Hilarion (Troitsky) - Saint of Solovetsky

- Who is with me, for the glory of God, for the salvation of human souls? – the fisherman continued just as quietly and confidently, looking around the crowd and keenly peering into everyone’s eyes. On December 28, the Russian Orthodox Church honors the memory of Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky). An outstanding Orthodox theologian, writer, missionary, he accepted the episcopate at the height of persecution of the faith - in 1920, and soon became the closest assistant to the holy Patriarch Tikhon. Six years of imprisonment in the Solovetsky camp, then exile to Kazakhstan. During the next stage, he fell ill with typhus and died. The weather on Solovki is unpredictable. Calm can give way to storm in a matter of minutes. All prisoners and guards at SLON, the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp, knew about this. There have been many cases of death on the water here. Once a storm carried a boat into the open sea, in which was the most evil camp guard - a certain Sukhov. The prisoners and soldiers gathered on the shore were convinced that the death of the boat and its people was inevitable. Writer and journalist Boris Shiryaev, who was one of the Solovetsky prisoners in the 1920s, describes this story in his documentary novel “The Unquenchable Lamp”: There, in the distance, a black dot flashed, then hiding, then reappearing for a moment. There was a desperate struggle between man and the evil, cunning elements. The elements were winning. “Yes, in this mess you can’t even move away from the shore, let alone escape,” said the security officer, wiping the glasses of his binoculars with a handkerchief. - Sukhov has disappeared! Write to the regimental military commissar for use! “Well, God willing,” said a quiet voice, but full of deep inner strength. Everyone involuntarily turned to a short, stocky fisherman with a thick grayish beard. - Who is with me, for the glory of God, for the salvation of human souls? – the fisherman continued just as quietly and confidently, looking around the crowd and keenly peering into everyone’s eyes. - You, Father Spiridon, you, Father Tikhon, and these two Solovetskys. It will be fine. Drag your carbass to the sea! - I won’t allow it! - the security officer suddenly exploded. “I won’t let you go to sea without security and permission from my superiors!” “The authorities are right there, in the sludge, but we don’t refuse protection.” Get into the longboat, Comrade Konev! The security officer somehow immediately shrank, went limp and silently walked away from the shore. - Longboat on the water, lord! The bearded fisherman who went into the abyss to save the guard Sukhov was none other than the holy martyr Hilarion (Troitsky). The exiled episcopate, as a sign of special respect, chose St. Hilarion as its archpastor - the head of the Solovetsky Orthodox clergy. During prayer, believers on Solovki remembered him as “Archbishop of Solovetsky.” As Boris Shiryaev narrates, the authority of Archbishop Hilarion on Solovki was so high that no one dared to oppose the bishop’s intention: Vladyka Hilarion stood at the helm, and the boat, slowly making its way through the jams, moved away from the shore. Dusk fell. They were replaced by a cold, windy Solovetsky night, but no one left the pier. They ran into the warmth, warmed up and came back again. Something united and great welded these people together. All without distinction. Even a security officer with binoculars. They spoke in whispers among themselves, in whispers they prayed to God. They believed and doubted. They doubted and believed. “The sludge will not be released without His will.” They carefully listened to the night rustles of the sea, and scanned the darkness hanging over it with their eyes. They still whispered. They also prayed. But only when the sun dispersed the wall of coastal fog did they see the returning boat and in it not four, but nine people. And then everyone who was on the pier - monks, convicts, guards - all, without distinction, crossed themselves and knelt down. - A true miracle! The Lord saved! - The Lord saved! - said Bishop Hilarion, pulling the completely exhausted Sukhov out of the carbass. Easter that year was late, in May, when the cool northern sun had already hung for a long time in the gray, pale sky. Spring came, and I, who was then in my convict position at the disposal of the military commissar of the Special Solovetsky Regiment, Sukhov, one day, when the buds were quietly and sweetly blooming on the skinny Solovetsky birches, walked with him past that Crucifixion, into which Sukhov had once fired two charges. Drops of spring rains and melting snow accumulated in the wounds made by buckshot and flowed down from them in dark streams. The Crucified One’s chest seemed to be bleeding. Suddenly, unexpectedly for me, Sukhov pulled off his budyonnovka, stopped and hastily crossed himself with a flourish. - Look. not to say a word to anyone. Otherwise I’ll rot in a punishment cell! What day is it today, do you know? Saturday. Passionate. In the Solovetsky “death factory”, amazing things actually sometimes happened. It is not for nothing that the epigraph to Boris