Father Michael, who manages everything. Father Mikhail, who has time for everything - And how did the family react to this
A religious procession dedicated to the 12th anniversary of the acquisition of the relics of Alexy Bortsurmansky took place in the Pilninsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region on Friday, August 17.
More than 400 people took part in it.
The event took place in the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God.
Archimandrite Nektariy (Marchenko), the dean of the Pilniinsky district, Archpriest Mikhail Kozhukhar, the dean of the Pilniinsky district, priest Alexander Magar, the rector of the Church of St. John the Evangelist, priest Sergiy Tugov, the rector of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Transfiguration, priest Dmitry Martynov, came to the service.
The worship service was attended by representatives of the commission for minors and the protection of their rights from the district administration, as well as children from large families and families with children with disabilities.
The visitors also visited the holy spring in the Pilninsky district.
Reference
The holy righteous Alexy Bortsurmansky (Gneushev) was born on May 13 (26), 1762 in the family of a priest. When the time came, his father sent him to a theological seminary - in Nizhny Novgorod. He left it in the twenty-second year and entered into marriage before the priesthood. In the same year, he was ordained a deacon by His Grace Damaskin of Nizhny Novgorod to the Assumption Church in the village of Bortsurmany, Kurmysh district of the Simbirsk province (now the Pilninsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region), and thirteen years later, His Grace Pavel of Nizhny Novgorod was ordained a priest to the same church. Under her, he served until a ripe old age, he was buried near its walls, and now his honest relics rest in it.
For his righteousness, Father Alexei received from God the gift of healing and insight. He also received from God many visions and revelations. One of the visions was recorded by the abbess of the Arzamas monastery Maria, whom Father Alexei respected very much and to whom he told about himself what he did not reveal to other people. Here is how she says: “During a dangerous illness, when this righteous old man was lying on his bed with great patience, he was honored to hear such sweet singing that no human language can convey, and the Queen of Heaven herself with the Great Martyr Barbara, robes in white robes , visited her suffering servant and without any doctors made him healthy.
Father Alexei himself also wrote down his visions and revelations, and his notes say that one night the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him in royal clothes, who came from heaven, and blessed him. Next to Christ were three virgins in white robes, that is, three virtues: Faith, Hope and Love. The Queen of Heaven also appeared from heaven, and he heard a voice that said: “This is My only begotten Son, the Son of God.”
During the French invasion, in 1812, Father Alexei prayed at Mass that the Lord would grant Russia victory over the enemy, and suddenly he saw an Angel sent by God, who announced to him that the powers of heaven had moved to help, that the enemy would be crushed and that he would rejoice all Russia.
On February 14, 1814, at the Divine Liturgy, it was announced to him from the Angel of the Lord that from that day on he began to undergo angelic service (apparently, these words meant that God accepted the service of the saint as monastic, equal to the angel, although he did not take monastic vows ), and that same night, in a dreamy vision, he worshiped at the altar Jehovah and fire and inexpressible light, God Himself.
Nine years before his death, Father Alexei left the staff and handed over his place to Father Pavel Vigilyansky, who was married to his granddaughter from his eldest daughter Nadezhda. Having handed over his place, he also handed over all the cares of the house and household to Father Pavel and no longer entered into them. He himself moved to a small cell built under the same roof as the house. In this cell there was one window, always curtained, which overlooked the church. Having removed all worldly troubles from himself, the crumpled one indulged in a feat of prayer. The household did not disturb him in solitude and came only in those rare cases when their services were required.
Text: Corr. Julia Gorshkova
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There is no future without the past. Respect for the monuments of antiquity, respect for the faith of one's ancestors is one of the sides of a person's moral characteristics. It allows the younger generation to feel like heirs of the past and realize their responsibility to the future.
The Nizhny Novgorod land is full of priceless monuments of culture and history, without which the thread that links generations together would be broken. Our ancestors preserved a lot for us, and it is important not to break this thread, stretching it into the future.
Come to the temple! Don't be lazy!
Candles buy wax,
Pray for yourself
And for everyone, for everyone else
Our Orthodox brothers
Who lay down in his native land ...
The sky is enough to pray
Because God is in the sky!
(Nikolai Melnikov. Excerpt from the poem "Russian Cross").
House of God... That's what Christians call it temple or church- a special house dedicated to God.
