№ 15. Всеподданнейший доклад, составленный Преосвященным Филаретом, о Епископе Оренбургском Августине и трудах его, представленных в Св. Синод

In January 1837, the former Bishop of Orenburg Augustine submitted to Sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich an all-submissive petition, in which he wrote: the luminous Angels of the Lord Almighty, brought by His omnipotence from non-existence into existence, and gifted with reason, free will, especially wisdom, holiness and strength for the glorification of His endless perfections, for participation in His love, for service To His Majesty and the eternal salvation of men, all these Angels, having beheld millions of brilliant luminaries, instantly shining by the will of God in the immeasurable circle of the ethereal abyss, to preach the glory of God and to illuminate the universe, thundered with a solemn voice countless praises to the Wise One. The Almighty and Most Good Creator of heaven and earth (Job 38:7). Such praises to the All-August name of Your Imperial Majesty thunder with a solemn voice and will forever thunder throughout all the borders of Russia, filled with boundless gratitude to Your Imperial Majesty for compiling a complete collection and a complete set of your wise laws set out for the governance of the All-Russian Empire in all types of civil improvement. These two majestic works of your tireless labors guide all Russian civil courts to preserve truth and justice and to establish unanimity, peace and silence throughout Russia, pour out countless benefits to all state states, and will forever shine in the church of immortal glory. With the deepest reverence, fulfilling the all-wise and all-good will of Christ God, who called me to carry out labors to bring all spiritual laws into chronological order, which took place from the first century after the Nativity of Christ to the present, and convinced by the fiery competition for the highest perfection of the civil legislation of the All-Russian Empire, I was honored, with the gracious assistance of the Almighty Savior of the world, for the past four years, to compile, with my own labors, fifteen volumes of a complete collection of spiritual laws in chronological order in a historical form. All the spiritual laws of the Greek-Eastern All-Russian Church of Christ are set forth by God the Holy Spirit through the Holy Apostles, through the Ecumenical and Local Holy Councils, through the Holy Fathers and Greek pious kings, through the most pious All-Russian Emperors and through the Holy Governing All-Russian Synod. All these spiritual laws are filled with Divine wisdom, piety, holiness, justice and goodness, they are the unshakable pillars and affirmation of the truth and represent the pious state of the first Christian Church. All these spiritual laws guide the reverent servants of the altar of the Lord with wise and philanthropic means to true enlightenment, to good morals, to peace, to the knowledge of various spiritual duties, to the zealous performance of priestly positions, to all spiritual perfection and to flourishing prosperity. All these spiritual laws shine in full perfection and will forever shine at the heights of the Greek-Eastern All-Russian Church of Christ, and are like numerous luminaries scattered throughout the firmament to illuminate the Universe. From the complete collection of these Divine laws a complete set of spiritual laws can be compiled: 1) about the Christian faith and law; 6) about spiritual courts, finally, in order to unite several thousand different spiritual laws, scattered across many legal books, into one composition, by placing them according to the main principles of the Greco-Russian Orthodox spiritual legislation, to concentrate their forces by bringing them into mutual connection, and to make their composition convenient for the use of all Russian spiritual courts for the uniform management of the Greco-Eastern All-Russian Church of Christ Church. Russia is crowned with laurels and olives from your victorious and peaceful right hand, filled with grateful feelings to Your Imperial Majesty for the beneficial actions of the complete assembly and the complete set of your wise laws. Amidst the general joy of the vast north about the universal establishment of truth and justice, amid the longed-for hopes of Your Most High permission to compile a complete set of spiritual laws, I have the happiness, by the good pleasure of the Lord Almighty, to most submissively dedicate to Your Imperial Majesty the complete collection of spiritual laws compiled by my labors in chronological order for the solemn expression of the boundless and eternal gratitude of the All-Russian Empire to yours Majesty for raising Russian civil legislation to the level of brilliant perfection for the ever-blooming prosperity of Russia. God-crowned and exalted Autocrat of All Russia! The most zealous defender and patron of Christian piety! I most humbly ask Your Imperial Majesty to deign with the most merciful attention, dedicated to the immortal glory of Your Most High Name, compiled by my labors, the complete collection of spiritual laws of the Apostolic-Greek-Eastern Orthodox Holy All-Russian Church of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ. This request reached the Emperor by an unknown means, on which He wrote with his own hand: “received yesterday; I ask you to consider, I don’t know what kind of Bishop Augustine is “February 20, 1837,” and the Chief Prosecutor forwarded this petition to His Eminence Philaret. In response to the Highest Resolution, Metropolitan Philaret personally wrote the following draft of the most submissive report: Bishop Augustine was promoted to this rank in the diocese of Orenburg in 1806; and in 1819, at his request, he was dismissed from service, and from then until now he has resided in Rostov in the Varnitsky Monastery. Serving in one lower diocese until his resignation shows that he did not attract special attention to his successes in diocesan administration. But as a writer of books, he showed extraordinary diligence both during his service and after retirement, presenting to the Synod at different times, first several handwritten volumes of extracts from the works of St. Chrysostom, and then his various works on the code of laws. But these works remain at the Synod in manuscripts in general, due to the lack of recognition in them of such dignity that would make it generally useful to publish them in the light, and especially to the code of church laws because 1) that in the works of the Most Reverend Augustine there is no clear and correct system that would make them useful and convenient to use; 2) because the Synod, in order to make known church laws, considered it necessary not to publish a set of new laws, but to publish a correct and clear text of the fundamental ecclesiastical decrees, that is, the Apostolic, Conciliar and Fatherly Rules, for the publication of which preparations are now being made according to the Highest will of Your Imperial Majesty. You might be interested in: