A religious procession in honor of the discovery of the relics of Alexy Bortsurmansky took place in the Pilninsky district (photo report). Father Mikhail, who manages to do everything - What scared you the most?
...At what age can you turn your life around 180 degrees? In any.
For Mikhail Innokentyev, a federal treasury specialist from Verkhnevilyuysk, this turn happened at the age of 44: having received a fateful offer from the Bishop of Yakutsk and Lensky Roman to become a priest, he was not afraid to answer “yes.” And thus, probably, he once again confirmed the well-known: there is nothing accidental in this life...
However, the most interesting thing is that Father Mikhail manages to combine his ministry with secular service in the regional department of the Federal Treasury Department for the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Moreover, his parishioners do not see any contradictions in this. And, no wonder why.
After all, a priest appeared in Verkhnevilyuysk for the first time since 1925!
Fourth
– I always wanted to understand why a person is born into the world? I read thick philosophical books, but after them the questions only increased,” says Father Mikhail. –– And then the USSR collapsed and there was no ideology in the country at all. It seems like there is universal freedom, but it’s unclear where to go...
The 90s of the last century turned out to be a time of great human tragedies and no less great spiritual quests for our country. Yakutia was not spared from these processes. It was then that literature about God and faith, accessible to the mass reader, almost for the first time appeared in bookstores, and in Yakutsk in just one day one could communicate with Baptists, followers of Krishna and adherents of the Bahai faith... Probably, many of us had to go through this difficult a time of personal quest, consisting of discoveries and disappointments, in order to ultimately come to YOUR ONE.
“At that time, I studied in absentia at the banking school of Irkutsk, where evangelical Christians often visited,” says Father Mikhail. –– Their creed did not appeal to me, but for some reason I really wanted to read the Bible myself...
The temple in Irkutsk, where he once went in the hope of acquiring it, was old and had not seen repairs for a long time. “But I suddenly felt so good there!” - he recalls.
At that time, the future financier lived in Udachny, where he worked at motor depot No. 3. It was at this time in his life that one of those most important meetings took place, remembering which people often call them “defining”
– One day, the cleric of the Irkutsk diocese, Father Vyacheslav, arrived there with reader Vladimir, and settled in our hostel. We started communicating. He talked a lot about Orthodoxy. Gradually, I began to delve deeper into its essence, simultaneously discovering its wisdom and beauty,” says Father Mikhail. – And along the way I discovered that I was finally finding answers to my questions – what I had been looking for for a long time...
However, he was not the only one who experienced this.
“My friend and colleague from the motor pool, electrician Andrei Yarygin, started going to church with me. Then other employees and city residents joined us. So, gradually, Father Vyacheslav managed to create a community of an Orthodox parish in Udachny, and we became its core,” recalls Father Mikhail.
The results of this will be unexpected and impressive. Years will pass and former electrician Andrei Yarygin will be ordained and become a priest. Today he is the rector St. Panteleimon parish village of Peleduy. Following him, two more former colleagues of Father Mikhail will choose the same path for themselves.
Well, in the fall of 2011, having become the fourth, he himself made this decision – a husband, father of four children, and grandfather. And he is an employee of the regional Verkhnevilyuysky department of the Federal Treasury Department for the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), which, after being ordained, he remained with for now.
“We will wait for you!”
This will happen in Verkhnevilyuysk, where he moved from Udachny, returning with his family to his homeland. And almost immediately he joined the local Orthodox community, where, in the absence of a priest, for many years the parishioners conducted services in a secular manner. The situation, it must be said, is typical for our republic, where there is a catastrophic shortage of clergy everywhere.
– In the fall of 2011, Bishop Roman of Yakutsk and Lensk came to us for the first time. Vladyka visited our church, which is huddled in a adapted three-room apartment - the old church in the village was abandoned for many years. I looked around the parish and talked with parishioners. They complained that there was no permanent priest, and people had a great need for this... And suddenly he turned to me: “Have you thought about devoting yourself to God?”
This question, Father Mikhail admits, took him by surprise.
– To be honest, I thought about it. For a long time. Moreover, our parishioners even suggested that I enter the seminary, to which I always answered one thing: it’s too late! I have children, grandchildren, a family... I expressed the same doubts to Bishop Roman. However, he proposed an unexpected solution to all problems: “Young people need to be taught, and you need to be ordained. As for work, taking into account exceptional circumstances, service and service can be combined.” But he still gave me time to think—three days.
– What scared you most?
