A Sketch of the Early Years of the Life of Our First Hierarch, Metropolitan Philaret

Archbishop Nathanael (Lvov) (+1986)

 

 

In the old Russian Lives of the Saints and chronicles, it is often said of those whose lives are recounted by the hagiographer: “He was a good branch from a good root.” One feels inclined to apply these words to our First Hierarch, Metropolitan Philaret.

His father, Archpriest Fr Nicholas Voznesensky, who later embraced monasticism and became Archbishop of Hailar, was one of the finest, if not the finest, of all the clergy of the Far Eastern Diocese of Manchuria, which was rich in good pastors.

A graduate of the Moscow Theological Academy, Fr Nicholas impressed others by the depth and breadth of his extensive theological and scholarly knowledge. He compiled the finest textbooks on the Law of God, from which Russian young people throughout the Far East were educated. It should be noted that in the Far East the Law of God was taught not in an abbreviated but in an expanded form, compared with the way it had been taught in old pre-revolutionary Russia.

Fr Nicholas Voznesensky moved to Harbin from Blagoveshchensk, a city on the Manchurian border, as soon as power in the Amur region passed into the hands of the Bolsheviks. In Harbin, Fr Nicholas became rector of the large and splendid Iveron Church, which before the Revolution had been the church of the Trans-Amur Military District.

If not already in Blagoveshchensk, then soon after arriving in Harbin, Fr Nicholas lost his dearly beloved wife and assumed full responsibility for raising his family—two sons and three daughters.

Fr Nicholas’s family was permeated by a radiant, genuinely Orthodox, deeply ecclesial spirit. The writer of these lines was a friend of the entire family. What a rich variety of interests occupied everyone in that household! What varied and profound subjects were discussed around the tea table in the cozy rector’s house beside the Iveron Church!

It was in this grace-filled atmosphere that the boy Yura first grew up, then the student Georgy Nikolaevich Voznesensky, who while still a young man became Father Georgy and soon afterward Father Philaret, and who is now our First Hierarch, His Eminence Metropolitan Philaret.

Harbin was an exceptional phenomenon at that time. Built by Russians on Chinese territory, it remained a typical Russian provincial city for another twenty-five years after the Revolution. Harbin had twenty-six Orthodox churches, twenty-two of them actual church buildings, an entire network of secondary schools, and six institutions of higher education. By the mercy of God, Harbin continued normal pre-revolutionary Russian life for a quarter of a century.

Even China’s recognition of the Soviet government in 1924, the transfer of the railway into Soviet hands together with all the rights previously enjoyed in Manchuria by the Imperial Russian government, and the appearance in Harbin of emissaries from Moscow—all this altered the way of life in Harbin relatively little, and only superficially.

Most noticeable was the cessation of material support for the Church on the part of the railway administration, and the Soviet authorities’ takeover of some of the institutions of higher and secondary education in Harbin and Manchuria.

There were many secondary schools and institutions of higher education in Harbin. But Harbin lacked one thing: there was no institution of higher theological education.

There was a Polytechnic Institute, a Faculty of Law, a Commercial Institute, an Institute of Oriental Languages, and a Pedagogical Institute. For a time, there was also a Faculty of Medicine, which was closed because of insufficient funds for equipment.

But there was no theological school. And many thought that there was no need for one—that there were no young men in Harbin who wished to become clergymen. Yura Voznesensky was among the very first. From his earliest childhood he loved the Church with fervent and devoted love. From his father he heard such profound and inspired testimony concerning the Church, grounded in broad scholarly learning. Reading the works of the Holy Fathers attentively and lovingly, he became, in the fullest sense of the word, thoroughly imbued with them.

He loved mathematics for its pure and dispassionate clarity. Therefore, in the absence of a theological school, he entered the Polytechnic Institute and graduated from it with distinction.

But his thirst for theological knowledge remained unsatisfied.

Fr Nicholas began making arrangements for his son to pursue theological studies outside Harbin. The young engineer G. N. Voznesensky was accepted into an American theological institute in Wisconsin. His admission, however, was subject to certain restrictions, and in the end Georgy Nikolaevich had to abandon the plan.

Another young candidate for the priesthood tried to avail himself of this opportunity, but he too was unable to do so. Several years later, when he spoke with regret about this to the famous Serbian hierarch and preacher, Bishop Nikolai of Ohrid, the latter said to him: “Thank God for that... It took me eight years to unlearn what I had learned in two years at an English theological school.”

After this failure, Fr Nicholas began working to establish a theological school in Harbin. Indeed, the opportunity offered by the Americans had revealed that, besides G. Voznesensky, there were other young men in Harbin who wished to prepare themselves for ecclesiastical service.

Eventually, Fr Nicholas Voznesensky succeeded in establishing the Pastoral-Theological Courses, which were immediately recognized by the Synod of Bishops as a fully accredited institution of higher theological education, although the Manchurian government did not recognize them as such until several years later.

Fr Nicholas was the driving force behind these Courses. He was chairman of the Academic Council and lectured on Holy Scripture, Church History, and Apologetics. But the other professors and instructors of the Theological Courses were likewise distinguished and engaging. For the most part, they were professors from the Kazan Theological Academy. Fifteen subjects were taught at the Courses. There were fourteen students in the first graduating class and eleven in the second. Almost without exception, all the students pursued their studies with fervor, diligence, and self-sacrifice.

Upon entering these Courses, G. Voznesensky immediately distinguished himself as the best student. At that time he was also ordained to the diaconate as a celibate—that is, without marrying and without becoming a monk. Some time later he became a priest under the same status.

Meanwhile, His Grace Nestor, Bishop of Kamchatka, who was living in Harbin but was not part of the diocese and occupied an independent position, established at that time the so-called House of Mercy—an orphanage for children and a home for the elderly.

A splendid church was built at the House of Mercy. There arose a need for clergy. In 1929, Bishop Nestor tonsured as a monk one of the students of the Theological Courses, who was a friend of Fr Georgy Voznesensky. Fr Georgy began visiting the House of Mercy and, after some time, decided to embrace monasticism, settling there with the hieromonk who was already living there. At his tonsure, Fr Georgy received the name Philaret. By this act, the foundation was laid for a monastic community at the House of Mercy.

Fr Philaret lived with his friend in the same cell for eight years, and recently, recalling that period, he said to the nuns of the Lesna Convent in France: “Fr N. N. and I lived for eight years in the same cell and never once quarreled.”

The two young monks took turns serving the daily divine services in the church, recited the prescribed liturgical prayer rules, and read the Holy Fathers. However, they did not yet have a proper understanding of specifically monastic services such as the Midnight Office and Compline.

But in 1930, two monks of the Holy Trinity Monastery, the so-called Shmakovka Monastery, fled from the Maritime Province. This was the sacred lavra of the Far East, founded at the very end of the nineteenth century by the great Spirit-bearing ascetics, Fathers Sergius and Herman. The monastery was situated halfway between Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, twenty kilometers from the Shmakovka railway station. Since the founders of the monastery had been tonsured at Valaam, the Valaam typikon was introduced in the monastery they founded.

