In blessed memory of Archimandrite Veniamin (Voznyuk): 1926–2025

June 11, 2025

 

On Saturday, May 25 / June 7, 2025, on the eve of the great Feast of Pentecost, Archimandrite Veniamin Voznyuk peacefully reposed in his monastic cell in the suburb of Santiago, Chile, Arraijan, in the 99th year of his life.

The Lord, in Whose power it is to appoint the hour of death, willed that His faithful and humble servant should repose exactly on the tenth anniversary of the shameful eviction from the church on Holanda Street, which he himself had built. This disgrace was devised and carried out by Bishop John of Caracas together with members of the Cemetery Society. They did not allow the elderly archimandrite and those accompanying him into the church, threatening them with the police. He was unable to serve in his own church on its patronal feast day, and was not even given the opportunity to take his own vestments, and since then he served only in the monastery.

A faithful and humble servant of the Russian Church Abroad, he was born in Zhitomir on January 27 / February 9, 1926.

He first entered a church as a teenager on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son and heard the hymn “The Father’s Embrace” (also sung at the monastic tonsure), and from that time he loved this prayer so deeply that Matushka Juliana with the sisters and children of the Chilean orphanage would often sing it to him.

In the 17th year of his life, he received monastic tonsure from Bishop Leonty (later Archbishop of Chile), who named him “Veniamin,” as he was the youngest of the brothers, and from that time they became companions, fellow sufferers, and fellow confessors during the godless persecution.

Many times, the Lord miraculously delivered His faithful servants from inevitable death.

Fr. Veniamin often recounted incidents when, already in exile, he had to flee from KGB agents while wearing his cassock.

He arrived in South America in 1952 and, having been in Paraguay and briefly in Argentina, came to Chile in 1953.

Together with Vladyka Leonty, they built a church in honor of the Holy Trinity and the Kazan Icon on Holanda Street in Santiago, a church in Lima (Peru), and the Dormition Monastery with an orphanage in honor of the holy righteous John of Kronstadt, as well as a home for the elderly. He established the Cemetery Society.

A hardworking man of prayer, a strict and humble monk, he fulfilled his monastic vows, liturgical rules, and traditions. He carried out monastic obedience before the eyes of the Almighty alone, in the way others do only when being watched. Our beloved and dear intercessor of South America was without hypocrisy and without partiality.

We are not in a position to compile a complete biography of the venerable Fr. Veniamin at this time. We will undertake this later.

After Metropolitan Laurus' concrete submission to the Moscow Patriarchate, Fr. Veniamin lost trust in the episcopate. During services, he commemorated no authority by name, only “the Orthodox Episcopate of the Persecuted Russian Church.” He allowed few, even among acquaintances, to concelebrate with him and bequeathed that he be buried simply, without the participation of any clergyman. (He became stricter on this matter after false information was spread about him and Matushka Juliana allegedly joining a specific jurisdiction). Therefore, this final will of his was fulfilled. But it is said that a funeral shows what a person truly was before God. And so were they, in the words of Matushka Juliana:

They washed the body. They dressed Father in monastic and priestly vestments and placed him in a coffin ordered by his relatives in the monastery church. They sang the departure hymn and read the Gospel in turns. Father spent the Feast of Pentecost in his final earthly dwelling. And on Monday, the Day of the Holy Spirit, in the morning they gathered in the church for the singing and reading of memorial prayers. People began to arrive and filled the church so much that it had to be opened. Faithful parishioners and spiritual children—Arabs, Chileans, former orphanage children, acquaintances and strangers—came to pray and bid farewell. The hour came to depart for the cemetery.

Several cars accompanied the funeral vehicle. When they arrived at the cemetery, a large group of his former parishioners was already waiting—those who had left him since the time he was expelled from the Trinity Church. They approached Matushka and, having learned how everything would proceed, said to do as Matushka Juliana directed. They did not enter the chapel. The grave, prepared next to the grave of Archbishop Leonty, was sprinkled with holy water. Memorial prayers were chanted, and the burial was done slowly, using small shovels.

Amazingly many people were there, like on Pascha! Both the faithful and the unfaithful.

The latter, perhaps, to bid farewell, asking forgiveness…

The ninth day coincides with Sunday! Thus everything is arranged by the All-knowing Creator!

In South America, we felt safe through the prayers of Fr. Veniamin. With the departure of the humble archimandrite and great intercessor for all of us—both those who loved and those who did not love him—the last sparks of the spirit of the Church Abroad gradually fade. What remains for us is to take Father’s example and, judging no one, to do our part according to our strength. We are living in an age when “those who kill us think they offer service to God”… But God is the Judge of all! And here, through the repose and burial of His faithful servant, He revealed His truth to all. Let us believe in the power of our dear Father's prayers—now before the Heavenly Throne!

Eternal memory to thee, most blessed and ever-remembered our Father Veniamin!

Eternal memory!

 

Russian source: https://www.iglesiarusa.org.ar/rus/noticia.php?id=253