Biography of Archimandrite Kapustin

Archimandrite, head of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem.

Master of theology. An outstanding visitor historian, archaeologist and archaeographer, linguist and numismatist. One of the founders and the Honorary Member of the Imp. The Orthodox Palestinian Society, the Honorary Member of the Russian Archaeological Society, the Odessa Society of History and Antiquities, the Athenian Archaeological Society, the German Eastern Archaeological Society and other Russian and foreign scientific societies.

Archimandrite Antonin was born on August 12 in the village of Baturin Shadrinsky district of the Perm province, located on the shore of River Solodyanka, 25 kilometers south of Shadrinsk, next to the Dalmatian monastery. In the year, according to the literacy of Metropolitan of Tobolsk Paul, the first wooden Transfiguration Church was laid in Baturino, in which only immigrants from the Kapubny priests have served as priests and deacons from the time of the construction of the temple.

The construction of the church fell to the share of the founder of the priestly family in Baturino - Vasily Trofimovich Kapustin Grandfather V. Grandson about. Trofima, Leonty Vasilievich Kapustin, grandfather of Archimandrite Antonin, served as a priest in the Dalmatian monastery, and he performed the duties of the dean for which he had many thanks. John Leontievich Kapustin, father of Archimandrite Antonin, was a rural priest in the village of Baturino all his life.

Mother about. Antonina, Maria Grigoryevna Varlakova, also came from the priest's family. All six sons about. John Kapustin graduated from the Dalmatian spiritual school. His second son Andrei in monasticism about. Antonin Kapustin, first studied from a year at the Dalmatian spiritual parish and district schools, then studied at the Perm Theological Seminary from the year, and studied at the Yekaterinoslav Theological Seminary for a year.

He moved to the Yekaterinoslav Theological Seminary thanks to the influence of his uncle, Archimandrite John Kapustin, later the bishop of Yekaterinburg, in the year appointed by the rector of the Yekaterinoslav Theological Seminary, which took care of the further education of the nephew. It was in Yekaterinoslavl, where Andrei Kapustin moved in the summer of the year, his talents revealed, among which knowledge of the Greek language and love for everything Greek were especially distinguished.

It was not without reason that the Patriarch of Jerusalem Kirill said that Archimandrite Antonin knows the Greek language, like no natural Greek, and Father Antonin himself admitted that he often caught himself in Greek. In Yekaterinoslav, he wrote the poetic "seventh of the passions of Christ", published in Kyiv in the year. Uncle insisted that Andrei study for a better study of subjects in the last grade of the seminary for two years.

At the end of the course of the Yekaterinoslav Theological Seminary, Andrei Kapustin was enrolled in the Kyiv Theological Academy, where he studied from for a year. The proximity of the Kyiv laurel and the fraternal monastery contributed to the spiritual growth of students. Andrei Kapustin was the strongest student of the academy, he wrote poetry, painted, was fond of watercolor.

He completed the training course with the second on the discharge list of students with the degree of master of theology and was first appointed as a teacher of German and then Greek at the Kyiv Theological Academy. By teaching, he prepared his first printed labor. Hieromonk Antonin remained in the service at the Academy up to a year, being a teacher of accusatory theology and biblical hermeneutics, and then an assistant to the inspector.

The last five years of his stay at the Academy, Father Antonin has been engaged in the correction of Russian translation by John Chrysostom to the Gospel of John entitled to him. In the year, by the request, he was appointed rector of the Russian Embassy Church in Athens and stayed in this position for 10 years. The inconvenient position of the embassy church on the outskirts of the city was not arranged by Fr.

Antonina, and he decided to turn into the Orthodox ancient Christian temple of St. Nicodemus, built in the 11th century and donated to the Greek Chamber of Russia in the year. He himself, on his own initiative, took part in restoration work and excavations undertaken during restoration. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs recognized the usefulness of his activities and turned the Church of St.

Nicodemus into the embassy. Father Antonin built the temple a bell tower and decorated the walls of the temple with frescoes with images of Athenian saints. In January, for the restoration of the ancient temple, the Holy Synod was erected to the rank of Archimandrite. Then he was granted a cabinet pect with diamonds, which he, already on the deathbed, wrote in the spiritual testament of the Dalmatian monastery about the pupil and in gratitude for the studies taught by the sciences.

In Athens, his fascination with archeology and the ancient East began. He conducted great survey work, copied the outstanding relics of Athens, Rome, Naples, Egyptian monuments. He published articles in the journal of the Kyiv Theological Academy "Sunday Reading" and published the book "Ancient Christian inscriptions in Athens." In the year, on vacation, he visited his native Perm province.In the year, even before a famous trip to Jerusalem and Sinai, Abraham Sergeyevich Norov, Archimandrite Antonin first visited Jerusalem, describing his impressions in the book "Five days in the Holy Land and Jerusalem, in the year." The book describes biblical and gospel places, the position of the Orthodox Church in Palestine, its relationship with other faiths and the everyday life of the local population.

This was one of the first publications of travel notes on Palestine and Jerusalem belonging to Russian travelers. In the year, Archimandrite Antonin was transferred to the embassy church in Constantinople. In the year, on behalf of St. Constantinople, the period of his life was the most fruitful in his scientific activity. He was engaged in paleography, collected rich archaeological material on church history.

He became an honorary member of the archaeological societies of various Orthodox countries. In the year, Archimandrite Antonin sent to all four spiritual academies of Russia in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kyiv and Kazan of ancient and medieval coins. At the St. Petersburg Academy, these coins were first stored in the library, and after the establishment of the church and Archaeological Museum of the Theological Academy in the year, they became part of his collection.