Orthodox Church you will notice at first sight. The appearance of the temple is very different from ordinary buildings. Strict charm and grace of lines, light, joyful coloring of the building, and high above sparkle with gold, reflecting the vault of heaven, elegant domes.
Church they usually put it on an elevated place so that it could be seen from everywhere, so that the ringing of its bells could be heard far, far away. Orthodox churches are built with the altar to the east, where the sun rises. For for believers Lord- the light itself is unfading. Even in prayers they call Jesus Christ « the sun of truth».
Most often, at its base, the temple is arranged in the form of a cross. This means that it is dedicated to the Lord crucified on the cross. From above, the building of the temple usually ends with a dome, embodying the sky. At the top, the dome ends with a dome on which a cross is placed. Often, not one, but several chapters are built on the temple.
Church of the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God of my native village Nikitino, the history of which I want to tell, has five domes. Five domes, one of which rises above the others, symbolize Jesus Christ and the four evangelists.
Temple in our village it was founded in 1904 . It was built very thoroughly and painstakingly, for a total of about 10 years. It took only three years to lay the foundation; for strength, chicken eggs were laid in it, which were collected from the population.
The first service in it took place in 1914 on Pokrov, October 14th. Each temple is dedicated to God and bears the name of one or another event of religious life or a saint. That is why our temple is named after Protection of the Holy Mother of God.
For about 30 years, services were held in the church, weddings, funerals, baptisms. The bell ringing of the church carried far beyond the village. Beauty amazed people. On Sundays and on religious holidays, the whole village gathered for church services.
But other times came and in 1936 the temple was closed. It was not only closed, but it can be said that it was destroyed, the crosses were removed from the domes, the bells were taken away. Icons in the village council heated the stove, only a small part of them survived.
Believers hid images at home at their own peril and risk. For more than 70 years, a collective farm warehouse and a mill were located in the Temple. Pigeons firmly settled under the arch, and the wind was noisy. The temple looked at the village with empty eyes.
In 2004, at the initiative of the leadership of the SPK them. Kirov was an attempt to restore the Temple. They partially took out the garbage, covered the domes with iron, whitewashed the outside, inside the walls were plastered in some places.
Watching the repair of the Temple, people rejoiced that soon the bell ringing would again be heard in their village. But their hopes were not justified and soon the repair of the building was stopped. It was painful to watch how the monument of spirituality perishes.
Two years ago, the villagers decided to take up the revival of the Temple in earnest. First, they dismantled the mill that was in it. Then they began to take out the garbage, it accumulated 20 cars. Pigeons were expelled, windows were covered with polycarbonate.
Not only adults came to clean the Temple, but also schoolchildren under the guidance of teachers. Subbotniks in the church became regular. Our temple is very large, it has three limits. We decided to restore at least one of them.
They finished and insulated part of the Temple, made an altar so that it would be possible to conduct services in the winter. The surviving capsule with holy relics turned out to be in the altar. They whitewashed the vault, inserted plastic windows, brought icons.
The dean of the Pochinkovsky district, father Mikhail Kozhukhar, gave his blessing for a good deed and seemed to inspire hope. Although the repair has not yet been completed, there are scaffolding inside, but sometimes on holidays, with the permission of the priest, services are held in the Temple.
Every time more and more people come to the service. People believed that by joint efforts it was possible to bring the Temple back to life.
Studying the literature on our topic, we learned that in terms of their architecture there are only three such Temples as ours in the Nizhny Novgorod region. (I also learned that the Temples of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the territory of our country were built in 1937).
It was built in the Byzantine Baroque style. Architecture is often referred to as music in stone or frozen music. Perhaps these words arose precisely when a person looked at a beautiful, majestic temple.
Inside the Temple, beautiful stucco remains on the walls in some places, it is a pity that only separate fragments have been preserved. Previously, the vaults were finished with painting, but it has been lost forever. Remains of wooden steps, ascent to the kliros, have been preserved. He walked along the wall.
They say that when the singers sang, they were breathtaking. The acoustics inside are extraordinary, as the inside of the temple is very large. In general, when you are inside the building, you get the feeling that the temple has a soul ... That it is not just an architectural structure, but a living organism. He has a soul, it remains to bring him into a divine form.
... At what age can you turn your life around 180 degrees? In any.