The monastery had an extensive economy, with workshops for sewing, shoemaking, metalworking, carpentry, and blacksmithing. It had a printing press and a bindery. Through its books, the monastery enlightened the entire Russian Far East. There was also an apiary and a livestock yard, with a special section for breeding deer for their antlers. There were greenhouses and nurseries where, under the direction of Abbot Sergius, a graduate of the Higher Agronomic Institute, the monks acclimatized for the Far East all kinds of vegetable and fruit-bearing plants from Russia. There was a candle factory and a school. The number of monks and novices reached as many as 300. The monastery owned 3,753 desyatinas of land, for the most part remote, virgin, semi-tropical taiga of the Maritime Province.

Most importantly, there was a lofty ascetic spiritual life there, toward which Orthodox souls from throughout the Far East who desired “the ascetic life” were drawn as to a bright beacon. Among the brethren were not only Russians, but also Orthodox Chinese, Koreans, and several Japanese.

All of this was utterly destroyed by the Communists in 1926. The monastery was closed, the monks dispersed, and its economic enterprises seized and collectivized. Yet within two years nothing remained of them: the deer died out, and the acclimatized nurseries degenerated.

The widowed priest Fr Vasily Bystrov—later the late Archimandrite Innokenty of the Novo-Korennaya Hermitage in Mahopac—and the novice Brother Andrei, who had lived at the Shmakovka Monastery, fled to Manchuria four years after its closure, seeking refuge with Bishop Nestor, whom they knew from the bishop’s frequent visits to the Shmakovka Monastery.

Fr Vasily and Brother Andrei, who was soon tonsured a monk with the name Clement, settled in a room next to that of Fr Philaret and the other hieromonk. Fr Vasily and Fr Clement introduced into the monastic community of the House of Mercy, which had thus grown in number, a monastic rule modeled on that of Shmakovka—that is, on the Valaam rule.

The monks rose at 4:30 in the morning. At 5:00 they read the Midnight Office. Then came the Liturgy, which they served in turn. On Mondays and Tuesdays Fr Philaret served; on Wednesdays and Thursdays, his friend; and on Fridays and Saturdays, Fr Vasily Bystrov. On Sundays Bishop Nestor served together with all the clergy of the House of Mercy.

In the evening, after supper, the monks celebrated Compline. At Compline a canon was read, and during the canon an akathist. Their spiritual zeal led these monks to seek out what other prayer services might also be added to those already being performed.

From the end of Compline until the completion of the Midnight Office, all conversation whatsoever was strictly forbidden.

Spiritual fervor is always contagious. Church-loving young men began to gather around the young monks of the House of Mercy and were gradually drawn into monastic life. Some of them received monastic tonsure. By the mid-1930s, the monastic community of the House of Mercy already numbered nine monks.

Among them we should mention Fr Philaret’s close friend, Hieromonk Methodius (in the world, Kirill Iogel), who later became an outstanding preacher and died at a very young age. We should also mention Fr Nil, in the world K. Nosov, a self-sacrificing young man who in 1934–35 secretly crossed into Russia on anti-Communist assignments for Harbin patriotic organizations. He too died very young, after catching a severe chill and contracting tuberculosis because, while returning from one of his visits to Russia, he had been forced to remain sitting in the cold waters of the Amur River in the month of October. We should also mention the Orthodox Chinese priest Fr Elias, who organized a candle factory at the House of Mercy.

In 1932, Fr Philaret, together with the scouts of the Harbin troop, set out on foot for Maoershan Station, 107 kilometers away, where a summer camp was to be established.

The troop covered this distance in three days. On the first day they walked 40 kilometers, on the second 35, and on the third they expected to walk 28 kilometers, because, owing to the difference between versts and kilometers, the scouts had mistakenly been told that the distance from Harbin to Maoershan was 103 kilometers rather than 107.

It was precisely those last extra four kilometers that seemed especially difficult to the young men and children making the journey. The weather was hot and dry.

For a long time there had been neither river nor spring along the way. All the water in their canteens had been drunk. They were tormented by unbearable thirst. Suddenly a little pool of water came into view—a small marsh.

“Fr Philaret,” the children’s voices cried out, “bless the water, and then we’ll drink from the puddle and nothing will happen to us.”

Fr Philaret recited the Our Father and blessed it as “drink for the servants of God.”

The scouts rushed to the water.

“Fr Philaret, I swallowed a tadpole!” cried one little boy.

“It’s all right; the water is blessed. ‘If they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them,’ it says in Scripture,” Scout Semyon, one of the regular attendees at the monastic services of the House of Mercy, explained sagely.

Then, during the last “extra” kilometers before Maoershan Station, when the children were utterly exhausted, sitting down and refusing to get up, suddenly Fr Philaret’s voice was heard, at first softly, singing alone: “Having passed through the water as though it were dry land, and having escaped the evil of Egypt...” The sacred words were immediately taken up by the children, almost half of whom sang in church choirs. A spark of renewed courage passed over their tired faces. They pulled themselves together and, singing the sacred irmoi, made their way to Maoershan Station, where they were met by another work party that had arrived by train.

At the camp, Fr Philaret and his friend, with the help of the scouts, built a field church woven from branches. There they celebrated the monastic services of the Midnight Office and Compline every day, the All-Night Vigil on Saturdays, and the Divine Liturgy on Sundays.

They also went on long hikes with the scouts. Especially interesting was a hike to Mount Maoershan, when they visited an old Chinese Buddhist monastery and found a cave in which they discovered tracks of an ancient saber-toothed tiger—a machairodus—imprinted in the clay.

In addition to the scout camp, Fr Philaret also provided spiritual care for a similar camp belonging to another youth organization that was a rival of the scouts.

Not far from the scout camp there was a large raspberry garden belonging to a Chinese merchant, who invited the scouts into his garden and admitted them for ten cents per person. The children could eat as many raspberries as they wished on the spot, but were not permitted to take any away with them.

One day Fr Philaret went with the children to the raspberry garden. Before beginning to eat the raspberries, Fr Philaret made the sign of the Cross. The boys followed his example, and one of the little Wolf Cubs remarked: “How good it is that the priests are with us; before, we used to gobble up the raspberries without crossing ourselves.”

Seeing how some of the children greedily threw themselves upon the raspberries and began quarreling over them, Fr Philaret said:

“We are now indulging without restraint in these delicious berries, but the ancient Holy Fathers did not regard such things in this way. Once, admirers of a certain holy hermit brought him as a gift a large bunch of ripe, sweet grapes. The holy father thanked those who had brought it, but did not eat it himself; instead, he sent the grapes to a neighboring hermit. He did the same. And all the holy fathers of the desert acted likewise. In the end, the bunch of grapes returned to the first hermit, and he rejoiced that all the hermits of that desert had proved so temperate.”

“And what became of the bunch of grapes?” one scout asked.

“I do not know, but I think the first hermit squeezed the juice from it and used that juice, once it had become wine, to celebrate the Liturgy,” Fr Philaret said.

“So does that mean we are not allowed to eat raspberries?” another little boy asked disappointedly.

“No, children, eat the raspberries and enjoy them. But do not give yourselves over to them with your whole soul. Do not become enslaved either to raspberries or to any other food. Eat with your mouth and stomach, but do not surrender your soul to it. I told you about the ancient hermits, those great heroes of the spirit, not in order to spoil your appetite for raspberries, but to remind you that our teachers and models for life are not those who become enslaved to bodily instincts, but those who knew how to master them—those who did not touch the delicious grapes, although of course they wanted to eat them no less than we want to eat these raspberries, but who knew how to subordinate their desires to the striving for ascetic struggle and to concern for their neighbor. That is what we must learn from them.”

