Metropolitan Arseny of Istra. Bishop Arseniy of Smolyanets Metropolitan Arseniy of Istra schedule of services

There are characters, including those among the episcopate of the Russian Church, who are ready for anything, so long as they are not forgotten. Even a rare mention of them on the pages of the capital's newspapers or a fleeting flash on the TV screen brings them a feeling of great satisfaction. Archbishop of Istra Arseniy not an exception. His adventures are comparable only with the exploits of his older brother - Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad Kirill (Gundyaev). But he managed to outdo Gundyaev - recently on the site of Russian gays who recognized Arseny as their own, descriptions of his art appeared.

If he was famous only for "blue" exploits - the flag in his hands! But Vladyka Arseniy is also the right hand of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia and a great business executive. He is a vicar bishop of Moscow, that is, an assistant to the patriarch in the management of all Moscow parishes. It was thanks to his efforts that a chapel appeared in the Moscow City Court, in which God-fearing judges can always confess their voluntary and involuntary sins to Arseny himself.

No one is surprised that all 600 Moscow parishes are subject to heavy tribute. That when appointed to the post of rector, the priest must unfasten at least 30 thousand “green”. This, as one Moscow official remarked to me, is “divine”. Because in a good parish the priest beats back the money given for the year. And in some ways, Arseny is rather modest - in Moscow he owns only three apartments. One - on Olympiysky Prospekt, the other - on Taganka, and the third, the most luxurious - 150 square meters, is being finished on Stary Arbat. For a monk who took a vow of voluntary poverty during his tonsure, this is not so much.

The fact is that when a monk starts saving money, it is difficult for him to stop. There are so many temptations around that it is impossible to resist. Especially when loved ones from the immediate environment are in poverty. For example, the son of one of Bishop Arseny's associates, Andrei Korolev, decided to marry. Vladyka gave the newlyweds on Sivtsev Vrazhka a modest apartment of only 100 square meters. BTI estimated it at half a million rubles, but we know its true value. And the day before, Vladyka bought for himself a more luxurious apartment in Starokonyushenny Lane - 150 square meters, which BTI estimated as modestly as on Sivtsev Vrazhek. How much does one repair cost? There are a million “greens” there, a million “greens” here ... Moscow priests are not able to collect so many. Look for side sources of income. Close friend of Vladyka, prosperous businessman and church publisher Sergei Kravets, suggested a good idea. It is necessary to build a solid 5-star hotel in the center of Moscow, but on church land, so as not to share it with Moscow officials. He even offered his services.

The search went on for a long time. At first they wanted to build it on church land on Taganka. But the clergy of the Bulgarian Compound opposed this undertaking, since their own land was roughly taken away from them. Then the unsatisfied eye of Bishop Arseny fell on the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent. Still - Ordynka, Zamoskvorechye, near the Tretyakov Gallery and all the beauties of the capital. Yes, a foreign tourist will trample here! 15 years ago, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia blessed the opening of the Martha and Mary Convent and appointed nun Elizaveta (Kryuchkova) as abbess. At one time, she received a humanitarian and psychological education at Moscow State University, worked as a journalist. New talents have opened up in a new field. She managed to gather a community that continued the work of the founder of the monastery - Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, the elder sister of the Empress. After the death of her husband, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who was killed by the terrorist Kalyaev, she founded a monastery that lived not according to the monastic charter, but according to the charter that she herself drew up. The synod stubbornly resisted, but thanks to the help of Emperor Nicholas II, the unusual charter was nevertheless approved. The sisters did not take monastic vows, they did not wear black clothes, but white apostles. The purpose of their life was to help the disadvantaged and the poor. Fortunately, the Khitrovsky market was nearby. The abbess built a hospital for the poor. The sisters of the monastery took care of them. There was also a shelter for orphans. All this was gradually restored by the new abbess.

The orphanage became the center of the monastery. Not only orphans, but also children from dysfunctional families gathered here. In addition to general education disciplines, children were engaged in choral and solo singing, musical ensembles were created. The children sang in the temple. They were engaged in ballroom dancing, as many of them suffered from scoliosis. The fame of the unusual monastery has outgrown the borders of Russia. Twice the pupils went to England, where they were received by Prince Charles. The Valaam Monastery gave children vouchers to the Holy Land. Moscow sponsors were found who regularly helped the monastery and even bought a health resort near Sevastopol for the children. The school of sisters of mercy was recreated, in which mother Elizabeth herself picked up the girls. The younger children were engaged in housekeeping, artistic modeling, drawing, embroidery and even horseback riding. All this did not interfere with the spiritual education of children. A large friendly family lived in the monastery. Children treated the 70-year-old mother Elizabeth as a mother.