Shiryaev’s book about Solovki was the parting words that the artist Boris Nesterov told the author before he was sent to SLON: “Don’t be afraid of Solovki. Christ is close there." Hundreds of priests, thousands of those convicted for their faith who passed through SLON - all these people, against the backdrop of dilapidated monastery walls, formed a special, unique “spirit of Solovki.” One of the missionaries of Solovki was Saint Hilarion (Trinity). It is known that for many prisoners and SLON employees who grew up during the years of Bolshevik atheism, Bishop Hilarion became the person who first told them about Christ and the Gospel. Saint Hilarion spent a total of two three-year terms in Solovki (1923–26 and 1926–29). “I stayed for a repeat course,” as the bishop himself joked. Already in the first revolutionary years, this outstanding ruler was a “thorn in the side” of the Bolsheviks, since his authority in the church hierarchy increased in direct proportion to the persecution. During the Local Council of 1917–18, then-Archimandrite Hilarion was the only non-bishop who was named in behind-the-scenes conversations among the desirable candidates for the patriarchate. Soon after the election of Holy Patriarch Tikhon to the patriarchal throne, Archimandrite Hilarion was ordained bishop and became the main assistant and associate of His Holiness in the matter of saving the Church from the atheists. Until his arrest, he was the secretary and chief consultant to the Patriarch on theological issues. The young bishop (at the time of his consecration he was only 34 years old!) worked tirelessly. It was through the efforts of Saint Hilarion that in 1923 the Bolshevik plans to absorb the Church into the Renovationist schism were thwarted. Under the influence of the energy of this young ruler, the renovationist “living church” began to lose its flock, and a mass return of schismatic-renovationists to the Church began. The saint developed a rite of repentance and personally accepted the confession of hundreds of former Renovationists - priests and laity. Through the efforts of Bishop Hilarion, the Moscow Sretensky Monastery, captured after the revolution by the renovationists, was returned to the Orthodox Church in the summer of 1923. At the same time, the bishop committed an unprecedented act: he re-consecrated the throne and the cathedral of the Sretensky Monastery with a great rite. The news that Bishop Hilarion expelled the Renovationists from the Sretensky Monastery and accepted their repentance en masse, and did this under the very noses of the security officers (the monastery is located on Bolshaya Lubyanka Street!), spread not only throughout Moscow, but throughout Russia. Entire parishes of Renewalists repented and returned to the Church. Neither the leaders of renovationism, nor their patrons, the security officers, could forgive St. Hilarion for such a shame, and soon St. Hilarion was arrested once again. The first “call” that led to the arrest of the bishop came from the renovationist leader, “priest” Vladimir Krasnitsky. On July 6, 1923, he sent his denunciation to the OGPU: “I earnestly ask you to pay attention to the extremely provocative counter-revolutionary activities of Tikhonov’s assistant Hilarion. While preaching, he made such a pogrom speech that physical clashes occurred in the crowd in the fence and on the street and the matter ended in arrests. Over the ten days they have experienced, Tikhon’s followers have become extremely insolent, behave defiantly and are ready to proceed to beatings, and this mood - definitely pogrom and clearly anti-Soviet - is created by him, Bishop Hilarion. If a limit is not put on his clearly counter-revolutionary activities, then public unrest and the beating of church renovationists are inevitable.” Tuchkov’s department, however, did not react immediately. In the fall of 1923, the authorities made another attempt to undermine the patriarchal Church from within: Tuchkov demanded that the Patriarch immediately begin reconciliation with the Renovationist “Archbishop” Evdokim Meshchersky. The Patriarch most decisively refused. Then, a few days later, Archbishop Hilarion was arrested, on whom Tuchkov placed the main responsibility for the failure of his policy. Archbishop Hilarion was sentenced to three years in concentration camps. On January 1, 1924, he was brought to the transit point on Popov Island, and in June he was sent to Solovki. Arrest and interrogation could not force him to bow his head before the godless authorities. It is known that while Vladyka was still in the camp on Popov Island, Lenin died. Prisoners were required to observe a minute of silence in honor of his death. When everyone lined up for the ceremony, the Bishop lay on his bunk. Despite the requests and demands, he did not get up, noting: “Think, fathers, what is happening in hell now: Lenin himself appeared there, what a triumph for the demons!” “We should give more for healings!” Always open, friendly, confident - the bishop positioned himself in such a way in the camp that he gained respect not only from his neighbors in the barracks, but also from the guards. The general disdainful attitude of the camp staff towards “opiates” practically