4. Metropolitan Daniel The Moscow book environment is characterized by the figure of Metropolitan Daniel (1522–1539), who has been mentioned many times in this work. His church-political activities and his writings are covered in detail in one of the best monographs on history

Daniel (2nd half of the 15th century - 1547) - Metropolitan of All Rus', writer and publicist. Originally from Ryazan (“Ryazanian” is called by D. The Life of Joseph of Volotsky, compiled by Savva Cherny, and the Extract about the beginning of the Volokolamsk Monastery; Volokolamsk synodics attribute two Ryazan bishops to his family - Simeon and Leonid; an increased interest was also noted in the compiler of the Nikon Chronicle, who, as established by B. M. Kloss, was D., to the history of the Ryazan principality), D. was initially a monk of the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery. During the life of Joseph Volotsky, he did not play any prominent role in the monastery; his name does not appear among the ten elders whom Joseph considered his most worthy successors (see the message of Joseph of Volotsky to Vasily III). Obviously, under the pressure of Grand Duke Vasily III, after the death of Joseph, D. was elected abbot of the Volokolamsk monastery (September 1515; however, D. was named abbot already in the insert note of Nil Polev, marked 1514 - GBL. f. 113, Volok. collection, no. 39). In leading the monastery, D. strictly followed the precepts of Joseph of Volotsky, trying to introduce even stricter rules for monastic life. In particular, he did not allow the monks to keep their own books in their cells, which caused opposition from the entire brethren (see the message of the Volokolamsk monks: Yatsimirsky A.I. Small texts and notes on ancient Slavic and Russian literature. XLVI // IORYAS, 1906. vol. 11. book 2, pp. 312-315). On February 27, 1522, at the request of the Grand Duke, D. was made metropolitan in the place of Varlaam, who left the department. D. supported Vasily III in many sensitive political events, not disdaining any means. That is why A.M. Kurbsky subsequently called D. and other Josephites “indulgents.” In May 1523, the Metropolitan helped Vasily III lure to Moscow and capture his “close enemy” Seversky Prince Vasily Shemyachich, giving him his “dangerous letters”. In 1525, D. helped arrange for the Grand Duke a non-canonical divorce from the barren Solomonia Saburova. Following the traditions of Joseph Volotsky, D. zealously defended the right of monasteries to own estates. He was the initiator of the councils of 1525 and 1531, which condemned Maxim the Greek and Vassian Patrikeev. In 1531, D. achieved the canonization of Paphnutius Borovsky, the teacher of Joseph of Volotsky. Political opponents assessed D.’s activities very harshly. “I don’t know if there is a metropolitan in Moscow,” I. N. Bersen Beklemishev told Maxim the Greek (AAE, vol. 1, p. 141). S. gave a caustic characterization of D. Herberstein. According to him, D. was “approximately 30 years old, a man of strong and corpulent build with a red face” (Herberstein S. Notes on Muscovite affairs. St. Petersburg, 1908, p. 41); S. Herberstein says that the Metropolitan fumigated himself with sulfur smoke before solemn services, so as not to seem more devoted to pleasures than to ascetic deeds. After the death of Vasily III, and especially after the death of Elena Glinskaya, D.'s position noticeably worsened. In 1539, D. was displaced by the boyar group of the Shuiskys; he was forced to sign a letter in which he renounced the metropolis due to inability. Last years D. spent his life in the Volokolamsk Monastery, where he was buried.

D. was a very prolific writer (the most convenient list of his works is given in the work of V. G. Druzhinin). V.I. Zhmakin in his monograph counted 16 words of the metropolitan (he published words 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 12-16 in excerpts according to the list of V.G. Druzhinin), 18 messages (published messages 1, 2, 4 , 12, 14, 17, 18 according to the list of V. G. Druzhinin; message 15 was published by Makariy Bulgakov, message 16 - in AI), a teaching (published in PL and PLDR) and a district message (published in PL) in addition to works of an administrative nature. V.G. Druzhinin discovered and published another 26 messages and teachings (their genre is not always clear) of Metropolitan D. according to the only list of the GPB, Q.1.1439, in the compilation of which D.’s archive may have been used (Sinitsyna N.V. Fedor Ivanovich Karpov - diplomat, publicist of the 16th century, abstract of candidate's thesis, M., 1966, p. 6). According to V.G. Druzhinin, D. also owns an essay in defense of monastic estates (“On the holy divine churches and on God’s entrusted church acquisitions and on those who delight in them and those who violate them”), which is in the same manuscript. Finally, it should be noted that the article “Orthodox” is being read here, which is a fragment from a special edition of the Legend of the Massacre of Mamaev, which is part of the Nikon Chronicle and belongs to the pen of its compiler (Kloss. Nikonovsky corpus..., pp. 127-128). Some scientists of the 19th century. completely unfoundedly they attributed to D. the famous message to Ivan the Terrible, published in the book: Golokhvastov D.P., Leonid, Archimandrite. Annunciation priest Sylvester and his writings // CHOIDR, 1874, book. 1, p. 69-87.