But the monastery was like a beam in the eye for Vladyka Arseny. The coup took place earlier this year. And by someone else's hands. One of Bishop Arseny's associates came to the monastery Orekhovo-Zuevsky Alexy (Frolov), which inspects Russian monasteries. He immediately announced the decree of the patriarch. Like, the former abbess is displaced, and a new one is appointed in her place. Mother Elizabeth was in the hospital at that time. Nobody showed her the decree (as, indeed, to other sisters). And in her place was appointed a 47-year-old married woman Natalia Moliboga from the entourage of Bishop Alexy. The "new" broom immediately began sweeping in a new way. Recalcitrant children began to be tamed. Children who suffered beatings from their parents, numerous bullying, again began to educate with the help of abuse and shouting. The young Xenia Shashkova Moliboga began to be driven out of the monastery. It ended with a hysterical fit of the girl, which turned into an attack of bronchial asthma. I had to call an ambulance. On May 27, Moliboga ordered the dogs and cats fed by the children to be euthanized. For children, the violent death of their pets has become a real tragedy.

The teacher's room has been turned into an office. Now a former DEZ employee and a lawyer work here. It is important for Arseny to revise four brick buildings. On the second floor, compassionate Moliboga gave her 27-year-old daughter a separate room. The room where the sewing workshop was located was rented out by Moliboga to the audio recording studio. And the workshop was transferred to the building of the former polyclinic, to the office, where the x-ray machine used to be. I tried to find out what important merits Natalia Moliboga possesses, that two bishops had given her such a high honor by appointing her acting. abbess. A person without a higher education, aggressive, having no idea how to work with orphans. The health resort for children in Sevastopol is empty. But, apparently, Arseny and Alexy highly appreciated her strong-willed ability to clear the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent and turn it into a construction site on which a 5-star church hotel will finally grow.

This is not my first article about the ups and downs of the Martha and Mary Convent. Readers ask the same question: “Does the patriarch really know nothing about the outrages that are happening behind his back? Why doesn’t the manager of affairs, Metropolitan of Kaluga and Borovsk Kliment, do anything?” I think that the patriarch is unlikely to know about the tragedy of the Martha and Mary Convent. Under the pretext of protecting his health, his inner circle protects him from news that can put him to bed. Vladyka Clement is forced to defend himself from the undermining of Vladyka Arseny. Today, Archbishop Arseniy, unlike Vladyka Clement, is not only an ecclesiastical, but also a political "heavyweight", concentrating immense power in his hands. Something extraordinary must happen for Arseny to lose his place.

Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin presented His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia with a state award in the Kremlin. The patriarch became the second person in the Russian Church to receive such a high award. The first winner of the State Prize in the mid-90s was the famous icon painter Archimandrite Zinon (Theodore). In a response speech, the patriarch said that he would give his award to orphanages. If Natalya Moliboga receives this money, then the church hotel will grow on the site of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent in the blink of an eye.

Vicar of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Archbishop of Istra Arseniy, expressed concern over the negligent attitude of certain metropolitan clergy in their priestly service and called for more disciplinary measures against them, Interfax reports.

"Some young priests treat the charter with disdain, believing that they are charter for themselves. They often shorten the charter, forgetting about its lofty goals," Archbishop Arseniy of Istra said on Monday at the annual diocesan meeting of the Moscow clergy.

According to Vladyka, haste during divine services has an unfavorable effect on the faithful and, on the whole, has a negative impact on the course of parish life.

"The Church considers the current charter to be valid, it cannot be left to the will of individual priests," Archbishop Arseniy emphasized.

The hierarch noted with regret the "distortions in the performance of rites" characteristic of some priests. So, some priests today perform the sacrament of baptism by simply pouring water instead of complete immersion, do not read the "Symbol of Faith" during baptism, and do not even bless the water before the sacrament.

"Responding to the reproaches that are sometimes heard against us in "Latinism", let's say that this is not "Latinism", but simple inertia and laziness of the priests," Vladyka noted.

The baptism of wealthy people, according to him, often unacceptably turns into "a show, a theatrical performance, accompanied by general laughter and flashbulbs, and the priest, unfortunately, does not try to call those present to prayer."

Equally unacceptable, according to him, is the practice of a hasty funeral service (15 minutes in advance), as well as some priests suggesting to believers that the sacrament of unction can replace confession and washes away all sins from a person.

"It is necessary to identify those who disregard the charter and intercede with His Holiness the Patriarch for their release from the overwhelming duties of the priesthood," Archbishop Arseniy believes.

He also said that the Moscow Patriarchate continues to receive complaints from ordinary believers about the very high prices for sacraments and candles. Some priests even practice, in the words of Vladyka Arseniy, "paid repentance for an abortion." Such actions, the representative of the Moscow Patriarchate emphasized, push believers away from the Church.