did not concern him. “The power that emanated from the always calm, silent Bishop Hilarion,” writes Boris Shiryaev, “could not be resisted by the jailers themselves: in conversations with him, they never allowed themselves obscene jokes, so common in Solovki, where not only the Chekist guards, but also the majority of criminals considered it some kind of necessity, either maliciously or with rude good nature, to mock “opium.” Often the guards, as if by chance, called him lord. Usually – the official term is “prisoner”. Nickname “opium”, priest or comrade – never, no one.” In the camp he continued to strictly observe his monastic vows. He amazed those around him with his non-covetousness - he simply gave everyone everything they asked of him. He never responded to any insults from those around him, seemingly not noticing them. With all his being, the bishop refuted the stereotype that a believer is a stern, gloomy and eternally mourning person. “Hilarion liked to say that as much as a Christian should be aware of his sins and grieve for them, he should just as much rejoice in the infinite mercy and goodness of God and never doubt or despair in his life’s feat,” former seminarian Sergei Volkov, who listened to his lectures at the Moscow Theological Academy in 1917–18, writes about the bishop. Oleg Volkov wrote about his meeting with Archbishop Hilarion on Solovki in his memoirs: Sometimes George took me to Archbishop Hilarion, who was settled in the Filippovskaya Hermitage, about three miles from the monastery. He was listed as a watchman there. George assured that even the camp authorities involuntarily treated this outstanding man with respect and allowed him to live alone and in peace. The Reverend greeted us cordially. In the simplicity of his address there was an acceptance of people and an understanding of life. Even love for her. The love of an ascetic who considered her joys to be sent from above. We approached his hand, he blessed us and immediately, as if erasing any line between the archbishop and the laity, he grabbed us by the shoulders and dragged us to the table. And he was so at ease. that it was forgotten about his scholarship and exclusivity, which brought him to one of the first places among the Orthodox hierarchs of that time. I was familiar with the places near Serpukhov, where Vladyka Hilarion was from. He lit up, remembering his youth. Then he inevitably moved on. to judgments about church affairs in Russia. “We must believe that the Church will stand,” he said. “You cannot live without this faith.” Let at least the tiny, barely glowing lights remain - someday from them everything will go again. Without Christ, people will devour each other. Even Voltaire understood this. I lived here during the winter, when there wasn’t even a day – it was dark all day and night. You go out onto the porch - there is forest all around, silence, darkness. It’s as if there is no end to them, as if everything is empty and deaf. But “the darker the night, the brighter the stars.” These are good lines. And what happens next - you must remember. As a monk, it’s fitting for me to know the Scriptures. Even in the most difficult conditions of the Solovetsky camp, Bishop Hilarion continued to rejoice and joke, and encouraged his fellow prisoners to do the same. He immediately tried to cheer up and cheer up all the newly arrived prisoners. - Why were you arrested? - he asked the abbot of one of the monasteries who arrived at the camp. “Yes, I served prayer services at my home when the monastery was closed,” he answered, “well, people gathered, and there were even healings.” - Oh, that’s how it is, there were even healings. How many Solovki did they give you? - Well, that’s not enough, more should be given for healings, the Soviet government overlooked it! – Bishop Hilarion laughed. “There is no Christianity without the Church” Saint Hilarion is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding theologians of the Russian Church of the 20th century. Even before the revolution, his scientific and journalistic works were known and read throughout Russia. The area of ​​scientific interests of the saint since his studies at the Theological Academy has been ecclesiology. The bishop owns about 90 published works, among which the most important are his master's thesis “Essays from the history of the dogma of the Church” (1912), articles “Gnosticism and the Church in relation to the New Testament” (1911), “Christianity and the Church” (1911; last ed.: “There is no Christianity without the Church”), “New Testament teaching about the Church” (1912), “The Incarnation” (1912), “The Incarnation and Humility” (1913), “Holy Scripture and the Church” (1914), “The Incarnation and the Church” (1914), “The Cornerstone of the Church” (1914), “The Unity of the Ideal of Christ” (1915), “Theology and the Freedom of the Church” (1915), “Bethlehem and Calvary” (1916), etc. Several works are devoted to St. Scripture: “Old Testament Prophetic Schools” (1908), “Fundamentals of the Old Testament Priesthood and Prophecy” (1909), “New Testament in Apostolic Time (1916), “New Testament in the Second Century” (1916). Regarding his master's thesis, reviewer Professor