescued the Samaritan. I glued everything together... then, then re-read it a little and, what’s most difficult, rewrite it” 261261. About the publication of this work in 1885. we find information in letters to the same Elagin 262262. This work of Saint Theophan represents a detailed experience in reconciling the legends of the 4 evangelists and presenting the events of the gospel history in their sequential order in the words of St. evangelists. It is a supplement to the above-mentioned work of St. Theophan. - “Instructions by which anyone for himself can compose one consistent Gospel story from the four Gospels,” published back in 1871. This is the practical application and implementation of these “Instructions”. In 1873 (from the Vyshensky period) the study and translation of patristic works began. This year the first two translated works of Theophan were published, under the title: “A few words about the life and writings of St. Anthony”, a work that later became part 1 of his “Philokalia”, and “The Psalter or the divine reflections of St. Our Father Ephraim the Syrian." And in 1875, the compilation of the “Philokalia” itself began - this wonderful, enormous work of St. Theophan, which required 15 years for its compilation and publication. It was published by the monks of the Russian Athonite Panteleimon Monastery, under the title: “The Philokalia in the Russian translation, supplemented.” When publishing this work, Saint Theophan wrote to Elagin: “There is no need to write or remember about the compiler of the Philokalia. Let him go, like the work of the Athonite elders. It will be more impressive" 263263. “The Philokalia contains 5 volumes. The 1st volume contains the writings of the holy fathers: Anthony the Great, Macarius the Great, Abba Isaiah the Hermit, Mark the Ascetic and Abba Evagrius. In the 2nd writings: John Cassian the Roman, Hesychius the presbyter of Jerusalem, Nile of Sinai, Ephraim the Syrian, John Climacus, Barsanuphius and John, Abba Dorotheus and Isaac the Syrian. In the 3rd writings: Diadoche, John of Carnath, Abba Zosima, Maximus the Confessor, Thalassius, Theodore, Theognostus, Philotheus of Sinai, Elijah the Presbyter, the legend of Abba Philemon. The fourth volume consists of extracts from all the teachings of our venerable and God-bearing father Theodore the Studite, now known in print and from manuscripts. This book, says Feofan’s preface, “is invaluable for the monastic brethren, but for the laity there will be quite a bit of useful information in it.” The 5th volume includes the writings of the holy fathers: Simeon the New Theologian, Elder Simeon the Reverent, Nikita Stiphatus, Gregory the Sinaite, Nikephoros the Solitary, Gregory Palamas, Callistus the Patriarch and his associates Ignatius Callistus Tilikuda, Simeon, Archbishop of Thessalonica, etc. Next come the following main translated works of Saint Theophan: “Words of our venerable and God-bearing father Simeon the New Theologian, translated from modern Greek,” - were originally published in “Soulful Reading” for 1877–1881: “Words of our venerable father Abba Isaiah the Hermit” - Athos edition 1883. - “Invisible abuse. To the blessed memory of Elder Nicodemus of the Svyatogorets." This work was originally published in Soulful Reading for 1885–86; it is very edifying and is of great importance in the moral improvement of man. In 1892, the work of St. Theophan was published: “Ancient monastic rules of St. Pachomius the Great, St. Basil the Great, Saints John Cassian and Benedict, collected by Bishop Theophan. Publication of the Athos Russian Panteleimon Monastery." In the preface, Saint Theophan reveals the nature and meaning of these monastic rules. It also says here that “it was originally intended to compile the second volume of the Philokalia from the ancient monastic rules; but the elders of the Russian monastery on Athos...found it more suitable to give these statutes a place at the end of the Philokalia or publish them in a special book: which is now being fulfilled.” Thus, “Ancient Monastic Rules” can be called the 6th volume of the Philokalia.” Saint Theophan wrote about this work of his. To the editor of the "Church Gazette" dated November 30, 1892: "I have the pleasure of forwarding to you the "Ancient Monastic Rules" ... It seems that this is the last book from me. Although much remains unfulfilled from what was planned at the beginning, the relaxation of my head and loss of strength deprive me of the opportunity to begin anything ... But, thank God, we have a lot of scientists... They will redo everything without us. Help, Lord, all working people" 264264. The translation of St. Theophan is remarkable for its ease and accessibility. Saint Theophan had an excellent knowledge of the Greek language and therefore translated very freely. His translated works are also replete with large independent additions. The latter include the biographies of St. ascetics, from whose works extracts and translations were made, and some explanatory notes. By 1890–91 includes the processing and fragmentation of the previous “Letters on the Christian Life”. On August 21, 1890, Saint Theophan wrote to O. S. Burachk: “What do I have? I just finished re-editing Letters on the Christian Life. – The 3rd and 4th issues will not be in the form of letters, but in the form of an ordinary systematic book, under a new title: “The Outline of Christian Moral Teaching.” The first and second editions will remain the same letters and with the same additions, excluding the ascetic articles taken from the patrikas of the monastery of St. Savva, who is near Jerusalem, - which will come out as a special book... At the beginning of the Inscription there are additions - and decent ones” 265265 ... “The Outline of Christian Moral Teaching” has two parts: the 1st contains general reasoning and provisions about moral and ethical Christian life; and in the 2nd the very life of a Christian is set out as it should be, or the rules for the life of a Christian, as a Christian, and as a person who is sometimes in different states and positions are proposed” 266266. Here are the main scientific and literary works of Saint Theophan, written and published by him during his stay at the Higher. All of them are distinguished by deep edification, sincerity, warmth and sincerity; in terms of presentation - amazing simplicity, clarity and at the same time artistry. This is how the Right Reverend Nikandr, Bishop of Narva, characterizes them: “The works of the great ascetic of Christian faith and piety, full of spiritual anointing of grace, reflect with possible completeness and intimacy the spirit of the teachings of Christ and the Apostles, the thoughts, character and content of the works of the God-enlightened fathers and teachers of the Church, all aimed at indicating the highest good - the eternal goals of human existence.” Everything is revealed "with inimitable clarity and completeness... in a systematic order" 267267. We have not indicated all the works of the saint. However, I have enough of them to judge how great his feat of spiritual writing was, and how much time, energy and labor needed to be put into this? He, in his own words, often had to sit at his academic studies. The task of translating the patristic works was especially difficult. Saint Theophan himself wrote about this to Elagin in 1868: “You dig, you dig... That’s where you feel - the spirit is vigorous, but the flesh is weak. You sit down and think: well, I’ll wave all of Anthony the Great. Here and there - just ten lines... And you've already exhausted yourself... and you'll go away scratching your head... It's easier to compose. “The speech flows like clockwork there.” And here – in translation, every now and then a semicolon” ​​268268. Saint Theophan hurried to write and translate as much as possible and, indeed, did a lot in this regard. The St. Petersburg Theological Academy in 1882 elected St. Theophan as its honorary member “in expression of deep respect for (his) tireless and prolific literary activity in the field of Orthodox moral theology and interpretation of St. Scriptures,” and in 1890 they elevated him to the degree of Doctor of Theology “for his numerous and remarkable theological writings” 269269. Saint Theophan himself wrote to the editor of the Church Gazette on February 26, 1890: “The Academy Council notified me that I had been elevated to the degree of Doctor of Theology, but the diploma has not yet been received. This doctorate makes me very happy” 270270. All academies, by the way, including ours - Kazan, honored St. Theophan with the title of honorary member of the academy. In a letter dated March 14, he wrote to Elagin: “The Kazan Academy deigned to honor me with the title of honorary member of the academy” 271271. The scholarly works of the saint were partly published by the editors of the magazines: “Home Conversation”, “Wanderer”, “Soulful Reading”, “Readings in the Society of Lovers of Spiritual Enlightenment”, etc.; partly his nephew Govorov, and partly, finally, the Athos monks of the Russian Panteleimon Monastery. So, for example, on September 5, 1878, Saint Theophan wrote to Govorov: “I will have many books published. If you have a desire, you won’t be idle” 272272. And Govorov, under the guidance of the editor of “Soulful Reading” Archpriest V.P. Nechaev and his uncle-author himself, then began the business of printing, which went very successfully for him and continued for 10 whole years - from 1878–1888. But “in 1888,” writes this Govorov in his memoirs about St. Theophan, “the Reverend wished to facilitate my work on the publication of books, of which I had published up to 15 titles. He found it possible for me, for the agreed amount of money paid to me, to transfer the publication and sale of his works to the Russian Athos Panteleimon Monastery, with which I made a special written agreement on this subject on August 25, 1888.” to other Archpriest Florinsky in Kyiv: “What good fellows they (Athos people) are at distributing books!... They are at odds with their spirit” 274274. In addition, the works of the saint were published by other publishers, for example, Tuzov 275275. Saint Theophan did not receive anything for his labors, except for several dozen copies intended for free distribution. He cared only that the publication of his works should not be burdensome for buyers and, although partly, would reward the labors and efforts of the publishers 276276. Along with his scientific and literary works, Saint Theophan was engaged in an enormous correspondence on High, which he conducted with relatives and step-relatives, and with acquaintances and strangers who turned to him for advice and instructions 277277. Over time, entire collections of these letters were compiled, some of which were published by the saint himself. So he published, in addition to “Letters on Christian Life” and “Letters on Spiritual Life,” collections of letters: 1) “What is spiritual life, and how to tune in to it?” Saint Theophan wrote about these letters, among other things, on November 25, 1877: “If you want to read, take “Letters about what spiritual life is and how to get better at it,” and on December 8 of the same year he wrote about them: “The letters were written to a beauty, not a fictional one, but a real one. Some were only added for completeness, and some were shaded... The letters were especially corrected for young people. Perhaps they will come in handy for some handsome guys” 278278. In these letters, as in “The Path to Salvation,” the main question that is addressed is how a person can turn away from sin and turn to the path of salvation. Here it is depicted in a simpler and more understandable form. – 2) “Letters to various persons about various subjects of faith and life.” About these letters, Saint Theophan himself wrote on October 21, 1892: “The letters to different people were only up to 30, and then they all went to one person who was educated, energetic, wise and a believer from the bottom of her heart.”279279 – 3) “Letters to a person in St. Petersburg regarding the appearance of a new teacher of faith there.” These letters are directed against Pashkov and his followers, and also against Lord Redstock, in connection with whose teaching they stood. 