Vladyka Arseniy also reproached a number of Moscow clerics for being regularly late for the beginning of the Liturgy and urged them to "cherish the time of people who come to worship."

"Such clerics have a common excuse: traffic jams. But as a rule, everyone knows about them, so you need to plan your own schedule," Bishop Arseniy said.

The archbishop called for clerics who systematically neglect confession, which is obligatory for all clergy, to be temporarily suspended from the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. A separate censure on his part was given to priests who allow themselves to speak loudly in the altar during the service, and also to sit during the service.

Vladyka Arseniy also asked the Moscow clerics present to install a fax machine in every church so that they could communicate promptly, since today, according to him, often when calling parishes, people on the other end of the line are "unable to receive information."

“The Providence of God watches over every person, the whole life of a person is under the direct, albeit invisible, guidance of the providential and guiding right hand of the Most High.”

Bishop Arseniy

Bishop Arseny (Zhadanovsky) of Serpukhov often and for a long time lived on Domodedovo land in the Serafimo-Znamensky Skete (monastery) in 1912-1924. Abbess Yuvenalia (since 1916 shegumenia Tamar) in the Seraphim-Znamensky Monastery built a house called “Kinovia”, in which Bishop Arseny and his friend Archimandrite Seraphim, who came to the skete, lived and served. During the years of the Civil War, Bishop Arseny lived in the Seraphim-Znamensky Monastery in complete seclusion for a year and a half. In the summer and autumn of 1918, Bishop Arseny and Archimandrite Seraphim (the future Bishop of Dmitrovsky) lived without a break in the Seraphim-Znamensky Monastery with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon. Vladyka Arseniy lived in the skete in a semi-retreat until the end of 1919, leading the spiritual life of the skete sisters, celebrating the Divine Liturgy daily.

In 1884, ten-year-old Alexander Zhadanovsky was sent by his parents to the Kharkov Theological School. And in 1888 he entered the Kharkov Theological Seminary. On November 21 (O.S.), 1893, he was ordained a subdeacon in the Bishops' Intercession Monastery in the city of Kharkov. After graduating from the seminary, Alexander Zhadanovsky began to teach the Law of God at the parish school instead of his father, and then became an overseer at the Sumy Theological School.

In his “Memoirs”, Alexander Zhadanovsky wrote: “From early childhood, “I liked one girl of the same age: my attention was focused on her ... I looked forward to seeing her, but I never expressed my feelings to her, but while I hesitated in this way, the girl I knew slipped away from my eyes...
After two more times I looked closely at the brides, but to no avail. Thus, my search for a friend of life ended ... At the same time, the thought of monasticism did not leave me; every failure in life gave a push forward in this regard, and here I also had to visit with my relatives on a pilgrimage in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Until now, I have not been closely acquainted with the monasteries and monks, but somehow I was drawn to them unconsciously.

Alexander Zhadanovsky in a letter dated January 17, 1899 to Father John of Kronstadt asked him for advice. After the answer of the righteous father John, Alexander had an adamant decision to become a monk. The superintendent of the school, Father Arkady, immediately (and it was on Holy Saturday, 1899) sent the petition of Alexander Zhadanovsky to the Archbishop of Kharkov Ambrose (Klyucharev). The archpastor advised Zhadanovsky to go to St. Petersburg to see a friend of the chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod.

Zhadanovsky, inviting his friend, went with him from the city of Sumy on a journey; Moscow-Kremlin, Chudov Monastery; Holy Trinity Lavra; St. Petersburg; Alexander Nevsky Lavra and Valaam. From Valaam, Alexander Zhadanovsky arrived at the Holy Synod, where he was received with a petition for admission to monasticism with a further "promise to continue his education at the academy." Returning to Kharkov, Alexander Zhadanovsky was received by Bishop Ambrose, and without delay they were allowed to tonsure Zhadanovsky as a monk. After that, he was sent to live in the Svyatogorsk hermitage, located in the Izyum district of the Kharkov province. Here, on July 17, 1899, the day after the feast of the Svyatogorsk Icon of the Mother of God, Alexander was tonsured a monk with the name Arseniy.

By the day of the Assumption of the Mother of God, Archbishop Ambrose arrived in the Svyatogorsk hermitage, and on August 15, 1899, after dinner, Vladyka ordained Arseny to the hierodeacon, and then blessed him to go to Moscow, to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, to the academy.