D.'s words and teachings are devoted to the burning problems of the social life of his time. He denounces the dogmatic errors of heretics, instills the idea of ​​​​the divine origin of the power of the Grand Duke, calls on judges and rulers to be righteous, not to take bribes, and proves the advantages of cenobitic monasteries. D. is a talented satirist who, with subtle observation, depicted the bad morals of various classes of the Moscow state; in everyday scenes that D. draws, he uses living, colloquial. Most of D.'s messages are of a moralizing nature. Messages to Joseph-Volokolamsk, Vladimir Volosov and Vladychen Vvedensky monasteries are dedicated to the ordering of monastic life. D.'s messages are addressed to people of various social status. Three messages are known to Elder Dionysius of Zvenigorod, who could not get along with the abbot of the Volokolamsk Monastery Nifont Kormilitsyn; message to Dosifei, Bishop of Sarsk and Podonsk - D.'s protege from the monks of the Joseph-Volokolamsk monastery; message to Bishop Gennady of Suzdal (however, its affiliation with D. was disputed by A. S. Orlov); finally, a message to Prince Yuri Ivanovich Dmitrovsky in response to the question whether one should fast on Monday, which falls on the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God (cf. the message of Maxim the Greek, possibly addressed to the same prince: Ivanov A.I. Literary heritage Maxim the Greek. L., 1969, No. 311). The recipients of the remaining messages are unknown. The chronology of both the words and messages of the writer is almost not developed. Obviously, most of them were created when D. was on the metropolitan throne; shortly before his renunciation of the metropolitan rank, he wrote a district message.

In his works, D. showed himself to be a very well-read scribe. He illustrates each idea with a huge number of quotations from Scripture and the writings of the church fathers. He was well aware of both translated (Paterikon, Kormchaya, Alexandria, chronicles) and Slavic (The Sermon on Law and Grace by Metropolitan Hilarion, Euphemia of Tarnovsky to Tsar Constantine, chronicles). In his work, D. also used the works of his contemporaries - translations of Maxim the Greek, “The Enlightener” by Joseph Volotsky. Such well-read people as Maxim Grek and F.I. Karpov had a high opinion of D.'s education. Maxim the Greek called the Metropolitan “a Doctor of the Law of Christ, adorned with much knowledge.” “High bookishness to the born mind, the most holy Mr. Danil the Metropolitan” addresses his message to F.I. Karpov, “learned and filled with all the wisdom of dangerous knowledge.”

Metropolitan D. took an active part in the cultural life of his time. B. M. Kloss convincingly proved D.’s direct participation in the compilation of the Nikon Chronicle; In the same circles as the Nikon Chronicle, according to B. M. Kloss, the initial edition of the Western Russian Chronograph arose (see Russian Chronograph). Under the supervision of the Metropolitan, Maxim the Greek was engaged in translations; on his instructions, Nikolai Bulev translated “Travnik”. In the metropolitan office, under the leadership of D., the Chronicle of Joasaph and the Consolidated Helmsman were edited, forms for metropolitan messages were compiled, and copies of land deeds of the Moscow Metropolitan House were systematized. B. M. Kloss identified numerous manuscripts that D. partially rewrote or edited; among them is a collection of the metropolitan’s words (GBL, f. 173, MDA collection, no. 197) with the author’s edits.

Metropolitan D.'s works enjoyed wide popularity. The main body of them (with the exception of those included in the GPB collection, Q.I.1439) has been preserved in significant amount lists; oldest list thirteen messages of D. - the famous “Sylvestrovsky” collection (GPB, Soph. collection, No. 1281). The works of Metropolitan D. were repeatedly used in the works of other ancient Russian writers. Patriarch Job in his message to the Georgian Metropolitan Nicholas partially used the third word D.; The authors of “Pomeranian Answers” ​​refer to the collection of D.’s words.

