≪I am Very Grateful to You, and Most Importantly for the Light, Which is Lacking Here≫. From the Correspondence of Bishop Afanasy (Sakharov) and Hieromonk Ieraks (Bocharov) With Tatyana Kameneva≫

Abstract

The present publication contains documents from PSTGU Church-historical archive (Fund 1, inventory 4; bishop Afanasy (Sakharov)) and private collection of A. V. Kornilova (nee Kameneva) — the correspondence of St.Afanasy and hieromonk Ieraks (Bocharov) with Tatyana Kameneva, a research associate of The Lenin State library. These letters written to the 1950s contain data on everyday life of St. Afanasy and hieromonk Ieraks after their release from GULAG. T. N. Kameneva, the spiritual daughter of hieromonk Iyeraks, was one of many church devotees who gave irreplaceable and essential help to clergy and laymen pursued for political reasons. The preface to these letters contains the detailed biography of Tatyana Nilovna and her relatives, and also information about her acquaintances, members of so-called “nepominayushchie” orthodox communities, many of them were repressed. These letters have adequately imprinted the atmosphere of church life in the1950s.

Keywords

• Bishop Afanasy (Sakharov)
• Hieromonk Ieraks (Bocharov)
• T. N. Kameneva
• Church of St. Cyrus and John on Solyanka
• The Church’s opposition Persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church
• New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Orthodox Church
• Akathist Hymn.