Bishop Arseniy wrote: “The Lord judged me to take a course at the academy with a monastic rank. However, I must admit that it is difficult to combine student life with monasticism... If you get tired morally or physically, some kind of grief will happen - you will go to the honest relics, pray from the heart, and it will become easy on the heart... Yes, the cancer of the Reverend, covered with many sighs and tears Russian people, is a fertile source of consolation ... Large space, further, in the monastery for the priesthood. Eleven liturgies are performed every day, so choose any one: at three in the morning - in the Church of the Holy Spirit, at four o'clock - at the Monk Nikon, at five o'clock - below the Assumption Cathedral, and then in the churches of Smolensk, Zosima and Savvaty and others. The Lord vouchsafed me in the rank of hierodeacon to serve in all the above churches. I also liked to go weekdays to the Trinity Cathedral for Vespers - to listen to the singing of stichera with the canonarch. Their wonderful, harmonious performance by a mighty choir gave me the highest spiritual pleasure. Not only learned monks, but all the students of the academy clearly felt the cover of St. Sergius over them ... "

Bishop Arseniy had an excellent literary gift. A magnificent lyricist, at the end of his life he wrote “Memoirs” about many great ascetics of Orthodoxy: about the holy righteous John of Kronstadt, about the Moscow Metropolitan Macarius (Nevsky), about the elders of the Zosima Hermitage, Schemagumen German and Hieroschemamonk Alexy, about Schema Tamar, about outstanding pastors of the church father Alexia Mechev, father Nikolai Smirnov (Kadashevsky), father Vasily Postnikov and father Alexander Stefanovsky.

Bishop Arseny recalled how one day Elder Hieromonk Barnabas “... in a conversation with me this time foreshadowed: “You will be a bishop not far from Moscow, a little bishop.” Now the prophecy has been fulfilled."

In the Gethsemane skete, Zhadanovsky went to Father Isidore, who, three days before his death, said goodbye to him: “Take my last words for edification and consolation to yourself: the strength of the cross and reflections on the sufferings of the Lord save a Christian from all troubles, but memories of the Savior’s ulcers protect from sorrows.

While staying at the Theological Academy, the student Arseniy remained a deacon for three years, and only in the fourth year of study did he become a priest. On May 9, 1902, he was ordained a hieromonk.

Metropolitan Vladimir (Bogoyavlensky) of Moscow was present at the last examination at the Theological Academy in dogmatic theology, offering priest Arseniy the position of treasurer at the Miracle Monastery. Hieromonk Arseniy arrived in Moscow on August 3, 1903, at the place of his new service in the Chudov Monastery. Having venerated the relics of St. Alexis, Arseny appeared before the abbot of the monastery, Archimandrite Innokenty, who took the hieromonk to the treasury's apartment. Hieromonk Arseniy served as treasurer for only five months. The abbot of the monastery, Archimandrite Innokenty, who was consecrated Bishop of Alaska, left for America. Hieromonk Arseniy (Zhadanovsky) was appointed to the place of the governor of the Chudov Monastery. And on March 24 (O.S.), 1904, on Great Saturday, Hieromonk Arseniy was consecrated to the rank of archimandrite.

In 1906, on October 11, the mother of Archimandrite Arseny died, and a month later, on November 11, his father died.

In the Zhadanovsky family, several generations were in the clergy. The priests were great-great-grandfather Athanasius, great-grandfather Stefan, grandfather Andrei and father - Archpriest John. All together they served for more than a hundred years in the city of Chuguev in the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God.

Bishop Arseniy wrote: “With the death of father and mother, interest in the homeland was lost, the desire and desire to go there disappeared.”

In 1913, Archimandrite Arseny, together with Hieromonk Seraphim (Zvezdinsky), made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

The consecration of Archimandrite Arseny as Bishop of Serpukhov took place on June 8 (O.S.) 1914 in the Alekseevsky Church of the Chudov Monastery, in which he was left to serve by decision of the Moscow Metropolitan Macarius and the Holy Synod.

Bishop Arseniy took part in the organization of the women's monastery "Gethsemane" near the city of Zaraysk near Moscow and the women's monastery "Serafimo-Znamensky Skete" near the Vostryakovo station of the Paveletskaya railway on Domodedovo land.

Vladyka Arseny was destined for a new field - to be the confessor and elder of the Shebebess Thamari (Mardzhanova) and the sisters of the Serafimo-Znamensky Skete she had created. Shegehumenia Tamar built a kennel with a house church in the name of the Monk Arseniy near the skete, where Vladyka sometimes retired to gather spiritual strength, rest and work of prayer.

In the post-October 1917 era of persecution of the Church of Christ and the faith, Vladyka Arseniy carried out the exploits of confession and martyrdom for two decades.

In the summer and autumn of 1918, Vladyka Arseny and his spiritual friend Archimandrite Seraphim (Zvezdinsky), the future Bishop of Dmitrov, lived in the Serafimo-Znamensky Skete near Moscow. Shegehumeniya Tamar fulfilled the obedience of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon to keep the life of the bishops safe in her little-known, quiet and modest monastery. During the years of the post-revolutionary hard times, Vladyka Arseniy celebrated Divine Liturgies every day in the cenobitic church.

