| St. John (Maximovitch) of Shanghai and San Francisco was a profound ascetic and man of prayer. Thousands of miracles have occurred through his prayers, both during his lifetime and after his repose. The sick were healed, family troubles ended, and life’s difficulties abated. But of his greatest miracles we must cite the building of cathedrals among an emigrant population that barely had enough money to get by—yet the churches they built have remained as the pride of their cities. In 1934, St. John was consecrated a bishop in Yugoslavia by The Russian Church Abroad Will Mark the 80th Anniversary of the Repose of Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) of Kiev and Galicia of Blessed Memory By recommendation of His Grace Bishop Peter of Cleveland the Synod decreed that all churches of the Russian Church Abroad are to prayerfully commemorate the late First Hierarch of ROCOR on Sunday, August 14, 2016, for which a decree was issued. " > Metropolitan Antony (Krapovitsky) of blessed memory, and appointed to the diocese of Shanghai, China. There he inherited a construction project that had reached a stalemate, due to the loss of the former bishop and internal parish divisions. St. John brought peace to that community, and the A Photo Exhibit Titled “Russians in Shanghai: 1930’s” Opens at the Cathedral of the Mother of God “Surety of Sinners” in Shanghai Forming the basis of the exposition are materials from the photo album Russians in Shanghai, published by VD Zhiganov in that city in 1936. That edition consisted of three hundred copies. This unique encyclopedia of the Russian emigre community in Shanghai in the 1920’s and 1930’s was reprinted by Alfaret Publishers of St Petersburg in 2008. " > Cathedral of the Mother of God “Surety of Sinners” was completed. The Russian Orthodox Church of the Mother of God " Surety of Sinners " , Shanghai. Photo: Russky Shanghai. When communist rule came to China, the Russian flock was forced to find new homes. St. John took his people to When the Philippines welcomed Russian refugees Tubabao Island hosted around 6,000 ‘White Russian’ refugees, who fled China in 1948, when they were in danger of being forcibly repatriated to the USSR. |
| Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk Consecrates a Memorial Plaque in Honor of Metropolitan Antony (Khrapovitsky) in Serbia A Russian Orthodox Church Website About Pages About %20%20 Donate Contact Us Проекты «Правмира» Pravmir.ru Матроны.RU Не инвалид.RU Pravmir.com Форум Книги Лекторий Благотворительность Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation News В данной категории нет материалов. Family Before marriage Bringing up children Children's page Divorce In the Family What is Christian Love in Marriage? Family Life and Spiritual Warfare Should People Limit Marital Relations in Lent? Pastoral Advice Library Holy Fathers Lives of Saints New Russian Martyrs Other Media Sermons, Lectures The Importance of Patiently Letting Down Our Nets in Obedience Do We Have A Reaction To The Gospel? What Does the Cross Mean for us Today? Our Faith History of Christianity Icons In the Church Liturgical Life Missionary work Orthodoxy around the World Prayers Religions Sacraments Social Life Theology “Le monde entier reste silencieux au sujet de l’Artsakh” : 120 000… “The whole world is silent about Artsakh.” 120,000 people are in the blockade,… The Importance of Patiently Letting Down Our Nets in Obedience Calendar Fasting Feasts The Tree Heals the Tree The Lights of an Approaching Rescue Preparing the Way of the Lord in our Own Lives family В данной категории нет материалов. Multimedia Contact us Искать Искать Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk Consecrates a Memorial Plaque in Honor of Metropolitan Antony (Khrapovitsky) in Serbia Source: Pravmir.ru Natalya Mihailova 19 November 2014 November 16, 2014. During the visit of His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, to Serbia, a consecration service of a memorial plaque in honor of Metropolitan Antony (Khrapovitsky) took place on November 15. The event is associated with the 150th anniversary of his birth which occurred on March 29, 2013. Photo: http://synod.com/ The plaque was chosen to be installed at the gate of the Patriarch’s Palace in Sremski Karlovci, which the Serbian Orthodox Church gave Russian hierarchs in possession in 1921. The palace was the residence of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad until 1946. |
| Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God and All Saints. Photo: http://karta.patriarchia.ru/ The 300-year old Russian Orthodox presence in the British Isles and Ireland was for 200 years of that time limited to that of an Embassy church in London. Although occasional interest would be shown by an individual or there would be an Anglo-Russian marriage, Non-Russians, especially outside London, never knew that such a church existed. However, with the Anglo-Franco-Russian alliance of the First World War, more and more Russians came to work in London for the war effort. By 1916 Metropolitan Pitirim (Oknov) of Saint Petersburg, who was then responsible for churches outside Russia, was drawing up plans to build a Russian Orthodox church in London. Translations of some Orthodox service books had already been made into English by Orlov and, in the USA, by Hapgood. This progress was all interrupted by the 1917 Revolution, but that in turn brought some 2,000 Russian refugee-émigrés to London and the surrounding area. This resulted in the consecration of a bishop for the Russian community in London, Bishop Nicholas (Karpov). Sadly, he fell ill when very young and after only three years he reposed in 1932. The hopes of the first Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, Metropolitan Antony (Khrapovitsky), that he would be able to present the Russian Orthodox Faith to English people were unrealized. In 1937 the former English Tutor of the Tsarevich Aleksey, the Yorkshireman Sidney Gibbes , returned to England from the Far East. By then he had not only joined the Orthodox Church but had been ordained as Fr Nicholas Gibbes (+ 1963), the first 20th century English Orthodox priest, bearing the name of the martyred Tsar. An academic by temperament, he opened an Orthodox chapel in Oxford. After 1945 several thousand Russians, mainly from pre-war Poland, what is now the western Ukraine and Belarus, came to England and many settled in the north of England. A new chapter in our history had begun. |
| His Eminence the Novice. Part 1 The Sretensky Monastery publishing house is preparing a book by Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov). It contains true stories that took place during different years, which were later used in the author " s sermons. Bishop Basil (Rodzianko). Photo by Yuri Kaver. On September 17, 1999, the Russian bishop Basil (Rodzianko) died. In fact, Vladyka Basil had finally reached the hour when he would embark upon the journey for which he had prepared himself all his life. Vladyka often tried to tell people about it, but no one understood him. They preferred to let his words go in one ear and out the other, or sympathetically play back the usual platitudes, like, “Oh, what are you saying, Vladyka? You’ll be alive for a long time yet! God is merciful…” Vladyka, however, sought a foretaste of this journey with great impatience and lively interest. In general, he was an avid traveler even during his lifetime. I would even say that traveling was his true calling, and even his way of life. He no doubt began his journey in 1915, when he came into the world as the infant who would later become Bishop Basil, at his family estate called Otrada. The newborn was named Vladimir. His grandfather on his father’s side was the chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Empire, Mikhail Vladimirovich Rodzianko. His mother came from the old princely families Golitsyn and Sumarokov. If fact, many famous Russian noble families were either closely related to, or simply became close to this newly born slave of God. Vladyka began his next serious journey in 1920, when he was five years old. It was a long road, by land and by sea, through Turkey and Greece to Serbia. The decision to take this journey was involuntary—the new regime had no intention of allowing the family of the former chairman of the State Duma to remain among the living. The Rodziankos settled in Belgrad, where the future bishop grew up. Vladyka Basil in Pochaev. Photo by the author. He was fortunate to have very good teachers. Besides the fact that the cream of the Russian emigration had gathered in Yugoslavia, he had as a teacher Hieromonk John (Maximovitch), who thirty years later would become the famous Archbishop of San Francisco, and in yet another thirty years, glorified as a saint in the Russian Church Abroad; another of his teachers was the great First Hierarchof the Russian Church Abroad, Metropolitan Antony (Khrapovitsky). Such spiritual giants could not but have had a very strong and grace-filled influence upon their young ward. |
| The True Orthodox Calendar Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar Last Updated: Feb 8th, 2011 - 05:50:02 The True Orthodox Calendar Dec 26, 2008, 10:00 Discuss this article Printer friendly page Source: Orthodox England Isn " t the true Orthodox calendar the old calendar? T.P., Leeds Your question is a provocative one, and I would therefore take advantage of it to dispel a myth. All Orthodox Christians (with the isolated and highly controversial exceptions of a handful of parishes under the Moscow Patriarchate in Holland and about twenty or so parishes in Finland which some consider to be under anathema) celebrate Easter and the feasts of the Easter cycle on the same Orthodox (so-called " old " ) calendar. This is the calendar which has always been used by the whole Orthodox Church (and also Roman