4) Finally, after the death of Saint Theophan, the remaining letters of Saint Theophan, written by him to various persons, began to be gradually published in various spiritual magazines (mainly with “Soulful Reading”). These letters were then collected together and published by the Athonite monks in a large collection, under the title: “Collected Letters of St. Theophan” Moscow 1898. All the letters of Saint Theophan are filled with his great, fatherly love for all his spiritual children, whom he wisely and with relentless zeal led in their religious and moral life. In his free time of prayer, worship, contemplation of God, reading and writing, Saint Theophan was engaged in various kinds of handicrafts. He himself wrote on one occasion: “You can’t do everything spiritually; you need to have some kind of easy handicraft. You just need to take it up when your soul is tired and is unable to read, think, or pray to God.”280280. In such cases, Saint Theophan was engaged in painting, carving, turning, carpentry, bookbinding and other skills. In the cell of St. Theophan, after his death, two boxes with tools, a palette for paints and brushes, a photographic apparatus, a machine for sawing wood, a workbench, lathes 281281 were found. At different times, he gave many of his handicrafts to his nephew Govorov: excellent icons: the Savior carrying the cross, the Kazan Mother of God and St. Great Martyr Barbara, - well-bound books by himself and many other little things of his work. So in 1878 he wrote to him: “I barely managed to get some work done - I’m sending you a spare part and a large cutting book; everything else for your wife: a watch holder, a small cutting book rack, a bookcase on your desk for various little things when working; a candlestick with burning candles is a needle case: turn the candle and it will come off. And a candlestick with a black pedestal for both of you in the prayer corner. Pull the hairpin and it will come out: Stick small candles onto the hairpin” 282282. Saint Theophan also painted icons and paintings that were later found in his cell: the Crucifixion, the Resurrection of Christ, the Descent from the Cross, the Savior in the Crown of Thorns, the full-length Image of the Savior, the full-length Image of the Mother of God, Mitrofan of Voronezh, Seraphim of Sarov, etc. He sent some of the paintings to be published to the people of Athos. So on November 2, 1888, he wrote to Elagin: “I give the Athonites to publish two paintings... the inside of the Holy Sepulcher and the tomb of the Mother of God... These are the most accurate images. Tell the Athonites to clean the chromolithographic ones from afar. I also sent a drawing, drawing, of Golgotha" 283283. Saint Theophan himself made for himself a wooden carved panagia with a wooden chain and a wooden carved cross to wear on his chest. In general, without one or another work - mental or manual - not a single minute passed by Saint Theophan: “I cannot understand,” he wrote to his sister to his nephew Govorov in 1874, how one can be without something to do. Either the head works, or the hands. And there is no empty time. And there will be no boredom. And no thoughts will enter your head." 284284. Saint Theophan provided a lot of time to satisfy bodily needs. He slept very little, and some nights he spent completely sleepless, indulging in prayer and contemplation of God. I got up from sleep, as we have already indicated, very early. In “Letters on Christian Life”, from his own experience, Saint Theophan wrote about this, among other things: “Just wake up, get up. Don't spare your body. If it wants to please, get angry and drive it out of bed” 285285. Imitating St. Ascetics, Saint Theophan mortified his body in every possible way. “We must humble and exhaust our body with abstinence,” he wrote in one place, “and not indulge it with sweets, in order to be worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven” 286286. His food was the simplest and, moreover, in the most limited quantities, necessary only to maintain the body. “Fasting, mortification of the flesh,” says one Vyshensky monk, “was perfect for our saint. He was, as it were, completely imbued with spirituality, and he nourished his body only so that it would help his spirit live freely and easily.” His lunch in recent years consisted of only one egg and a glass of milk on fasting days; There was no dinner at all. On fasting days, he, of course, further strengthened his bodily abstinence, nourishing and strengthening himself with prayerful deeds and spiritual pursuits. Along with physical fasting, Saint Theophan also combined mental exercises, exercises in good dispositions and good deeds. He tried to create and constantly maintain a good disposition of heart and was truly distinguished by such a disposition. “Good dispositions,” he writes in “Letters on Spiritual Life,” “are humility, meekness, abstinence, mercy, etc.” 288288. And Saint Theophan reached a high degree of development of these dispositions. “How to depict the meekness and humbleness of mind that adorned our saint?” - the above-mentioned Vyshensky monk writes about him in his “Memoirs”. “He was truly a meek man, a humble disciple of Christ. With all his true virtues and high merits, our saint seemed to consider himself lower than everyone else. One priest asked, through the monk Vyshensky, for instructions from the saint on how to teach his parishioners. “Well, who am I to give instructions to others,” answered the humble teacher; let St. take it Tikhon reads his works in church, but that’s enough for him.” Receiving books personally from the saint, the same monk said to him: “Holy Master! how to read your St. patristic creations; I don’t see anything in myself similar to what God’s saints did... I have nothing good.” - “What should I do? “I compose books for food,” answered the Vladyka, but I have nothing good! Everything is from the grace of God! We must humble ourselves." The same monk, who occasionally went to Saint Theophan, testifies: “The saint showed meekness and gentleness that were truly angelic, purely childlike... Our saint never condemned anyone, did not like to examine human affairs and talk about anything worldly, perishable.” One day this same monk, out of spiritual need, came to him, seeing his kindness and cheerfulness, and dared to tell him some innocent news from the monastic life... The saint suddenly closed his eyes, sat as if immersed in prayer and did not utter a word about this news. A few minutes passed, the one who brought the news came to his senses that he had sinned, and the bishop, opening his eyes, began a conversation, but according to custom, about the only thing needed, the salvation of the soul, about weaknesses and uncorrections, about how to live and please the Lord... When it was necessary to stop the conversation, the saint gave a sign about this by immersing himself inside himself in prayer. Sighing from the depths of his soul, he will say: Lord, have mercy! Our God, have mercy on us! And he would go completely inside himself before the Face of the Lord, the Knower of the Heart... he would close his eyes and sit silently... Then the visitor would get up, ask for forgiveness and blessings, and leave” 289289. While cultivating good dispositions in himself, Saint Theophan at the same time practiced good deeds. Already his very prayerful feat was a great good deed for his neighbors, for he prayed, as we said, not only for himself, but also for others - relatives and everyone who asked him for prayers, he prayed for all Orthodox Christians, not only the living, but also the dead. And Saint Theophan himself considered prayer for others to be alms. “Don’t be lazy,” he says in his essay “Thoughts for every day of the year according to church readings from the word of God,” “at every prayer, diligently remember all our departed fathers and brothers. This will be alms from you to them” (p. 167). A great good deed on the part of Saint Theophan was his godly creations and his numerous letters to various persons, written for the edification and salvation of all Orthodox Christians. Saint Theophan's monetary charity extended to the widest extent possible on his part. In addition to his pension, Saint Theophan received donations from various persons for the commemoration of themselves and their relatives. And all these funds, with the exception of a small part that was necessary for the copying of books, he hurried to send out to all those in need who turned to him for help. At the same time, he made no effort to find out who they were and where the money sent to them would go. He helped everyone for God's sake. The above-mentioned monk Vyshinsky, an eyewitness, describes this charity of St. Theophan in this way: “The deceased saint was merciful to all the poor, it seems, without boundaries. “A rare thing almost passes,” the compassionate saint said to one monk, so that the poor would not write or ask. I’m glad to help and help whenever possible.” It happened before the holidays of the Nativity of Christ and Easter that the merciful saint would receive his pension and send it all away, leaving himself only to write out his favorite books.... Envelopes of 10 or more cash had to be handed over by mail to the same monk, on behalf of the bishop, and with no small amount, to widows and orphans and various unfortunates in the world. And so it went from year to year throughout his solitary life on Above, not to mention his other deeds of mercy and help, from other times" 290290. In the numerous letters of Saint Theophan we find many indications of his abundant charity. So, for example, in a letter to V.V. of his works; he also often sent books of his compositions to some acquaintances for sale, and asked to distribute the proceeds to the poor. So, for example, in a letter to Elagin dated February 14, 1880, he among other things wrote: “I propose to publish “Thoughts for every day of the year on daily readings” ... in favor of Askochenskaya ... I think to entrust the publication of the editorials of 1872 and 1873 (in Domashnaya. Conversation"), extracted with the late Askochensky from my sermons and other books, also in favor of Askochensky" 292292 And in a letter to A.V. Protopopov dated November 15, 1876, he wrote: “What books I have, I forward to you... Appraise them yourself and give all the money to the first person in need, asking him to pray for himself and for me” 293293. In addition to monetary charity, Saint Theophan provided extensive charity with books of his own compositions, which he deliberately obtained from publishers for this purpose, completely refusing their monetary rewards. “And his books,” writes the Vyshensky monk we mentioned, “he always gave and sent out free of charge. “I don’t have any corrupt ones, the saint could, here’s a book for you” - “A poor priest can borrow from my books, let him tell you which ones he needs for teaching... I can give...” 294294. Saint Theophan himself accepted others only with the most necessary things and refused expensive gifts. So, one admirer offered him a valuable fur coat; but he answered him in writing: “I refuse your present offer, because a fur coat is so good, in my situation, it is unnecessary... From external chills, a warm, warm sheepskin coat and such boots protect me.” “I don’t need anything now,” he wrote from Vysha to his nephew Govorov 296296. But in addition to cultivating good dispositions and performing good deeds, in spiritual achievement it is also necessary to wage a continuous struggle “with various temptations. Saint Theophan, of course, also had to endure this abuse. This is how he himself speaks about it: “As soon as someone begins to come to his senses and plans to start a new life