In seclusion he studied church singing, music, painting, medicine and was engaged in icon painting. At the same time, Vladyka made notes, which later went into the book "Memoirs".

In the skete church in front of the abbot's place was placed the image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, written by Bishop Arseny. Until 1923, Bishop Arseny continued to serve in the city of Serpukhov as a bishop. In the city of Serpukhov there was an ancient Vysotsky monastery, founded in 1374 by the Serpukhov prince Vladimir Andreevich. Before the revolution, there were several dozen churches in the city of Serpukhov, after the revolution, many churches were closed. Many nuns arrived from Serpukhov to the Serafimo-Znamensky Skete.

The Seraphim-Znamensky skete was the place of solitary deeds of Bishop Arseny until 1924, the year the skete was closed.

About the Serafimo-Znamensky Skete, Bishop Arseny left the following lines: “In the small church of the Serafimo-Znamensky Skete, with the high religious enthusiasm of the builder and sisters, a great attraction and concentration of grace-filled power took place. Here the Lord Himself overshadowed the hearts of those who pray, and especially those who sing; here, near everyone, rejoicing and having fun, there was a guardian angel - that is why the consecration of this wonderful church was so deeply imprinted in the memory of the inhabitants of the skete ... The day is coming. Skityanki on obedience. Some of them work alone: ​​some in the garden, some with bees, some clean the grove of dry leaves, others mow grass together, dry hay, graze cows, cultivate vegetable gardens. Everyone is commanded to unceasingly say the Jesus Prayer, sing psalms, read akathists, and they inviolably, sacredly fulfill this rule: they work and pray.

And from a hillock near the Serafimo-Znamensky Skete on the right bank of the Rozhaya River, the bishop observed the following picture: “You look to the right and you see a mill through the bushes and sparse trees. You listen and hear the noise of its wheels, which before, carried away by the beauty of nature, as if you did not notice. And an amazing thing! Nothing, it seems, adorns the river bank like a water mill, as if it were its essential accessory, having won the eternal right to this place ... If you go along the bank, past the mill and further, you will reach a steep climb. You climb the hill and find yourself so high that you involuntarily think: it’s not for nothing that the wanderers call this place “the Caucasus”.

Below, a stream runs along the pebbles, formed from the river already familiar to us after blocking it with a dam. It flows evenly, continuously, murmurs pleasantly, has a calming effect on the nerves ... Then you take a look at the space passed, the space left behind you and you will see somewhere far, far away a river, and a meadow, and a mill, more than that, your horizons expand so much that you notice a village with a church behind the hillock, and there are endless fields.

How amazingly accurately Bishop Arseniy described the local nature!

These blessed places have been my favorite since childhood: the Church of the Resurrection in the village of Bityagovo with an ancient cemetery where my ancestors rest, and a wonderful mill with a miller’s house that existed until the mid-fifties of our century, and the Savvinsky (Zaborievsky) ravine with a mountain that received the name of the locals "Nun", with whom we skied in childhood, and these mysterious mounds, and, of course, the lovely river Rozhaya with its once spring water.

How many times, without knowing it for many years, I walked along the same paths that Bishop Arseniy walked before my birth. Oh, the power of the written word!

In 1924, the Bishop of Arsenia moved to the village of Kuzmenki near Serpukhov and lived in the house of the rector of the local church, Archpriest Mikhail. Vladyka was followed by two cell sisters - nuns Alexandra and Matrona from among the inhabitants of Seraphim of the Znamensky Skete. In half of the priest's house, a house church was built in which the bishop served from 1924. After the closure of the Serafimo-Znamensky skete of Kuzmenka, Sheikh Tamar and the sisters from the skete, who lived at that time in the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery at that time, came.

In 1925-1928, Vladyka was expelled several times outside of Moscow and the Moscow region. In those years, he lived either in the Seraphim-Ponetaevsky Monastery, or in Arzamas.

In 1928, Bishop Arseniy came to Perkhushkovo, where at that time Shegemony Tamar, Hieromonk Filaret (Postnikov) and ten sisters settled in a separate dacha. According to the Bishop's biographer, “obviously, in the first half of 1928, Vladyka Arseniy mainly wrote the book “Memories” (M., Orthodox St. Tikhon Theological Institute, Brotherhood in the name of the All-Merciful Savior, 1995).

After the end of the expulsion period, Bishop Arseniy returned and settled in Kotelniki, not far from the Lyubertsy station of the Kazan railway.