Publisher: AI. SPb., 1841, vol. 1, No. 293, p. 534-537; PL. St. Petersburg, 1862, issue. 4, p. 194-204; Macarius. History of the Russian Church. St. Petersburg, 1874, t. 7, p. 393-394; Zhmakin V. Metropolitan Daniel and his works. M., 1881; Druzhinin V. G. Several unknown literary monuments from a collection of the 16th century. // LZAK. 1909, issue. 21, p. 36-38, 45-106, 113-114 (Nos. 2, 6-31, 33); PLDR. Con. XV - 1st half. XVI century M., 1984, p. 520-533, 749-750.

Lit.: Belyaev I.D. Daniil, Metropolitan of Moscow // IpoRYAS, St. Petersburg, 1856, vol. 5, issue. 4, stb. 193-209; Macarius [Bulgakov]. Op. Moscow Metropolitan Daniel // Christ. Thursday, 1872, No. 10, p. 181-275; *** Daniel, Moscow Metropolitan, as a preacher // Ryaz. diocesan Ved., 1874, No. 6, Additions, p. 132-139; Orlov A.S. Word to Bishop Gennady. Suzdalsky about clever captivity. (Read at the meeting of the Slavic Commission of the I.M.A.O. January 6, 1913). B. m., b. G.; Kloss B. M. 1) Library of Moscow Metropolitans in the 16th century. // Problems of paleography and codicology in the USSR. M., 1974, p. 114-125; 2) Metropolitan Daniel and the Nikon Chronicle // TODRL. L., 1974, t. 28, p. 188-201; 3) Nikon Chronicle and Maxim the Greek // Ibid. L., 1976, t. 30, p. 124-131; 4) Nikonovsky arch and Russian chronicles of the 16th-17th centuries. M., 1980.

I studied at the Odessa Theological Seminary and there I read books voraciously. And then Vladyka blessed me to go to the Moscow Theological Academy. That's how I ended up in the Lavra.

Soon the question arose whether to become a monk or get married. I knew that the will of God is manifested through circumstances and through people, but in order for it to manifest itself, you need to ask: “Lord, Thy will be done,” - ask for this will to be revealed - and I asked.

First half of the first year at the Academy, I’m 25 years old. One day, the head of the course comes up to me and says: “Let’s go write a petition to the monastery.” I was taken aback: “What makes you think that I’m going to a monastery?” He replies: “I was passing by when you were standing with someone and saying that you need to go to the monastery.”

And I knew for sure that this was too serious, that this was not a joke, that I could not discuss this with anyone until I made a decision myself.

But then the thought immediately arose: “This is the will of God.” And I went and wrote a petition. I didn’t consult with my parents or anyone else; I told my mother only after he came to her.

So I became one of the brethren, then graduated from the Academy. I thought that life would pass like this, but the Lord determined to serve on Sakhalin... But before that I spent 17 years in the Lavra, 13 and a half of them as dean.

The most closed monastery

In the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the brethren live hidden from the eyes of pilgrims. Almost any monastery is structured this way, but in the Lavra this division of territory is more obvious than anywhere else. The fence guarding the entrance to the fraternal unit...

I will tell you about an incident that well describes this side of Lavra life. When I was dean, a priest from the parish came to visit me (he and I studied together at the Odessa Seminary).

I go out, and he’s standing and talking to some woman. Then she thanks him, leaves, and he explains to me: “I’m standing, waiting for you, a woman comes up and says: “Father, can I ask?” and asks her question. I answered her as best I could.

She was delighted and suddenly said: “You are not from this monastery!” I ask how she knew, and she answers: “But those who live here don’t talk to us - they’re always in a hurry.”

She was right: when you leave the monastery entrance, it is always as if you find yourself behind the front line, where bullets are whistling. You have to get from point A to point B, but instead it immediately starts: “Can I ask you? Can I take a picture of you?".

We lived like in a nature reserve! I don’t know how it is now, but then even on the fences there were signs: “Trinity-Sergius Lavra, museum-reserve.” For the laity, we were like little animals that we wanted to touch. But you can’t touch the animals, otherwise they could be damaged.