according to the will of God, the entire satanic region immediately comes into motion: whoever is in a hurry to scatter the good thoughts and undertakings of the repentant. They don’t have time to reject, they try to interfere with good repentance and confession; they don’t succeed here - they manage to sow tares among the fruits of repentance and labors in cleansing the heart; They don’t have time to suggest evil, they try to twist the good; They are internally repelled, but externally they attack, and so on until the end of life. Why, it’s so sad and scary! For a believer, there is nothing scary here, because demons only fuss around the fearful, and have no power. The sober man of prayer shoots arrows at them, and they stay far away from him, not daring to approach and fearing the defeat they have experienced.”297297 And Saint Theophan was such a sober man of prayer. In this mood, he was constantly the guardian of his soul, expelling from it everything passionate and sinful, blocking the path of all impurity, in order to thereby make himself worthy of Divine communion, since only “those who are pure in heart will see God.” The fullness of the mysterious Communion with God, according to the teaching of St. ascetics and Saint Theophan himself is achieved in the feat of silence. “On the path to living Communion with God,” he says, “there is inevitably silence, in which the collected and deepened spirit, by the fire of the Divine Spirit, is raised to seraphimic purity and ardor towards God and in God... The substance of the passions, being exhausted by the Divine fire, is consumed, and as the substance is eradicated and the soul is purified, the passions also depart... And so, finally, Communion with God and The infusion of God is the final goal of searching for the human spirit, when it is in God and God is in it... Those who have achieved this are the mysteries of God, and their state is the same as the state of the apostles, because they also know the will of God in everything, hearing a certain voice, and they, having completely united their feelings with God, secretly learn from Him by His word... We do not know a higher state of the apostles on earth” 298298. And St. Theophan, as we pointed out, devoted 22 whole years to seclusion and silence - silence if he was perfect from the outside, since sometimes he talked with someone, then perfect from the inside. And silence is actually an internal feat. “There is external silence,” St. Theophan writes there, “when someone, separated from everyone, lives alone; and there is inner silence, when someone in the spirit is alone with God, not tensely, but freely, as the chest breathes freely and the eye sits. They are joint, but the former cannot be without the latter” 299299. And we know how Saint Theophan, from his seclusion, completely shut himself off from the outside world and was constantly in spirit in prayer and worship, conversing with God. In the last years of his life, according to the testimony of the monk Vyshinsky mentioned by us, he said to his closest admirer and student: “I would now board up and board up all the windows and doors, if only I would not hear anything or see what was going on there...” 300300 So his spirit had already renounced everything earthly. Obviously, Saint Theophan, since his reclusive life, achieved a high degree of moral perfection, which is necessary for people for their salvation. Saving himself, Saint Theophan, during his stay at the Vyshensky retreat, zealously cared for the salvation of others - for the salvation of both the entire Russian society and individual, specific individuals. And Russian society, as we have already said, was indeed in especially great need of salvation at that time. Saint Theophan fully understood the bleak religious and moral state of his contemporary society. In one place, for example, he speaks about it this way: “In our days, Russians are beginning to deviate from the faith: one part completely and comprehensively falls into disbelief, the other falls away into Protestantism, the third only weaves together its own beliefs, in which it thinks to combine spiritualism and geological nonsense with Divine revelation. Evil is growing; malice and unbelief raises its head; Faith and Orthodoxy are weakening. Will we really not come to our senses?... And finally, it will be the same with us as, for example, with the French and others... And if this happens, what do you think will happen to us on the day of judgment... Lord, save and have mercy on Orthodox Rus' from Your righteous and impending punishment!” 301301. And so Saint Theophan, for the purpose of religious and moral guidance of the Russian people, writes his godly creations, in which he, in truth, appeared as the light of the world (Matthew 5:14). All his writings have one common idea of ​​salvation. And Saint Theophan himself looked at his creations for us. Thus, in “The Path to Salvation” he says: “The best use of the gift of speech is to use it to admonish and awaken sinners from sleep” 302302; and in 1888, he casually wrote to one of the persons under his spiritual guidance: “Have you read the Path to Salvation? Good... read it again sometime. Here everything that I have written is being written and will be written." 303303. And indeed, we have already seen that most of the works of St. Theophan, the Vyshensky period, as well as all in general, are of a directly moralizing nature - in the sense of instruction on the path of salvation. These scriptures provide guidance on “how to reach the saving desire for Communion with God and zeal to remain in it, and how to safely go to God among all the crossroads possible on this path” 304304. Even such aphoristic, fragmentary works of St. Theophan, “Brief thoughts for each day of the year, arranged by the number of months” and especially “Thoughts for each day of the year according to church readings from the word of God” carry out the same thought about salvation and are full of thoughtful considerations and experimental instructions regarding this subject. So, here we find talk about education (“Thoughts on every day of the year according to church readings from the word of God.” pp.: 287,445 – 446), about repentance (pp. 89, 243–244, 270 – 271, 409, 419), about sobriety (pp. 227–228, 309, 314, 342 – 343), about prayer (pp. 71, 159, 164–166, 178, 259, 274, 292, 345, 383, etc.), about feat (pp. 180, 225, 228, 234, 254, 257, 259, 266, 280, etc.), Communion with God (pp. 275–276, 298–299), etc. His interpretative and translated works are also distinguished by a moralizing element. In his interpretations, which are close to the patristic ones, he often pursues his basic views on salvation, depicts and clarifies the various degrees of the religious and moral state of people, and often refers to the ascetic fathers, and sometimes exposes his personal spiritual experience; This is especially noticeable when interpreting Psalms 33 and 118. Therefore, the interpretations of St. Theophan not only enlighten the mind, but also excite the heart and attract the will to a holy, God-pleasing life. – Even more must be said about the translation works of St. Theophan. In their subjects and character, they are directly adjacent to his moralizing works. With them he seems to confirm his own teaching about true Christian life; in them he depicts this life in a variety of high examples from the history of asceticism in the Orthodox Church and gives wise advice and instructions on how to pray, be sober, fight passions and follow the path of moral perfection. Thus, the Philokalia alone represents a rich material of experiences of spiritual life and virtue. Saint Theophan himself testifies that he undertook the enormous work of translating the Philokalia precisely because it “contains an interpretation of the hidden life in the Lord Jesus Christ,” of which St. ascetic fathers, whose writings were included in the Philokalia. In one of his letters to N.M. (from 1898) Saint Theophan calls the Philokalia “a public store of spiritual teachings 305305. The translated work of St. Theophan, under the title: “Invisible Warfare,” is also distinguished by its high moral teaching. To the blessed memory of Elder Nicodemus the Holy Mountain.” In its preface, among other things, it says: “It teaches about mental and invisible warfare, which every Christian will accept from the hour he is baptized and vows before God to fight for Him even to the point of death, and about incorporeal and invisible enemies, which are various passions and lusts of the flesh and evil and man-hating demons.” The Right Reverend Nikander, Bishop of Narva, spoke well about the high moral significance and influence on people of the writings of St. Theophan in his speech: “In his writings, the Archpastor-teacher revealed the spiritual life of man in every accessible way... in all its depth and breadth, in all its smallest details and manifestations... and the natural sequence of its development.”... As the works of a high ascetic, his creations have the power to “awaken a Christian man from spiritual sleep,... to call him out of a state of apathy, indifference to faith, so-called lukewarmness.” 306306 And indeed, even during the life of Saint Theophan, his great creations brought great benefit to many in the matter of salvation; and Saint Theophan experienced great consolation when he sat or heard about the beneficial effects of his writings on the souls of readers. So, for example, he wrote to O. S. Burachk on December 18, 1892: “You brought me great comfort by informing me that some beauty read my book and became a nun. For me, the only hope of salvation is from books... And God will show me mercy for their sake - I am very ugly.” On November 1, 1889, he casually wrote to Elagin: “You delighted me with the news about the fruits of my books. The champagne was already boiling - it was boiling in my head and chest! In all his literary works, Saint Theophan offers high, truly Christian moral teaching - the teaching of salvation. What is this moral teaching of Saint Theophan? “Christianity is the economy of our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ,” say St. Theophan in the introduction to his “Outline of Christian Moral Teaching.” “Since man cannot be saved without God, and God cannot save man without man, the Christian faith teaches, on the one hand, what man himself must share in order to achieve salvation... The latter is the subject of Christian moral teaching” 309309. Thus, the life and activity of a Christian man, in agreement with the requirements of faith and directed towards salvation, is the main subject of the moralizing works of St. Theophan. How does Saint Theophan teach us to achieve salvation? Salvation, they teach, is the restoration of fallen man, but created in the image and likeness of God, destined to live a holy, God-pleasing life. For the restoration of fallen man, God’s dispensation of salvation through the death on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and the grace-filled rebirth of man appear in the world. In accordance with the love and mercy of God, revealed in the economy of salvation, man, for his part, must sincerely and freely strive, with the help of Divine grace, with the restoration of the image of God in himself, to restore himself to a heavenly state. For this, first of all, faith, repentance of sins and baptism are necessary. From the moment of baptism, Christian life actually begins, which then goes through all the stages of temptations of the struggle with the world, the flesh and the devil, exercises in virtue and piety, until a person, through such a long path, finally achieves full communion with God, achieves “to the extent of his growth the fulfillment of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). This path to perfection in spiritual life has its own ages and degrees of development. Initially, a person needs to wage a long battle with sin. At first sin seems to be silent; but as soon as a person leans towards