In difficult years for the Orthodox Church, Vladyka said: “The hierarchs answer to the Council, the flock must go in line with the Church. You can't split." During the period of a new wave of arrests (1929-1931), the abbess Tamar with some of her sisters and hieromonk Filaret were repressed. Caring for Vladyka Arseny did not leave Mother Tamar in a distant Siberian exile. In a letter, she expressed her desire to establish a bishop in Maloyaroslavets.

The life of Bishop Arseniy in the thirties up to his arrest and martyrdom is unknown. According to some recollections, Bishop Arseniy lived either in Kotelniki, or, according to other sources, in a house at the Udelnaya station. Bishop Arseniy was arrested in Kotelniki on April 13, 1937. "The bishop was accused of organizing and leading a counter-revolutionary illegal monarchist organization of churchmen." On the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy and Life-giving Cross of the Lord - September 27, 1937, Bishop Arseniy and all the clergy, monastics and laity arrested with him were shot in the village of Butovo near Moscow.

This is a brief biography of Bishop Arseny of Serpukhov, gleaned from the autobiography of the bishop and in his memoirs.

Vladyka Arseny had the highest spiritual gifts in his deeds of prayer: insights and reasoning. Naturally, he foresaw his martyrdom and offered up prayers to the Lord in his last dying hours. After his death, Bishop Arseniy appeared in a dream vision to his spiritual children, warning them of upcoming events during the Great Patriotic War.

The well-known Russian writer Pyotr Palamarchuk, author of the four-volume book Forty Forties, writes: “While studying the history of Russian churches and monasteries, I happened to come across such miracles of modern times more than once. After all, in the godless persecutions of the 20th century, Russia Little, Great and White showed more new martyrs alone than in all the previous two millennia of Christianity!” The Russian Orthodox Church will sum up the results of the twentieth century and write down all the names of the Russian New Martyrs who suffered for the faith and Christ.

local historian Nikolai Chulkov. From the cycle "History of the region in faces"

In 1976-1979. studied at the Moscow Theological Seminary, then - at, from which he graduated in 1983.

In 1983-1989 was an assistant and personal secretary, later the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.

On August 28, 1984 he was ordained to the rank of deacon, on August 28, 1986 - to the rank of priest, since 1988 he served in the Holy Trinity Cathedral.

On September 30, 1989, he was tonsured a monk; on October 5, at the Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, he was consecrated Bishop of Ladoga.

Participated in the work of commissions for the examination of the returned to the Church and newly acquired holy relics: St. blgv. book. Alexander Nevsky (1988), Rev. Zosima, Savvaty and Herman of Solovetsky (1990), St. Seraphim of Sarov (1991), St. Joasaph of Belgorod (1991), St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia (1991), blzh. Matrons (1998).

In 1994-1997 He was the chairman of the Scientific and Editorial Council for the publication of the "History of the Russian Church" by Metropolitan Macarius (Bulgakov).

Since 1998, from the day of its foundation, he has been the head of the Scientific and Editorial Board for the publication.

By order of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill dated April 1, 2009, the first vicar of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia for the city of Moscow.

In December 2010, parish churches on the territory of the Central and Southern administrative districts of Moscow.

By order of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill dated December 31, 2011, the administrator of the Central Vicariate within the boundaries of the Central Administrative District of Moscow and the Southern Vicariate within the boundaries of the Southern Administrative District of Moscow.

February 1, 2014 at the Divine Liturgy in Moscow by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill to the rank of Metropolitan.

By the decision of the Holy Synod of December 24, 2015 () is included in the Russian Orthodox Church.

By the decision of the Holy Synod of July 9, 2019 () he was appointed His Grace of Lipetsk and Zadonsk, head, with the release from his post.

Alexander Ivanovich Smolenets, the future Bishop Arseniy, was born on June 21, 1873 into an intelligent Polish family. He was brought up in the family of his father, a teacher in the city of Warsaw. The father was a believer, but the family did not live a spiritual (church) life. Having no religious influence from family members and from outside, from the 4th grade of the gymnasium, Alexander began to get involved in the church, regularly attending all church services.

After graduating from the seminary, Alexander entered the Warsaw University at the Faculty of Law. At the same time, he began to study theology. By the time he graduated from the law faculty of the university in 1896 with a degree in law, the future bishop had already determined an inclination to serve in the spiritual field, but he did not consider himself sufficiently prepared for this, therefore, after graduating from an educational institution, he was appointed a junior candidate for judicial positions at Tver District Court. In 1897, at his own request, Alexander Ivanovich was transferred to his homeland and, by order of the senior chairman of the Warsaw Court of Justice, he was appointed a candidate for judicial positions at the Lomzhinsky District Court. On October 7, 1897, he was appointed junior controller of the 1st district of the Warsaw Excise Administration, on December 5 he was transferred to the same position in the 7th district.