When a monk walks through a monastery, he doesn’t walk to look around... Father Kirill (Pavlov) always asked us in confession: “Do you have sight?”

The brothers always go out with the intention of just getting to the temple, for example. And they are stopped: “Please tell me...”. You can't speak - you'll be late for service. On the one hand, for the brethren such conversations are an unaffordable luxury...

Remember Seraphim of Sarov: after communion he went to his room and did not talk to anyone, but one could say: “The man came to St. Seraphim from somewhere out of the darkness, his daughter dies, and what is it? What kind of selfishness is this? Why did the priest leave and not say a word to anyone?”

But if he were distracted, he would lose the grace of God. After all, he began to accept people only in the last seven years of his life, when he became ready for this.

I am 54 years old, I have not yet reached Seraphim of Sarov, not only spiritually, but also “calendar-wise”. When I return after the Liturgy, as a rule, someone is already waiting for me here. All that remains is to reproach yourself: “Lord, forgive me, I cannot be with You, I must immerse myself in business.”

It happens that people can do something at the same time, talk, and even turn on the TV in the background. I can’t do this, my thoughts are scattered. Therefore, the brethren of the monastery, especially after the service and communion, try to walk in silence.

Father Micah

I was the dean of the Lavra for 13 years and three months. I am very grateful to God, because I saw what other monks do not see - the virtues of many, many, many of our fathers and brothers. Everyone has his own treasure, which the Lord gives him.

Father Mikhei, the Lavra bell ringer, now deceased, himself told me such a case. He was very vertically challenged from birth. And when he was in school, they began to test some drug on him to cause growth.

He grew up, but serious hormonal disorders occurred: his beard did not grow, his voice was like that of a woman. And how many times was he mistaken for a woman! In 1987, a correspondent came to talk to Father Micah - and this monk was an amazing bell ringer, from God - and every other time he asked: “What did you say, mother?”

And then one day Father Micah told me: “I felt very sad that I had no talent. Moreover, I am in such a miserable state. And I began to cry and ask the Lord to help me, to give me something. And then at night I had a dream: we were all standing near St. Sergius, Father Kirill came up, and suddenly from somewhere he scooped something up with a bucket. I don’t see what it is, but I understand that it is the grace of God.

Father Kirill is carrying this bucket, and suddenly one drop spills out of it, shining like a pearl, and falls to the ground. Everyone rushed after her. And I grabbed her! I open my palm, and it shines so much that my eyes hurt, and I woke up with pain in my eyes. Soon after that I began to hear, as others cannot hear!”

How he began to hear! They said that once a large bell was made at the ZIL plant. They called Father Micah to listen to him. He came up, touched it lightly and said: “A quarter tone is missing.” They had already calculated it themselves, but he understood without any calculations. And he advised: “Remove the chamfer half a millimeter - it will sound clear.” They did just that at the factory and were shocked: they, with all their technical equipment, did not know what to do with this bell.

This is what Father Micah was like. When he told this, he always said: “Father Kirill was carrying a whole bucket, but I got one drop, and what did that drop do.”

Left – Hegumen Mikhey (Timofeev)

Hidden Gifts

Father Kirill (Pavlov) tried not to show his spiritual life even to us. I lived through a wall, you come to the priest in the morning, and he hides the fact that he prayed all night. Any virtue is deeply chaste.

When Archbishop Vasily (Krivoshein), who lived at the same time in the same monastery with the Monk Silouan on Mount Athos, was once asked to talk about the elder, he replied: “I can’t say anything, I didn’t see him then. He was not invested with some kind of rank, a confessor, for example, through which grace could be manifested. He was a simple monk and hid the grace of God.”

So is Father Kirill. I never asked him: “Father, pray, what should I do in such and such a situation?” I only said: “Father, think with me about how best I should act here,” because words about prayer would already be a reason for vanity.

When I came to the monastery only six months ago, entered the Academy and was a novice, one bishop called me to become a subdeacon. He says: “Come to my diocese, I will quickly ordain you, you will serve.” The Bishop was close to the then governor of the Lavra. But I felt that it was necessary to stay in the monastery: I am not yet a fledgling chick, where should I go?

