Autobiography of Hieromonk (future Archbishop of Tambov) Lazar (Zhurbenko)

 

[Alexey Rodionov:] Below is published the autobiography of Hieromonk Lazar (Zhurbenko), written by him in 1980. This autobiography is part of Archbishop [of Geneva] Anthony (Bartoshevich)’s report on the reception of a group of Catacomb Christians into the clergy of the ROCOR. The report itself was published by Andrei Alexandrovich Kostryukov in his book The Russian Church Abroad under Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky), published in 2021. Since this book has not yet been made available online, I am publishing his autobiography here...

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Autobiography

I was born on February 10, 1931, on the farmstead Lyubvine, of the village Krasnoye, in the Belgorod region. My parents, Iosif Ivanovich and Fekla Ivanovna Zhurbenko, were engaged in peasant farming until the collectivization. My father was a Black Sea Cossack from the Kuban region, from the stanitsa Platnirovskaya. My mother, as they say, was the daughter of a deacon. She died immediately after the famine year of 1933, leaving me an orphan. My father went to the Kuban, to the stanitsa Kavkazskaya, where he remained to live. He later took me there as well.

I lived with my father until the age of 15, until September 1945. I began going to church and praying from the time when the churches were reopened, that is, from the time of the German occupation in 1942. Because of my constant attendance at church, the priests invited me into the altar to serve as an acolyte. The priest often took me with him on pastoral visits. The parishioners grew fond of me for my zealous attendance at church and introduced me to monastics, who acquainted me with church affairs. They told me in detail how the schisms of the Renovationists and the Sergianists occurred in our Church, and about the steadfast confession of Orthodoxy by Patriarch Tikhon and his fellow strugglers. From their accounts, I understood that the official Church, which I was attending, was not fully Orthodox.

I left home in search of a true priest, to entrust myself to him forever. While wandering, I found a Bishop with great difficulty, who, having listened to me, sent me to strengthen the people in the true faith. With all my soul, I sincerely instructed the people. Everywhere I was received with love. The year 1950 came. In January and February, we were exposed: the bishop, three priests, and 150 monastics and laypeople were arrested. We were sentenced by a Special Council for agitation and propaganda on behalf of the members of the True Orthodox Church. The bishop and the priests were sentenced to 25 years in labor camps, with confiscation of property, followed by 5 years of exile and loss of civil rights. The rest, including myself, received ten years of camp regime. We served only 5 years. Stalin died, and many political prisoners began to be released. I went to my father, but did not stay with him long. The local authorities began to persecute me. I was forced to leave.

Having heard that in Ukraine there existed the Glinsk Hermitage—a men’s monastery—I set out for it. The abbot, Archimandrite Tavrion [Batozsky], received me, assigned me monastic labors, and I sang on the kliros. I lived there for a year, until a denunciation was made against me, alleging that I belonged to the true, Catacomb, secret Church. On Great Friday, I was summoned where they needed, and after a lengthy interrogation (I was especially reproached for the venerable elder Athanasius, to whom I was devoted with all my soul), I was expelled from the monastery. Archimandrite Tavrion sympathized with me and issued me a certificate so that I might find work somewhere.

I was advised to turn to Bishop Zinovy [Mazhuga] in Tbilisi, a former monk of Glinsk. But Bishop Zinovy did not receive me and advised me to turn to Bishop Victor (Svyatin) in the Krasnodar diocese. Bishop Victor did not want to accept me, but Archpriest Mikhail Rogozhin interceded on my behalf and persuaded Bishop Victor to receive me, so that I might read and sing on the kliros and serve as a tailor and sacristan.

Soon, for sermons denouncing godlessness, Rogozhin laid down his head—they exiled him in July 1959. Hieromonk Andrei (Polyakov) likewise paid the price for his sermons. Both died in exile. The godless began to harass me as well; having learned that I had served time for the TOC, they began to undermine me. And I, allegedly due to illness, obtained a certificate from a doctor, left the cathedral, and settled with an elderly nun. I hurried to find work, but my passport bore a mark, and I was refused everywhere.

In sorrows I understood that I needed to turn to the Athonite Archimandrite Evgeny [Zhukov], to whom I wrote that I wished to become a novice on the Holy Mountain. He undertook to intercede for me, but apparently without result. In the meantime, he introduced me to Archbishop Leonty [Filippovich] of Chile. Vladyka Leonty advised me to turn to Archbishop Benjamin (Novitsky) in Irkutsk, a former monk of the Pochaev Lavra, with a request to be ordained a priest.

Vladyka Benjamin, having learned that Vladyka Leonty had sent me to him, received me kindly and ordained me to the rank of priest without the involvement of the commissioner. He took my word to assist him and appointed me rector in the city of Chita, where there was a small church—the only one in all of Transbaikal—and even that in a sorrowful state.

I was ordained a deacon on the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord, and on January 31, 1971, a priest (in celibacy). Bishop Benjamin had at one time participated in the episcopal consecration of Leonty of Chile. I began to labor at the parish in Chita. The church needed to be put in order, the services had to be organized, icons acquired, etc. The people took a liking to me, and they began to help me. Upon learning of this, the authorities opened a criminal case against me and intended to bring me to trial. I went to Vladyka Benjamin and explained my situation to him. In order to help me, he gave me a one-month leave. I departed in secret so as not to be arrested. The people began to demand that I not be persecuted and that I be allowed to return. Vladyka Benjamin defended me as best he could. But nothing helped. The last thing he did for me was to send a decree releasing me from my position due to illness.

And thus, I again found myself in an illegal position and once more began to minister to the Catacomb Church, called the TOC. Two hieromonks of this Church, before their repose, entrusted their spiritual children to me. Many are troubled by the fact that I entered into the duties of a priest without the blessing of a bishop and assumed the position of pastor among them.

I received monastic tonsure after leaving the parish on January 22, 1975. I was tonsured into monasticism with the name Lazar by the Optina elder Archimandrite Ambrose (Ivanov), who was no longer serving. At the request of those desiring it, I perform monastic tonsure. Under my guidance are 87 nuns, including the schema-nun Sergia, and many Christians.

Source: Kostryukov, A. A. The Russian Church Abroad under Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky). — Moscow: Publishing House of PSTGU, 2021. — pp. 445–448.

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[Alexey Rodionov:] On April 12, 1980, Hieromonk Lazar submitted a petition for acceptance into the clergy of the ROCOR. Apparently, this autobiography was written at that same time. On January 18, 1981, by decree of Archbishop Anthony (Bartoshevich) [of Geneva], he was received—together with the monastics and laypeople under his care—into the clergy of the Western European Diocese of the ROCOR, with the assignment to “MINISTER TO THE CATACOMBS on the territory of Russia.” Lazar himself learned of this on March 7, 1981, upon receiving the decree, antimensia, chrism, the journal of the Western European Diocese, and funds.

In this text, unlike the post-Soviet biographies of Archbishop Lazar (Zhurbenko) written by Sergey and Vitaly Shumilo, there are no mentions of Theodosius of the Caucasus, although the latter lived for some time in the stanitsa of Kavkazskaya, and the “monastics” mentioned in the text are apparently connected with him. Nor is there any mention here of his tonsure into the ryasophor with the name Theodosius. Also, this text does not contain an unequivocal rejection of the official “Soviet Church”; rather, it expresses a sense of distrust toward it. Such very cautious formulations stand in stark contrast to the declarations of the present-day RTOC as voiced by Protopresbyter [now RTOC Bishop of Boston and America] Victor Melehov.

 

Russian source: https://rocor-observer.livejournal.com/173508.html