Mikhail Innokentiev, a federal treasury specialist from Verkhnevilyuisk, experienced this turn at the age of 44: having received a fateful offer to become a priest from Bishop Roman of Yakutia and Lena, he was not afraid to answer “yes”. And thus, probably, once again confirmed the well-known: there is nothing accidental in this life ...
However, the most interesting thing is that Father Mikhail manages to combine his ministry with secular service in the regional department of the Federal Treasury Administration for the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Moreover, his parishioners do not see any contradictions in this. And, no wonder why.
After all, a priest appeared in Verkhnevilyuysk for the first time since 1925!
Fourth
- I always wanted to understand why a person is born into the world? I read thick philosophical books, but after them only more questions were added, - says father Mikhail. –– And then the USSR collapsed and there was no ideology in the country at all. It seems like universal freedom, but it’s not clear where to go ...
The 90s of the last century turned out to be a time of great human tragedies for our country and no less great spiritual quests. Yakutia was not spared by these processes. It was then that literature about God and faith, accessible to the mass reader, appeared for the first time in book sales, and in Yakutsk in just one day it was possible to communicate with Baptists, followers of Krishna and adherents of the Bahai faith ... Probably, many of us had to go through this difficult the time of personal searches, consisting of discoveries and disappointments, in order, in the end, to come to YOUR OWN.
“At that time, I studied by correspondence at the banking school of Irkutsk, where Evangelical Christians often visited,” Father Mikhail says. –– Their creed did not hook me, but for some reason I really wanted to read the Bible myself…
The temple in Irkutsk, where he once went in the hope of buying it, was old and had not seen repairs for a long time. “But I suddenly felt so good there!” he recalls.
At that time, the future financier lived in Udachny, where he worked at car depot No. 3. It was at this time in his life that one of those most important meetings took place, remembering which people often call them "defining"
- One day, the cleric of the Irkutsk diocese, Father Vyacheslav, arrived there with reader Vladimir, settled in our hostel. We began to communicate. He talked a lot about Orthodoxy. Gradually, I began to delve deeper into its essence, discovering its wisdom and beauty along the way,” Father Mikhail says. –– And along the way, I discovered that I was finally finding answers to my questions –– what I had been looking for for a long time…
However, he was not the only one experiencing this.
- Together with me, my friend and colleague from the motor depot, electrician Andrey Yarygin, began to go to the temple. Then other employees and residents of the city joined us. So, gradually, Father Vyacheslav managed to create a community of an Orthodox parish in Udachny, and we became its core,” recalls Father Mikhail.
The results of this will be unexpected and impressive. Years will pass and the former electrician Andrei Yarygin will take the rank and become a priest. Today he is the pastor St. Panteleimon Parish the village of Peleduy. Following him, two more former colleagues of Father Mikhail will choose the same path for themselves.
Well, in the fall of 2011, becoming the fourth, he himself made this decision - a husband, father of four children, grandfather. And - an employee of the district Verkhnevilyui department of the Office of the Federal Treasury for the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), which he, having taken the rank, has so far remained.
"We will wait for you!"
This will happen in Verkhnevilyuisk, where he moved from Udachny, returning with his family to his homeland. And almost immediately he joined the local Orthodox community, where, in the absence of a priest, for many years the parishioners led the service in a secular rank. The situation, it must be said, is typical for our republic, where there is a catastrophic shortage of clergy everywhere.
– In the fall of 2011, Bishop Roman of Yakutsk and Lena came to us for the first time. Vladyka visited our church, which huddles in an adapted three-room apartment—the old church in the village had been abandoned for many years. I looked around the parish and talked to the parishioners. They complained that there was no permanent priest, and people have a great need for this ... And suddenly he turns to me: “Have you thought about dedicating yourself to God?”
This question, Father Mikhail admits, took him by surprise.
“Honestly, I thought about it. For a long time. Moreover, our parishioners even offered me to enter the seminary, to which I always answered one thing: too late! I have children, grandchildren, a family… I expressed the same doubts to Bishop Roman. However, he offered an unexpected solution to all problems: “The young should be taught, and you should be ordained. And as for work, then, taking into account exceptional circumstances, service and service can be combined. But still gave time to think - three days.
– What scared you the most?
– The path of a priest is incredibly difficult: with the adoption of the ordination, your personal life ends. You live exclusively the life of the parish. This is a huge burden, and I was afraid that I would not be able to bear it. I was frightened by the feeling of my imperfection before God. After all, it is one thing to be a simple parishioner, when you are responsible only for yourself, and quite another - a priest who brings the word of God to people and therefore should be an example to others ... First of all, I called my old friend - Father Andrei Yarygin in Peleduy. And he says to me: “Since you get such a way of the cross, then you need to take up your cross and go ahead!” His word became decisive.