* * *

To a considerable extent under the influence of Fr Philaret, the principal reading in the community of the House of Mercy consisted of the works of the Holy Fathers. The young monks sought to nourish their souls with these holy teachings and radiant examples.

All the monastics of the House of Mercy were deeply impressed by the Holy Fathers’ injunction to be as considerate as possible toward one another. It is related that one of the ancient monks would sometimes sit lounging back with one leg crossed over the other, which was not in keeping with monastic decorum. Not wishing to offend their brother by correcting him directly, yet at the same time desiring to remedy the matter, two holy elders agreed between themselves that one of them would sit lounging back with one leg crossed over the other in the presence of their brother, while the other elder would rebuke him for it. They did so, and the first monk corrected the habit that was unbecoming to the monastic bearing.

A couple of years after the community at the House of Mercy had been established, one of its monks was once reading a secular book. Brother Semyon, whom we have already mentioned, saw this and was troubled. But remembering the patristic injunction concerning considerateness, he walked around the monk who was reading for quite some time and finally asked:

“Fr N., what are you reading?”

“Mowgli, by Kipling.”

“I too, before I began coming to your monastery, used to read useless books.”

* * *

Not all the young men who regularly visited the monastery of the House of Mercy became monks, but all became closely attached to the Church.

In the mid-1930s, the Soviet government sold the Chinese Eastern Railway to Japan. Tens of thousands of Russians employed by the railway were dismissed from their jobs and had to choose whether to leave for the USSR or remain unemployed in Manchuria. Among those who remained were many young people educated in Soviet schools, where they had been instilled with an aversion to the Church and with the conviction that religion was incompatible with science and was a sign of backwardness.

Among these young people, the young monks of the House of Mercy undertook various forms of work, employing the simplest of methods.

Fr Philaret had always been very fond of fishing. Manchuria offered exceptionally rich fishing. On days free from services and other duties, Fr Philaret and the other young monks would invite former Soviet youths to accompany them on fishing trips. Often, around an evening campfire on the picturesque banks of the Sungari River or beside small lakes beyond the river, after heart-to-heart conversations, the spiritual eyes of these young men were opened to the fundamental truths of the Faith.

One day, three such young men, who only recently had been Soviet youths, came to Vespers, which Fr Philaret and his friend were serving. After the service, all five of them were supposed to go on an overnight fishing trip. But unexpectedly, one of the parishioners requested a memorial service after Vespers. The young men who had come would have to wait a while longer.

“Read something here,” the monks told them.

“What is there to read? Everything here is just religious stuff—nothing interesting,” the young men protested listlessly.

Fr Philaret opened the Acts of the Apostles to chapters 27 and 28 and gave it to them to read while the memorial service was being served. Twenty minutes later, after finishing the service, the monks came back to the young men.

“Well, we’re ready. Let’s go fishing.”

“Wait, let us finish reading. This really is interesting.”

And so these young men, who had never before seen Holy Scripture, became acquainted with it.

* * *

In addition to the daily services, the monks of the House of Mercy carried out obediences teaching the Law of God in the orphanage and in various secondary schools in Harbin. At the Aksakov Girls’ Gymnasium, the students later said: “Of all the Law of God lessons we had during those years, the only ones we remember are Fr Philaret’s.”

After becoming a monk and settling at the House of Mercy, Fr Philaret continued to maintain close ties with his father, Archpriest N. Voznesensky, who also soon embraced monasticism with the name Dimitry and became Bishop—and later Archbishop—of Hailar.

Although the House of Mercy and the Iveron Church, where Bishop Dimitry lived, were situated at opposite ends of the city, Fr Philaret often went to visit his father. One day, while returning from Bishop Dimitry’s residence, Fr Philaret encountered a beggar asking for alms for Christ’s sake. Fr Philaret had only ten cents with him—the price of the fare from the Iveron Church to the House of Mercy.

Nevertheless, he gave the ten cents to the beggar and set out on foot himself, a distance of some five or six kilometers—about an hour and a half’s walk at a brisk pace. As he walked, Fr Philaret reflected that it is said that if you give something for Christ’s sake, it will be repaid to you a hundredfold, and yet in actual life things do not seem to happen that way.

Upon returning to the House of Mercy, he remembered that the wedding of two of his spiritual children had been scheduled for that day, and that he was to perform the Crowning service for them. The fees for occasional services at the House of Mercy were placed in a common collection box, from which they were later distributed partly for the support of the orphanage and the home for the elderly, and partly to the clergy.

But on this occasion, after placing the appropriate sum in the collection box, the newlyweds brought Fr Philaret ten dollars, saying:

“Dear Father, please take these ten dollars for yourself personally, as a token of our great love for you.”

Thus, only a few hours after Fr Philaret had given ten cents to the beggar in the name of Christ, he received exactly a hundredfold in return. Coming to his fellow monks, he said sadly:

“For today’s good deed I shall receive nothing in the Kingdom of Heaven, since I have already received my reward in full in this present age.”

* * *

Metropolitan Anthony was still alive in those days. The young monks of the community at the House of Mercy revered and loved without measure the great elder-hierarch, a Father and Teacher of the Church. His works, especially Confession, Pastoral Theology, and A Dictionary to the Works of Dostoevsky, were favorite reading among these young monks. They grew up on the writings of Metropolitan Anthony, became imbued with them as they matured spiritually, and always kept before them the examples found in those works.

And despite the distance of more than 10,000 kilometers, the Metropolitan managed to find these devoted admirers of his. Fr Philaret and one of his friends wrote to Metropolitan Anthony. And though burdened with immense labors and the gravest cares involved in presiding over our long-suffering Church in exile, the aged Metropolitan Anthony found time to reply to these two young monks, who at that time seemed utterly insignificant.

Soon afterward, one of the monks of the House of Mercy—namely, the author of this collection [editor’s note]—had occasion to accompany Bishop Nestor on his journey to the Council of Bishops in Yugoslavia, and there to see Metropolitan Anthony.

Metropolitan Anthony received the young monk with heartfelt paternal love and, with warm solicitude, asked him by name about each of the monks of the community. He questioned him with particular care about Fr Philaret, whom he had singled out from among the others and had come to love with special warmth. Perhaps even then, in 1933, the great hierarch, through his grace-filled spirit, foresaw that the beacon he had kindled in exile would pass into the hands of this very hieromonk, who at that time was still quite young.

In one episode this became especially clear. Shortly before his departure from Yugoslavia, while sitting at table with Metropolitan Anthony, the monk from Manchuria asked the First Hierarch to give him a photograph with an inscription as a keepsake. Metropolitan Anthony readily agreed. His cell-attendant, Archimandrite Theodosius, brought a photograph, and the Metropolitan sat down to write.

The Manchurian monk looked over the Metropolitan’s shoulder and was stunned. Metropolitan Anthony was writing: “To my dear and beloved Hieromonk Philaret, with heartfelt love, Metropolitan Anthony.” Although another young hieromonk was standing right there beside him, scarcely half a meter away, Metropolitan Anthony’s thoughts and heart were directed toward the one whom he had come to know and single out without ever having seen him, from a distance of some ten thousand versts.

Only Fr N.’s disappointed sigh distracted Metropolitan Anthony from his writing. He raised his head, looked affectionately at Fr N., who was standing over him, and said:

“Ah, yes, it is you who need the photograph,” and, taking another copy, he wrote a similar inscription on it.