– The path of a priest is incredibly difficult: once you are ordained, your personal life ends. You live exclusively the life of the parish. This is a huge burden, and I was afraid that I would not be able to bear it. I was frightened by the feeling of my imperfection before God. After all, it is one thing to be a simple parishioner when you are responsible only for yourself, and quite another to be a priest who brings the word of God to people and therefore should be an example to others... First of all, I called my old friend - Father Andrei Yarygin in Peleduy. And he says to me: “If you can do such a way of the cross, then you need to take up your cross and go ahead!” His word became decisive.
– How did the family react to this?
“My wife immediately supported me, and so did my children.” They are all baptized, church-going people.
- And at work?
– They didn’t mind either. Moreover, some colleagues even expressed a desire to be baptized. I tell them: soon the priest will come from Yakutsk, you can be baptized. When will I be ordained again!.. And they answer: “No, we will wait for you!”
No days off or holidays
...We spoke with Father Mikhail after his ordination. He was ordained by Bishop Roman of Yakutsk and Lensk.
“I will always remember this event also because it took place on May 22 – Nikolin’s day, a special day for the Yakuts,” says Father Mikhail. – Besides, the dedication took place in the St. Nicholas Church, where I always loved to go, and God granted it so that it was there that everything happened..
Afterwards, Father Mikhail went to Yakutsk for an internship so that, under the guidance of experienced priests, he could begin to comprehend the wisdom of the great ministry, which you accept forever, and where there are no vacations, time off, and honorable send-offs to retirement that are familiar to the secular understanding. After all, a clergyman is, one might say, always on duty: 24 hours a day until the end of his days.
“Vladyka Roman warned me: if you make up your mind, there is no turning back,” says Father Mikhail. –– This is not a secular job, which, if something happens, can be changed. Here you carry your cross until you fall...
– And are you ready for this?
“Otherwise I wouldn’t agree.” I changed my mind about everything, let everything go through myself. I am sure that this is God’s will, and resisting it is not good.
...For some reason I always thought that the most difficult thing for a priest is preaching. Because you need to find words and intonation that would not only be able to hook the minds and souls of completely different people, but would also fill them.
Father Mikhail says that EVERYTHING is difficult for a novice priest. Sermon, interaction with the choir, fulfillment of requirements... But the most important thing is life in a world in which, after ordination, you return completely changed, and this same world, out of habit, continues to perceive you as the same.
- This is what it looks like from the outside? You were a simple person and became a priest... But you’ve been working toward this for a long time. I was preparing internally. You have long been turned upside down, and the very moment of ordination seems to put an end to this process... And someone might think: what kind of priest is he, if I went hunting with him just yesterday? That’s why I know that from now on I have to give up a lot, remembering that now I’m always in sight...
Life outside of schedules
...It was assumed that Father Mikhail would serve on weekends - on Saturday and Sunday. However, reality, of course, immediately corrected these plans.
It is difficult to squeeze life in all its diversity into any schedule, and therefore people need a priest, regardless of his work schedule: Father Mikhail’s mobile phone rings day and night. At the same time, people often need not so much church requirements as a confidential conversation or simply everyday advice...
And, probably, this once again confirms how much good shepherds are needed today, and how important the training of clergy from among the local population, already begun within the walls of the Yakut Theological Seminary, is. People who were born here, grew up and connect their destiny with the republic.
...The last Upper Vilyui priest left the village in 1925 - according to legend, he was sent into exile. Who would have known then that as many as 87 years would have to pass before the villagers would be able to say again: “our father”...
Interviewed by Elena VOROBYEVA.
For 51 years - and this is more than half a century - the famous confessor, Archpriest Mikhail Makeev, has been serving in the village of Selishche, Baryshevsky district, Boryspil diocese.
When we approached the ancient wooden church of the Great Martyr George the Victorious, we saw many parked cars: in addition to fellow villagers, Father Mikhail’s spiritual children came from Kyiv, Chernigov, and neighboring Belarus, where he was born. “And not only from Belarus and Russia,” they explained to us a little later. “But also from Germany, the USA, and even from China!..” We stayed in the parish on this holiday of the Transfiguration of the Lord until the evening and even played football with the kids. And this is what we saw and learned...
Chronicle in the gazebo
The Divine Liturgy ended, during which Fr. Mikhail forbade us to take photographs, saying that we needed to pray during the service. And he explained the reason for his severity: “Nowadays such a fashion has become that in the holy altar, where Angels serve invisibly and the Lord Himself abides, where a bloodless sacrifice is performed and where even bishops enter with the fear of God and reverence, people “in civilian clothes” are snooping around, like in a kitchen somewhere or in a concert hall... God's service is not a show or a performance. There let all flesh be silent..."