the side of good, all evil rises in a person and strives to drown out good aspirations. What is needed is a firm decision of the will to fight sin, which one must hate as one’s worst enemy. This determination in the fight against sin and the fight itself is helped by: prayer, contemplation of God, fasting, good deeds, withdrawal from the world into solitude, constant remembrance of death, judgment, hell and eternal bliss, conversation with spiritual shepherds and elders, repentance of sins with the sincere intention of correction. At the same time, hope for the victory of one’s spiritual enemies must be placed on the Lord - only grace can drive them out of a person’s heart. With its help, a person undergoes a change of will, an aversion from evil and an attraction to goodness; with her help alone, a person’s heart is cleansed of sins and strengthened in goodness. This cleansing, strengthening and nourishing grace is given to St. church in the sacraments of Repentance and Communion of St. life-giving Mysteries. But this is only the beginning of a life of grace. Sin is expelled from the depths of the spirit; a person has taken the side of good, but sin continues to tempt a person from the outside, and there is still no skill for good in a person’s soul. This is acquired and accomplished through the interaction of human freedom and the grace of God. With the help of God's grace, man wages an ascetic struggle against his passions, against the world and the devil, instills good dispositions in his soul, and practices good deeds. The grace of God, guiding this activity, at first, however, seems to introduce man to his own strength alone. And therefore, at first, the struggle with sins is very difficult and painful for a person. Often a person falls in this struggle. But he should not despair, but with new determination and zeal continue this struggle, hoping for God’s help. And in the end, the grace of God already tangibly gives help to a person, and he conquers his passions and succeeds in doing good. The struggle then subsides and comes down to a struggle with thoughts; finally, the skill turns out to be good. But even after this, a person should not take off his swearing weapons. He needs to watch himself with intense attention - everything that happens in his soul, and as soon as a sinful desire appears, strike him with both thought and deed. At the same time, good Christian moods are more and more revealed; a constant presence in Christian feelings arouses zeal for pleasing God. At this stage of religious and moral perfection, the grace of God makes a person feel the bliss of spiritual communion with God, and the person is strengthened by the unceasing memory of God and completely surrenders to His holy will. Finally, the grace of God sanctifies a person’s entire being, and then the Lord dwells in him and living, real communion with God begins. Saint Theophan, from his writings, revealed this teaching about salvation in detail, with all the details, in connection with all the internal changes that occur in all the powers and abilities of the soul and body of a person during the march along the path of salvation; Moreover, he substantiated all this on the teachings of the word of God and church tradition, especially on the examples and teachings of St. ascetic fathers. All special scientific and literary works of Saint Theophan were intended, as we said, for teaching and guidance in the religious and moral life of the entire Russian society. In addition, humiliated by us, the enormous correspondence that St. Theophan conducted during his stay on Above served to save individual, specific individuals. According to the testimony of the Vyshensky monk, Saint Theophan received daily from 20 to 40 letters from various people: bishops, priests, monks, from secular dignitaries and ordinary people, from rich and poor, from relatives, acquaintances and strangers who had some kind of need before him. And he was in a hurry to everyone, we can answer quickly, answer according to everyone’s needs. He never refused advice to anyone. “I am willingly ready,” he wrote, to answer and help you with a word, as much as my mind can handle” 310310; “You can freely address your spiritual questions” 311311. If sometimes he was slow in answering, it was only because others were in an even worse situation, needed more immediate help, and always, out of his great Christian humility, he added: “I ask you to excuse me and forgive me.” In his letters, Saint Theophan instructs and admonishes some, and answers other questions; he consoles others in sorrows, strengthens them in the troubles, labors and sorrows of life, for others he warns against being carried away by various kinds of errors, reveals certain truths of the Christian faith and morality; in a word, Saint Theophan in his letters, according to the word of the ap. Paul, “he was all things, that he might save some” (1 Cor. 9:2). In some letters, Saint Theophan gives very detailed instructions about the path of salvation, from the very moment of a sinner’s conversion to his confirmation in God. In this regard, his letter to attorney at law M.R. Karyagin dated March 12, 1888 312312 is especially remarkable. In it, Saint Theophan first of all points to the purpose of a Christian man and the purpose of his earthly life, which purpose and goal is moral perfection and bliss in the kingdom of heaven 313313. But “in order to be worthy of entering the kingdom, we must be cleansed of passions” and cultivate “the good that exists or should be in us through grace-filled means - church and home prayer, reading sacred books with contemplation of God and doing the good deeds set before us, confession and communion” 314314. Having indicated these means with spiritual perfection, Saint Theophan explains their essence and instructs how to use them. 1) “Make sure that when praying, prayer comes from the heart. Prayer, in fact, is the sigh of the heart to God: if he is not there, there is no prayer. Your prayers are measured; There is no need to type a lot, but it is better to perform a little with all the attention and feeling. Between the rule of morning and evening prayer, during the day, sigh more often with God from the heart; or even stand at the usual place of prayer and pray for the present need” 315315. “Before prayer, always think about prayer, what it relates to and to whom, and what it should be, think and draw the feeling of the heart into the prayer area - reverence, hope and devotion to God... If the thought runs away and the feeling moves back, force yourself. When... you don’t want to give up prayer,... continue the prayer, praying in your word, or with your thought, about what is most needed in your spiritual life” 316316. 2) About reading St. St. Theophan writes to Karyakin: “When reading, keep your heart unoccupied, open to the truth, and, embracing what you read with understanding, put it into your heart; At the same time, one or another verse will touch the heart, and another will touch it very much. Notice these poems that touch you, and remember them more often during the day, especially the one that touched you the most. This will renew the revival of the heart - this work is very fruitful. It is better to read a little, but with assimilation and feeling, than otherwise and without this: without this, reading will be sowed along the road” 317317. 3) The following instruction is given about thinking about God: “take any Divine truth, understand it in its composition and foundations, carry it through to feeling and draw lessons for yourself. What truths should we take? Everything, starting with the Divine properties, passing through creation, redemption and general providence, to the Last Judgment and eternal life. This is according to the catechism. Take one. Poems that fall on the heart when reading are the best subject for contemplation of God. Time... how free" 318318 . 4) Regarding good deeds, Saint Theophan instructs: “it is better not to invent deeds, but to do what seems possible... “I can’t” should not come from the lips of a zealot. Doing business is great wisdom - a gift from God. We must pray for this” 319319. 5) “Confession and St. Communion is inevitably necessary: ​​one cleanses, the other – bath, plaster and food. You must take communion during all four fasts” 320320. “Everything that is written,” says Saint Theophan, “feeds the good side.” But in addition, “a zealot for salvation must face a continuous struggle with his bad side.” And Saint Theophan further indicates what this bad side of man is - sinfulness, describes the very process of sin and indicates the means of combating it. The bad side in a person consists of “egoism, selfishness, self-indulgence, self-pity... Sometimes it manifests itself only by thinking about something bad,... sometimes by an urge to do something bad. All this is for the soul - not pure, but not yet sinful. Sinfulness begins with consent to bad things, which turns into the decision to do bad things. – This is an internal matter; after which methods, time, place are invented... Then comes a sinful deed, which results in slavery to sin and spiritual death. But, no matter in what form the bad manifests itself; As soon as it is noticed, you need to get up and fight. Here are the main methods of struggle: recognize the enemy in the lightheadedness that has appeared; get angry with him and, tense, drive him away, calling on the Lord the Savior for help; and then repeat these acts until the bad disappears and the soul calms down... Energy, courage and patience are required" 321321. Immediately, Saint Theophan gives Koryakin instructions on the fight against the flesh: “Take the trouble to pull this slave up so that you don’t interfere with your mistress. How?.. I think you know! This applies to food, sleep, and other benefits. Make the flesh feel like there is a heavy hand on it. As soon as the flesh weakens, the spiritual feeling will come to life. It means a lot in this regard - not to let it fall apart, to keep all the limbs in line through internal muscle tension” 322322. At the end of the letter, Saint Theophan will give Karyakin, in particular, instructions on the means of combating the sin of blasphemy, which “attacks” him 323323. In conclusion, he sends a blessing to the entire Karyakin family and good wishes in the matter of salvation, calling on God’s help for them. With this letter, a book was sent - “The Path to Salvation”, about which the letter noted: “In it you will see yourself, how you were in adolescence, how you deteriorated - and how you corrected yourself, and what is to come... It was written more than 40 years ago, but is not outdated...” 324324 There are very different letters written by Saint Theophan, outlining all the main points of the Christian path to salvation. These are, for example, his letters to Mrs. N.M. 325325 with nun O.N. Bulatova 326326, to N. 327327, with M.D. 328328, etc. Saint Theophan advises people who feel called to monastic life and are not bound by family responsibilities to enter a monastery, where it is easier to achieve moral perfection and salvation. From those who entered the monastery, he demands complete renunciation from the world and zealous fulfillment of monastic duties. Here is what, for example, he writes in one letter about this: The desire to enter a monastery is a good desire;... only, when going to a monastery, make a covenant with your heart: to betray your whole soul to the One Lord, throwing away all earthly desires and hopes... You must devote yourself to the cause of God to the point of death, that is, even to die, and not to deviate from what is good... They enter the monastery in order to live in uncomplaining obedience, in strict fasting, hard-working prayer and vigilant sobriety. Here there is a lack of nothing, the cutting off of one’s own will and self-pity grind out everything passionate from the soul” 329329. - Go here again: “Someone asked me about you, and I remember I wrote that taking an academic course would not hurt the matter. And now, judging by the circumstances you indicated, I find that successfully completing an academic course requires a long preparation from you, and some of it is not worth the bother. Therefore, I believe that it is better for you to go to the monastery now. If God blesses you with the goodness to begin and continue your monastic life, then a field of subjects will open up for you, knowledge of which does not come from science.” 