Catholicism until the end of the sixteenth century). True, over the last few decades a minority of Orthodox (about 25% of the total) have moved on to the Roman Catholic ( " new " ) calendar for the fixed feasts like Christmas. They have done this mainly because they find it convenient. Indeed, for some Anglicans and others converted to Orthodox Christianity, this use of the Roman Catholic calendar might be a useful and convenient bridge for them as they approach Orthodoxy. There may be a real danger in the use by some Orthodox of the Roman Catholic calendar for the fixed feasts, not on account of this use in itself, but of the development of " New Calendarism " . By this phrase I mean the refusal of some to concelebrate with those who use the age-old Orthodox calendar, contemptuously called " the old calendar " . Of course, I would certainly agree that " Old Calendarism " , the reaction to the often violent and intolerant persecutions of New Calendarism, can also be dangerous. Just as New Calendarists are often fanatically opposed to any shred of honest Orthodox Tradition, so some Old Calendarists refuse to concelebrate with those who use the Roman Catholic calendar for the fixed feasts. It seems to me that in the calendar question we should avoid extreme positions. Thus although a change to the use of the Roman Catholic calendar for the fixed feasts is unthinkable for the vast majority of Orthodox, we who are in the majority should be tolerant of those who find it pastorally helpful to use the Roman Catholic calendar for the fixed feasts; just as those who use the Roman Catholic or " new " calendar for the fixed feasts should be tolerant of those who are more traditional. Certainly the idea of refusing to concelebrate with new-calendar Orthodox is quite absurd. Such personalities as Metropolitan Antony (Khrapovitsky) or St John the Wonderworker had no qualms about the use of the new calendar for the fixed feasts, when pastorally necessary. |
| — Many would like to see in the pre-Revolutionary Russian Church a model for a Local Church. To what extent are such views justified? — Of course there was much that was good, remarkable and holy at that time, but the whole Petrine structure of the Church was uncanonical, decadent, Protestant. This was the tragedy of the pre-Revolutionary Church. In my view, the Revolution became inevitable precisely because the Church had become a department of the State. It is not surprising that the Soviet authorities adored Peter I. It was only thanks to the untiring efforts of a great universal hierarch, Metropolitan Antony (Khrapovitsky), that the Patriarchate was restored. I have a dream that the time will come when both parts of the Russian Church will together canonize Metropolitan Antony of Kiev. All the mistakes of both parts of the Russian Church in recent years have happened because we have not lived according to the admonitions of Metropolitan Antony. — What forces, both inside and outside the Church are impeding unity? — Apart from the well-known problems of mutual lack of knowledge, mutual misunderstandings and prejudices, there are also forces of this world which are preventing eucharistic communion. These forces exist in ROCOR and in the Moscow Patriarchate. Sometimes these are political forces – the spectres of the Cold War which refuse to recognize reality, either through a lack of trust or else through inertia. Sometimes these forces are those of Renovationism, the forces of Western liberalism, modernism and ecumenism, which have always set themselves against both parts of the Russian Church, both in Russia and, with a particular fury, outside Russia. To this day, Renovationism infects parts, or rather former parts, of the Russian Church in the emigration. — How could the two parts of the Russian Church mutually enrich one another? — I would like to answer by giving one concrete example, which cries out to heaven – the catastrophic pastoral situation in London. There are only two Russian churches for a population of between 150,00 and 250,000 Russians, Ukrainians and Belorussians. My soul simply aches for them. But, it seems, there are just not the resources to deal with this. Together, both parts of the Russian Church could do something. Just recently a good priest from Russia, Fr Andrei Teterin, was serving there, but he was forced to return to Russia. That was a tragedy. They need to open another five Russian churches in London in order to feed and console these people. The churches could be stavropegic, directly under the Patriarch. |