Father turned out to be strict not in words, but in deeds. After the service, during the sermon, the children made noise. Father Mikhail: “So, whose children are making noise? Mother, take the screamers out into the street and give three admirers for your singer...” Sexton Seryozha also received “one and a half admirers” for something - one earthly and one waist. But it turns out that the priest’s spiritual children perform “followers” with joy.
To the priest for a blessing
Because the priest himself is a constant source of joy and love for them. And all his “severity” is endless affection, care and attention. And many spiritual children of Fr. Mikhail does not leave the parish dear to his heart for a long time, but lives here “in obedience” for weeks. And some for months. For this Fr. Mikhail built a parish hotel, more precisely, a house for pilgrims, and even more simply, he remodeled a purchased rural hut, dividing it into sleeping rooms for visitors.
Sermon by Fr. Mikhaila was simple, intelligible and interesting. For example, he asked: “Do you know why Christ, ascending to heaven, is depicted with blessing hands? Moreover, this bishop’s blessing is unfinished... It is completed when the hands are folded crosswise. This means that the Lord will return in the same way as the Gospel tells us. And complete his blessing. And then the end of the world will come and the final judgment will take place..."
“Now you can film,” said Fr. Michael, retreating to the altar. - Now we will “glorify” the birthday girl.
The birthday girl turned out to be 4-year-old Sofiyka, who came with her parents to the service. Father Mikhail brought her gifts and a large red rose from the altar.
The celebrations did not end there. Two more Kiev girls were presented with a service prosphora and a box of chocolates in connection with their graduation from high school. At the same time, they received a strict command to “be attentive and “blessed, not walking in the counsel of the wicked”...
Then there was a meal that looked like a loving dinner for a large family. With green summer borscht, aromatic porridge, strawberries and honey. And at the priest’s “gatehouse”, where he has lived for many years, people gathered who wanted to receive a blessing and long-awaited advice.
Father Mikhail sent us to the gazebo located here in the church yard, handing us a bag with green brochures, ordering us to “study for now, and then we’ll talk.” The brochures turned out to be his author's little books with various titles, published, as we later learned, by the spiritual children of Fr. Michael: “Church matters. Lozovoy Yar", "I will remember the days of ancient...", "BIK-95" ("Berezansky Correctional Colony"), etc. They contain sermons and various documents illustrating the long priestly path of a shepherd, sometimes reminiscent of the path to Golgotha...
It turns out that Fr. They were going to arrest Mikhail twice, and the last time was already during the “democratic” perestroika, in 1986... And they saw written answers sent to him at one time personally by the USSR Prosecutor General himself... And then the KGB Volga was on duty at the temple with a remote control installed in it wiretapping...
The children of the murdered Fr. came to Father Mikhail from Moscow. Alexandra Me. And there was also a search, and the local investigator even tried to “stitch up” a criminal offense for the priest, accusing him of “stealing crystal”...
Leafing through page after page, the life path of a Belarusian boy opened before us, who during the war was left without a father, and soon without a mother, wandered around “the huts” of strangers, became a guide to a blind monk, and in the seven years of his life changed six rural schools. There was no money, a pen cost 30 kopecks, and a feather – 3 kopecks. Mikhail was able to buy a feather, and made a handle from a cherry branch, tying it to the feather with threads...
Until, finally, he found a place as a sexton in one of the churches in the Chernigov region... And then he became a student at the Kyiv Theological Seminary and the Moscow Theological Academy. By the way, the priest notes along the way, the seminary at the time in the 1950s, when he studied, was called “Kiev Orthodox Theological Seminary.” “And rightly so! – he continued. – Because “spirituality” can be different. The sectarians also have “spiritual academies...”
That's how he is, oh. Michael. It is not for nothing that the guardians of atheism called him a “rebellious priest” in their memos.
"Rebel Pop"
Why "rebellious"? Yes, because in 1958, having received his first priestly appointment to the Church of St. Nicholas of Myra the Lycian Wonderworker in the village of Lozovaya Yar, Yagotinsky district near Kiev, he was not immediately to the taste of the local authorities. Firstly, because soon “ships were already plowing through outer space” and the ancient wooden temple was going to be dismantled, since no one had served there for three years. And, therefore, according to Soviet law, such a temple was subject to liquidation or transfer to government agencies for use for other purposes.