330330. How to lead a monastic life and achieve salvation - St. Theophan gives a lot of detailed advice and instructions about this in his letters. So, for example, he writes to the Sarov novice Alexander: “Fulfill all monastic orders conscientiously, honoring every work that is assigned to you to do according to these orders, as if personally sent to you from God Himself, and dedicate the work of monastic affairs to the Lord, as if He Himself stood before you and looked at you,” and then speak in detail about prayer, contemplation of God, church services, readings from St. books and so on. 331331. But Saint Theophan does not deny life in the world. He blesses both family and social life, believing that a person anywhere can achieve salvation, and encourages all those he leads to sacredly fulfill their family and social duties, following the Divine commandments in everything. “To be saved is false everywhere, and salvation does not come from a place and not from the external situation, but from the inner mood... You just need to watch and keep yourself in a (known) order of life, being in the memory of God and death and always keeping a contrite and humble feeling in your soul. With such a mood, you will be saved without a monastery" 332332. “You can be a recluse while living in the world. Those who seek the Lord must withdraw from the world. By the world we mean everything passionate, vain, sinful, which has entered into private, family and public life and has become a custom and rule there. Therefore, moving away from the world does not mean running away from family or society, but leaving morals, habits, habits, demands that are completely contrary to the spirit of Christ... Citizenship and family are blessed by God; Therefore, one should not renounce them or despise them, as well as everything that belongs to their essential well-being. But everything that comes to them, whimsical, lustful and passionate, like a growth that harms and distorts them, must be despised and rejected. To escape from the world is to establish oneself in true family and citizenship; it’s another thing to make it seem like it’s not ours, it was none of our business" 333333. “There are commandments for family and civil life. If you lead this life in such a way that the commandments reign in it, driving away everything passionate, then it will not be a worldly life, but a holy life, blessed by God 334334. All letters of Saint Theophan are full of love for all people and sincerity. Here, for example, is one comforting letter to a father grieving over the death of his children: “What is bitter is bitter... Nothing about this... And again I will tell you: grieve in moderation... Walk with your heart into the promises of our bright faith, and how many contemplations will you draw from it in the consolation of your grief?! Or don’t you believe that God knows better than you what is good for you and your wife and for your children?! Or are you God’s stepson and stepdaughter... and not a son and daughter?!... Resurrect faith, and consolations will flow from there like a river... Children are there... in heaven... So, what is better for you, parents, to wish for your children?!... And stop grieving. You yourself will die... there will be someone to meet you, and perhaps even protect you... Grant you, Lord, every consolation. Your pilgrim F.” 335335. At the same time, his letters are distinguished by wit and often cheerfulness and playfulness. Here, for example, is how he writes to M.R. Karyakin about the torment of his son Lev (an officer) in love: “Lev fell in love; love turned out to be hopeless; and he is suffering. Well, Leo!! Commands the other - to the right! - and he himself stretches to the left. I would command myself: to the right... and march-march... Command myself... don’t squeak, I’ll crush your head... and then stop thinking about it, - throw away everything that reminds you, - look for spots on this sun - and look at them more. This is quite cold water to cool the heart, especially if hopelessness depends on it. It will pass" 336336. With his letters, Saint Theophan saved many from spiritual death, revived many to a new life, directed many on the path of truth, and showed everyone valid means to moral improvement. Here is one of the testimonies of one of Saint Theophan’s contemporaries, attorney at law M.R. Karyakin: “With his letters, Saint Theophan turned many, many to the right path of repentance and brought them to the minds of truth, thereby erecting for himself a miraculous and indelible monument both in the hearts of people turned by him from darkness to light, as well as in the hearts of those people who are worthily called the true sons of the Orthodox Church.” About himself personally, he, Karyakin, says in this regard: “The deceased elder (St. Theophan) was destined to come to my aid at the most critical moments, when with one foot I was already standing on the edge of moral destruction. It was then that he called out to me with his saving word, and, under his enlightened guidance, I arose from the darkness of sin and came to life.” 337337. However, despite such a strong moral influence on others, Saint Theophan, in his meekness and humility, did not consider himself a leader and mentor to others. “I am your leader and mentor, stop calling me a shepherd,” he wrote to one person. I don’t undertake to be such a person for anyone; and when someone asks, I say what seems suitable to me” 338338. While living at Vyshe, Saint Theophan followed the state of contemporary Russian sectarianism and schism, as well as some church and even political events. He responded to all this from his retreat and expressed one or another of his views, gave one or another advice and instructions. So, at this time, the rationalistic teaching of the Pashkovites, followers of Redstock, appeared; and Saint Theophan writes against them, indicated by them, the wonderful “Letters to one person in St. Petersburg after the appearance of a new teacher of the faith there.” Before writing letters against Pashkov, Saint Theophan made detailed reconnaissance about him and his teachings. So, on March 3, 1880, he wrote to O. S. Burachk in St. Petersburg: “I have a most humble request to Evgeniy St-ch or Pavel St-ch (sons of the above-mentioned O. S. Burachk), or to both. Here's the thing. There is some Pashkov there, a disciple of Redstock and a distributor of his heresy. He feels cruelty, but there is nothing to overcome him, because I don’t know his superstition. So it occurred to me to ask one of the gentlemen (i.e., the sons of O.S. Burochka) to scout out. Make it convenient. In Pashkov’s house, it seems, on Sunday evenings there are so-called readings, where he, reading the Gospel or something else, rants in the spirit of his wisdom. The entrance there is open to everyone. So the gentlemen would climb there for reconnaissance... The first and second visits are listening: just let yourself be noticed. Then, as some of those who come turn to him with questions, turn to yourself - with some simple one - another time, no wonder... and so on... and in this way draw out his confessions. For example, he says: repent. – You can ask: is it necessary to confess?.. Having confessed, is it necessary to take communion? I believe that he understands little about the sacraments - also about the church, about the saints... So here is my request! Everything you heard, come home and write it down, and then send it to Vysha, and Vysha will write books or brochures based on what he heard, or one book: “Pashkov Unmasked.” I think that this task is not very difficult, but very useful” 339339. The Burachki fulfilled the request of Saint Theophan and sent him to Vysha all the most important points of Pashkov’s false teaching in his own phrases. Based on these messages, Saint Theophan composed 7 letters against Pashkov, under the title: “Letters to one person in St. Petersburg regarding the appearance of a new teacher of the faith there.” The first letter (the largest) sets out general provisions about Pashkov’s false teaching and denunciations of its main points, with a detailed presentation of Orthodox teaching on these points. In the next six letters, more specific provisions of Pashkov’s false teaching are exposed, and the Christian Orthodox teaching on these issues is also set forth; it is said here about the grace of the Holy Spirit, about salvation, about the sacraments and rituals established by the church. These letters, due to their enormous importance, as a denunciation of Pashkov’s false teaching, were, according to the definition of the Holy Synod, reprinted in separate prints in large quantities in the synodal printing house. Having received a significant number of printed copies of these letters, Saint Theophan sent them to his acquaintances, especially to sacred persons, asking everyone, in turn, to diligently fight against sectarianism. So, sending 10 copies of these letters to Kyiv to Archpriest N.I. Florinsky, he wrote to him on August 24, 1881: “I am sending you a dozen letters... Distribute them to old acquaintances... and even around the city - not spiritual ones, for whom, according to your court, it is not useless to read them. This is against Pashkov, who is the worst Molokan and whip, who has no church, no sacraments, no priesthood, no prayers - nothing. Repent, believe in the Lord and live well - that’s all. Everything else is on the side. He travels everywhere with this sermon... and has already confused many... He is about to announce a sect. Another, secondary to it, is a sect - the “apostolic community.” And that one in St. Petersburg is underway. Just know this. All this is your business - I mean the acting priesthood - to trouble and resist" 340340. And from Elagin on January 7, 1880, Saint Theophan wrote among other things: “Pashkov took away my soul... I think that the bishop could call the priests and say: “1) teach in church silently about the dispensation of salvation... 2) Let the priests start reading in the evenings... (about) what relates to the general system of faith. 3) It would be necessary to compile a book about the path of salvation..., simply written, and scatter it around the city for nothing, or for a penny” 341341. The letters of Saint Theophan against the Pashkovites subsequently became the main stronghold of Orthodoxy both against these sectarians and against the Stundists and other freethinkers. During the stay of Saint Theophan at Vyshe, the false teaching of Count L.N. Tolstoy began to appear and spread. Saint Theophan was among the first to notice Tolstoy’s corrupting thoughts and in his letters zealously denounced him, warned the Orthodox against his false teachings and encouraged them to fight against him. So, in a letter to N.I.K. in 18S6, he among other things wrote about L. Tolstoy: “Leo Tolstoy somewhere picked up, like a child, evil thoughts - and spreads them furtively in manuscripts. But in these manuscripts only his nonsense is contained without any evidence... Since our youth does not know the faith, they are easily carried away by these nonsense based on the mere assumption that such a writer has the right reason to say so. And jackdaws spent the night in his head... This Leo was an atheist until he was 81. Then he decided to take up faith - and fell into the depths of Satan: he does not profess the Holy Trinity; about God is the most absurd concept; no prayer, no sacraments, and nothing churchly is needed; and there is no future life... What good can one expect from such wild teachings?.. Without faith, how can one live a good life?.. Until the age of 81, he wrote only novels... And from that time he wrote a Gospel, which is a distortion of the true Gospel. – Wrote: What is my faith? And here he put all his nonsense... Everything is unproven... he lies for all he knows. – He wrote a Confession... how badly he lived, how he reached despair, and how he believed this very thing, but not at all in the truth of God... Don’t take them into your hands... Leo recognizes only the Gospel, and then in a distorted form, like his. Epistles of St. He does not recognize the apostles, nor the fathers and teachers of the church... He has his own mind... Don’t take it into your hands...” 