He came to Father Kirill, whom he had known for only six months. I ask: “Father, what should I do? How can we find out the will of God? Father Kirill answers: “Choose where your heart leads. You can go, or you can stay here.” I say: “Father, I want to find out the will of God,” but I feel that he has closed himself.

But I got so fired up that I said: “If I wanted to go or not go of my own free will, then I would not come to you. I renounced my will and came to you to ask the will of God, but you don’t want to help me. If my soul perishes, the Lord will ask you.” Father Kirill hugged me, and my tears were already flowing, and said: “Calm down, don’t go anywhere.”

After that, my father and I had contact. And I answered that bishop: “I won’t go anywhere from the monastery, unless they kick me out.” But he did not refer to the priest.

Father Selafiel

When I lived in the Lavra, I asked about how it was there before me. After all, not everything is written down. For example, after the war, in the 1950s, non-believers were specially settled in the Lavra. They lived in fraternal buildings family people, and next to them were the monks, how many there were then.

And one such family man, who did not believe in God, as I was told, loved to play songs on the harmonica. How Orthodox holiday- so the demon kindles him, he goes out into the yard and plays.

One day one of the brethren could not stand it and said to him: what are you doing, God can punish you. That same night the man died. It was a huge shake-up for everyone, although some said: “Well, sometimes I drank too much.” If a person does not want to believe, he will not believe.

Those fathers had much more obedience than in my time. I found the father of Schemamonk Selafiel, he was a front-line soldier and lived for 94 years. Silishchi was immeasurable; it was rare that any student could defeat him in arm wrestling. Having lost to old Father Selafiel, the students took up dumbbells and weights out of shame.

And in the elder’s cell hung a portrait of Theodorushka, his wife, who died at the age of 60. She made him promise, dying, that he would not marry again and would go to a monastery. He gave his word and went to the monastery, also about 60 years old, although he looked 40.

Then he said: “I,” he says, “didn’t know how everything worked. They told me: you are now a novice. I understood this: since I am a novice, that means I obey everyone. One monk will say to me: bring it, I’ll bring it, another: take it away, I’ll take it away, a third: help me, I’ll help.” All this added up, he ran so much that one day he was walking somewhere and became exhausted - he fell.

The dean saw, found out what was the matter, why from early morning until late at night Father Selafiel was knocked off his feet, and laughed: “Remember, novice, you must obey me, the dean’s father. And the rest is not needed."

He was a very loving old man. When he got sick, people went to his cell for confession, although it is not customary for us for women to go into cells. And he received everyone and treated them to more.

At first Father Selafiel was strong, but in his old age he would sometimes sway and fall. They gave him a cell attendant. His cell attendant leads him through the entire Lavra to a prayer service with St. Sergius, and it was winter, there was snow outside, and it was slippery. The cell attendant Vasya slipped - and it was not the old man on the young man, but the young man hanging on the old man. And nothing! “Hold on, Vasya,” Father Selaphiel says and moves on.

Archimandrite Vitaly

Archimandrite Vitaly’s father was recently buried - he was an amazing person.

He went to a fraternal prayer service every day. Not everyone goes to it, and Father Vitaly, in addition, carried out economic obedience, was an assistant to the housekeeper, and then was in charge of the shop. He told the following story: “One day I had no strength left. You run through obediences, and in the evening there is a service, you still need to read all the rules in order to serve in the morning. I physically couldn’t do it anymore.”

He came to Father Kirill and began to complain: “Father, it’s so hard to go to brotherhood every day.” Father Kirill replies: “Father Vitaly, everything must be done within one’s strength. If you’re tired, don’t go, rest.”

Father Vitaly recalled: “When I heard this, I felt so good! The next morning I wake up, remember what I asked the priest - I can sleep a little more. As soon as I closed my eyes, I saw St. Sergius. St. Sergius says: “You are all lazy! Father Simon - that’s God’s servant.”

Then we had only Father Simon, an inspector at the Moscow Theological Seminary and Academy. Then he was Metropolitan of Ryazan, and now he has passed away.

Father Vitaly says: “I jumped up, got dressed, came running - I was in time!”

And then Father Simon had only one granny cleaning up. Father Vitaly comes up to her and asks: “Father Simon rarely goes to fraternal prayer services?” She replies: “Yes, he doesn’t always go to the brotherhood, but every morning he gets up and starts the day with a prayer service to St. Sergius.” Father Vitaly even began to cry, and then he went to the brotherhood every day.