But the priest not only breathed life into the Orthodox community during the heyday of the “Khrushchev persecutions”, when by 1980 Nikita Sergeevich promised the entire multimillion-dollar USSR to show the last priest on TV, but also brought “Ilyich’s light bulb” to the temple, i.e. electricity. It was mind boggling! Not only the village, but also the village council, and even the local hospital were not electrified and used lighting from kerosene lamps (the young Father Mikhail himself with his mother Lydia and two children lived in a hut under a thatched roof). A doctor at a rural hospital wrote to a local newspaper: “while I perform operations under a kerosene lamp, the local priest serves under five electric chandeliers...” But the fault that the village was left without light was anyone but Father Mikhail.
The local head of the village council, “Comrade Golyachenko,” also became angry with the young priest. He literally “teared and rushed”: some “priest” overtook him in the electrification of the village! “Why is this being done, good people, in the age of atheism, socialism and the collapse of capitalism!..” And he began to scribble on Fr. Mikhail made denunciations to the local prosecutor's office, the KGB department and the police.
Moreover, Mother Lydia wanted to get a job on a collective farm. More precisely, she had already been working there for three years without an official work permit. And she, as a collective farm worker, was entitled to a land plot and the right to enroll her children in kindergarten. But Golyachenko stood his ground - and no way! Then the priest had to defend himself in the same way - write to various government agencies.
Moreover, his letters were always full of irony, nobility and persuasiveness: “...I apologize for the anxiety caused to you and ask you to explain to me two questions that have led me to a dead end. 1. Is a priest in the USSR a full citizen of the Soviet Union? 2. And does his wife have the right to work on an equal basis with all women in the country or does she have no place in society?..” As a result of written “fights of local significance,” Father Mikhail received “SUCH a paper” that left the head of the village council speechless. The Prosecutor General of the USSR wrote: “...We hereby inform you that your wife enjoys all the rights provided for by the Constitution of the USSR, including the right to work.”
With mother Lydia and first-born Annushka, 1960
The truth has triumphed. The spiteful “head of the Selrada comrade. Golyachenko" was fired and ended his life very pitifully - in an alcoholic binge... But Fr. Michael still prays for his sinful soul.
Soon the “rebellious priest” is transferred to the village of Selishche near Baryshevka. The rest of the priest’s life will pass here, which is more than half a century...
Prayer under a light bulb with a coffee can
Here, in the village of Selishche, the same ancient wooden six-domed church in honor of the Great Martyr George the Victorious, deeply revered by the priest himself, was waiting for him. The fact is that the whole country prayed to St. George during the difficult period of the war, and the boy Michael himself, who lost his father in 1942, prayed...
And it’s probably no coincidence that the village residents erected a monument to fellow villagers who died on the battlefields of the war, just opposite the St. George’s Church, and the sculpture of the victorious warrior above the slabs with the names of the dead is completely unusual: a young soldier with a medal on his chest holds a branch of red viburnum in his hands ... Was it not Father Mikhail who suggested this composition to the sculptor?..
...Years and decades passed. Archpriest Mikhail Makeev was already performing the duties of the dean of the Baryshevsky district, and enjoyed widespread authority and respect. The people of Kiev, the intelligentsia, the youth came to the priest - those who did not want to be seen by the component bodies in the city: the consequences were known - loss of work, possibly arrest. They were arrested for possessing “samizdat” literature, for copying a sermon on a typewriter, and therefore for anti-Soviet activity. Father Mikhail understood that he was under control, his every step was being monitored, every word uttered in and outside the church was being recorded. But he was not silent. And he preached with his life: he helped people, also the state, for example, he collected money and sent it to the Peace Defense Fund or to orphanages. I tried to visit the Berezansky correctional colony for prisoners “BIK-95”. And only after the collapse of the Union did he gain access there. He built a temple there. He also erected a new church in the village of Lozovaya Yar, which had become his lifelong home, where he took his first pastoral steps. The attackers robbed and set fire to an ancient wooden church, the rector came to Fr. Mikhail asking for help. And he helped. A year later, the villagers of Lozovoy Yar were already praying in the new temple.
And then, in the 1970s and 80s, spiritual children came from everywhere and asked to spend the night before the Sunday service and pray. What to do? He locked them in the church, leading them to a little room near the choir on the second tier; the window was curtained. There was no lighting in the temple at that time. But oh. Mikhail ran an electric cable through a pipe underground, and a light bulb hidden in a coffee can was lit in a secret room. She illuminated prayer books and books. And so they prayed and read until the morning...
