Hegumeness of the Ferapontov Monastery mother Seraphim

Hegumeness of the Ferapontov Monastery mother Seraphim  Orthodox life On May 29, 1918, the God-fighting government looted the Ferapontov Monastery, which is twenty kilometers from the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. They took everything: all the edibles, the flour did not leave a pinch, and also everything that they considered valuable. Over sisters mocked. It is monstrous that the locals took part in this atrocity. The sisters were ordered to move out of the monastery. A few months later (September 15), the abbess of the monastery was shot by Seraphim's mother ... Преподобномученица Серафи́ма (Сулимова), Ферапонтовская и Леушинская, игумения In the first days after the February Revolution of 1917, the province’s connection with the capital was almost broken. Only scanty and fragmentary information about extraordinary events in the country came to Novgorod from St. Petersburg. Started fermentation in the army, there were anarchic sentiments in the rear. The October coup was the beginning of the destruction of Orthodox Russia. The incident that took place in the Ferapontov Monastery in May 1918 served as a push to the massacre in the Kirillov district. This episode was described in detail in a local Bolshevik newspaper. But more reliably he himself stated abbess of the Seraphim in his report, sent to the name of the Novgorod Metropolitan Arseny. She was supplemented by a local deanie priest Alexander Fomin, rector of the neighboring Ilyinskaya church in the Tsypinsky churchyard, with his report. What happened in 1918? In early May, the Kirillovsky executive committee decided to make an inventory of all the church property of the monasteries. The arrival of the commission was expected in Ferapontov too. However, unlike other Belozero cloisters, Ferapontovskaya was founded on the basis of the parish, and all property was divided into parish and monastic, and, moreover, the church property belonged to the parish. This meant that without members of the parish council, that is, the peasants, it was impossible to produce a new inventory. The peasants were aggressively disposed, and when the commission members arrived, they met them with hostility, and only the persuasions of the priest John Ivanov did not allow bloodshed. The crowd sent the commissioned members of the commission, threatening them with violence. Two days later, Father John was arrested by the Red Army men for “inciting” the peasants. At the same time he was summoned to the investigative commission of the abbess of the Seraphim. She had to stay in Kirillov at the monastery compound under house arrest. Mother was deprived of the right to leave the city before the investigation, as if for complicity in resisting the commission’s actions. And Father John “for pogrom propaganda against the Soviet government and against the commission on registration of the monasteries of Kirillov district” was imprisoned. “On the eve of my departure to Kirillov for interrogation, that is, on May 11, writes Abbess Seraphim in a report, about 40 people from the closest two villages came to me and demanded the keys to all the monastery's pantries to inspect all food supplies. I obeyed their request, gave them all the keys, and they went to inspect and search in the presence of the commissioner; and almost everything that was found was taken away. ” On the second day a huge crowd of people, a man, a woman, and even children, appeared. They made a real pogrom: "We went to the sisters' cells, attics, penetrated everywhere, cracked chests, broke breakdowns and abducted everything that came to hand ... Threatened to disperse all sisters, causing them various insults." Because of the unrest, some sisters began to go home. The parish council began to persuade the sisters to remain in their places, promising not to cause any more insults and harassment. The Kirillov executive committee sent two Red Army soldiers to guard. Ферапонтов монастырь From May 11, Mother Seraphim continued to be under house arrest in Kirillov, and her father John was transferred to the Cherepovets prison in June, from where he had not returned. Divine services in the Ferapontov Monastery stopped because there was no one to serve. The priest sat in the dungeons, only deacon Michael Tsvetaev remained. The sisters visited the abbess Seraphim, but in order to manage the abode in such anxious days they especially did not have mother. The senior nuns, including the nun Nina, sister of the abbess, as well as the novice Alexander Samoilova, the clerk, were temporarily in charge of the affairs. From the stories of the sisters, the abbess in the farmstead was visited by the Bishop of Cyril Varsonofy (Lebedev). Once during a meeting, when he was told about the possibility of a currently tragic outcome, he remarked: “I’m not afraid of violent death, but I don’t dare to think that the Lord would find me worthy of a martyr's death.” The case of the murder of a communist In the fall of September 11, a Communist Kostyunichev was killed by unknown persons in the village of Sosunovo. Andrei