- And how did the family react to this?
- My wife immediately supported me, the children too. They are all baptized, churched people.
- What about at work?
- They didn't mind either. Moreover, some colleagues even expressed a desire to be baptized. I tell them: soon the priest will come from Yakutsk, you can be baptized. When they will ordain me!.. And they answer: “No, we will wait for you!”
Without weekends and holidays
... We spoke with Father Michael after his ordination to the dignity. He was ordained by the Bishop of Yakutsk and Lena Roman.
“I will remember this event forever also because it took place on May 22 - on Nikolin's day, special for the Yakuts,” Father Mikhail says. –– In addition, the initiation took place in the St. Nicholas Church, where I always liked to go, and now God made it so that it was there that everything happened ..
After that, Father Mikhail went to Yakutsk for an internship, so that, under the guidance of experienced priests, to begin to comprehend the wisdom of the great service that you accept forever, and where there are no vacations, compensatory days off and honorable farewells to retirement that are customary to secular understanding. After all, a clergyman is, one might say, always on duty: 24 hours a day and until the end of his days.
“Vladyka Roman warned me that if you make up your mind, there is no turning back,” Father Mikhail says. –– This is not a secular job, which, if something happens, can be changed. Here you carry your cross until you fall...
- Are you ready for this?
Otherwise, I wouldn't have agreed. He changed his mind about everything, passed everything through himself. I am sure that this is God's will, and it is not good to resist it.
…For some reason, I always thought that the most difficult thing for a priest is preaching. Because you need to find such words and intonation that would not only be able to hook the minds and souls of completely different people, but also fill them.
Father Michael says that EVERYTHING is difficult for a novice priest. Sermon, interaction with the kliros, fulfillment of rites… But the most important thing is life in a world where, after being ordained to the priesthood, you return completely different, and this very world, out of habit, continues to perceive you as the same.
- What does it look like from the outside? He was a simple man - he became a priest ... But you have been going to this for a long time. Prepared internally. You have been turned upside down for a long time, and the very moment of ordination, as it were, puts an end to this process ... And someone might think: what kind of priest is he, if I went hunting with him yesterday? That is why I know that from now on I have to give up a lot, remembering that now it is always in sight ...
Life off schedule
... It was assumed that Father Michael would serve on weekends - on Saturday and Sunday. However, reality, of course, immediately corrected these plans.
Life in all its diversity is difficult to squeeze into any schedule, and therefore people need a priest, regardless of his work schedule: Father Mikhail's mobile phone rings day and night. At the same time, people often need not so much church requirements as a confidential conversation or just worldly advice ...
And, probably, this once again confirms how much good shepherds are needed today, and how important the training of clergy from among the local population that has already begun within the walls of the Yakut Theological Seminary is. The people who were born here, grew up and link their fate with the republic.
... The last Upper Vilyui priest left the village in 1925 - according to legend, he was sent into exile. Who would have known then that as many as 87 years would have to pass before the villagers could say again: “our father” ...
Interviewed by Elena VOROBYEVA.
For 51 years - and this is more than half a century - a well-known confessor, Archpriest Mikhail Makeev, has been serving in the village of Selishche, Baryshevsky District, Boryspil Diocese.
When we drove up to the old wooden church of the Great Martyr George the Victorious, we saw a lot of parked cars: in addition to fellow villagers, Fr. Michael's spiritual children come from Kyiv, Chernigov, neighboring Belarus, where he was born. “And not only from Belarus and Russia,” they explained to us a little later. “But also from Germany, the USA, and even from China!..” We stayed in the parish on this feast day of the Transfiguration of the Lord until the evening and even played football with the kids. Here's what we saw and learned...
Chronicle in the gazebo
The Divine Liturgy ended, during which Fr. Michael forbade us to take pictures, they say, you need to pray at the service. And he explained the reason for his strictness: “Now such a fashion has gone that in the holy altar, where Angels serve invisibly and the Lord Himself dwells, where a bloodless sacrifice is performed and where even bishops go with the fear of God and reverence, people “in civilian clothes” snoop around, as in a kitchen somewhere or in a concert hall... The service of God is not a show or a performance. There, let all flesh be silent ... "
The father turned out to be strict not in words, but in deeds. After the service, during the sermon, the children made noise. Father Mikhail: “So, whose children are making noise? Mother, take the screamers out into the street and put three bows for your singer ... ”The sexton Serezha also received“ one and a half bows ”for something - one earthly and one belt. But the “admirers”, it turns out, the spiritual children of the priest perform with joy.