Father Afanasy

Father Afanasy, the rector and caretaker of the Trinity Cathedral, was like a child. A man of amazing purity and jealousy. We sometimes joked about him like a monk. But to another joke, Father Afanasy sternly replies: “Don’t talk to me, I haven’t had time to finish reading the rule yet.”

Prayer rules are like gymnastics, an exercise for the soul; or as for ordinary person clean the apartment, wash the body. For example, we had Father Neil, who died in the schema. If he ever missed a rule, he always wrote it down, and when he went on vacation, he read all the rules several times - he made up for it.

Father Sophrony

Hierodeacon Sophrony was also a front-line soldier. He loved all the poor, the crippled and the sick. Everything he had, he gave away. In his cell there was a light bulb, there was a table and a chair, but there was nothing else. The icons are also paper. He always picked up food from lunch. I look: he takes the herring, wraps it in two napkins and puts it in his pocket. I feel sorry for his cassock.

I think: is he not getting enough to eat, or what? And he was acting like a fool. In fact, he gave everything he brought out to people. When he had nothing, he could come running to me.

He always knocked on the cell with his fist, and I knew that it was Father Sophrony. “Listen,” he says, “there’s a woman there, she’s in trouble, she needs help somehow, give me something!” I say: “I gave it to you yesterday,” - “It was another woman!” Give me something anyway!”

Then it turned out that he not only visited me, he also went to the treasurer, he visited everyone, took from everyone, gave everything away. You look, he talks to all the beggars, listens and listens, worries, tries to console and help.

Father Alexey

Father Alexey died young - he crashed in a car. He was tall, taller than me, such a handsome Russian, with shoe sizes 46 or 47. While still a student, he dug graves, buried homeless people or lonely grandmothers who had no one else to bury, and when he moved to the monastery, he was given the same obedience.

He made himself a shovel from a helicopter blade, a big one, and dug. And those grave diggers who worked there for money, knowing that he was burying the homeless, came and helped him for free.

In the early 90s, freezers in morgues sometimes did not work. Sometimes they will bring someone from nowhere, from someone unknown. The man is lying there - already black, there is a terrible stench. Father Alexei buried such people too. They bought him a Gazelle, and in this Gazelle he transported the dead from the morgue to the cemetery; there were several coffins there.

I remember how one young monk went to help him - Father Alexei asked. This young man later said: “I was tormented by prodigal warfare. We arrive at the cemetery, and I ask Father Alexey to open some coffin and look. This is how I explain: the war of prodigy has attacked.”

Father Alexey tells him: “Now, here they found a woman - she hanged herself in the forest.” He opens the coffin, and it’s summer, there’s a skull there, the skin has already peeled off, and a healthy fat cockroach runs out. The young monk said how the smell hit him, so he had the whole breakfast across his throat and stood up.

They buried her. He later said: “We’re going back in the Gazelle, my soul is peaceful. Guys and girls walk past in an embrace, but nothing touches me!” Mortal memory, as the fathers wrote, is very helpful in fighting passions.

Obediences

How does a church person differ from a non-church person? In addition to the mind, the ecclesiastical also lives in the heart. Just as a mother feels her child, so a spiritual father feels his children and prays for them.

As a dean, I had to assign obediences. Who would go to serve in parishes outside the walls of the monastery, who would serve in a convent for a month or two - we had 26 points outside the walls of the monastery. Who sings, who reads in the churches of the Lavra, who confesses in early Liturgy, who confesses at a later date, who serves, and so on.

The “personnel” was on me, and it was very difficult, because where there are people, there are temptations. Someone will say “bless you” and go where they are appointed, and someone will begin to ooh and ahh that in a convent, for example, the abbess has a difficult character.

Many of the monks were very old, almost dying, and I assigned them a cell attendant who helped them. Cell attendants sometimes came and told very instructive things.

One monk looked after such an old man, and he was very stern (as Elder Joseph the Hesychast writes, the monastery needs both soft people, like cotton wool, and hard people, like iron - both are needed). This elder did not even want to accept the cell attendant.

A young monk came to him, and he said: “I don’t need anyone.” The old man already had lice, the young monk washed him and began to look after him. His two cell attendants changed: first one, then the other. One looked after a child like a mother, and the other simply asked: “What, father, do you need? Nothing? Then I went." The elder had already become so attached to the caring cell attendant that he asked the second one about him when he came.