| Bishop Feodor was known for his strict ascetic life. The fact that the future Bishop Nikolai was tonsured by Bishop Feodor suggests that Bishop Feodor had much the same influence on the future Bishop Nikolai that Bishop Antony (Khrapovitskii) had on Bishop Feodor — a true “handing down,” and “transmitting” of Holy Orthodoxy and monasticism from spiritual father to spiritual son, from teacher to student. “Vladyka Feodor enjoyed great prestige among adherents of traditional, patristic Orthodoxy. He was the principal opponent of the innovations and reforms in the Church.” This prestige was neither unearned, nor taken lightly. After the Bolsheviks seized power, as Bishop of Volokolamsk (one of Patriarch Tikhon’s Vicars) Bishop Feodor was one of the staunchest defenders of the Church against both renovationism and improper compromise with the godless authority. He was one of Patriarch Tikhon’s closest advisors, even though there were disagreements, and warnings to Patriarch Tikhon against compromise. After the Declaration of Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodskii, +1944, later Patriarch) in 1927, then Archbishop Feodor broke relations with Metropolitan Sergius, and was one of the architects of the Catacomb Church. Archbishop Feodor strongly believed that even negotiations (much less agreements) with the godless authority, would mean the ruin of the Church. He felt the only alternative was the illegal existence of the Church “in the catacombs.” The future Bishop Nikolai was also influenced by these principles of Archbishop Feodor in the emigration, as Archbishop Feodor’s position was basically that of the Russian Church Abroad. Soon after tonsure into the Great Schema with the name Daniel, Vladyka Feodor was shot in the Ivanovo prison. Archbishop Feodor was glorified as a New Hieromartyr of Russia, along with the Holy New Martyrs of Russia, by the Russian Church Abroad in 1981. - 12] The Moscow Theological Academy had its origins in 1685 as the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, located in the center of Moscow at the Zaikonospasskii Monastery. In 1814, due to the dilapidated state of the Monastery’s buildings, the Academy was moved to the Holy Trinity-Saint Sergius Lavra, where educational reforms were enacted that transformed the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy into a “modern” Theological Academy. Its greatest patron in the 19th century was Saint Philaret (Drozdov), Metropolitan of Moscow, who gave spirit and direction to the Academy, and charged it with guarding the purity of Orthodox Theology by “the idea of creating sustainable theological continuity undisturbed by extraneous influences.” |
| The Academy enjoyed a bright period during the Rectorship of Archimandrite Antony (Khrapovitskii) from 1890 to 1895, and weathered the storms of 1905, when “extraneous influences” sought to gain the upper hand. Despite temporary closure, the Academy flowered again under the rectorship of Bishop Feodor (Pozdeyevskii), from 1909 to 1917. The Bolsheviks closed the Academy in 1917. After his graduation from the Moscow Theological Academy as a Candidate of Theology (Master’s Degree) in 1915, the future Bishop Nikolai taught at spiritual and educational institutions, and was a preacher at the Oboyan Monastery in the Kursk Diocese. In 1916, the future Bishop Nikolai took part in the Glorification of Saint John (Maximovich), Metropolitan of Tobolsk. The form of his participation in the Glorification of Saint John of Tobolsk is unknown; it is known that the Glorification touched him deeply, and that he always great venerated Saint John of Tobolsk. Saint John (Maximovich), Archbishop of Shanghai & San Francisco, who shared the Sainted Metropolitan of Tobolsk’s name, was a distant relative of St. John of Tobolsk. Saint John (Maximovich), Metropolitan of Tobolsk, was born in 1651 in Nezhin, Ukraine. His father was Maxim Vasilkovskaia, so called for the city of Vasilkova, where he once lived. He later moved to Kiev and became known for his donations to and construction of many churches in Kiev. John was the first of ten sons in the family. His surname “Maximovich” was derived from his patronymic, meaning “son of Maxim.” His mother’s name was Evfrosinia. John Maximovich was educated at the Kiev Mogila Academy, and after graduation in 1675, was tonsured a monk with the name John, after Saint John Chrysostom. He was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Lazar (Baranovichi, 1620-1693) of Chernigov, and in 1680 was appointed Steward of the Kiev Caves Lavra. Between 1680 and 1690, he made many trips to Moscow on official Church business. In 1695, Saint Feodosy (Polonitskii-Uglich, 1630s-1696) of Chernigov decided that Hieromonk John was to be his successor, and had him transferred to the Yeletskii Monastery of the Dormition in Chernigov. |