Thus, across thousands of versts, a thread of spiritual connection was stretched between two grace-filled heads of our holy Church Abroad: between the great hierarch Metropolitan Anthony and our present [third—ed.] First Hierarch, the gracious, meek, and Spirit-bearing Metropolitan Philaret.

 

Russian source:

https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Nafanail_Lvov/ocherk-rannih-let-zhizni-nashego-pervosvjatitelja-mitropolita-filareta/

St. Philaret the New Confessor Recognizes the Priesthood of New Calendar Zealots (1985)

An unpublished letter (note the “Personal / Not for Publication” in the upper right-hand corner) dated October 11/24, 1985, less than a month before St. Philaret fell asleep on Nov. 21, 1985. Addressed to Elder Chrysostomos (Spyrou) of Spetses (+2014).

 

 

Q: What does he say to Fr. Chrysostomos in general?

A: (from Nikolaos Mannis, holder of the letter)

Three things mainly:

1. He praises him for his Confession

2. He consoles him for his persecutions

3. He recognizes his Priesthood (he had been ordained by a “New Calendarist / Ecumenist”)

* * *

On Elder Chrysostomos, written by the respected clergyman of the G.O.C., Hieromonk Nikephoros Nassos:

https://orthodoxmiscellany.blogspot.com/2025/04/when-righteous-are-praised-people.html

And his support by G.O.C. clergy during the time of his persecution:

https://orthodoxmiscellany.blogspot.com/2025/05/trial-of-elder-chrysostomos-spyros-of.html

 

 

 

 

A Prayer to St. Philaret the New Confessor

 

 

O holy Hierarch, our Father Philaret, chosen by God, Confessor of the latter times, First Hierarch of true Orthodoxy, leader and champion, and sure intercessor before God for all Orthodox Christians, thou who standest before the throne of God and prayest for us: beseech the all-bountiful God to grant us forgiveness of our sins, cleansing us from them through repentance. Save us by thy prayers from the snares of the godless; grant us the fear of God, and vouchsafe us to remain faithful children of the Church of Christ unto the end. Strengthen us in the confession of the Faith, that we may not fear persecutions and sufferings, but grant us to stand unshaken for the Orthodox Faith even unto death, as is meet.

We conceal not the many labors and much toil which thou hast endured for the sake of Orthodoxy, but we praise and proclaim thy good deeds: the glorification of the Royal Martyrs and the New Confessors of Russia; the imparting of apostolic succession to true Orthodox Christians throughout the whole world; the anathematizing of the pan-heresy of Ecumenism; and thy unwaveringly rightly dividing the word of Christ’s truth.

Ever seeking thy help, grace, and intercession, we beseech thy prayers and mediation for us, laying this supplication at thy feet.

Cease not to offer prayer unto God, the Lover of mankind, for the little flock of the Orthodox, that He may grant peace unto His Church, delivering her from heresy and schism; that He may deliver us from the darkness of sin and the passions, and from the hidden snares of the evil one; that we may remain unshaken unto death in the confession of holy Orthodoxy, and that we may partake of the holy Body and Blood of the Lord unto the end without condemnation. And after our departure, may we find the Lord gracious and merciful, by Whom we were created, and live, and have our being; unto Whom are due all glory, praise, honor, and worship, together with His unoriginate Father and His all-holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

 

- Closing prayer from the “Akathist to St. Philaret (Voznesensky),” composed by Nun Kassia (Senina), translated from the original Russian. 

 

 

 

St. Philaret the New Confessor (+1985): On How a Person Attains Salvation

 

The Holy Fathers are unanimous in saying that man is saved by a combination of both God’s grace and one’s own efforts. Of course, the most important factor is Divine grace, as Apostle Peter said at the apostolic council, “We hope to be saved by God’s grace.” Without God’s grace all our human efforts are in vain. Man is powerless, unbalanced, inconsistent, and under the influence of sin. When he tries to struggle with his own failings and sins, thinking that he is able to overcome sin by himself, it turns out that just at the crucial moment of struggle, his sin-loving heart yields to that sin, and he is not the victor, but instead is overcome and gives in to the very sin against which he was struggling. Generally speaking, without God’s grace none of our efforts bring any kind of fruit. On the other hand, Divine grace alone does not save a person without his individual efforts.

The Lord did everything necessary for our salvation. He took care of everything on His end to save us, and if it were up to Him Alone, we would all be saved without exception. But at the same time, He wished that man would avail himself of the fruits of the mission that He accomplished, so that besides the gift of His grace, man would bring to bear his own efforts as well. And so, when a person labors and tries to follow a Christian way of life and, realizing his weakness, does not depend exclusively on his own efforts, but calls upon God’s grace for help, then he is saved. Salvation is accomplished through his struggles and efforts together with the indispensable action of God’s grace. We must remember one thing that the Holy Fathers always emphasized: help from God’s grace does not PRECEDE our labors, but follows AFTER them. As long as man himself does not make an effort, the Lord will not act either. But when a man starts making an effort, then the Lord will help him. For good reason, the Lord says through His Old Testament prophet, “Son, bring forth your effort, and I will bring Mine.” When a man becomes weak from struggling, then God’s grace makes up for what is lacking and supports him when the person feels powerless.

As St. Theophan the Recluse says, ultimately it is up to the person himself and the use of his free will. Once before we brought up the example of St. Theophan writing to a person who said, “Vladyka, I realize that I am sinful, and I want to correct myself. Pray that I can begin to improve.” St. Theophan replied, “My friend, unless you make the effort and take the resolve, it will not help if not only I, a sinner, but even the whole universe prays for you. You yourself have to turn away from sin and do good. When you embark upon this path, then the Lord will help and our prayers will support you. The grace of God will renew you, but not in such a way that it acts in your stead. It will follow your efforts and act inconspicuously, in a hidden way, helping you when you start getting weak.”

And so, remember that the salvation of the human soul is attained by the combination of a person’s own efforts and struggles and Divine grace. Without grace, his efforts give him nothing in return. He cannot persevere without the help of grace. However, unless a person makes an effort, the Lord is not going to force salvation on him. He will help only when a person himself works for the salvation of his soul. Amen.

 

Original Russian source: Sermons and Teachings of Metropolitan Philaret, Volume I (Flushing: Russian Orthodox Youth Committee, 1989), 237–238.

English source: Saint Philaret of New York: His Collected Works, compiled by Subdeacon Nektarios Harrison, Orthodox Traditionalist Publications, 2024, pp. 294-295.

 

Letter of Metropolitan Philaret of New York to Priest Gleb Yakunin

Dated April 1/14, 1979

Beloved in Christ, Father Gleb,

With attention and love, we have read a lot that is written by you and your friends in defense of the Orthodox Church and that makes it out of Russia. We deeply appreciate your dedication and your courage in exposing various negative traits of the church life around you.

You do not need our praise for doing that, because, as you make the feat of confession, exposing yourself to various dangers, God knows the price of your labors and He Himself will reward you according to your merits.

We understand the difficulties of your position and, together with all the children of the persecuted Russian Church, experience that same loneliness in the surrounding world, but we are not surprised of all that, for the Savior Himself foretold us, “In the world you will have tribulation” (Jn 16:33). The same should be expected, especially in the current period of apostasy in human history.