When the elder died, his cell attendant came to me, said: “He has died,” and burst into tears. I hugged him and said: “You knew it was already coming?” He answered me like this: “Yes, I saw it, but God has no copies, He always has the original. I understand that such a person will never appear on earth again. I was so sorry to part with him.”

Many secular people were jealous when they learned that if a monk fell ill, he would have two novices who would take him to church and look after him. “How great you are! You’ll be lying around with us, they’ll put you in a nursing home, but you won’t abandon your own!” I answered like this: “In our country, on the contrary, novices ask to look after some elder, realizing that this is a matter of love.”

When you talk to elders, it strengthens your spirit, you understand what brotherhood and unity are. This is an experience that you cannot read in a book. What is in a book passes through the consciousness, but in life it passes through the heart.

There were clashes and disobedience. I remember once I wrote a monk for obedience, and he was annoyed with me, came and said: “No, I won’t go there.” And he himself is old enough to be my father. What to do? I approached Father Kirill and said, without naming names: “Father, what should I do? I asked the man to submit to obedience, but he refused. I don’t want to go to the father governor to complain, what do you advise me to do?” He says: “Let’s pray for him.”

A few minutes passed, and this monk comes to confession. Then I hear someone knocking on the cell. I open the door, he immediately kneels: “Forgive me, father, I have sinned.” I immediately bowed to him: “Forgive me, brother, I have sinned too!” From that time on, wherever you wrote him, he always went. This is Father Kirill and his prayers.

Father Kirill

One woman, already deceased, and in 1986 an old woman, was the spiritual daughter of Father Kirill. She told me: “I worked at a factory in Moscow, and came to confession in Odessa with Father Kuksha (Reverend Kuksha died in 1964, and she visited there just shortly before his death). During confession, the priest asks: “Where are you from?” - "From Moscow". - “Oh, there’s a Lavra behind your gardens, go there! You will find Father Kirill there, go to him for confession.” Father Kirill was still very young at that time, he was not 45 years old.

She recalled: “The name immediately flew out of my head. I came to the Lavra, I walk, I pray, I look. The priest is coming, my heart is relieved, I ask what this priest’s name is, and they answer me that it is Father Kirill. I came to him for confession. But I work at a factory, young, unmarried, the guys there joke, pester me, I have such thoughts that I’m ashamed to tell a monk about it. I didn’t say: I think next time. The next time I came - again I can’t say, I’m ashamed. I finished, the priest is silent, then he bends my head and says: “Why don’t you confess this sin? If you die, God forbid, where will your soul go?”

Father Kirill received the people, and I lived across a hardboard partition from him. I heard him read evening prayers: it’s half past twelve or one in the morning, and at five he’ll already be on his feet. I even tried to take care of him...

One day I went out quietly, I saw people in the corridor, Father Kirill was taking confessions, around midnight. I tell people: “Let’s go out quietly, Father needs to rest,” and I took them out. I go to Father Kirill, I say: “Father, you still need to rest, there are no people there anymore,” and he took me by the hand and said: “They left, but this is all in my heart, I won’t be able to sleep.” .

One monk (he is still alive, so I won’t name him) told me: “I ran to the temple, and the priest had already finished confession. I knock on the cell - he opens. Father, I want to confess! He smiles and says that if nothing happens before the morning, then after the brotherhood he will immediately confess. I left, but in my heart: “What is this! What a confessor! How come?!". There is more and more indignation. I remembered all the saints!

The next morning I get up, come to the brotherhood, and then we go to the blessing. I go up to the priest, and he says: “Forgive me for yesterday.” He was the first to ask me for forgiveness! I bowed and left. Then I came and said: “Father, forgive me, damned one!”

One of the current bishops said that in his youth he gave up the spiritual educational institution. Then he came to Father Kirill and said that his parents were against it and didn’t believe in God. The future ruler was very worried about this. Father consoled him like this: “Don’t worry, both of them - mom and dad - will come to God in due time.” And sure enough, his dad built a temple in the village shortly before his death.

Do not trust in princes, in the sons of men

We must remember that in the monastery there are sins, there are passions, because there are people. Every person has some kind of weakness. The Lord allows this so that we do not become proud. It’s scary when people paint a picture of someone’s righteousness, and then suddenly this picture collapses, and then all their faith collapses.