To the father for a blessing
Because the priest himself is a constant source of joy and love for them. And all his “strictness” is endless affection, care and attention. And many spiritual children of Fr. They do not leave the parish dear to their hearts for a long time, but live here “in obedience” for weeks. And who for months. For this, o. Mikhail built a parish hotel, more precisely, a house for pilgrims, and even more simply, he remodeled a purchased rural hut, dividing it into sleeping rooms for visitors.
Sermon about. Mikhaila was simple, intelligible and interesting. For example, he asked: “Do you know why Christ, ascending to heaven, is depicted with blessing hands? Moreover, this episcopal blessing is unfinished... It ends when the hands are folded crosswise. This means that the Lord will return in the same way as the Gospel tells us. And complete your blessing. And then the end of the world will come and the last judgment will take place ... "
“Now you can shoot,” said Fr. Michael retires to the altar. - Now let's celebrate the birthday girl.
The birthday girl turned out to be 4-year-old Sofiyka, who came with her parents to work. Father Mikhail brought her gifts and a large red rose from the altar.
The celebrations didn't end there. Two more girls from Kiev were presented with official prosphora and a box of sweets in connection with the end of high school. At the same time, they received a strict order “to be attentive and “blessed, not going to the council of the wicked” ...
Then there was a meal, similar to a loving dinner of a large family. With green summer borscht, fragrant porridge, strawberries and honey. And at the father's "gatehouse", in which he has been living for many years, people have gathered who want to receive a blessing and long-awaited advice.
Father Michael sent us to the pavilion, located right here, in the churchyard, handing us a bag with green brochures, ordering us to "study for now, and then we'll talk." The pamphlets turned out to be his author's books with various titles, published, as they later found out, by the spiritual children of Fr. Michael: “Church affairs. Lozovoy Yar”, “I will remember the days of antiquity…”, “BIK-95” (“Berezansk correctional colony”), etc. They contain sermons and various documents illustrating the pastor’s long priestly journey, sometimes reminiscent of the path to Golgotha…
It turns out o. Mikhail was going to be arrested twice, and the last time already during the “democratic” perestroika, in 1986 ... And they saw written answers sent to him at one time personally by the Prosecutor General of the USSR ... And then the KGB Volga was on duty at the temple with a remote control installed in it wiretapping...
The children of the murdered Fr. Alexandra Men. And there was also a search, and the local investigator even tried to “sew” a criminal offense for the priest, accusing him of “stealing crystal” ...
Leafing through page after page, we opened up the life path of a Belarusian boy who, during the war, was left without a father, and soon without a mother, roamed “in the huts” of strangers, became the guide of a blind monk and changed six rural schools in seven years of his life. There was no money, a pen cost 30 kopecks, and a pen - 3 kopecks. Mikhail was able to buy a pen, and he attached a pen from a cherry sprig, tying it to the pen with threads ...
Until, finally, he found a place as a sexton in one of the churches of the Chernihiv region ... And then he became a student of the Kyiv Theological Seminary and the Moscow Theological Academy. By the way, the priest notices along the way, the seminary at the time of the 1950s, when he was studying, was called the Kyiv Orthodox Theological Seminary. “And right! he continued. – Because “spirituality” is different. Sectarians also have “spiritual” academies…”
Here he is, oh Michael. It is not for nothing that the guardians of atheism in their memorandums called him a "rebellious priest."
"Rebel Pop"
Why "rebellious"? Yes, because in 1958, having received his first priestly appointment to the church of St. Nicholas the Miracle of Lycia, the village of Lozovoy Yar, Yagotinsky district near Kyiv, he immediately did not please the local authorities. Firstly, because soon “ships were already plying outer space” and they were going to dismantle the ancient wooden temple, since no one had served there for three years. And, therefore, according to Soviet law, such a temple was subject to liquidation or transfer to government agencies for use for other purposes.
