Theophan Poltava biography

Article from the Encyclopedia "Tree": Drevo-info. Born on December 31 of the year in the family of a priest of the village of Podokoshe, Luzhsky district of the Novgorod province. He graduated from the elementary theological school at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, the St. Petersburg Theological Seminary and in the year, at the age of 17, entered the St. Petersburg Theological Academy.

In the year he graduated from the Theological Academy with the degree of candidate of theology and was left at the Academy by the professor scholarships. From the year - the executing assistant award of the Academy in the Department of Biblical History. In the year, he accepts monasticism with the name of Feofan, in honor of the Monk Theophanes of the Confessor, the Bishop of the Sigrian and in the reverent memory of the Grace of Feofan, the recluse of Vyshensky.

In the same year, he was ordained in the rank of hierodeacon and hieromonk. In the year, the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg Anthony Vadkovsky at the house of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, he was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite with the definition of the acting inspector of the Academy. In the year, after the release of his master's thesis, a tetrogram or the Old Testament Divine name of Jehovah, he was erected to the title of an extraordinary professor and approved as an inspector of the Academy.

In the same year, his acquaintance with Emperor Nicholas II takes place, and Archimandrite Theophanes for many years becomes the confessor of the royal family. Hirotony was performed by a charming member of the Holy Synod, Metropolitan Anthony Vadkovsky with other members of the Synod and other hierarchs who arrived in the capital. The reason for this movement was the misunderstanding that arose between Bishop Theophanes and members of the royal family regarding the assessment of the personality of Grigory Rasputin.

Vladyka Theophanes once contributed to the rapprochement of Grigory Rasputin with the royal family. At his first acquaintance with him in the year, Vladyka, then archimandrite, saw in Rasputin special spiritual qualities. In connection with the campaign unleashed in the Center press against Rasputin, which, in essence, was directed against the sovereign himself, Bishop Theophanes decided: it would be better for the royal family if Rasputin is removed from the reigning persons.

At the beginning of the year, Bishop Theophanes spoke to the Holy Synod with a proposal to officially express displeasure to Empress Alexander Theodorovna in connection with the behavior of Rasputin. Bishops, members of the Synod, told him that this is a matter for him personally, as the confessor of the empress. Being at that time at the department in the Crimea, he visited the empress when the royal family came to his summer residence in Livadia.

In the fall of the year, Bishop Theophanes spoke with the empress for about an hour and a half, and the empress, as the Lord himself said, "was very offended." The misunderstanding that arose burdened both the Empress and the bishop of Feofan himself. Although the relationship between him and the royal family remained quite warm, there was no previous confidence. Wanting to avoid ambiguity, while visiting the royal family of the Livadia Palace in the Crimea, Bishop Theophanes petitions for moving it to another pulpit, and thus ends up in Astrakhan.

At the Astrakhan department, Bishop Theophanes did not stay long, but in a short time of his stay here he was remembered by rare asceticism, simplicity, accessibility, complete neglect of material well -being. The rich bishop's house with him became the refuge of the poor and the poor, who received food, clothes and money there. The bishop for himself prepared food, without resorting to the services of a state of cooks, abolished the magnificent trips in the carriages and, making daily worship in the temples of the city, walked on foot.

The pilgrims gathered in his worships in the thousands, on which he spoke wonderful sermons. In Astrakhan, Bishop Theophanes received a malaria exhausting him. The attacks came unexpectedly and began almost instantly, why the Lord, if he was at that time at the worship in the cathedral, had to hide from prying eyes in a corner, and wait for the end of the attack.

Often he in this state even lost consciousness. The service continued, and none of the clergymen tried not to show that the lord was bad. When the crisis passed, and Vladyka came into consciousness, he, exhausted and exhausted, nevertheless rose and continued his service. The attacks were so strong that after them he could hardly move. A longing disease has aggravated - the tuberculosis of the throat began.

In Astrakhan with Bishop Feofan, such a case occurred. On the day of the namesake of the sovereign of Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich, Vladyka came out with the clergy for a prayer for the health of the emperor in the middle of the Assumption Cathedral. But ahead of the bishop, closer to the altar, there was some, judging by the clothes, Mohammedan, as it turned out later, the Persian consul, in a magnificent outfit with orders and sabers, with a turban on his head.