For more than half a century, we have been crying out to the surrounding world, trying to draw its attention to the plight of our people and to warn other peoples, so that they do not become victims of the same ills. Rarely do we find a positive response, but we do not lose our heart because of that.

However, we have a duty to tell you something in which we disagree with you.

When a person experiences severe distress, he is often willing to ask for help from anyone around him, without distinguishing whether they are of the same faith as him or not. This is only acceptable in legal or material matters. The history and the tradition of the Orthodox Church do not tell us of any cases where hope was placed not on the intercession of the Theotokos and of the saints of God, but on those who are alien to our church and sometimes are even enemies of Her.

Generally, in our relationship with those who belong to the non-Orthodox confessions, it is necessary to be especially careful that, in our desire to obtain their sympathy and support, we do not get close to that which separates them from Orthodoxy.

Not so long ago, you stretched out your hands for help and protection to the Protestants, represented by the World Council of Churches during its World Conference in Nairobi. The news about this spread widely, but there was no appropriate response. That did not surprise us at all. We know from experience that the Protestant world is often more inclined to believe the assurances of the Moscow Patriarchate on the complete well-being of religion in the Soviet Union, rather than the most convincing evidence of the terrible persecution of the Faith by the atheists.

Moreover, such conferences, instead of helping the faithful, have recently decided to provide significant financial assistance to the communist guerrillas in Africa, who were brutally killing Christian missionaries, and sometimes entire families with their children.

Should we be turning to such traitors of Christianity for help?

What especially saddened us, however, was your appeal to the Pope.

All that you write there about Metropolitan Nikodim is true. But, because he was betraying his Church to atheists when he fell down dead at the feet of the Pope, he was not asking the Pope for help for Orthodoxy, but was just telling him something important about new steps toward the betrayal of Orthodoxy, something which the Pope hesitated to declare publicly, calling his message “secret”.

You write about the “care of the throne of Rome” for the Christians of Russia. But, after all, this care is not about preserving and spreading Orthodoxy, but about turning our people toward Catholicism. We hear and know of the existence of a religious thirst among the Russian people, but can we thank those who, for the purpose of satisfying that thirst, send us something poisoned by heresy? About such persons like them the Savior warned us: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mt 10:28).

The age-old dream of the Vatican to seduce the Russian people to Catholicism remains in full force, and now it only takes a new form under the cover of so-called “ecumenism”, this new and most dangerous heresy, introducing the Christian world to the religion of the Antichrist.

In the hope of a new Unia, even wider than the former one, the Vatican was reconciled with the accession of the Uniates to the Moscow Patriarchate. The Vatican hopes that in one form or another, they will ultimately return to its bosom.

Meanwhile, in your appeal to the Pope, you express the wish that “religious literature and radio broadcasts that would allow simple Orthodox believers to get closer acquainted with the Catholic Church, to overcome many prejudices, to discover and to fall in love with the saints of Catholicism, their spirituality, the Catholic church life and its unique features” – be more readily sent to Russia. In other words, you are asking that, instead of the true faith of Christ, something be spread among our people which the holy fathers and teachers of the Orthodox Church, and in particular Russian hierarchs and ascetics, have always recognized as false teachings. To people who have barely tasted the faith and have not yet been entrenched in it, you want to offer the temptation of heterodoxy, for the understanding of which they have neither knowledge nor experience.

I want you to know that for such a kind of appeal there cannot be any blessing from the genuinely Orthodox bishops of the Russian Church, because the appeal is alien to Her interests. To the Russian people, poisoned by atheism, you offer not a cure, but another poison. While condemning the activities of Metropolitan Nikodim, you are taking the road traveled by him, for he was promoting Unia with Catholicism in its new, semi-Protestant form.

In your person I want to communicate to everyone else who tends to the faith in Russia: “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the child of man, for there is no help in them” (Ps 146:3). Seek help in prayers to the Most Holy Theotokos, the saints and the New Martyrs of the Russian Church. Especially preserve the purity of your orthodoxy and remember that the attempt of the Byzantines to save themselves from the Turkish invasion by an agreement with Catholicism did not bring any help, but only damaged the Greeks. Faith is preserved and distributed not by the compromises inherent in politics, but by jealously guarding its purity and strength.

In your appeal to the Pope, you have expressed a lot of good and correct ideas, but your compromise with Western misconceptions undermines the importance and value of what you have written. Seek help for our Church not in the questionable teachings of the West, expounded and interpreted in so many different ways, but in prayers to the miracle-working icons revealed to our people, so that the Most Holy Theotokos may once again be favorable disposed to make our country her home.

Concerning Fatima and the predictions made there, in the West, there were different versions.

According to the official version, the Theotokos talked about the “conversion” of Russia, only if Russia was to be dedicated to Her Immaculate Heart. Allegedly, the visions of Lucia [1] from 1929 were about such a dedication. The Pope was reminded repeatedly about these; however, he did not pay attention to them (obviously not without a reason) and did not refer to the Fatima phenomenon, even when later on he consecrated Russia to the Heart of the Mother of God. Already many years after he was told about Fatima, on February 1930, Pope Pius XII dedicated the Russian people not to the Theotokos, but to St. Teresa of the Infant Jesus of Lisieux. Only in 1942 did Pope Pius XII dedicate the whole world, and not Russia, to the Theotokos. It was only in 1952, 35 years after the Fatima phenomenon, that he dedicated Russia to Her, but he did this alone, and not “with all the bishops of the world”, as he should have done it if he had believed the report of Lucia about her former visions. In doing this, he referred not to Lucia and her vision, but to “the many urgent petitions sent to him” from the faithful. It should also be noted that in the view of Catholics, Fatima represents the dream of converting Russia to Catholicism, and not at all the return of the Russian people to Orthodoxy. Also, remember that you must be servants and children of the Orthodox Church, and not of some mixed Orthodox-Catholic ecumenical denomination.

Only for a purely Orthodox confession do you have our blessing.

Not knowing how to deliver this letter to you, I publish it in print, with the hope that one way or another it will reach you.

May the Lord keep you!

 

[1] Lucia Dos Santos from the Apparitions at Fatima, Portugal – translator’s note.

 

Russian source: Pravoslavnaya Rus', no. 12, 1979.

English source: https://www.rocorstudies.org/2024/10/27/__trashed-3/

 

St. Philaret of New York: Faithfulness to the Truth

 

I would like to say a few words to you concerning the temptation which is spreading everywhere like a wide flooding river. This is the temptation of the so-called ecumenism, which urges all people to unite, regardless of whatever faith they may profess; uniting everyone, in order to create what they call the true church of Christ. I wish to briefly draw your attention to the following: those who urge us to participate in this ecumenism say: every church, every denomination possesses a certain portion of Christianity, of the truth of Christ, therefore every denomination is obligated to contribute its portion of the truth into this common spiritual treasury and in this manner one church will be created. In other words, it is proposed to every denomination that they acknowledge that their faith is not completely true, but only in some part, while the rest, being falsehood and in error, must be rejected upon entering into this artificial union. But one must be completely aware of what is being required of us through this appeal to join ecumenism. Here is what we are required to do: we must declare that we only possess a portion of the truth, as they said; this means that our Faith is not completely true, not all Orthodox teachings are Truth, but merely some part, the rest being in error.