But the priest not only breathed life into the Orthodox community during the heyday of the "Khrushchev persecution", when by 1980 Nikita Sergeevich promised the entire multimillion-strong USSR to show the last priest on TV, but also brought "Ilyich's light bulb" to the church, i.e. electricity. It was mind-boggling! Not only the village, but also the village council, and even the local hospital were not electrified and used lighting from kerosene lamps (the young Father Mikhail himself, with his mother Lydia and two children, lived in a hut under a thatched roof). A rural hospital doctor wrote to the local newspaper: “While I am performing operations with a kerosene lamp, the local priest is serving with five electric chandeliers ...” But anyone was to blame for the fact that the village was left without electricity, but not Father Mikhail.
The local head of the village council, “Comrade Golyachenko,” also got angry at the young priest. He literally "tore and threw": some "priest" overtook him in the electrification of the village! “Why is this being done, good people, in the age of atheism, socialism and the collapse of capitalism! ..” And he began to scribble on Fr. Mikhail denunciations to the local prosecutor's office, the KGB department and the police.
Moreover, mother Lydia wanted to get a job at the collective farm. More precisely, she had been working there for three years without an official labor. And she, as a collective farm worker, was entitled to a land allotment and the right to register the kids in a kindergarten. And Golyachenko rested - and in no way! Then the priest had to defend himself in the same way - to write to various state authorities.
Moreover, his letters were always filled with irony, nobility and persuasiveness: “... I apologize for the anxiety caused to you and ask you to explain to me two questions that led me to a dead end. 1. Is a priest in the USSR a full citizen of the Soviet Union? 2. And does his wife have the right to work on an equal footing with all the women of the country, or does she have no place in society? .. ”As a result of the written“ battles of local importance ”, Father Mikhail received“ SUCH a paper ”, from which the head of the village council lost the power of speech. The Prosecutor General of the USSR wrote: "... We hereby inform you that your wife enjoys all the rights provided for by the Constitution of the USSR, including the right to work."
With mother Lidia and firstborn - Annushka, 1960
The truth has prevailed. The wicked "head of the selrada comrade. Golyachenko "was fired and ended his life very badly - in an alcoholic binge ... But Fr. Michael still prays for his sinful soul.
Soon the "rebellious priest" was transferred to the village of Selishche near Baryshevka. The whole remaining life of the priest will pass here, and this is more than half a century ...
Prayer under a light bulb with a coffee can
Here, in the village of Selishche, a similar old wooden six-domed church was waiting for him in honor of the Great Martyr George the Victorious, deeply revered by the priest himself. The fact is that the whole country prayed to St. George during the difficult period of the war, and the boy Michael himself, who lost his father in 1942, also prayed ...
And it is no coincidence that the villagers erected a monument to fellow villagers who died on the battlefields, just opposite St. George's Church, and the sculpture of a victorious warrior above the plates with the names of the dead is completely unusual: a young soldier with a medal on his chest holds a branch of red viburnum … Didn’t father Mikhail suggest this composition to the sculptor?..
... Years and decades passed. Archpriest Mikhail Makeev had already performed the duties of the dean of the Baryshevsky district, enjoyed universal authority and respect. The people of Kiev, the intelligentsia, the youth came to the priest - those who did not want to be seen by the component bodies in the city: the consequences were known - deprivation of work, possibly arrest. They were arrested for possession of "samizdat" literature, for copying sermons on a typewriter, which means - for anti-Soviet activities. Father Mikhail understood that he was under control, his every step was monitored, every word spoken in the church and outside it was recorded. But he did not remain silent. And he preached with his life: he helped people, also the state, for example, he collected money and sent it to the Peace Defense Fund or to orphanages. He tried to visit the Berezansk correctional colony for prisoners "BIK-95". And only after the collapse of the Union received access there. He built a temple there. He also built a new church in the village of Lozovoy Yar, which became his lifelong home, where he took his first pastoral steps. The attackers robbed and set fire to the old wooden church, the rector came to Fr. Michael for help. And he helped. A year later, the villagers of Lozovy Yar were already praying in the new church.
And then, in the 1970s and 80s, spiritual children came from everywhere, asked to spend the night before the Sunday service and pray. What to do? He closed them in the temple, taking them to a room near the choirs on the second tier, and curtained the window. There was no lighting in the temple at that time. But oh. Mikhail ran an electric cable through a pipe underground, and a light bulb hidden in a coffee can was lit in a secret room. She illuminated the prayer book and books. And so they prayed and read until the morning ...