S.S. Glagolev said: “Books such as Mr. Troitsky’s book do not often appear in Rus'. Their appearance is a celebration of theological science.” It is amazing: the spirit of joy and merriment characteristic of Saint Hilarion is indirectly present even in his theological texts. “There are on earth bearers of triumphant Christianity, always joyful, always with Easter chants on their lips, and their face is like the face of an angel,” wrote Bishop Hilarion about St. Seraphim of Sarov. These words could well be applied to Saint Hilarion himself. Saint Hilarion considered the statements of some contemporaries about the “lack of life” in the Church and the need for its “revitalization” to be meaningless. He was firmly convinced that life in the Church cannot freeze or dry up, it can only be ignored by people with weak faith, churchless people. Because the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church is not noticeable to a spiritual person, much less a carnal one (see “There is no Christianity without the Church”). Many of the words of St. Hilarion, written almost a century ago, seem to be addressed to today. Thus, the bishop insisted that we need to talk not about the lack of life in the Church, but about the lack of church self-awareness among modern Christians. “In the souls of many of our contemporaries, reverence for Christianity and disdain for the Church somehow coexist”; “At least almost everyone is not embarrassed to call themselves Christians, but they don’t even want to hear about the Church and are ashamed to reveal their churchliness in any way” (see ibid.). Saint Hilarion saw the reason why the majority of Russian people still call themselves Christians in historical inertia - the preserved high authority of Christianity, which “only a few openly oppose.” the most “advanced”. renegades." He resolutely rejected the possibility of so-called “non-denominational” Christianity. “Now they are attacking the Church with bitterness and denying the very idea of ​​the Church, hypocritically hiding behind loud and stereotyped, beautiful, boring phrases about “personal freedom,” about the “individual refraction” of Christianity, about the religion of freedom and spirit.” While only the Church “gives life and fulfillment to the Christian doctrine,” writes Saint Hilarion, and without the Church, Christianity is just one of the teachings, nothing more (see “There is no Christianity without the Church”). "Theologians fishermen show" What is the Church? - perhaps this was the main question in the life of St. Hilarion, which he tried to answer simultaneously both in the language of theology and in the language of his own life. Coming from an ancient priestly family, the son of the famous Moscow region priest Alexy Troitsky, brother of Bishop Daniel (Troitsky), he was a man of the Church from childhood. Theological education and theological sciences attracted him from a very early age. At the age of 14 he graduated from the Tula Theological School (1900), at the age of 20 - the seminary in Tula (1906), at the age of 24 - the Moscow Theological Academy (1910). As a teacher and then a professor at the Academy, Vladimir Troitsky, and then Father Hilarion, infected his students with his “Easter” perception of Christianity. “He could not calmly narrate. - recalls Sergei Volkov, a listener of his lectures in 1917-1919, - but he had to burn, ignite his listeners, argue, polemicize, prove and refute[.] He himself had an amazing enthusiasm and love for everything that was dear and close to him - for the Church, for Russia, for the academy, and with this cheerfulness he infected, encouraged and strengthened those around him. “Hilarion had a beneficial influence on me with his very personality,” admits S. Volkov, “directness, authority in defending his convictions, the enthusiasm of his worship, his strong, captivating speech and, finally, his vigor, energy and cheerfulness.” It is known that the bishop perceived his imprisonment and the ordeals associated with it with extraordinary humility. On Solovki he worked in general work. He was a forester and a watchman in the Philippi Hermitage. On Filimonovskaya Tone, ten kilometers from the main Solovetsky camp, he knitted fishing nets together with two bishops and several priests. He spoke good-naturedly and ironically about this work of his, paraphrasing the stichera of the Trinity: “Everything is given by the Holy Spirit: formerly fishermen were theologians of display, but now, on the contrary, theologians are fishermen of display.” He only slightly regretted that he had to leave scientific studies and part with the academic environment - he accepted everything that happened as the will of God. In 1927, when he was already serving his second three-year term in Solovki, Bishop Hilarion wrote to his relative: At least no one calls me grandfather. However, sometimes it happened that someone would call him an old man, and that was strange to hear. My beard really gives me away – it’s turned grey, like God knows what. However, the soul, one feels, has not yet aged. All sorts of interests live and are born in it. These interests have to be satisfied by reading, because, of course, there are no appropriate conditions