Which Orthodox person would agree to recognize that in his holy Orthodox faith something is amiss, that it is only partly just and true? Never will any firm Orthodox Christian conscience accept this. Nowadays people's consciences have become too flexible when they agree to many things such as this, which a Christian conscience must not accept. Who among us would agree to accept that in our Faith something is incorrect? In that case, what would holy St. Seraphim of Sarov and the holy righteous batushka Father John of Kronstadt, who lived according to this Faith, who glorified it and rejoiced in it then say to us? And then, what would they say to us if we started to say that not all is correct in this Faith? They would repudiate with indignation not only our words but us as well.

So let us remember, that already for this reason alone it is impossible for us to enter into this ecumenism. Our Orthodox Church knows that She stands in the Truth. She offers this Truth to everyone; She reveals it to all; She does not conceal it within Herself hidden away, unknown to others, but invites all to recognize this Truth. But She can never deny this Truth, nor will She ever deny it, nor will She ever recognize Her Truth to be falsehood and agree to this madness.

Therefore, for us there can be no place where there is talk of ecumenism, because its attractive exterior side nonetheless covers up that falsehood about which I just told you. Remember well, beloved ones: our Orthodox Church possesses the entire fullness of Truth, and not some mere portion of it.

The Orthodox Church maintains the Christian Faith the same as the holy apostles passed it down to us.

Even the Catholics agree that it is primarily in the Orthodox Faith that everything is preserved just as it was during the holy apostles' time. They merely defend their innovations, and in not recognizing these we carefully persevere in preserving that which the holy apostles and holy fathers have given us as our most precious inheritance. And we must never agree to enter into such company where we would be told: you have only a portion of the truth and all the rest is in error.

Let them go their own way, if they do not wish to recognize that we possess the complete, pure Truth -that is their business, and we cannot go along with them. The Orthodox Church carries Her sacred contents, Her Faith, and will thus carry it through until the end of the existence of the human race here on earth. Therefore, let us thank God even more and appreciate that we are the children of the Russian Church Abroad, the Church which has made it its goal to preserve inviolate our holy faith, our primordial Russian, Orthodox piety, and to preserve it in that form in which our pious ancestors preserved it, and to carry this pure glad tiding until the day for which we all hope. That blessed day will come when the Lord will have mercy on the Russian land and Russian people, and piety will be enthroned there, as it once had been in Holy Rus'. But while we live this lot in exile, while we belong to this Russian Church Abroad, I repeat again, let us thank the Lord for this and try to be true to Her in every way.

These days, frequently a person falls away because of worldly reasons, because of earthly benefits, seeking earthly well-being. But which Orthodox person does not remember that no matter what a person may seek or strive for, death will put an end to it all, and beyond death lies having to answer before the Divine Truth, answering the foremost question - were you faithful to the Lord Savior, the Divine Establisher of the Church, and to His Holy Church and Her Truth? And if we preserve this faithfulness, then our lot in eternity will be blessed, and if not, we will face inescapable grief and sorrow.

Let us also remember how inconsistent a human is in pursuing good, and therefore let us pray to the Lord, that by His omnipotent power, Hе make us steadfast in preserving the purity of the Truth and steadfast in goodness, so that we may not succumb to any contemporary enticements. How full of all sorts of things is our current life! All types of vain activity, all filth and shamelessness! How much malice, falsehood, how many lies and deception there are!

Life has now become difficult; life has become perverted and filthy as never before; and it is difficult for a Christian to pave his narrow path amongst all this vain commotion and filth of which life is now full. And since we are unstable, for we easily succumb to temptation, since we are not firm in goodness, we must beseech the Lord that the Lord strengthen us, so that we are not merely called, but that we be genuine Orthodox Christians. Amen.

 

Russian source: Sermons and Teachings of His Eminence Metropolitan Philaret, First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, vol. I, published by the Russian Orthodox Youth Committee in honor of his 50th anniversary of ordination (1931-1981), pp 18-21. It is noteworthy that this is the first sermon printed in the book, rather as if it were a basic position statement.

English source: Living Orthodoxy, Vol. XXX, No. 3; May-June 2010, #177, pp. 17-18.

Metropolitan Philaret of New York: The Guardian of the Lord’s House

Protopriest Alexei Mikrikov (+2023)

Assigned to Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, NY

Translated from the Russian by Eugenia Chisholm and verified against the original published in Volume 2791 of Nasha Strana, March 2006; there are some variances in versions published on various websites. Published in Living Orthodoxy by St. John of Kronstadt Press.

 

 

Some History

Beginning in 1945, Archimandrite Philaret (Voznesensky), subsequently the First Hierarch of ROCOR, and the entire Far East diocese, were being forced to enter the Moscow Patriarchate, since at the time the Soviet army had occupied China and established total Soviet control.

The Soviet power immediately branded all Russian émigrés “enemies of the people” and, within half a year, had arrested 50,000 people, including the young and elderly. All fifty thousand Harbin residents were transported to the USSR. Beyond Atpor Station, fourteen thousand of them were executed; the remaining thirty-six thousand were sent to concentration camps where they were starved as described in the book Father Arseny. It is assumed that they all perished in concentration camps. (Among those killed were people such as K. Rodzaevsky, together with his Fascists, as well as people from Osano who collaborated with the Japanese.) Every third young man in Harbin was seized by the Soviet forces, taken to the USSR, and annihilated in a concentration camp. The Soviet totalitarian regime annihilated them because of their Orthodoxy, for refusing to recognize the sergianist heresy, which teaches conscientious submission to the theomachists.

Overall, the Soviet regime killed around seventy million Orthodox people, destroyed more than thirty thousand churches, confiscated land and property. It committed the genocide of the Russian Orthodox people, caused civil war, blasphemed God, and ripped out the people’s faith in God through fear and terror. Who could obey such a regime in good conscience and collaborate with it?

The remaining Russian residents of Harbin were forced to accept Soviet citizenship. However, Archimandrite Philaret openly refused to do this. Also, when he served divine liturgy he never commemorated the Soviet regime. He delivered thundering sermons on truth and falsehood, after listening to which it seemed to us that these were the final days of his life. He openly served panikhidas for the murdered Tsar Nicholas II and his entire Royal Family, and said in his sermons that the most important thing about the Great Martyr Tsar was that he had the mind of Christ and therefore could not be brainwashed and did not have the perfidious spirit of anti-Christ that had gripped all of Russia. He also brought together young people for meetings at which he explained the teaching of Christ.

Father Philaret Under Torture

The city of Harbin, Manchuria had been occupied by the Japanese from 1904 to 1945. The Japanese tried with all their might to hold onto this Chinese province, since it provided enormous material advantages to Japan and gave access to the mainland, which made Japan strong in an international military-political sense. But the Russian émigrés were a problem for the Japanese because of their unique non-Asian mentality. With the aim of using young Russians for military purposes, the Japanese first attempted to stamp out that social-religious mentality of our émigrés. With this objective they positioned an idol of the goddess Amateresa across the road from the St. Nicholas Cathedral, so that Russian people arriving for services would first bow in the direction of the idol before entering the cathedral to worship God.

Metropolitan Melety reacted immediately: he issued an epistle in which he explained that it was impermissible to bow to the idol. Then the Japanese began to accuse Metropolitan Melety and the clergy of committing acts against their authority.