George's temple. A light was placed in the choir stalls, and under a lamp embedded in a coffee jar, the spiritual children of Fr. Michael, hanging the temple window, they prayed and read spiritual literature
Soon the authorities became concerned about such popularity of the priest, and began to look for a reason to "make claims." And found. It turns out that the priest illegally used the church gatehouse - a tiny house in which Fr. Mikhail now finally moved "until the end of his days." And then his family lived in a rural house in the village, and Fr. Mikhail often stayed overnight in the lodge - it was necessary to prepare for the service or receive visitors.
From the Commissioner for Religious Affairs, a “despatch” flew to the authorities with the following content: “According to the information available in the office of the Commissioner for Religious Affairs in the Kyiv region, the priest of the parish with. Selishche M. K. Makeev grossly violates the law on religious cults, illegally living in a church gatehouse, in which only a watchman can live. He, in fact, turned this room into a house church and a shelter for monastic elements. Visiting missionary priests regularly take part in the conduct of church services here ... "
For the umpteenth time, I had to respond with a written blow to the chairman of the Council for Religious Affairs under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. In the ironic pamphlet form inherent in Father Mikhail, he wrote: “Venerable and highly respected Konstantin Mikhailovich! At a time when all of our people are busy solving grandiose tasks to overcome stagnation and bureaucracy, we, together with the heads of the regional and district executive committees, are chasing ... No, not a soccer ball or a hockey puck, but ... a mosquito. We chase him together to catch him and make him the biggest elephant out of him ... Sorry, this is not humor. And the bitter truth…
And then the priest explains how, having arrived in the village with his family, he equipped a dilapidated gatehouse under a residential house, adding a veranda, where he lived for 12 years, until his mother-in-law bought a rural hut in the village. And the gatehouse became a parable house where the watchman and sometimes the rector spend the night. And finished o. Michael wrote his letter in these words: “If an envious eye cannot stand seeing good, and his heart, full of hatred for religion and deceit for people, seeks pleasure in denunciations and slander, this does not mean that I am breaking the law, causing harm to my country by those that I spend the night in the clerk's house, which I recreated with my own hands almost from ruins ... "
They tried to arrest him, carried out searches, sent informers, prepared false compromising evidence, but the Lord protected his shepherd.
Today
Now both the mayor of the town and the chairman of the village council consider it an honor to visit the priest's house. Foreign guests also come here, there are bishops and metropolitans, ordinary peasants and academicians ...
And all about. Michael receives with equal love. Because he follows the precepts of Christ, and he has no partiality.
At 82, he still performs services and receives guests daily, giving everyone a piece of his heart, following the commandment of his Divine Teacher: “... Love one another, as I have loved you, so you love each other. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).
Not without reason in the temple of Father Michael you can read the words: "Be the sun for everyone." Maybe that's why the parishioners call him "our sun" ...
Visited Father Michael
Sergei Geruk
(Read the interview with Father Michael in the following publications of the Orthodox Life portal).
The Pilninsky district, located in the southeast of the Nizhny Novgorod region, is one of the most distant corners of the diocese. More precisely, here, in the village of Yazykovo, is the parish that is the most distant from the center - the Church of the Transfiguration built 15 years ago. However, far from the center does not mean far from God. Here, in the Pilninsky district, there is also the village of Bortsurmany, famous throughout Russia, where the righteous Alexy, a contemporary of St. Seraphim of Sarov, served in the Assumption Church.
For the glory of the righteous
On August 17, the entire Pilninsky district commemorated the holy righteous Alexy Bortsurmansky and wonderworker of all Russia, celebrating the day of finding his holy relics. And on May 4, 162 years have passed since the death of Father Alexy.
According to a long-standing tradition in Bortsurmany, before the start of the Divine Liturgy, Priest Mikhail Kozhukhar, Dean of the Pilninsk district, served a water-blessing prayer service.
The clergy of the Pilninsky, Sechenovsky and Gaginsky deanery districts, as well as clergy from Chuvashia and Nizhny Novgorod, participated in the solemn service in the church in honor of the Assumption of the Mother of God in the village of Bortsurmany, where the righteous Alexy was rector at the turn of the 17th-19th centuries.
Many worshipers gathered in the temple: children, youth, people of middle and old age. To honor the memory of the saint of God, people came with their whole families from Lyskov, Sergach, Spassky, Gagin, Sechenov. Representatives of the district administration were also present at the service.