for real studies. Often an annoying thought occurs: if only I had so much freedom from work and so much leisure time in an academic setting! But you will be annoyed, you will be annoyed, and that’s all. And if you open the book more seriously, it turns out that it is not always possible to read it - attention is dissipated by what surrounds you and what is not at all interesting. From the outside, my life is relatively tolerable - I’m never hungry, I’m not cold in my apartment, I have something to wear (although I’m often dressed in such a way that you wouldn’t even recognize it), I have someone to talk to, I have almost no worries in my soul. You see how many advantages I have! But, of course, I lived for a long time on the White Sea. I was thrown spontaneously onto a distant island. But I try not to harbor regrets in my soul, I try not to pay attention to my surroundings, and fill my life with what I can. And so over many years I got used to it and live without any pain. I don’t hope for the best, I don’t renounce the worst. Whatever God’s will is for me, so let it be. “Now I’m completely free!” “Solovetsky Bishop”, Saint Hilarion was one of the authors of the famous “Memoir of the Solovetsky Bishops” (May 27/June 9, 1925). This text was an expression of the opinion of the bishops imprisoned on Solovki about the famous “Declaration” of the Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) on loyalty to the Soviet government. In fact, in the spring and summer of 1925, an unspoken council of bishops was held in Solovki, the result of which was the “Note”. The compilers of the “Note” announced the systematic persecution of the Church in the Soviet Union, denounced the lies of renovationism and called for the consistent implementation of the law on the separation of Church and state. Despite all submission to the authorities, the Church must be free and act without the tutelage of government officials, they reminded. At the end of the summer of 1925, the authorities tried to “agitate” St. Hilarion. He was suddenly transferred from Solovki to the Yaroslavl prison. There they tried to persuade him to join the new renovationist schism - Grigorievism. In a conversation with a GPU agent, the saint decisively rejected this proposal. “I would rather rot in prison, but I will not change my direction,” he said to his fellow prisoner, the renovationist “bishop” Gervasius. A year later, the bishop was given a new three-year term. The basis for this was the “disclosure” by the saint among the prisoners of the contents of his conversation with the agent. So in the spring of 1926 the saint again found himself in Solovki. It is known that the only Easter service in the history of the Solovetsky camp took place in the same 1926, and was led by St. Hilarion. According to the memoirs of Solovetsky prisoner priest Pavel Chekhranov, the service took place secretly from the authorities in an unfinished bakery. Apart from Father Paul, only two people took part in it - Bishop Nektary (Trezvinsky) and Archbishop Hilarion (Troitsky): “They sang the Midnight Office. Archbishop Hilarion blessed the matins. “May God rise again, and let His enemies be scattered.” – Vladyka Hilarion did not say, but whispered, peering into the darkness of the night. We sang “Christ is Risen!” Cry or laugh with joy? - I thought.” In the fall of 1929, St. Hilarion's term of imprisonment was ending. However, already in October the bishop was exiled to Central Asia for three years. While following the stage, the ruler became infected with typhus. When the train passed through Leningrad, he was disembarked and taken to the Leningrad prison. It was no longer possible to help him. On December 28 (15), 1929, Saint Hilarion died. In his delirium, he said: “Now I’m completely free!” The doctor who was present at his death witnessed how the saint thanked God, rejoicing at his close meeting with Him. He went to Christ with the words: “How good! Now we are far from..." Hieromartyr Metropolitan Seraphim (Chichagov), who occupied the Leningrad See in 1929, obtained permission from the authorities to take the body of Bishop Hilarion for burial. White bishop's vestments and a white miter were placed in the prison hospital. The deceased was dressed and transported to the church of the Novodevichy Convent. Relatives and friends did not recognize the bishop. In the coffin lay a thin, shaved, gray-haired old man. One of the relatives of the deceased, who saw him in the coffin, fainted. So he was unlike the former Hilarion. Eight bishops took part in the burial of the bishop. Saint Hilarion was initially buried in the cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent, not far from the graves of his relatives. In 1998, his honorable remains were found and placed in the Kazan monastery church. In 1999, Archbishop Hilarion was glorified among the locally venerated saints of the Moscow diocese. The relics of the saint were transported on a small Yak-40 plane from St. Petersburg to Moscow and placed at the bishop’s place of service - the Moscow Sretensky Monastery. By the Jubilee Council of Bishops in 2000, Saint Hilarion was canonized as the new martyrs and confessors of Russia for church-wide veneration.