Archimandrite Philaret objected particularly resolutely to the Japanese. Then the Japanese seized him and began to torture him. They cut open his cheek and almost gouged out one eye, but he tolerated the torture. Then the main torturer told Father Philaret: “We have an instrument fired by electricity, through the use of which everyone has agreed to comply with our demands, and you will comply too.” (Father Philaret told me personally about this.)

The torturer brought the red-hot electrical instrument. Then Father Philaret prayed to Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker with the words: “Saint Nicholas, help me; otherwise, there may be a betrayal.” The time for torture arrived. The torturer undressed him to the waist and began to burn his back with the red-hot iron. And, oh — a miracle occurred! Father Philaret could smell the burnt flesh, but felt no pain. His soul was joyful. The torturer could not understand why he was silent and not shouting and writhing from unbearable pain. Then the torturer turned and looked at Father Philaret’s face. When he saw his face, he knew he had been defeated. He waved his arms and muttered something in his Asian language and ran away, defeated by this super-human strength of endurance.

No one could endure such sufferings without the help of Christ God. But the suffering was so intense that he was close to death. Father Philaret, who was near death, was given to his relatives to be cared for. At this point in his account he grew silent. Later on he told me: “I was in veritable hell.” But God did not allow him to die. The wounds healed; only his eye remained somewhat displaced. The Japanese no longer wished to claim the bows of the Orthodox people. Until now I had not told everything that I had heard from Father Philaret, since I thought that everyone knew about these things.

Sergianism as Paganism

As young people living in China under the Soviet regime, experiencing violence and the fear of death, we quickly understood its anti-Christ nature. We realized that if God did not stop it that it would spiritually break all the people, making them zombies and forcing them to serve world evil.

It became clear that in his 1927 Declaration Metropolitan Sergius, on the advice of flesh and blood, out of fear of losing his life, having fallen into delusion, called everyone to in conscience obey the Soviet regime and collaborate with it. If the Lord said, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36), then in his Declaration, Metropolitan Sergius was attempting to save people’s bodies, ignoring the eternal damage to their souls. This was precisely the pagan understanding of good and evil. This was precisely the betrayal and gross sin which Metropolitan Melety and Father Philaret in the Far East diocese and Father Arseny, “with many people” in Russia, feared to commit.

But in attempting to save the bodies of people according to the pagan method, Metropolitan Sergei doomed one third of Russia to the obliteration of both human bodies and souls — for through his Declaration he permitted the Soviet regime to officially classify those who did not accept it as political criminals. Is this not the greatest crime committed by the supreme church authority, before God and before the Church?

I realized that the anathema pronounced by the Holy Patriarch Tikhon against the Soviet godless authority and its collaborators is indeed God’s might condemning the Soviet regime and all its collaborators. Are not the words of Christ God, that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for these to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, applicable to the sergianists who committed this gross mistake and sin?

Then the answer to the question “what then is sergianism?” became clear to me. It is the encoding of the Orthodox consciousness with the pagan understanding of good and evil, through violence and morbid fear instilled in the population by the Soviet regime, with the aid of the supreme church authority. This is not a comforting answer, but it is one derived from the personal reality of life and the clear example of the life and service in the Russian Orthodox Church of Archimandrite Philaret.

Father Philaret and Metropolitan Melety, together with all the clergy, did not bow down before the idol of the goddess Amaterasa — but Metropolitan Sergius bowed down before the godless regime, leading all the clergy and people into error and sin.

After the Declaration the clergy changed. Father Arseny used to say: “What could the people glean from such pastors? What kind of an example are they? We raised our people poorly for we did not instill in them the deep foundation of Faith. Remember all of this! Remember it! This is why our people so quickly forgot us, their servants; they forgot the Faith and took part in the destruction of churches.” Father Philaret’s path was different. He rejected sergianism, did not collaborate with the regime… and he was esteemed as a leader of great spiritual authority by the Russian émigrés of Harbin.

An Attempt on the Life of the Confessor

Then, in October 1960, the Soviet régime, brimming with malice, decided to annihilate him through fire. This is how it happened: one night in the wee hours of Sunday, Archimandrite Philaret was awakened at about 2:00 am by a strange odor in his house, so he walked through into the parlor, in the corner of which was a storeroom. As he related, from under the door of the store-room a pungent, sharp-smelling smoke was pouring out. He went straight to the bathroom and poured water into a basin, returned to the storeroom and, having opened the door, he splashed the water in the direction of the origin of the smoke. Suddenly there was a loud explosion accompanied by intense fire. The fire burned him and the shock wave of the explosion pushed him with great force, lifting him and throwing him across the entire parlor and pushed him against the exterior door. Fortunately, the door opened outward. The impact of his flying body tore off the hinges, and he fell on the ground, deafened but alive. When he came to, he saw the house burning like a torch. Archimandrite Philaret realized that a thermic bomb had exploded which burned down the house in mere minutes.

That same night a certain Zinaida Lvovna, a member of the sisterhood of the church and Mercy House, had walked out of her home which was across the street from the church at around midnight. She saw fire trucks standing in the street near the church, but there was no fire. Such an incomprehensible and unusual accumulation of firefighting vehicles surprised her. Around two hours later, when the sound of the exploding bomb woke her, she immediately went out on the street and saw the house almost completely burned, [the remains of] which the firefighters were extinguishing. Meanwhile, Archimandrite Philaret was standing on the front steps of the church, shivering from cold, suffering from severe burns and contusion. Zinaida Lvovna immediately understood that the fire had been set by the Soviet authority with the purpose of killing Father Philaret. She quickly crossed the road and invited him into her house.

But the Chinese chief fireman, seeing that Archimandrite Philaret was alive, accused him of setting the fire and wanted to arrest him. However, the astute Zinaida Lvovna quickly turned to the Chinese authority and said: “It appears that you positioned your firetrucks in advance, knowing that a fire would break out? Who informed you in advance about the fire?”

The fire chief was at a loss for words and could not provide an answer. Meanwhile, Zinaida Lvovna and Archimandrite Philaret reached her house, in which there was a room without any windows. She situated Archimandrite Philaret in there, for she knew that the Soviet killers could penetrate a window and kill him.

The next day, Sunday, some young people came early for service, but the church was closed and the house where the rector had lived was burned to the ground. I managed to meet Zinaida Lvovna and found out from her what had happened that night. I asked for permission to see Father Philaret.

At first glance I saw Father Philaret in a state of utter physical exhaustion and pain. His burnt cheek was dark brown. But the expression in his eyes revealed firm submission to the will of God and a joyful fearlessness in service to Him and the Orthodox people. I went numb from the unexpectedness of this sight, for it was immediately obvious that he was a hair from death. Yet he avoided death by some miracle. And suddenly I hear his greeting:

“S’prazdnikom” (Greeting on the feast — tr.). He said this greeting the same way people say “Christ is Risen!” on Pascha. Tears flowed from my eyes instead of a response. I had not cried since I was a child. But here, a 20-year old grown man, I stood on my knees before him without speaking, tears streaming, and kissed his right hand.

I then understood that he, like the fourth Babylonian youth, had become a Man of Fire who did not burn up in the Chinese thermic oven of the 20th century, stoked by the theomachist Krushchev, seventy times greater than the one fired up by Nebuchadnezzar in the sixth century BC. It became clear that the grace of God had saved Father Philaret for his firm and fearless fulfillment of Holy Patriarch Tikhon’s commandment.