342342 And in another place St. Theophan writes: “The Apostle St. Paul wrote: “Whoever preaches the new Gospel, let him be cursed and accursed” (Galatians 1:8)... In the gospel of this blasphemer (that is, Tolstoy), the quotations are similar to ours... and the text itself is another. Therefore he is a forger, a most dishonest liar, a deceiver" 343343. Saint Theophan did not abandon with his denunciations the sectarians who were firmly established in Rus': the Molokans, the Khlysty and the Skoptsy. Not being able to personally conduct conversations with them and convert them to the path of Orthodoxy, he gave written advice and guidance to others, explaining the essence of their teaching and their customs of life; at the same time, he indicated and even sent books needed to fight certain sectarians. These are, for example, his letter to his son-in-law A.Z. Krutikov, who was a priest in the native village of St. Theophan - Chernavsk, where sectarians began to appear at that time. They visited an Orthodox church and held St. icons in their homes, but at the same time they gathered for their own zeal and tried to spread their society. A. 3. Krutikov zealously began to act against the sectarians, but at first he encountered great obstacles, since the sectarians were extremely secretive, and it was very difficult to find out about them and reveal the essence of their delusions. Therefore, he turned to St. Theophan for advice and guidance. In response, Saint Theophan wrote several letters to him. Here is the main thing related to the question of sectarians: “These are not Molokans, but Khlysts or Skoptsy. A Molokan will never hold icons and images of sacred things... and will not go to church. And the whips go to church and do everything; likewise the eunuchs.... The Khlysts are looking to extinguish lust, which extinguishing is considered spiritual resurrection among them, before the general... It is impossible to learn anything from them, because their first point is not to reveal anything about the sect, even if the skin was torn off... They make zeal at their meetings. That they sometimes experience sin is not true... Sin may happen to others afterwards, but not at meetings, and don’t remember it. When interpreting with them and when explaining yours, talk more about how grace is obtained, and how grace is manifested in power... For them, Christ continues to appear in people... and direct your speech against this. The fact that they behave well, do not reproach them in any way... The Khlysty have weaknesses, and not small ones at that. And then slowly remember what was found out about them through investigative procedures... And add one more thing... among us people sin... but they consider sin to be sin... and among the Khlysty... it’s as if the spirit commands them to sin; of course the spirit, but not God’s... Please act as God instructs you. Not in church, but in a simple conversation, analyze their caring songs. Ah, - yes, here’s how to recognize them... Start reading their guardian song in front of them - Kelsiev has collected skopcheskie and Khlystov’s... His (i.e. Khlyst’s) eyes are about to start sparkling... Just do it by chance... These are the most stubborn sectarians... I am sending you 4 books against your sectarians. From the books of the Interlocutor, look through the article about the people of God, - from the Kelsiev Collection - about eunuchs... Make the necessary notes and return the books when the need has passed” 344344. Saint Theophan gave similar instructions and guidance to many other persons 345345. Saint Theophan on Vyshe was also interested in schismatics and in his letters he gave a lot of different advice and instructions about them, aimed at eradicating the schism. So, for example, he wrote in a letter to Elagin dated June 9, 1871: “About schismatics, or benefits for them! Maybe it's for the better. There will be someone to act on them through. We must allow them to run their own seminary and academy; - drops will come from these, - and everything will be turned upside down... schismatic, I mean. The split is maintained by extreme ignorance. – When the conditions of salvation are clear, it will also become clear that all schismatic dogmas are not dogmas, but wasteland! “And the end of the split” 346346. Among the church events that particularly interested St. Theophan during his stay at the Higher Ground was the publication of the holy books of the Old and New Testaments in Russian translation, made by the Holy Synod in 1875. Synodical translation of St. books was based on the Hebrew text as authentic, preferably over the Greek translation of 70 interpreters. Saint Theophan did not like this preference. Welcoming the appearance of a translation of the Bible into Russian from the Hebrew text and giving it only scientific and domestic use, he began to defend the church use of the Slavic Bible from the Translation of the 70, pointing to its integrity and historical prescription. In this spirit, Saint Theophan wrote several articles from Vysha: “Concerning the publication of the sacred books of the Old Testament in Russian translation,” “On our duty to adhere to the translation of 70 interpreters,” “The Bible according to the translation of seventy interpreters is our legitimate Bible,” etc. In the very first article we mentioned, he wrote, among other things: “We, the sons of the Orthodox Church, honor what she revered, and are alienated from what she was and is alienating. But she did not know and does not know the Hebrew Bible. From the very beginning, from the apostles, through all the councils, and to this day it has held and continues to hold true to the Bible in the translation of the 70. And we must honor this and hold on to this with all our might. If we bow to the side of those who give great value to the Hebrew Bible, as the Protestants did, then we will give room to the thought that St. the church did not know how to show us the most authentic revelation... Hence, suspicion cannot but arise as to whether all the dogmas of the church are true, and whether they should not be revised in order to determine the most authentic confession of faith. And whoever takes this road has already become a Protestant in his soul” 347347. About the meaning of the Jewish Masoretic Bible, he writes here: “Generally speaking, the scriptures in this text have not lost their meaning, which helps to understand the word of God. They present the closest benefit to that” 348348. On this same occasion, Saint Theophan wrote many private letters, such as, for example, his letters to Elagin 349349. Of the political events, St. Theophan was especially interested in the Russian-Turkish war. In 1876 there were already clear and undeniable signs of this war. Saint Theophan, who, from his previous service in the East, knew well the sad situation of the Slavic peoples and Orthodoxy within the Turkish Empire, followed the decline of military events with great interest and welcomed the upcoming war of liberation with deep patriotism, considering it a sacred duty for the Russians. Saint Theophan expressed his thoughts on this matter in “Three Letters on the Eastern Question,” written in the period from November 1, 1876 to January 8, 1877, i.e., when the war was just getting ready. These letters were written to the Russian vice-consul in Varna, A.V. Rachinsky 350350. How desirable this war of liberation was to Saint Theophan, how high and sacred he considered it for the Russian people, how great his patriotism was in this matter, can be seen even from the following words of these “letters”: “The inspiration that has gripped us is not God’s action in us? And, recognizing this, shouldn’t we together recognize that with this movement God is telling us: I entrust you with the liberation of these suffering people? We can refuse! God doesn't force anyone. But will we be innocent if we do not heed God’s beckons? God will find executors of His will even without us. And we are ashamed, if nothing else. He who leaves his brother will be left at the right time. All such thoughts lead directly to the decision: whether you want it or not, go and fight, Mother Orthodox Rus'!” 351351. In addition to the desire for a war of liberation and inciting the Russian people to it, in “Letters on the Eastern Question” Saint Theophan even indicates the very plan for the future structure of the Slavic peoples of the Balkan Peninsula. He considers it necessary for them both civil self-government 352352 and an independent church structure while maintaining their spiritual unity with the Greek Church 353353. “During the war with the Turks itself, Saint Theophan jealously followed its progress and wished for its speedy and successful end. So he incidentally wrote to Elagin on July 8, 1877: “Our war is going on... but how slowly?! I don't have the patience to wait. I wish they would push the Turk as soon as possible, and he’ll be gone.” 354354 . – And from August 2, 1877: “Yesterday I heard rumors that Plevna had finally been taken... a very comforting thing. One day, another and our Sofia" 355355. On July 14, 1878, he wrote to him: “The Congress, apparently, was not concerned about the benefits of the liberated peoples, but directed everything towards humiliating Russia... But the Lord knows what to build! Surely it’s better this way, and blessed be His will” 356356. This is how abundant, great and fruitful was the pastoral activity of Saint Theophan during his stay in the Vyshensky retreat. Here he showed himself, in the words of the Right Reverend Nikander, “a common Christian teacher - in silence; public figure - in seclusion; a church preacher, heard everywhere, although he did not appear in the church pulpit; a missionary denouncing sectarian errors, although he did not engage in open missionary activity; a bright lamp of the teachings of Christ for the Orthodox people, although apparently for everyone it did not stand on the church candlestick, although it was hidden from the eyes of the people; who had almost no material wealth, but enriched everyone and enriched them hitherto with the spiritual wealth of his teaching” 357357. For his learning, for his highly ascetic life, practical experience, and varied leadership of others in all kinds of circumstances and situations, Saint Theophan, during his stay at the Highest, enjoyed great authority among everyone. This is evident from the fact that such high-ranking officials as Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod A.P. Tolstoy sought his opinion. It is known, for example, that the latter asked Saint Theophan’s opinion about the “Tale of Repentance” translated by Stephen Panel from Greek into Russian. He responded to the Chief Prosecutor with a letter in which, having analyzed the word in detail, he gave the following judgment about it: “From this I conclude that you don’t have to worry about spreading this sermon.” The death of Saint Theophan followed on January 6, 1894, at the 79th year of his life. In the last years of his reclusive life, Saint Theophan reached the highest degree of spiritual perfection and was already preparing to accept the schema, for which he himself sewed schematic clothing for himself. But the days of his earthly life were coming to an end. In the last years