We also had temptations in the Lavra: one monk (he lived in the Lavra, but was not on staff) drank heavily, even from the tavern they once called: take him away, they say. But he also repented strongly: a thousand prostrations I put it in the morning.

There was also such a temptation: a sick woman began to chase after one of the hieromonks. She even climbed through the monastery fence with superhuman dexterity. She screams that this is her husband, but in fact he doesn’t know where she came from, and he’s afraid to confess at the service because of her, because she might throw a hysteria during confession...

Hegumen and the great secret of the Lavra

Lavra’s life is a mystery that we can touch, but will never fully understand. Why is it easier to live and be saved in a monastery? Why did I choose this lifestyle? I have never regretted it, because I saw something that lay people and even students cannot see.

It was such a wonderful incident. One day, around the mid-80s, a man came and asked a monk walking by: “Who is your most important person? I want to complain! It seemed to him that something had been done wrong to him.

The monk says: “Are you going to the most important thing? Fine!" And he takes him to the Trinity Cathedral, to the saint’s shrine: “Here is our most important one.” He is furious: “Are you taking me for a fool? He's dead! - “We have no dead, our God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living! We come every morning and take his blessing, here the body rests, and the soul rules the monastery.”

This man thought about it and left. Then he became a real Christian, he came and always remembered how the monk amazed him with such a simple answer.

Lavra is ruled by Venerable Sergius. We don't know why one thing happens this way and another another. But we trust the Reverend. Saint Anthony the Great asked God - and even then he did not receive an answer. The wisest, the most enlightened, the one with gifts... He said: “Why, Lord, are some born sick and others healthy? Why do some people live happily and others not? Some die young, and others die old?” And the Lord answered him: “Do not test the fate of God.”

Recorded by Alexandra Sopova

"You can't give in to temptation modern world luring into a field where people play according to the laws of evil. You need to take the blow so as not to sink to the level of anger and begin to take revenge. One should listen to the Lord, who says: “Vengeance is Mine, and I will repay.” When a person begins to take revenge, the grace of God departs from him. The person seems to be saying: “God, step aside!” The unfortunate avenger does terrible things. Let this not happen to us! Let us turn with all our hearts to Mother of God, let us ask Her for help, and then nothing can separate us from the love of God.”

Biography:

Metropolitan Daniel (in the world Alexander Grigorievich Dorovskikh) was born on December 27, 1960 in Voronezh into a believing family. Graduated in 1978 high school, in 1979-1981. served in the ranks Soviet army. In 1984 he graduated from Odessa Theological Seminary.

On June 20, 1985, he was tonsured a monk at the Holy Trinity-Sergius Lavra with the name Daniel - in honor of St. Daniel of Moscow. On July 3, 1985 he was ordained a hierodeacon, on August 28, 1986 - a hieromonk. In 1988 he graduated from the MDA with a candidate's degree in theology. On March 26, 1988 he was elevated to the rank of abbot, and on December 29, 1989 - to the rank of archimandrite. Since July 19, 1988, he served as dean of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. On November 11, 2001, in Moscow, in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, he was consecrated Bishop of Yuzhno-Sakhalin and Kuril.

During the years of Bishop Daniel’s episcopal service, several dozen Orthodox parishes and youth camps, as well as an Orthodox lecture hall, where famous priests and religious scholars from Moscow regularly came. With the blessing of Bishop Daniel, a temple was built on the island of Shikotan and a chapel in Tyatin on the island of Kunashir - territories claimed by Japan. In 2004, a branch of the Orthodox St. Tikhon's Humanitarian University was opened on Sakhalin, and in 2010, a Spiritual and Educational Center at the Resurrection cathedral Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

By the decision of the Holy Synod of December 24, 2010 (journal No. 120), Bishop Daniel was elected Bishop of Arkhangelsk and Kholmogory.

By the decision of the Holy Synod of December 27-28, 2011 (magazine No. 150), he was appointed head of the Arkhangelsk Metropolis. The Synod also entrusted temporary administration of the newly formed Kotlas diocese.

January 8, 2012 in the Patriarchal Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin at the small entrance Divine Liturgy His Holiness Patriarch Kirill elevated Bishop Daniel to the rank of metropolitan.