Two months passed. He began serving again, and within half a year was able to live independently in the mezzanine over the church. But suddenly he moved back to Zinaida Lvovna’s. We were told in confidence that one day Archimandrite Philaret had returned to his cell after service, opened the door with his key and entered. But suddenly he saw the tips of enormous shoes protruding from under the drapes. Realizing that a murderer sent by the Soviet régime stood there, he walked over to his dresser, pretending to take something from it, and quickly walked out of his cell, locking the door. After this episode a man from the Chinese police came to Zinaida Lvovna’s and asked why Archimandrite Philaret doesn’t spend the night in his cell. She immediately understood the situation and answered that he was physically weak and exhausted.

Not long afterwards, Father Philaret, through spiritual discernment, discovered a picture of satan under the altar table in the church at Mercy House. The picture was immediately removed. The Soviet authority did not know how to aggravate or mock a man with apostolic boldness and faith which made him the bearer of the invincible grace of God.

Having passed through all temptations, having passed through fire and water in the spiritual and literal sense, Archimandrite Philaret had received a gift from God: no matter who turned to him with any request, by his prayers God satisfied the request of the petitioner. After his death this gift has been magnified.

More Attempts on His Life

In 1961 Archimandrite Philaret moved to Australia, where he again entered the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. But apparently, a mitred protopriest said on November 2, 2003, he first offered his “repentance” and only then was consecrated Bishop of Brisbane. Of what did this “repentance” consist if he had never accepted the mistakes of sergianism, if he had never recognized the evil war against God by the Soviet regime as good, if he had always been faithful to the Church, the true homeland and the people?

There was a third attempt on his life in the 1970s, on Pascha, when he had already become Metropolitan and First Hierarch of ROCOR and lived in the USA. But the attempt was unsuccessful.

A fourth attempt was made on a ship, when Metropolitan Philaret was returning from France after a visit to the Lesna Convent. On the return voyage an unusual phenomenon occurred in the ship’s boiler: suddenly, in the middle of the day, such an intense fire started up in the boiler that the smoke stack became white-hot. The ship’s captain, seeing no way to diminish the intensity of the fire, which threatened to melt the smoke stack (thus fire would engulf the entire ship and devour all its passengers), came at this critical moment to Vladika Philaret and asked him to pray, for, according to his view, only God could save the ship and passengers. Vladika Philaret heard what the captain had to say and immediately began to pray to God. Between ten to twenty minutes later the smoke stack had cooled to red; within the hour it was once again black. God had granted them salvation! The captain came to Metropolitan Philaret, kissed his hand and emotionally thanked him for his prayers… Now let’s ask ourselves, how could the flame have acquired such a catastrophic intensity? Did this happen on its own? Or, just as before, was the evil hand of a KGB agent involved in order to annihilate Vladika?

Since then, almost half a century has passed. I myself have been serving in ROCOR as a priest for more than thirty years. I also have always followed my spiritual father and never commemorated the Soviet regime, nor did I collaborate with it. Therefore, I believe that I have never been under the anathema of the Holy Patriarch Tikhon. But that same mitred protopriest [who alleged Vladyka Philaret’s “repentance”] unabashedly asserts that Metropolitan Philaret and all the “Chinese émigrés” supposedly automatically fell under the anathema of St. Patriarch Tikhon because they happened to be living on territory of the Moscow Patriarchate from 1945 to 1961. How could this be — for they loved Christ God and never betrayed Him, never accepted the mistake of sergianism, and did not collaborate with the Soviet regime?

I protest such inhumane misunderstanding and condemnation. In the beginning of the 21st century do not the incorrupt relics of Metropolitan Philaret prove that God holds him as a saint for his battle against the pagan understanding of good and evil, for not agreeing with the mistake of sergianism, for not collaborating with the godless authority?

If, during the Soviet era, sergianism created a pagan mindset, after the Soviet regime ended this sergianist mindset is already turning into an anti-Christ mindset. Therefore unification must begin with a general condemnation of the error of the supreme church authority at a council of all Moscow Patriarchate and ROCOR bishops. Only after this condemnation would we be able to approach one Chalice of Christ, for oneness of mind would have been achieved.

On the Road Toward Disaster

If the union of ROCOR and the Moscow Patriarchate is made without a preliminary condemnation of the sergianist heresy and anathema against ecumenism, it will lead to a spiritual catastrophe for ROCOR, causing the anathema of St. Patriarch Tikhon to extend onto ROCOR — something which was never the case for Metropolitan Philaret. He was never a cunning slave who lost his personal grace.

If the union occurs without a preliminary condemnation of the sergianist crime and ecumenism, will not the organizers of the unification within ROCOR become co-participants and collaborators of those who crucified Christ God? Will this unification not take place under the carnivorous mockery of the dead Soviet régime and the still living enemies of Christ?

It must also be noted that the glorification of the Holy Tsar Nicholas and all the New Martyrs started in Russia from a copy of the Myrrh-gushing Icon from ROCOR — yet the MP supreme church authority did not want to glorify the Great Martyr Tsar Nicholas and the New Martyrs. The glorification only took place when the supreme church authority could no longer oppose the will of the people or the miraculous sign of the fragrant myrrh streaming from the icon of St. Tsar Nicholas and his royal family.

The Guards of the Lord’s House

Terrifying news is coming out of Russia that Patriarch Alexei II with his hierarchy wish to glorify Patriarch Sergius for his Declaration of 1927, this gross mistake and lie. A certain Sergei Fomin calls Sergius “The Guard of the Lord’s House” in a book with the same title.

Can the supreme church authority of ROCOR accept this without a loss of its own grace and falling under the anathema of St. Patriarch Tikhon? No, it cannot! This is my own conviction; I am not forcing it on anyone, but having taken on this ecclesiological mindset, I cannot reject it even until death.

The 1927 Declaration of Metropolitan Sergius, for the consciousness abroad, is an impassable abyss dividing the MP and the Church in the diaspora even until the Lord’s dread judgment. St. Patriarch Tikhon, Metropolitan Melety, Father Arseny, Father Philaret — these could be called the Guardians of the Lord’s House, but not Sergius under any circumstances.

Regarding Myself

The martyric podvig of Father Philaret had such a strong impact on me that I completely joined his belief and outlook. The number of such faithful was constantly increasing. But I will admit that the fear of pain enslaved me; I was afraid I could not withstand such torture if it happened to me. Upon arriving in Australia, I would have nightmares. It seemed that the Communists were pursuing me; I would run from them and finally wake up in horror with cold sweat on my brow. For approximately thirty seconds I could not get my bearings. But then I would remember I was in Australia and would calm down. This went on for about three years.

I understood well that I was weak and sinful and therefore was afraid to become a priest. I even thought of running away from the Holy Trinity Seminary, where I was studying. But Metropolitan Philaret learned of this. When he saw me next he said to me: “What is this I hear? Watch out, or I’ll box your ears!” Then I completed seminary. I was very fearful of entering the priesthood, which Vladika Theodosy of Australia insisted I do. Before I entered the priesthood, Vladika Philaret phoned me in Australia and blessed me. Then I calmed down.

In Australia, when I was already a priest, I met with Vladika Philaret. Again I said to him: “Vladika Philaret, I won’t endure torture, but I think I could take a bullet if God helps.” He didn’t answer. I understood that he would pray for me not to lose my faith and become a sergianist.