| Metropolitan Antony (Khrapovitsky), the preeminent theologian of this century, points out that the Gospels speak of everlasting punishment in time, but that everlasting is not synonymous with endlessness. According to Metropolitan Antony', the Word of God does not define the endlessness of the sufferings of all sinners not fix their fate as unchangeable. Abraham's words about the gulf between the righteous and sinners in the other world, which cannot be crossed, does fix the sinner's lack of repentance. Metropolitan Antony's continues on our fate beyond the grave: " The parable of the rich man and Lazarus gives us, as it were, two rays of hope for a more consoling prospect. First of all, we see that Abraham in paradise did hear the rich man, and, consequently, there is between them some kind of communication, if only in the form of conversation. This, their conversation, indicates that sinners have the thought and hope for something better. This alone already eases their condition, because the most fearful thing is not the suffering itself, but the hopeless consciousness of the endlessness of the sufferings. The rich man does not have this hopeless consciousness; but, on the contrary, he has an aspiration and hope for something better. " " Secondly, the rich man begins to feel sorry for his brethren. This shows that good feelings had awakened in him, that he had begun to repent and hopes for their repentance. This means that in the life beyond the grave a certain change in a man's state is possible, because repentance that has begun can already turn into full repentance and then into compunction. " " The rich man does not yet know full repentance. For the present, he only understands the causal tie between his condition before, on earth, and now, in hell; but he does not understand the justness of his condition. But all the same, he has begun to feel sorry for his brethren, which is very important for the further development of his soul. " " If in that life there is a possibility of changing one's state in the sense of manifesting good feelings and repentance, then one must allow the possibility of full repentance and then compunction; then one must allow the possibility of hope that the doors of paradise are not closed once and forever. One must likewise allow the hope that, in passing through some kind of suffering, the soul of the sinner, if it has not become completely hardened, can become capable of repentance, at first partially, as with the rich man, and later fully; and then the soul can revive for spiritual compunction and salvation. " |
| In 1840 there was a reform of religious schools. The curriculum of the Tobolsk Seminary changed, favoring more practical and theological subjects and diminishing the philosophical courses. This change was intended to make the Seminary more effective in preparing future pastors, especially for rural parishes, and also as a preparation for advanced education at a Theological Academy. The Kazan Theological Academy opened in 1842, and many of the missionary courses and other advanced curricula that had been taught at the Tobolsk Seminary were then taught at the Kazan Academy. The Tobolsk Seminary continued throughout the 19th century with its reputation for excellence. In the early 20th century, during the disturbances of 1905, as in other Russian Seminaries and all the Theological Academies, the social upheavals affected the student body and the Seminary was closed for a time. By the time Ivan Ilych Karpov attended and graduated from the Tobolsk Seminary, the troubles of 1905 were long over. He did well at the Seminary, more than sufficiently demonstrated by his acceptance into the Moscow Theological Academy to continue his education. – 6] At the Moscow Theological Academy, Ivan Ilyich Karpov received monastic tonsure from the Rector of the Academy, Bishop Feodor (Pozdeievskii, 02 Apr 1876-23 Oct 1937) on 16 Nov 1913, and was given the name “Nikolai,” after the Holy Hierarch Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia. Bishop Feodor, like the future Bishop Nikolai, had accepted monasticism early in his life, at the age of 24. Bishop Feodor had been tonsured a monk by then Bishop Antony (Khrapovitskii, later Metropolitan of Kiev, 1863-1936) at the Kazan Theological Academy, where Bishop Antony was Rector, and the future Bishop Feodor was a student. Bishop Antony (Khrapovitskii) served as Rector in three of the four Russian Theological Academies: Saint Petersburg, Moscow and Kazan. Always concerned with and close to his students, one of Bishop Antony’s most heartfelt ideals was monasticism. By the example of his personal life, as well as his explanations of monastic life to his students, he greatly influenced many students to embrace the monasticism. Bishop Antony personally tonsured some sixty of his students into the monastic life. Bishop Antony was also a champion of Patristic Orthodoxy. Castigated by those who wanted to “modernize” the Russian Church as a “conservative,” as was Bishop Feodor, Bishop Antony’s was not a dull, staid, “status quo” conservatism, but rather a dynamic advocacy for all that was the best in the Church: genuine piety, genuine monasticism, genuine asceticism, and opposition to unnecessary “reforms,” novelties, and anything that brought the Church closer to the “spirit of this world.” Bishop Feodor took these ideals into his heart as his own. 8] |
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