Four years of work in judicial positions were the years of the final formation of his worldview, and he firmly decided to follow the spiritual path. All these years, Alexander was intensively engaged in theological sciences, which gave him the opportunity in 1899 to enter the second year of the Kazan Theological Academy as a volunteer. In 1900, with the help of Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky, who largely supported the young man during his stay at the Academy, Alexander was enrolled as a student and, as having a higher education, received the right to complete a full academic course in 2 years with the award of a candidate's degree. theology.

On March 23, 1902, Alexander Smolenets was tonsured into the mantle by the rector of the Kazan Theological Academy, Bishop Alexy (Molchanov) of Chistopol in an academic church with the name Arseniy. On June 8, 1902, he was ordained a hieromonk.

In 1902, after graduating from the Academy, he was sent to administrative and pedagogical work in the schools of the spiritual department. On September 18, 1902, he was appointed teacher of sacred history and assistant superintendent of the Klevan Theological School. In 1903 he became an inspector of the Kiev Theological Seminary and was included in the brethren of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra as a cathedral hieromonk. In 1904 he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite and received the obedience to be rector of the Ardon Theological Seminary (Ossetia). Being in the position of rector of the Ardon Theological Seminary of the Terek region, he arrested eleven seminarians - leaders of the revolutionary strike movement in the seminary and, given the difficult situation in the country, dismissed the latter.

In the reaction that followed the 1905 revolution, the clergy took an active part through the Union of the Russian People and other Black Hundred organizations. Archimandrite Arseniy's immediate superior, Bishop Stefan of Mogilev, took an active part in this Union. The same bishop tried to draw his subordinate into the Union of the True Russian People. But he, not sharing these ideas, refused to join the Union. According to the saint, “During the imperialist war, my role as a clergyman was reduced to the service of prayers for the granting of victory to the Russian army over the enemies.”

In 1907, Vladyka Arseniy was appointed rector of the Belynichi Bogoroditsky Monastery of the Mogilev diocese, where he acquired a faithful spiritual son, the future Metropolitan of Alma-Ata Joseph (Chernov).

On October 22, 1910, in the Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, Arseny Smolyanets was consecrated Bishop of Pyatigorsk, vicar of the Vladikavkaz diocese. The consecration was led by Metropolitan Flavian (Gorodetsky) of Kyiv. The consecration was attended by the Yaroslavl Archbishop, St. Tikhon (Belavin). Simultaneously with the performance of the duties of a vicar, Vladyka became the rector of the New Athos Monastery.

In 1912, Vladyka was transferred as a vicar to the diocese of Tver with the title Bishop of Staritsky.

In 1917, Arseniy Smolyanets became vicar of the Yekaterinoslav diocese with the title Bishop of Priazov and Taganrog.

In May 1919, on the initiative of the protopresbyter of the army and navy Georgy Shavelsky, who was at the headquarters of the commander in chief, the South-Eastern Russian Church Council was convened in Stavropol to organize a temporary higher church administration.

By the decision of the council of May 22, 1919, the Taganrog and Azov vicariate was transformed into an independent diocese, which began to bear the name of Rostov and Taganrog. Rostov-on-Don became the center of the diocese. The former vicar of the Ekaterinoslav diocese, Bishop Arseniy (Smolenets) with the title of Bishop of Rostov and Taganrog, who was also elected a member of the Supreme Provisional Church Administration of the South-East of Russia (department for the organization of parish life), was appointed as the ruling bishop.

In 1918, during the bloody battles for Taganrog, many soldiers from both sides died in the city, and Vladyka Arseniy decides to bury all the fallen according to Orthodox canons and serve a memorial service, for which he receives permission from the executive committee. But the relatives dismantled the bodies of the workers, and the cadets were taken to the cemetery and piled into one common heap. Ivan Chernov, the future Bishop Joseph and Hierodeacon Nikolai dressed the bodies of the children all night, and in the morning Vladyka Arseniy performed the funeral service for 105 cadets, near whose mass grave he was subsequently buried.

Having learned about the burial service, the Red Guards and sailors decided to kill Vladyka, allegedly because he refused to perform the funeral service for five sailors and called them black commissars. They came straight to the temple during the service, but Vladyka's subdeacon Ivan Chernov hid his spiritual father and managed in a personal conversation to convince the sailors not to kill Vladyka Arseniy.

In January 1919, the Headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, General A. I. Denikin, settled in Taganrog, with whom Bishop Arseny maintained close relations.

Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky, who also maintained relations with General Denikin, repeatedly visited Vladyka Arseniy in Rostov and Taganrog.