of his life, Saint Theophan felt weak and complained of rheumatism in his legs; neuralgia, expressed in twitching of the legs and arms, dizziness, fainting (see his letters to Burachk dated November 19, 1889, January 9, 1893, etc.). Despite severe and frequent illnesses, Saint Theophan continued his reclusive exploits as before, spending all his time positively in work and studies. In order to save time for work, even in the last year of his life he refused the necessary means of treating his illnesses. For example, he was advised to massage his sore legs; but he refused due to lack of time: “This gentleman (massage) is not attractive!” – he wrote on October 4, 1893, 3 months before his death. - “How much fuss, and how long! 10 minutes... Just kidding! That’s why I’m putting it off” 359359. Saint Theophan had a presentiment of his death a year before. In 1898, the rector of the Vyshenskaya Hermitage, Archimandrite Arkady, going to Tambov on business, came to Saint Theophan to ask for his parting blessing. The saint, blessing Archimandrite Arkady, said to him: “with God; go there to Three Hollows (a village 25 versts from Tambov), serve a liturgy for the deceased Bishop Vitaly; and when I die, pray for me there too.” To this Archimandrite Arkady replied: “I pray to God that I may die before you.” “Well, this will not happen,” said Saint Theophan, “I will soon die,” and asked him to fulfill his request 360360. On January 1, 1894, the usual order of life of St. Theophan was somewhat upset. He did not always give a sign (with a light knock) about the time of tea or lunch at a certain time. On the eve of his death, on January 5, Saint Theophan, feeling weak, asked his cell attendant to help him walk around the room. The cell attendant saw him off several times, but the saint, tired, sent him away and went to bed. On the very day of his death, Saint Theophan celebrated, according to custom, the Divine Liturgy, and then ate morning tea; but by lunchtime he did not give the conventional sign for longer than usual. The cell attendant looked into the saint’s office and, noticing that he was sitting and writing something, did not bother him with a reminder. Half an hour later, Saint Theophan gave the signal for dinner, but at dinner he ate only half an egg and half a glass of milk. Not hearing the knock for evening tea, the cell attendant again looked into the saint’s room at half past four and saw him lying on the bed. The cell attendant thought at first that the saint had gone to rest, but nevertheless he approached the bed, sensing something else. And, indeed, he found Saint Theophan already reposed forever. The saint had the appearance of a calmly sleeping man, with his left hand lying on his chest, and his right hand folded as if for a blessing. 1 “Church Gazette” for 1894. No. 12. 2 “Collected letters of St. Theophan” Moscow 1898. Issue 1, p.239. 3 Until 1827, the seminary was located in Sevsk, Oryol province, and from that time it was transferred to Oryol. “Proceedings of the Kyiv Spirit. Academy" for 1894 p. 593. 4 Ibid. Page 594 note. 5 “Soulful Reading” for 1894, part 1, p. 45. 6 “Soulful Reading” for 1894, No. 11, p. 500. 7 “Soulful Reading” for 1894, p. 519, part 1. 8 “Soulful Reading” for 1897, part 1, p. 50. 9 “Soulful Reading” for 1897, part. 1st, page 48 10 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, Vol. 1, p. 239. 11 “Collected letters of the Right Reverend Theophan” Issue 5, pp. 78–85. 12 Ibid. Page 594 note. 14 “Soulful Reading” for 1897, part 1, p. 50. 15 “Church Gazette” for 1894, No. 15. 16 “Letters about Christ. life", vol. 3, p. 153. 17 “Proceedings of the Kyiv Spirit. Academy" for 1894, part 1. page 422. 18 Letters on the Christian Life, no. 2, pp. 116–118 20 “Church Gazette” for 1894, No. 8, p. 251 “Additions” 21 “Proceedings of the Kiev Theological Academy” for 1894, No. 3 p. 422. 22 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue 3, pp. 66–67. 23 “Proceedings of the Kyiv Spirit. Academy" for 1894, No. 3, p. 422. 24 “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1894, No. 6, p. 118. 25 “Proceedings of the Kyiv Spirit. Academy" for 1894, p. 425. 26 “Proceedings of the Kyiv Spirit. Academy" for 1894, p. 428. 27 “The Path to Salvation” part 1, pp. 42–53. 28 “The Path to Salvation”, part 1, pp. 44–47. 29 “The Path to Salvation” part 1, page 42. 30 “Sunday Reading” for 1894, No. 34, p. 551 31 “Words to the Tambov flock”, issue 1, p.6 33 “Words of the St. Petersburg Spiritual Academy of the Rector Archimandrite Feofan” ed. 1859, p. 235 et al. 34 Ibid., pp. 105 ff. 35 Ibid., pp. 285 ff. 36 “The Path to Salvation” part 1, page 42. 37 “Soulful Reading” for 1897, part III, p. 113 38 “Soulful Reading” for 1894, part No. 8, p. 563 39 “Soulful Reading” for 1897, part III, p. 31 40 See “Orthodox Palestinian Collection” vol. 1. no. 1. V. N. Khitrovo “Orthodoxy in St. earth", pp. 75–76. Sib. 1881 41 “Pressing on the works of St. fathers" for 1896, XXXVII, p. 731. 42 “Church Gazette” for 1895, No. 1, pp. 19–20. 43 “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1894, p. 76. 44 Both of these works were published by His Eminence Theophan during his stay in the Vyshensky retreat 45 Theological Bulletin" for 1895, department. III, p. 95. 47 “Words of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy by the rector Archimandrite Feofan”, ed. 1859, pp. 165–176. 48 “Correspondence between architects. Theophan., and Rev. Arkady"..; – “Christian Reading” for 1894, part II, pp. 70–71. 51 “Words of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy by the rector Archimandrite Feofan”, ed. 1859, pp. 1–13. 53 “Christian Reading” for 1894, part II, p. 76. 56 “Christ. Reading” for 1894, part II, pp. 102 and 78. 59 “Christ. Reading" for 1894, part II, p. 80 67 “Theological Bulletin for 1895.” Dept.III, p.95. 68 “Christian Reading” for 1894 stru106–107 69 “Soulful Reading” for 1897. Part III, p.233. 70 “Proceedings of the Kiev Spiritual Academician.” for 1895 Part II, p.38 73 “Proceedings of the Kiev Spiritual Academician.” for 1895 Part II, p.41 85 Ibid., page 42 note. 91 “Soulful Reading” for 1898, part 1, p. 57. 92 See I.A. Chistovich, “St. Petersburg spirit. Academy over the last 30 years” p. 9. St. Petersburg. 1889 93 “Spiritual Conversation” for 1859. Part 5, pp. 289–299. 94 “Words of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy by the rector, Archimandrite Feofan, ed. 1859, pp. 15–27. 95 “Warning against being carried away by the spirit of the present time” ed. 1858, pp. 41–42. 96 "Caution", page 47. 98 See “Letters of the Metropolitan. Philaret to Archimandrite Anthony,” IV, p. 108, ed. 1884 99 The contents of Letters on the Christian Life will be discussed below. 100 “Spiritual Conversation” for 1859, part 6, p. 326. 101 “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1863, pp. 246–248. 102 “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1862, pp. 52–55. 103 “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1863, pp. 130–135 “Additions”. 104 Ibid., pp. 181–186 “Add.” 105 Ibid., pp. 237–248 “Add.” 106 Ibid., 1862 page 55. 107 See “Tambovsk. Ep. Ved." for 1861, pp. 5,19,26, 30,55, 75, 91, 108, 124, etc.; for 1862 pp. 27, 35, 64, 141, 155, etc.; for 1863, pp. 33, 84, 60, 142, 174, etc. 108 Ibid., pp. 59–60 for 1863. 110 Ibid., pp. 59–60, etc. 113 Ibid., 1861 page 10, etc. 114 See for 1861, pp. 3,10, 50, 122,142, 26, 53, 77, 165, etc.; for 1862 pp.:66,81, 178, 242, etc.; for 1863, pp.: 57, 58, 69, 7,12, 134, 161, 172,179, 189,190, 191, 199, etc. 115 “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1862 116 Page 305–314 “Additions.” 117 See “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1861–1862, pp. 4, 11, 67, 1.08, 136, 143, 159 etc.; for 1863 pp. 25, 111, 112, 52, 143, 165, 173, 231, 239, etc. 118 So, for example, in No. 25 of the “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1861 there is the following resolution of the Tambov Ecclesiastical Consistory and the resolution of St. Feofan: “Priest Svetlov, who without good reason did not speak a single lesson for a whole six months, shall be fined 6 silver rubles for widows and orphans of ecclesiastical rank. His Eminence, having agreed on this opinion of the consistory, gave the following resolution in the journal about this: the one who did not speak the teachings should be published in the Gazette for the information of the diocese.” 119 “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1862, pp. 318–324. 120 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue 2, pp. 30–31. 121 Ibid., no. 7, page 16 122 “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1863, p. 71. 123 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, no. 7, pp. 16–17. 124 Ibid., pp. 157–158 for 1862. 125 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, no. 7, pp. 16–17. 126 “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1863, pp. 213–221. 127 “Tamb.Ep. Ved." for 1863, pp. 214–215. 130 So his articles were published in them: in 1861 - 1862 “A Word for the Week of Enlightenment”, “A Word for the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee”, “A Word for the Presentation of the Lord”, “A Word for the Week of the Prodigal Son”, “A Word for the Week of Meat Fattening”, “A Word for the Week of Cheese Fattening”, “A Word for Repentance”, “On communion of St. mysteries", "Word on the day of St. Alexis the Man of God", "Word on the 3rd week of Lent", "Word on the 4th week of Lent", "Word on the 5th week of Lent", "Word on the consecration of the church in the name of St. Forerunners in the Tambov Kazan Monastery", "Funeral Sermon"; in 1862: “Word at the funeral service of P. P. Nikolskago”, etc.; During the same year, Bishop Theophan published his “Letters on Christian Life.” In 1867 – 1868 he published his article: “The soul and the angel are not the body, but the spirit.” He also published his remarkable description of the life of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk based on the notes of Chebotarev, one of St. Tikhon. In this description, etc. Theophan, following the indicated source, presented the instructive life of the saint, his simplicity, his closeness to the people, his zeal and concern for the lesser brethren, and thereby presented a model worthy of imitation for all shepherds. 131 “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1862, p. 20. 132 “Thumb. Ep. Ved." for 1861 – 2, p. 52. 133 Ibid., for 1862, p. 113, etc. 134 “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1861 - 2, p. 49. 135 Christian moral teaching by Rev. Feofan will be outlined below. 136 “Home Conversation” for 1858, no. 14, p.79 notes. 139 So in 1860 - 1862 their second edition was published, and in 1880 3rd edition made by Tuzov. In it, all 4 issues were combined into one book, consisting of two sections: in the 1st section all the letters were combined, and in the 2nd - all the additions. At the end of St. Theophan’s life, a new edition of the “Letters” was made by the Athonite monks, and each letter was given a special title, for example, “about work and self-compulsion,” “about tears,” etc. 140 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, no. 4, pp. 50–51. 141 “Proceedings of the Kyiv Spirit. Academy" for 1894, p. 425. 142 “Tamb.Ep.Ved.” for 1863, p.545 “Additions”. 144 “Additions” to the “Church Vedas.” for 1894 No. 4, p. 120. 145 “Church Gazette” for 1894. No. 8, pp. 250–251. 146 “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1863, pp. 544–546 147 "Tamb.Ep.V." 1863, pp.521–529. 148 “Vladimir Diocesan Gazette” for 1865, pp. 31–38. 149 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue 3, p.55. 151 “Vladim. Ep. Ved;.” for 1865, pp. 10–11. 152 Ibid. for 1866, pp. 319, 448, 517, 643, etc. 153 Ibid. for 1865, p. 786. 155 “Vladim. Ep. Led." for 1865, pp. 408–413. 157 Ibid., for 1865, pp. 31, 215, 221, 268, 295, 389, 454, 540, 661. 158 Ibid., pp. 39, 118, 273, 473, 602, 985, 994, 1094, 1137, 1309. 159 Ibid., pp. 786 and 1147. 160 “Words to the Vladimir flock,” pp. 416–422. 