The Reverend congratulated the faithful on this significant date and wished them strength of spirit and the same strong, unquenchable love and faith that sanctified the earthly path of the righteous elder Alexy. Father Michael urged the audience to measure their lives with his prayer ministry.
Then a religious procession took place with the icon of the righteous Alexy Bortsurmansky, led by the Reverend Father.
How do we see this saint more than a century and a half later? Archpriest Andrei Smirnov, rector of the Assumption Church, answered this question to our correspondent in the following way:
He was a kind rural priest, loving people, living among them and for them, with a sensitive heart filled with love. Like a true shepherd, he took care of his flock: he fed them with the Word of God, prayed for them unceasingly, helping both openly and secretly. He had a penetrating gaze; he seemed to see right through every person. According to his contemporary, Reverend Seraphim of Sarov, Father Alexy was "a candle lit before the throne of God."
On the Feast of the Transfiguration
On August 19, in the church in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord in the village of Yazykovo, Pilninsky District, where a good, strong Orthodox community has long existed, a patronal feast was celebrated. It began with the Divine Liturgy, which the dean of the district, Priest Mikhail Kozhukhar, served together with the rector of the church, Priest Dimitry Martynov.
Not only parishioners, but also invited guests from Nizhny Novgorod, Chuvashia and the Moscow region gathered for the festive church service. The rector noted that, according to the established tradition, all those who come to the liturgy in this church partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. So it was this time.
Father Michael consecrated the apples and other fruits brought by believers and congratulated all those present on the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, as well as on the 15th anniversary of the restoration of the temple. He wished that "The Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ, which took place on Mount Tabor, touched the heart of every Christian."
At the end of the liturgy, a water-blessed moleben and a procession were performed. The believers surrounded the temple with the icon of the Transfiguration of the Lord and the image of St. Alexis of Bortsurmansky with a particle of his relics.
Every holiday we always serve a moleben to Father Alexy, - Father Dimitry explained. - In any church in the Pilninsky district, prayers to this saint are performed regularly. And the patronal feast itself always ends with a joint meal, which is attended by the clergy, parishioners and guests.
Before the revolution, the village was called Preobrazhenskoe, after the name of the church that existed there before the Soviet regime. The temple was restored on its original foundation in 1995 at the expense of a native of the village, adviser to the President of Chuvashia on economic issues, President of the company "Agrostroygaz" Alexander Gusarov. The grandfather of Alexander Sergeevich was the rector of the old Church of the Transfiguration and suffered during the time of repression.
Locals still remember the sound of the old church bell. And almost all the icons were dismantled in the 30s by local residents - recently they all returned to the renovated church. Today, the history of the church in Yazykovo is carefully collected and kept by a small fragile woman - nun Lyubov, who settled there six years ago and fell in love with this river and hilly region with all her heart.
Shrines of the Pilninskaya land
The first inhabitants of Pilna, founded back in 1689, were exiles who worked here on harvesting (cutting) oak wood, which was then delivered to the Kazan Admiralty. Hence the name of the area. During the reign of Catherine II, the local “sawmill” is mentioned in the boundary books. And yet the Pilninskaya land became famous not for them, but for its new martyrs and the righteous elder Alexy. Believers from all over Russia come to ask the great elder for help and healing. The pilgrimage center of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese has developed a special route to Bortsurmany to the relics of St. Alexis.
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the All-Russian canonization of the righteous Saint Alexy of Bortsurmansky. With the blessing of the ruling bishop, celebrations on this occasion will be held on September 8–9 in the homeland of the righteous elder, in the village of Bortsurmany. On this day, the Church celebrates the memory of the Bortsurman New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.
Preparations for the celebrations are in full swing. On August 23, the next meeting of the organizing committee of the holiday will take place. It consists of 20 people; among them the head of the local self-government of the Pilninsky district Nikolai Chimrov, the head of the district administration Viktor Kozlov, heads of departments of the district administration.
The upcoming festivities will be the first Orthodox celebration on a regional scale in many years. The dean of the district is sure that this day should be the beginning of the program of the spiritual revival of the district. According to Father Mikhail, the Pilninskaya land, sanctified by the prayers and deeds of the holy righteous elder Alexy, today plays a significant role in the spiritual and intellectual life of Russia.
Anna Ermolina