Vladyka had a negative attitude towards the church schism in the Orthodox Church, which began in 1918 from the time of the Local Council. He spoke about this event in the following way: “This schism, except for harm to the church, will not give anything. In the ongoing struggle, the clergy among the believers are losing authority, and the believers are moving away from the church. I do not share the measures of the Soviet government on the issue of the seizure of church valuables. As a spiritual person, it was a pity for me to expose the church. Giving away values ​​- it was necessary to go against myself, I also could not speak openly, therefore I did not speak out either for the surrender of church values, or against it, and I characterize my position in this matter - I was at zero.

After the occupation of Novocherkassk and Rostov by the Red Army in January 1920. Bishop Arseniy did not leave his flock and remained in the cathedra until March 1922.

In 1922, the Living Church committee appeared in Rostov-on-Don, claiming to manage the diocese. Vladyka Arseniy declared him incompetent. For this, the Renovationists accused the ruling bishop of counter-revolution and testified against him at a trial organized by the authorities in the so-called case of "confiscation of church valuables."

The essence of the process was the incident of beating the organizer of the seizure of valuables (Muralov) and insulting a member of the commission of the NKU of the Rostov GPU - Yemelyanov.

In retaliation for the resistance of the church people by the organs of the GPU, Bishop Arseniy and priests K. Molchanov, V. Fedosiev, V. Dobrotvorsky, I. Tsarienko, N. Uspensky, K. Raznogorsky, K. Zdanevich were also arrested at a show trial held in Rostov 22 - March 30, 1922 sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.

Vladyka Arseniy was sentenced by the court to be shot. After the shooting was replaced by 10 years in prison. In 1922-1925. Vladyka was serving his sentence in the infamous SLON - the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp. He was released early due to illness.

In 1926, Vladyka visited Kyiv, where he met with Archbishops Dimitri Abashidze and Dimitri Verbitsky. In the same 1926 he visited Nizhny Novgorod, where he had a conversation with Metropolitan Sergius Stragorodsky.

On June 25, 1930, he was transferred to the Crimean diocese, and on August 11, 1931 he was appointed archbishop of Orlovsky, but did not enter into the administration of the diocese, as he was under another investigation.

On March 14, 1932, the Special Meeting of the Collegium of the OGPU decided to imprison Archbishop Arseniy in a concentration camp for a period of three years.

On February 16, 1933, Archbishop Arseniy was released ahead of schedule with deprivation of the right to live in 12 cities.

In 1933 he was arrested in Stalingrad, until his death he was in exile in various places, in particular in 1934 in Borisoglebsk.

On September 17, 1935, he was appointed Archbishop of Semipalatinsk, but did not have the opportunity to enter into the administration of the diocese.

Metropolitan Joseph said about him: "All his life on the road, but he died in Taganrog." On one of the portraits of Archbishop Arseny, Vladyka Joseph wrote with his own hand: “(Fate) - Providence gave me a meeting on my life path with this man, whose life was almost a legend, but a reality.”

According to the memoirs of his contemporaries, Vladyka Arseniy was tall, his eyes were black and penetrating. He showed authority in his walk. He was a man of incorruptible honesty, the highest principles and consistency, but not according to time. By nature, he was gifted with outstanding mathematical abilities and had a phenomenal memory, knew many foreign languages, and was fluent in French, English, German and Italian. He was fluent in Hebrew, Greek and Latin.

In the circle of his relatives, he said: "No matter how much I live, I never saved up and never wore gold." In matters of faith he did not allow any compromises. He was pure before God and people. Before anyone, he did not seek glory for himself, he loved the truth in people and valued it above all else.

The former cell-attendant of Vladyka Arseny, Metropolitan Joseph (Chernov) of Alma-Ata, spoke in July 1944 about an extraordinary vision that visited Vladyka Arseny in a dream at the end of 1933. He saw: “A solemn service is going on in a temple unknown to Vladyka Arseny. The Liturgy is served by the Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius with a host of saints. There comes a moment of great movement of all those present in the altar and the clergymen and laity who filled the altar to capacity. Suddenly the procession begins. Led by a host of bishops, preceded by a multitude of subdeacons, like celestials, shining with their goodness and spirit-bearing appearance, inspiring fear in those present and awe of the soul, Metropolitan Sergius quietly moves forward. Subdeacons - celestials carry ancient ostrich ripids and plow the procession of Metropolitan Sergius from all sides. The procession approaches the mountainous place, which, to the surprise of Vladyka Arseny, rose on seven steps. The saints began the rite of appointing Metropolitan Sergius to the patriarchs. This is where the vision ended. Vladyka Arseniy shared his impressions with his cell-attendant and said to him: “After all, this means nothing more than the extraordinary rise of Metropolitan Sergius. Something great and glorious awaits him. But how can this happen under the current conditions of our church life and environment? However, we'll wait and see." He did not live to see this celebration. Vladyka Joseph lived and saw the fulfillment of this significant dream, although exactly ten years had passed after this vision (1933-1943).