The bishop, pale, weak and sick, through the protodiacon Sevastyanov asked the consul to step aside or get up with his officials, with the generals behind the department of the bishop. Vladyka also invited the consul to remove his turban, since the church was not appropriate to be in the headdress.But the consul did not react to both requests of the bishop and remained standing in place.

The bishop, having waited a few minutes, again sent the abbot of the Council of Archpriest Nikolai Sumlotsky again with a request not to stand between the altar and the bishop with the clergy and step aside. The consul from the place, continuing to stand there and with a turban on his head. The bishop also continued to wait, not starting a prayer. And in the cathedral all the authorities of the province and the city, led by Governor-General Sokolovsky, English and French consuls, accredited in Astrakhan, many military in full dress.

Everyone stood and waited, holding their breath, which would end between the confrontation between the bishop and the Persian consul. Vladyka again asked the consul to step aside. Instead of an answer, the consul, showing him for his watch, furiously stated: “Tell your bishop that it is time to start a prayer, as indicated in the official schedule, a prayer for the prosperity of the sovereign of the emperor.

For the delay, he, your bishop, will be responsible for his stubbornness. For half an hour, a prayer was detained! And until you step aside, the prayer service will not be started. ” And only after the words of the Vladyka handed over to the consul, he defiantly left the cathedral. At this time, the bishop from his place in a weak, painful voice said quietly: “Our God is always blessed, now and now and forever and ever!

Moleben began, the choir sang. The Persian consul at that time was a very influential person at court, as there was a political course towards Russia closer to Persia. He immediately sent a message to the "impudent bishop, who tore the prayer service about the prosperity of the emperor." Soon the Bishop Theophanes was transferred from Astrakhan to Poltava.

But before that, in anticipation of a decision from the capital of Vladyka, Feofan, a fertile vision for all -night vigil in the temple was given. He later recalled: such sorrow was on the heart about the denunciation of the Persian consul, and I am so sick. And somehow being in the service in the cathedral, I saw in a mountainous place, in the ancient brilliant armor of the Holy Great Martyr Theodore Stratilat ...

Oh, Lord! How it supported me! All my sadness, bodily weakness - disappeared in the moment.

I realized that the Lord approves my standing for His Holy Truth and therefore sent me, the weak in such a marvelous in the courage of a great martyr. Oh, how all this encouraged and announced me! Archbishop Feofan Bystrov took part in the local cathedral - years. At the end of the year he was erected to the rank of archbishop. In the year [3], Vladyka left Poltava, leaving with the retreating volunteer army, emigrated from Russia.

For some time, Vladyka lived in Constantinople, and later moved to Serbia. Here he became part of the Bishop Synod of the Russian Foreign Church, organized by the Metropolitan of Kyiv Anthony Khrapovitsky, but did not take active participation in the work of the Synod. In the year, at the invitation of the bishop of Lubensky Seraphim Sobolev, who nursed Russian parishes in Bulgaria, he moves to Sofia, the capital of the Kingdom of Bulgarian.

In the year, Archbishop Theophanes and Bishop Serafim opposed the selfless interpretation of Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky dogma of temptation. They sent a statement to the Russian borderral cathedral, in which they called the interpretation of Metropolitan Anthony heretical. The cathedral did not support their statement, which led Archbishop Feofan to a complete break with the Synod of the Russian Foreign Church.

Later he moves to the small village of Moon Mouune [4], near the city of Amboise Amboise on Loire Loire, and at the very end of his life settles in the town of Limerey, in the house of the former Poltava landowner Maria Vasilievna Fedchenko. She owned several caves located nearby, in one of which the Vladyka arranged a small church, and settled in the other, where he led the lifestyle of a real recluse.

Archbishop Theophanes died on February 19 and was buried in a public cemetery on the outskirts of limits, under the number [5]. About the dogma of atonement. Report on the teachings of Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky on the dogma of atonement. Feofan Bystrov, Archbishop, Averky Taushev, Archbishop, Comp. Letters of Archbishop Feofan Poltava and Pereyaslavsky. The most complete meeting, Orthodox action.

Feofan Bystrov, Archbishop, Sokolov, T. Literature "Archive", Comrade Hierarchy for the Year ", p. Elevpher Meter Iliodor, pp. BES T. II, st. Fulop-Miller, der Heilige Teufel. Rasputin und Die Frauen. Leipzing. Passim POLTAVSKIJ, EBDA Onomatodoxe.