St. George's Church. Lights were installed in the choir, and under a light bulb embedded in a coffee can, the spiritual children of Fr. Michael, covering the temple window, they prayed and read spiritual literature
Soon the authorities became concerned about the priest’s popularity and began to look for a reason to “make claims.” And they found it. It turns out that the priest was illegally using the church gatehouse - a tiny house into which Fr. Mikhail has now moved completely “until the end of his days.” And then his family lived in a rural house in the village, and Fr. Mikhail often stayed overnight in the guardhouse - he had to prepare for services or receive visitors.
From the Commissioner for Religious Affairs a “dispatch” was sent to the authorities with the following content: “According to information available in the office of the Commissioner for Religious Affairs for the Kyiv Region, the priest of the parish of the village. The village of Makeev M.K. grossly violates the legislation on religious cults by illegally living in a church gatehouse, in which only a watchman can live. He, in fact, turned this room into a house church and a shelter for monastic elements. Visiting missionary priests regularly take part in church services here...”
I had to once again respond in writing to the chairman of the Council for Religious Affairs under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. In the ironic pamphlet form characteristic of Father Mikhail, he wrote: “Reverend and highly respected Konstantin Mikhailovich! At a time when all our people are busy solving grandiose tasks of overcoming stagnation and bureaucracy, we and the heads of the regional and district executive committees are chasing... No, not a soccer ball or a hockey puck, but... a mosquito. We chase him together to catch him and make him into the biggest elephant... Sorry, this is not humor. And the bitter truth..."
And then the priest explains how, having arrived in the village with his family, he equipped a dilapidated gatehouse as a residential house, adding a veranda, where he lived for 12 years, until his mother-in-law in the village acquired a rural hut. And the guardhouse became a parable house, where the watchman and sometimes the abbot spent the night. And he finished with Fr. Michael wrote his letter in these words: “If the envious eye cannot stand seeing good, and his heart, filled with hatred of religion and treachery towards people, seeks pleasure in denunciations and slander, this does not mean that I am breaking the law, causing harm to my country by doing so.” , that I’m spending the night in a parish house, which I recreated with my own hands almost from ruins...”
They tried to arrest him, conducted searches, sent informers, concocted false incriminating evidence, but the Lord protected his shepherd.
Today
Now both the mayor of the town and the chairman of the village council consider it an honor to visit the priest’s house. Foreign guests also come here, there are bishops and metropolitans, simple peasants and academicians...
And everyone about. Mikhail accepts with equal love. Because he follows the commandments of Christ, and he has no partiality.
At 82, he still performs services and receives guests every day, giving each a piece of his heart, following the commandment of his Divine Teacher: “...Love one another, just as I have loved you, so love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).
It’s not for nothing that in the church of Father Michael you can read the words: “Be the sunshine for everyone.” Maybe that’s why parishioners call him “our sunshine”...
Visited Father Mikhail
Sergey Geruk
(Read the interview with Father Michael in the following publications of the Orthodox Life portal).
A religious procession dedicated to the 12th anniversary of the discovery of the relics of Alexy Bortsurmansky took place in the Pilninsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region on Friday, August 17.
More than 400 people took part in it.
The event took place in the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God.
The rector of the Orankino Monastery, Archimandrite Nektariy (Marchenko), the deputy dean of the Pilniinsky district, Archpriest Mikhail Kozhukhar, the rector of the Church of St. John the Evangelist, priest Alexander Magar, the rector of the Church of Dmitry of Thessaloniki, priest Sergius Tugov, and the rector of the Church of the Transfiguration, priest Dmitry Martynov, came to the service.
The service was attended by representatives of the commission on affairs of minors and the protection of their rights from the district administration, as well as children from large families and families with children with disabilities.
Those who arrived also visited a holy spring in the Pilninsky district.
Reference
The holy righteous Alexy Bortsurmansky (Gneushev) was born on May 13 (26), 1762 in the family of a priest. When the time came, his father sent him to a theological seminary in Nizhny Novgorod. He left it in his twenty-second year and got married before entering the priesthood. In the same year, he was ordained as a deacon by the Eminence Damascene of Nizhny Novgorod to the Assumption Church in the village of Bortsurmany, Kurmysh district of the Simbirsk province (now the Pilninsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region), and thirteen years later by the Eminence Paul of Nizhny Novgorod he was ordained a priest to the same church. He served under it until a ripe old age, was buried near its walls, and his honorable relics now rest there.
For his righteousness, Father Alexei received from God the gift of healing and insight. He also received many visions and revelations from God. One of the visions was recorded by the abbess of the Arzamas monastery, Maria, whom Father Alexey respected very much and to whom he told about himself what he did not reveal to other people. This is how she says: “During a dangerous illness, when this righteous old man lay on his bed with great patience, he was honored to hear such sweet singing that no human language can convey, and the Queen of Heaven Herself with the Great Martyr Barbara, dressed in white robes , visited Her suffering servant and made him healthy without any doctors.”