162 Ibid., pp. 353, 357. 164 “Vladim.Bp.Ved.” for 1866 pp. 100, 375, 376, 574, 631,743, 798, 863, etc. 165 “Vladim. Ep. Led." for 1865, pp. 166–172 166 “Vladim. Ep. Led." for 1865, page 1326 167 “Report on the activities of Bogoyavlensk. brotherhood" in "Vladimir Bishops. Led." for 1865, pp. 1321–1332. 168 “Orthodox Review” for 1863, p. 87. 169 Ibid., for 1863, pp. 87–88. 170 “Orthodox Review” for 1863, p. 88. 171 “Vladim. Ep. Vedas" for 1865 pp. 1178–1214 and from 1262–1269. 172 Ibid., for 1866, pp. 861–863. 173 “Orthodox Review” for 1863, p. 89 174 “Collected letters of St. Theophan.” Vol. 3rd, pp.54–55. 176 “Vladim. Ep. Vedas" for 1865. pp. 268–272. 178 “Words to the Vladimir flock,” pp. 681–620, 676–680. 179 "Orthodox Review" for 1863, pp. 89–90. 180 See detailed description of the program “Vladim. Ep. Ved." in their No. 1 for 1865. pp.16–22. 181 “Vladim. Ep. Ved." for 1865 pp. 31, 215, 221, 268, 328, 389, 454, 540, 661; for 1866, pp. 65–72, 124 – 131, 134, etc. 182 “Vladim. Ep. Ved." for 1865, p. 406. 183 Ibid. for 1866, pp. 679–684. 184 “Vladim. Ep. Ved." for 1866, p. 681. 185 Ibid., pp. 411, 487, 670, etc. 186 “Words to the Vladimir flock,” pp. 411–416. 188 “Vladim. Ep. Ved." for 1865, p. 579. 189 Ibid., pp. 579–588; 645–652. 190 Ibid., for 1866, pp. 251–258, 340–352, 418–425, 546–553. 191 “Orthodox Review” for 1863, pp. 86–87 “notes”. 192 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue 3, art. 54. 193 “Soulful Reading” for 1894, part I p. 54. 194 “Pastoral Interlocutor” for 1894, p. 72. 195 “Vlad. Ep. Led." for 1865, Nos. 12 and 13 in the official part, decrees of the Holy Synod. 196 As we know, he instructed the keymaster of the cathedral to reprimand them. 197 “Collected letters of St. Theophan” issue 3, art. 57. 198 “Soulful Reading” for 1894, p. 64. 199 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, no. 3, p. 238. 200 “Soulful Reading” for 1899, part 1, page 111. 202 Ibid., for 1898 Part III, p.779. 203 “Soulful Reading” for 1899, part I, p. 108. 205 “Soulful Reading” for 1899 Part I, page 111. 206 “Vladim.Bp.Ved.” for 1866, No. 13 207 “Vladim.Ep.Vedom.” for 1866, No. 15, p. 843 and gave. 208 “Vladim.Bp.Ved.” for 1866, pp.844–846. 212 “Soulful Reading” for 1894. Part II, p. 64. 213 Ibid. For 1898, part III, p. 781. 215 For miracles from her, see added. to the “Church Gazette” for 1894, No. 8, p. 244 and gave. 216 See the description of the Vyshenskaya Hermitage in “Soulful Reading” for 1894. Part II, Art. 395–400. 217 Ibid. For 1899, part I, p. 112. 218 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue 4, art. 35. 219 “Soulful Reading” for 1894. Part II, p.54 220 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, no. 7, pp. 27 – 28. 221 “Proceedings of the Kyiv Ecclesiastical. Academy" for 1894, part I. page 427. 223 “Soulful Reading” for 1894, part II, p. 64. 225 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue I, pp. 167–168 228 “Tambov Eparch. Vedomosti" for 1894 No. 6, pp. 112–113. 229 “Soulful Reading” for 1898, part III, pp. 783–790. 230 “Tambov Eparch. Vedomosti" for 1871 No. 11. 231 “Soulful Reading” for 1898, part III, p. 782. 233 “Collected Letters of St. Theophan”, no. 7, pp. 39 – 40. 234 See “Memoirs of the Vyshensky monk” in “Tambov. Eparch. Vedomosti” for 1894, No. 6. 235 “Tambov. Eparch. Vedomosti” for 1894, No. 6 236 "Pastoral Interlocutor" for 1895, No. 43, p. 601. 237 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, no. 3, page 41. 238 “Soulful Reading” for 1894, p. 64. 239 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, no. 2, sar.129, cf. pp. 152, 224, etc. 240 “Soulful Reading” for 1894, No. 7 p. 472. 241 Ibid., nos. 5–6, p. 65, cf. “Collected Letters of St. Theophan,” issue I, pp. 186–187. 242 See letters to Elagin from 1887–90. in “Collected Letters of St. Theophan,” issue 7, pp. 196–198, 210–227. 246 “Soulful Reading” for 1899 Part I, page 620. 247 “Tambovsk. Eparch. Vedomosti" for 1894, No. 6, p. 114. 248 “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1894, No. 6, p. 114 250 “Soulful Reading” for 1894, part I, p. 538. 253 See Description of the “Library of the Right Reverend Theophan” in “Soulful Reading” for 1895, part I, pp. 553–560 255 “Soulful Reading” for 1894, part I, p. 699. 257 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue 2, p. 11 258 “Home Conversation” for 1863, issue 9, p. 213 259 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue I, p. 222 260 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue 7, p. 86. 261 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, no. 7, p. 173. 263 “Collected Letters of St. Theophan”, no. 7, p. 86. 264 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue 7, p. 256. 265 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue 6, p. 87. 266 See the preface, “Outlines of Christian Moral Teaching.” 267 “Church Gazette” for 1894, No. 8, pp. 252–255. 268 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue 7, p. 35. 269 ​​See the review of the commission of professors of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy about the works of St. Theophan. “Church Bulletin” for 1894 No. 4 and 5. 270 “Collected Letters of St. Theophan”, no. 7, p. 253. 271 Ibid., no. 7, p. 157. 272 Soulful Reading” for 1894, No. 4, p. 575, compare. “The collection of letters is sacred. Feofan", vol. 1, pp. 173–188. 273 “Soulful Reading” for 1894, Nos. 5–6, p.65. 274 “Sunday Reading” for 1894, No. 34, p. 552, compare. “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue 2, page 17. 275 Ibid., no. 1, pp. 189–190. 277 “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1894, No. 6, p. 119. 278 “Soulful Reading” for 1894, No. 9, p. 120. 280 “Soulful Reading” for 1894, part I, p. 538. 282 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue 1, pp. 171–172. 284 “Soulful Reading” for 1894. Part I, p. 572. 286 Ibid., no. 2, p. 518. 287 “Soulful Reading” for 1894. Part I, p. 537. 288 Letters on Spiritual Life, p. 30. 289 “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1894. No. 6, pp. 117–118. 290 “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1894, No. 6. p. 119. 291 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue 7 p. 245. 292 Ibid, no. 7, pp. 127–128. 293 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue 3 p. 183. 294 “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1894, No. 6. p. 120. 295 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue 1 p. 62. 296 Ibid, no. 7, p. 177. 297 “Thoughts for every day of the year according to church readings from the word of God,” pp. 332–333. 298 “The Path to Salvation”, p.117. 299 “The Path to Salvation”, p.117. 300 “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” for 1894, No. 6. p. 120. 301 “Thoughts for every day of the year according to church readings from the word of God,” p. 196, as well as pp.: 261, 404–409, etc. 303 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue 1 p. 222. 304 “The Path to Salvation”, p.5 Introduction. 305 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, no. 4, p. 155. 306 “Church Gazette” for 1894, No. 8, pp. 252–255. 307 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, no. 6, p. 74. 308 Ibid., no. 7, p. 216. 310 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, no. 1, p. 110. 312 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, no. 1, pp. 203–213. 325 Ibid., pp. 137–139 and 139–144, issue 1. 328 Ibid., no. 2nd, pp. 87–95 “In the letters of St. Theophan there are especially many individual instructions about one or another means to salvation: about prayer (“Collected Letters of St. Theophan,” issue 1, pp. 8–9, 9–10, 17–19, 34–35, 71–75, 136, 221–224, 233–235; issue 2, pp. 33–39; 55–57, 58–59, 6, 192–196, etc.) about reading spiritual and secular books (Ibid., issue 2, pp. 17–18, 29–32, 111–117, 121–122, 123–125, 130, 135–136, 154–155; issue 3, p. 163, etc.), about thinking about God (Ibid., issue 3, pp. 215–220, 235–236; issue 4, pp. 74–75, etc.), about doing good (Ibid., issue, 1, pp.: 115, issue 4, pp. 3–4, 6–8, 67–68, 73–74, 87–88, 127–128, 141–142); about contrition for sins, about the fight against sins, against the flesh (Ibid., issue 1, pp. 10–11, issue 3, pp.: 118–120, 123–125, 211–213, 227–229, 250–251; issue 4, pp: 11–18, 25–27, 29–30, 71–72, 77–78, 81–82, 85–86, 97–99, 106–108, etc.); about fasting, confession and communion (Ibid., pp. 36–37, 197, 225–230, issue 2, pp.: 180–185, 212, issue 3, pp.: 3–4, 77, 131–132, 177–179); about fasting (issue 2, pp.: 145–148, 204, 210–211, 217–218, issue 3, pp.: 82–83, 182), etc. There is also a lot of advice here on ways to combat doubts in the matter of faith (Issue 1, pp.: 146–149, 151, 170–171, etc.) and the spirit of cooling (issue 1, pp.: 110, 215–220, 230–233, etc.); many warnings regarding conceit in the matter of moral perfection (vol. 3, pp.: 237–238, 239–240, 241–242, etc.), many encouragements and consolations on the path of salvation - (vol. 1st, pp.: 237–238, 241–243, 249–250; issue 3rd, pp.: 120–122, 219–220, 230, no. 4th, pp.: 9–10, etc.). 329 Ibid., no. 1, page 38. 330 Ibid., no. 2, pp. 218–219. For similar letters, see Ibid., no. 1, p. 56; Issue 3, pp. 8,9, issue. 4, pp. 67, 76, etc. 331 Ibid., no. 2, pp. 55–58. See also: Issue 1, p. 70, issue. 2, pp. 66–67, 69–70, 53–54, 55–56; issue 3, pp. 76, 187, 188–190, 195–201, issue 4, pp. 161–167, 169–230, etc. 332 Ibid., no. 3, pp. 8–9. 333 “Letters to various persons on various subjects of faith and life,” ed. 2nd, pp. 298–299. 334 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, no. 3rd, p. 28. Saint Theophan wrote a lot of letters in which he gave advice and instructions about family and worldly responsibilities (Ibid., issue 2, pp. 200, 202; issue 3, pp. 26–27, 96, 189, etc.); about marriage, getting married and family happiness (Ibid., issue 1, pp. 47–48, 57, 169–170, 171, 198, etc.); about the patient passage of each of his duties (Ibid, pp. 16–17, 167–168, 169, etc.); about all kinds of everyday affairs and troubles (Ibid., p. 123; issue 2, pp. 82–83, 98, 127–129, 152, etc.), even about such matters and enterprises as the division of an estate (Ibid., issue 1, p. 46), gardening (Ibid., issue 4, p. 111), distillery (Ibid., issue 2, p. 78), trade (Ibid., issue 1, p. 64), legal affairs (Ibid., issue 1, p. 246), etc. Saint Theophan also took care of the bodily life of his leaders and, in case of illness, gave various medical advice in letters (Ibid., issue 1, pp. 29, 38, 40–41, issue 3, pp. 99, 101, 105, 150, etc.), encouraged the sick (Ibid., issue 1, pp. 30, 31, 32–33, issue 2, pp. 190, 237, etc.), and in the event of death, comforted close relatives grieving for the deceased - (Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 76, 78, 79, 199–200, 216, issue 3, pp. 6–7, 38–39, etc.). 335 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, no. 1, pp. 78–79. 337 “Soulful Reading” for 1895, part I, pp. 424 and 426. 338 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, no. 2, p. 222. 339 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, no. 6, pp. 114–115. 340 “Collected Letters of St. Theophan”, no. 2, page 22. 341 Ibid., no. 7, p. 125 O. Pashkov, see also letters to Elagin - Ibid., pp. 133, 134–142, etc. 342 “Soulful Reading” for 1900, part III, pp. 297–299. 343 “Collected Letters of St. Theophan,” issue 2, p. 42. About Leo Tolstoy, see more letters - Ibid., pp. 27–28, 135, 136–137, 237–238. 344 “Soulful Reading” for 1901, part I, pp. 299–301. 345 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue 1, pp. 222–224, 228–229, etc. 346 “Collected Letters of St. Theophan,” issue 7, p. 92. 347 “Soulful Reading” for 1875, part III, pp. 351–352. 349 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue 7, p. 61 350 “Orthodox Review” for 1877. Part 1, pp. 602–609. 352 Ibid., pp. 603, 604, 605, 608, etc. 354 “Collected letters of St. Theophan”, issue 7, p. 102. 357 “Church Gazette” for 1894. No. 8, 255. 358 “Collected Letters of St. Theophan,” issue 2, pp. 252–256. 359 Ibid., issue 3, p. 118. 360 “Soulful Reading” for 1894, No. 9, pp. 62–63.