In Kyiv, coins sent by Antonin entered the Museum of Church Antiquities at the Kyiv Theological Academy, the collection of which was nationalized in the e years. Now the numismatic collection of this museum is part of the collection of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine. In the year, the Kapustyny ​​family of priests celebrated the summer anniversary of continuous priesthood in the village of Baturino.

Father Antonin donated the Topaza Temple, in a silver frame, a shoulder cross, decorated with different precious stones with a particle of the life -giving tree of the cross. Synoda Archimandrite Antonin was appointed rector of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem, and four years later he became its head and retained this post until the end of his life.

The Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem was opened in the year on the initiative of the outstanding historian and archaeologist Archimandrite Porfiry Uspensky, who, becoming her first boss, opened the Orthodox Greek-Arab School, a printing house and several schools. Archimandrite Antonin "entered the head of the Russian spiritual mission in Jerusalem at a time when, with the institution of the Imperial Consulate in St.

Grad, not only the entire political unit, but also the head of the Orthodox fans, at first lying on the duties of the spiritual mission, were taken away from it, they wanted to reduce to the importance of the Consulate Church, which was taken away from it. subordinate to the Jerusalem Patriarchate. The defense of the rights of the Russian Spiritual Mission he had to constantly counteract the machinations of an alternative propaganda, and only about 15 thousand were issued funds for the maintenance of the Russian spiritual mission.

The content of Archimandrite Antonin himself was supposed to be 3 thousand and with such means the head of the Russian spiritual mission in Jerusalem successfully advocated Russian interests in the states in the states approved by the synod. The mission did not provide for the allocation of funds for the acquisition of land plots and from their personal, completely insufficient funds, about.

Antonin, despite his most modest requirements and truly ascetic life, could hardly have given a lot. Antonin’s father could only count on donations from Russia, which, of course, was a completely random source of money, while for some urgent purchase it was necessary to have a more or less large amount immediately to secure the right to some interesting place.

For the purchase of Melnikov, Melnikov raised about 20 rubles, the "Christian Countess" Olga Evfimievna Putyatina built several outpatient clinics in Nazareth and Betjale at her own expense. Member of the State Council Boris Pavlovich Mansurov - builder of the Trinity Cathedral, Elizabethan and Mariinsky farmsteads, that is, hotels for pilgrims. Hegumen Veniamin is the founder of the Veniaminsky Compound ...

But the bulk of the donations, which for 25 years, according to Professor Dmitrievsky, was hardly surpassed, was brought Fr. Antonin by ordinary pilgrims. Ordinary people donated their pennys on the famous "rusty" training camps - on Palm Sunday before Easter. Thus, he literally pulled out of the hands of Europeans and acquired for the Russians many important places for all Christianity in the Holy City and near him, associated with the earthly life of Jesus Christ.

He acquired a large number of land and real estate in the Holy Land for the Russian Orthodox Church, built temples and monasteries here, pilgrimage shelters and schools for the local Arab population. It was Archimandrite Antonin who put the foundation in the creation of the unique historical heritage that we call the Russian Palestine. In the year, the Church of the Holy Preferences was built here - the last Russian temple in the Holy Land erected before the revolution.In the year, Archimandrite Antonin acquired a plot on the Eleonian mountain near the place of the Ascension of Christ, where they began the construction of the temple in the name of the Ascension of the Lord.

A whole event for Jerusalem was the arrival of an Eleonian bell. He was ordered by a pious fan of holy places by a merchant and a salt -industry from the city of Solikamsk, Perm province, Alexander Ryazantsev. Before that, he had already sacrificed Antonin to his father at different times several thousand rubles. And his final contribution to the construction of the future Russian monastery was the luxurious bell ordered in Moscow.

In the lower edge, in two rows, it was also written by the Slavic font "bell was donated to the Holy Grad of Eleon to the Church of the Ascension of the Lord. The Finenfire Master Ksenofor Verevkin was sent from the Ryazantsev. Odessa on the steamer "Kornilov" and unloaded to the shore of Jaffa. Here is how the Father Antonin himself describes this event: “And now, a man of two -thirds of the women hastily arrived in Jaffa and set to work.

Thanks to the general enthusiasm, within 7 days the bell, despite a thousand difficulties, was safely delivered in his arms! Then the whole mass of pilgrims undertook to drag the bell to St. Yeleon, to the place of his destination.” Upon arrival in Russian buildings, not hundreds, and thousands of people advanced to carry a bell to Yeleon, the road to which left to wish better. On the Elite Gora itself, these were narrow paths cut down in a rock, wriggling between the rocks, ledges in degrees of steepness.

But for the Russian Orthodox, this was not an obstacle to a fan, and during the stops they sang "God save your people, with a loud mention of the named after the adored monarch." Archimandrite Antonin’s favorite brainchild is the village of Gorny, where he dreamed of "creating a shelter for eminent Russian hermits who want to end the days of his alarming life in the unperturbed silence." At the request of about.

Antonina St. Synod established a special holiday of "kissing", which is usually celebrated with deliberate tenderness from year to year on March 30, if the Annunciation does not fall on passionate days otherwise the holiday is transferred to Thursday of the bright week, attracting a huge number of people from both the Russian pilgrims and especially the Abyssins. From the mission from Jerusalem comes the procession with an icon of the Annunciation to the mountain, towards the procession from the mountains with the icon of the kiss of the Mother of God with the righteous Elisaveta comes out.