Iudovich Kostyunichev was the chairman of the Council of the poor, he organized a surplus in the county. Late in the evening, when he was at home, a gun shot rang out the window from the street, from which he fell dead. Who shot, remains unknown. Three Kostyunich relatives and two namesakes from the same village were arrested on suspicion. Two trials took place. The first court adopted a resolution on the need to investigate the case, since there was not enough evidence against the arrested. And the second court, without conducting any additional investigations, sentenced all three to death. But, taking into account that the defendants are “irresponsible peasants”, the tribunal found it possible to soften the sentence, subjecting them to 15 years of forced labor at the Cherepovets concentration camp. The hastiness of the court, the rigging of the testimony and the speeches of the “public prosecutor from the party”, everything was adjusted to one plan. There was a letter from the Cherepovets provincial committee of the party that the case concerns a party member, then it must have a political tinge, that is, that there was a conspiracy “as a communist”. While the fate of the suspects was being decided, meanwhile, reprisals were being committed against people who had nothing to do with the case. The assassination and the subsequent trial were typical provocations of the time to launch repression against the clergy. For human logic, the system of payment for other people's atrocities hostages is absolutely unbelievable, but it didn’t fit into revolutionary logic: those suspected of murder are still alive and the investigation continues, and innocent people are taken hostage by the arbitrariness of the enemies and executed on the 4th day. Shooting The provocative shot was followed by the decision of the Revtribunal: “To respond to the murder of communist Andrei Kostyunichev with a red terror, namely: apart from impudent murderers and conspirators, to put to death from among 52 hostages ... 37 people.” The local newspaper, Izvestia of Workers', Peasants and Red Army Deputies, posted a note about Kostyunichev’s funeral, concluding in ominous words: “For every head of an honest fighter, thousands of your heads will be torn down”. On the day of the communist's funeral, on September 15, a bloody sacrifice was offered. The night before, on the way from the Goritsky Monastery, Bishop of Kirillov Varsonof was arrested. For Abbess Seraphim in Ferapontov monastery sent a cart with a guard. At one in the morning mother was taken to prison, and at 5 o'clock they were all taken to execution. Together with Vladyka and Abbess, four hostages were led to execution: two citizens and two peasants. Walked along the old Goritsa road. Mother limped, walked with a wand. At the second milestone, the punishers were ordered to turn to the right, where there was a training shooting range on the Zolotukha hill. Vladyka Varsonofy, who was ahead, glancing at the steep mountainside, said: - Here is our Calvary. Преподобномученица Серафи́ма (Сулимова), Ферапонтовская и Леушинская, игумения Hegumeness Seraphim shaken. She believed that the arrested were being led to the Goritsky quay in order to be put on a steamer and taken to the Cherepovets prison, where they sent priest John. She did not quite believe that they would be executed without trial. The bishop extended his hand, supported her, and said: - Mother, cheer up! You are a spiritual person, we have to go to death without fear, as if to a wedding feast, with joy. The time will come when you and I will be jealous. The weakness passed, and the abbess calmly, with peace of soul, went to the place of execution. Put face to the mountain, his back to the executioners. Turning to the murderers, mother said, as she told the sisters of the monastery every day after the evening prayers: - Forgive me, damned. It was heard to the punishers that she called them cursed, and they shot at the mother, got in the face. Another five volleys burst out. All fell, but they could not get to the Bishop while he was reading prayers on the outcome of the soul. He was last executed when he finished praying and lowered his hands. They put all the executed martyrs in the same grave, which they forced to dig the hostages-merchants, the next victims of the revolution. Of the 52 persons identified in the Kirillovskaya Cheka county as hostages, 15 were left under arrest in prison until the next “counterrevolutionary” case. The pit was dug at the foot of Mount Zolotukha at a distance of about 50 fathoms from the road. It was not done above this common grave of a common knoll, and the Cross was not set, only a caring hand of someone decorated the grave with flowers. This is how the member of the Diocesan Council, VN, sent from Novgorod described the place of execution. Dates Laity-martyrs Together with Vladyka and the Abbess, four laity were martyred. They were among the 37 "White Guards" sentenced to death by the Kirillovsky Cheka. Who was the rest and what their fate is unknown. The names of those executed on Zolotukha were called by the editorial of the newspaper of the Kirillov sovdep in the “Announcements” section. In more detail the Cherepovets newspaper “Izvestia of the Cherepovets provincial and district Soviets of workers, peasants and Red Army deputies” informed the citizens about the events in Kirilov: “ The names of those executed in Kirillov : 1. Bishop of Kirillov Varsonofy, 48 years old. In the world, Vasily Pavlovich Lebedev, Borovichsky district, Novgorod province, Belavinskaya volost, Pogost of Starukhino. The aristocratic French bomb was found at the Bishop during the arrest. 