Father Alexei himself also wrote down his visions and revelations, and his notes say that one night the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him in royal clothing, coming from heaven, and blessed him. Next to Christ stood three virgins in white robes, that is, three virtues: Faith, Hope and Love. The Queen of Heaven also appeared from heaven, and he heard a voice that said: “This is My only begotten Son, the Son of God.”
During the French invasion, in 1812, Father Alexei prayed at mass that the Lord would grant Russia victory over the enemy, and suddenly he saw an Angel sent by God, who told him that the heavenly forces had moved to help, that the enemy would be crushed and that he would rejoice all Russia.
On February 14, 1814, during the Divine Liturgy, the Angel of the Lord announced to him that from that day he began to undergo angelic service (apparently, these words meant that God accepted the saint’s service as monastic, equal to the angels, although he did not take monastic vows ), and that same night, in a dream vision, he worshiped in the altar of Jehovah and the fire and in the ineffable light, God Himself.
Nine years before his death, Father Alexey left the state and transferred his place to Father Pavel Vigilyansky, who was married to his granddaughter from his eldest daughter Nadezhda. Having transferred his place, he also transferred all the care of the house and household to Father Pavel and no longer entered into them. He himself moved to a small cell built under the same roof as the house. In this cell there was one window, always curtained, which faced the church. Having removed all worldly troubles from himself, the crumpled man devoted himself to the feat of prayer. His family did not disturb him in solitude and came only on those rare occasions when their services were required.
Text: Corr. Yulia Gorshkova
Photo report
Picture of the day
- Lebedev: It is at school that one gains knowledge, decides on a profession, and makes friends
Culture
Participants of the “Theatrical Volga Region” visited the Nizhny Novgorod Puppet Theater- Gleb Nikitin congratulated students of the Center for Gifted Children on the start of the school year
Province
A new two-story school building opened in TonkinSociety
A blogger tied with tape to a car drove around Nizhny NovgorodSociety
Alexander Fedorov left the post of rector of Minin UniversitySociety
Greenpeace volunteers rescued a crayfish entangled in garbage in the Avtozavodsky district- A section of Kremlevsky Boulevard in Nizhny Novgorod will be improved by the end of the year
Culture
Nizhny Novgorod artist Ivan Sery created an art object dedicated to the search for insightSociety
Nizhny Novgorod resident Alena Tarasova continues to fight for the title of “Playboy Girl of the Year 2019” (18+)Culture
The film “Find and Defuse” will be shown on NNTV on September 3- Pavel Savateev left the post of director of the Nizhny Novgorod Department of Construction and Major Repairs
Culture
The Nizhny Novgorod Opera and Ballet Theater will open its 85th season on September 18- Nizhny Novgorod residents will visit Miyagi Prefecture as part of a sports experience exchange program
- More than 30 events dedicated to the Day of Solidarity in the Fight against Terrorism will be held in the Avtozavodsky district
Without the past there is no future. Respect for ancient monuments, careful attitude towards the faith of one’s ancestors is one of the aspects of a person’s moral characteristics. It allows the younger generation to feel like heirs of the past and realize their responsibility to the future.
The Nizhny Novgorod land is full of priceless cultural and historical monuments, without which the thread connecting generations together would be broken. Our ancestors have preserved a lot for us, and it is important not to break this thread, stretching it into the future.
Come to the temple! Don't be lazy!
Buy wax candles,
You will pray for yourself
And for everyone, for everyone else
Our Orthodox brothers,
Who went to his native land...
The sky is enough for prayer,
Because there is God in the sky!
(Nikolai Melnikov. Excerpt from the poem “Russian Cross”).
House of God... That's what Christians call it temple or church- a special house dedicated to God.
Orthodox Church you'll notice it at first sight. The appearance of the temple is very different from ordinary buildings. The strict beauty and grace of the lines, the light, joyful coloring of the structure, and high above the elegant domes sparkle with gold, reflecting the vault of heaven.
Church Usually they placed it on an elevated place so that it could be seen from everywhere, so that the ringing of its bells could be heard far, far away. Orthodox churches are built with the altar facing east, where the sun rises. For for those who believe Lord- the light itself is unfading. Even in prayers they call Jesus Christ « the sun of truth».
Most often, the base of the temple is arranged in the form of a cross. This means that it is dedicated to the Lord crucified on the cross. The top of the temple building usually ends with a dome, embodying the sky. At the top the dome ends with a dome on which a cross is placed. Often, not one, but several domes are built on a temple.
Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary my home village of Nikitino, the history of which I want to tell, has five domes. Five domes, one of which rises above the others, symbolize Jesus Christ and the four evangelists.
Temple in our village it was founded in 1904 . It was built very thoroughly and painstakingly, a total of about 10 years. It took only three years to lay the foundation; for strength, chicken eggs were placed in it, which were collected from the population.
The first service there took place in 1914 on Intercession, October 14. Each temple is dedicated to God and bears the name of one or another religious event or saint. That's why our temple is named after Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
For about 30 years, services were held in the church, weddings, funerals, and baptisms were held. The ringing of the church bells echoed far beyond the village. Beauty amazed people. On Sundays and religious holidays the whole village gathered for church services.
But different times came and in 1936 the temple was closed. It was not only closed, but one might even say it was destroyed, the crosses were removed from the domes, the bells were taken away. Icons were used to heat the stove in the village council; only a small part of them survived.
Believers hid the image in their homes at their own peril and risk. For more than 70 years, the Temple housed a collective farm warehouse and a mill. Pigeons settled firmly under the arch, and the wind rustled. The temple looked at the village with empty eyes.
In 2004, on the initiative of the management of the SEC named after. Kirov attempted to restore the Temple. The garbage was partially removed, the domes were covered with iron, the outside was whitewashed, and the inside walls were plastered in some places.
Watching the renovation of the Temple, people rejoiced that soon the bells would be heard in their village again. But their hopes were not justified and soon the renovation of the building was stopped. It was painful to watch a monument of spirituality perish.
Two years ago, the village residents decided to get serious about reviving the Temple. First, they dismantled the mill that was located in it. Then they started taking out the garbage; there were 20 trucks of it. They drove out the pigeons and covered the windows with polycarbonate.
Not only adults, but also schoolchildren under the guidance of teachers came to clean the Temple. Clean-up days in the church became regular. Our temple is very large, it has three limits. We decided to restore at least one of them.
Part of the Temple was decorated and insulated, and an altar was made so that services could be conducted in the winter. In the altar there was a surviving capsule with holy relics. They whitewashed the vault, installed plastic windows, and brought in icons.
The dean of the Pochinkovsky district, Father Mikhail Kozhukhar, gave his blessing for a good cause and seemed to instill hope. Although the repairs are not yet complete, there are scaffoldings inside, but sometimes on holidays, with the permission of the priest, services are held in the Temple.
Every time more and more people come to the service. People believed that through common efforts the Temple could be brought back to life.
Studying the literature on our topic, we learned that in terms of their architecture there are only three Temples like ours in the Nizhny Novgorod region. (I also learned that the Churches of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the territory of our country were founded in 1937).
It was built in the Byzantine Baroque style. Architecture is often called music in stone or frozen music. Perhaps these words arose precisely when a person was looking at a beautiful, majestic temple.
Inside the Temple, beautiful stucco remains on the walls in some places; it’s a pity that only some fragments have been preserved. Previously, the vaults were decorated with paintings, but they were lost forever. The remains of wooden steps and the ascent to the choir have been preserved. He walked along the wall.
They say that when the singers sang, it was breathtaking. The acoustics inside are extraordinary, as the temple is very large inside. In general, when you are inside the building, you get the feeling that the temple has a soul... That it is not just an architectural structure, but a living organism. He has a soul, all that remains is to bring him into divine form.
The Pilninsky district, located in the southeast of the Nizhny Novgorod region, is one of the farthest corners of the diocese. More precisely, here, in the village of Yazykovo, is the parish farthest from the center - the Transfiguration Church, built 15 years ago. However, far from the center does not mean far from God. Here, in the Pilninsky district, is the famous village of Bortsurmany throughout Russia, where the righteous Alexy, a contemporary of St. Seraphim of Sarov, served in the Assumption Church.
For the glory of the righteous
On August 17, the entire Pilninsky district commemorated the holy righteous Alexy Bortsurmansky and the wonderworker of all Russia, celebrating the day of the discovery of his holy relics. And May 4 marked 162 years since the repose of Father Alexy.
According to the long-standing tradition in Bortsurmany, before the start of the Divine Liturgy, the dean of the Pilninsky district, Priest Mikhail Kozhukhar, served a prayer service.
The solemn service in the church in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God in the village of Bortsurmany, where righteous Alexy was rector at the turn of the 17th-19th centuries, was attended by clergy from the Pilninsky, Sechenovsky and Gaginsky deanery districts, as well as clergy from Chuvashia and Nizhny Novgorod.