2. Hegumeness of the Ferapontov Monastery Seraphim, 60 years old, in the world Elizaveta Nikolaevna Sulimova, a citizen of Ustyuzhna, Cherepovetsky district. 3. Nikolai Ignatievich Burlakov, 29 years old, a citizen of the city of Kirillov, a former public official of the Cyril city council, a trainee technician. Immediately implicated in a conspiracy against Kostyunichev. 4. Anatoly Andreevich Barashkov, 48 years old, a citizen of the parish of Ferapontovsky, Gridino village, Kirillov district, village fist. 5. Mikhail Dormidontovich Trubnikov, 63 years old, a former nobleman, a retired captain of the 2nd rank, a former magistrate judge, Zemsky head. Immediately implicated in a conspiracy against Kostyunichev. 6. Philip Kirillovich Maryshev, 54 years old, a citizen of the Kirillov volost, the village of Malino, a trader ”. The mention in the newspaper of the involvement of Nikolai Burlakov and Mikhail Trubnikov in the killing of Kostyunichev is an obvious fiction. And the postscript of a French-style bomb allegedly found during the arrest of Vladyka looks completely ridiculous. This misunderstanding is revealed in the following phrase in the newspaper, where the executed are compared with the sharks of Anglo-Franco-American imperialism. A little later, in the memoirs of the Chairman of the Kirillovskaya Cheka, E.A. Volkov will be a story about a cache with 125 rifles, allegedly found in the chambers of Bishop Varsonophia along with a list of 125 activists. About the general atmosphere of those days in the Kirillov district, A.I. Anisimov, the witness of those events and the companion of Vladyka Varsonofy in his last trip before the arrest. In a letter to the famous restorer I.E. Alexander Ivanovich Grabar wrote: “Life here, and earlier unhappy, turned into a nightmare: you feel locked up in a cramped menagerie, where you are forced to experience all the horrors of a neighborhood with creatures that have no name.” The communist’s funeral on the day of the execution of the martyrs turned into an ominous triumph. Instead of a quiet grief about the dead peasant Kostyunichev, there was a call to shed new blood of the enemies of the revolution. As at the demonstration, there was an agitated crowd with posters and banners, the salute of the Red Army guard sounded. Above the grave was given an oath of bloody revenge. The executioners not only outraged the bodies of their victims, not allowing them to be buried according to the Christian rite, but also mocked two days, tearing and burying the grave, not allowing them to perform the funeral service according to the appointed order. And in the Bolshevik newspaper published a blasphemous epitaph on Mikhail Trubnikov. Although materials that reveal the role of lay martyrs have not been found yet, one can be sure that what happened was not an accident, that it was martyrdom for the faith. It is noteworthy that in 1879 the Novgorod Diocesan Gazette reported that the Kirillovsk district police officer Dorimedont Trubnikov, the father of the murdered Mikhail Trubnikov, built a wooden chapel in his estate with his own money, for which he received the Bishop's blessing. The day of execution on September 15, 1918 (September 2, old style) was on Sunday, when the Orthodox Church commemorates the third century martyrs Mamant, his father Theodotus and mother Rufina, who died in prison for confessing the Christian faith. In prison and born Mamant, who followed his parents in the feat of martyrdom. The lad was cruelly tortured in the eyes of thousands of circus spectators. On the same day, another 3,628 martyrs of the 3rd-4th centuries, who arrived in Nicomedia with their wives and children, are commemorated in order to testify their unshakable faith in Christ to the persecutor of Christians. In the 20th century, persecution of believers took place differently, they were not thrown to the lions and they were not fried alive on the fire, but they also dealt with Christians mercilessly. However, Christians are not of this world. And where, seemingly, an irreparable tragedy happens and evil triumphs, a completely opposite in its deep meaning occurs. Sadness turns to joy. In 1918, the townspeople Kirillov and two monasteries lost their spiritual mentors, but we acquired new prayer books. They sacrificed themselves for the sins of men, and thus became like Christ himself. They followed the Gospel image of the grain thrown into the ground: “if the wheat grain, falling into the ground, does not die, then there will be one; but if it dies, it will bear much fruit ”(The Gospel of John, chapter 12, verse 24).