Many worshipers gathered in the temple: children, youth, middle-aged and elderly people. To honor the memory of the saint of God, people came with whole families from Lyskov, Sergach, Spassky, Gagin, Sechenov. Representatives of the district administration were also present at the service.
The dean congratulated the believers on this significant date and wished them strength of spirit and the same strong, unquenchable love and faith that sanctified the earthly path of the righteous elder Alexy. Father Michael called on those gathered to measure their lives in line with his prayer ministry.
Then a religious procession took place with the icon of the righteous Alexy Bortsurmansky, which was led by the dean.
How do we see this saint more than a century and a half later? The rector of the Assumption Church, Archpriest Andrei Smirnov, answered this question to our correspondent:
He was a kind rural priest, loving people, living among them and for their sake, with a sensitive heart filled with love. Like a true shepherd, he cared for his flock: he fed them with the Word of God, prayed for them incessantly, helping openly and secretly. He had a soulful gaze; it seemed that he saw right through every person. According to his contemporary, Venerable Seraphim of Sarov, Father Alexy was “a candle lit before the throne of God.”
On the Feast of the Transfiguration
On August 19, in the church in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord in the village of Yazykovo, Pilninsky district, where a good, strong Orthodox community has long existed, a patronal holiday was celebrated. It began with the Divine Liturgy, which the dean of the district, Priest Mikhail Kozhukhar, performed in the co-service of the rector of the church, Priest Dimitry Martynov.
Not only parishioners, but also invited guests from Nizhny Novgorod, Chuvashia and the Moscow region gathered for the festive church service. The rector noted that according to the unspoken tradition that has developed, everyone who comes to the liturgy in this church receives communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. It was the same this time.
Father Mikhail blessed the apples and other fruits brought by the believers and congratulated everyone present on the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, as well as on the 15th anniversary of the restoration of the temple. He wished that “the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ, which took place on Mount Tabor, touched the heart of every Christian.”
At the end of the liturgy, a prayer service and religious procession were held. Believers carried around the temple the icon of the Transfiguration of the Lord and the image of St. Alexis of Bortsurman with a particle of his relics.
Every holiday we make sure to serve a prayer service to Father Alexy,” explained Father Dimitri. - In any church in the Pilninsky district, prayers to this saint are performed regularly. And the patronal feast itself always ends with a joint meal, at which the clergy, parishioners and guests are present.
Before the revolution, the village was called Preobrazhenskoye, after the name of the church that existed there before Soviet rule. The temple was restored on its original foundation in 1995 with funds from a native of the village, adviser to the President of Chuvashia on economic issues, president of the Agrostroygaz company, Alexander Gusarov. Alexander Sergeevich’s grandfather was the rector of the old Transfiguration Church and suffered during the times of repression.
Local residents still remember the sound of the old church bell. And almost all the icons were dismantled by local residents in the 30s - recently they all returned to the renovated temple. Today, the history of the church in Yazykovo is carefully collected and preserved by a small, fragile woman - nun Lyubov, who settled there six years ago and fell in love with this river and hilly region with all her soul.
Shrines of the Pilna land
The first residents of Pilna, founded back in 1689, were exiles who worked here logging (cutting) oak timber, which was then supplied to the Kazan Admiralty. This is where the name of the area came from. During the reign of Catherine II, a local “saw mill” is mentioned in land survey books. And yet, the Pilninsky land became famous not for them, but for its new martyrs and the righteous elder Alexy. Believers from all over Russia come to ask the great elder for help and healing. The pilgrimage center of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese has developed a special route to Bortsurmany to the relics of St. Alexy.
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the all-Russian canonization of the righteous saint Alexy of Bortsurman. With the blessing of the ruling bishop, celebrations for this occasion will take place on September 8–9 in the homeland of the righteous elder, in the village of Bortsurmany. On this day the Church celebrates the memory of the Bortsurman new martyrs and Russian confessors.
Preparations for the celebrations are in full swing. The next meeting of the festival organizing committee will take place on August 23. It consists of 20 people; Among them are the head of local government of the Pilninsky district Nikolai Chimrov, the head of the district administration Viktor Kozlov, and heads of departments of the district administration.
The upcoming celebrations will be the first Orthodox celebration on a regional scale in many years. The dean of the district is confident that this day should be the beginning of a program for the spiritual revival of the region. According to Father Mikhail, the Pilninsky land, consecrated by the prayers and exploits of the holy righteous elder Alexy, plays a significant role in the spiritual and intellectual life of Russia today.
Anna Ermolina