Вестник Екатеринбургской духовной семинарии (May 2024)
Materials for the Biographies of Metropolitan Philaret Voznesensky and Members of His Family from the Archives of the Bureau for Russian Emigrants in the Manchurian Empire
Abstract
The article contains autobiographical questionnaires of the children of Archbi¬shop Dimitry (Voznesensky) of Hailar, including the future Metropolitan of New York Philaret (Voznesensky), the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, who directed its life for two decades and largely determined the subsequent existence of it. Other biographical documents of Metropolitan Philaret are also published for the first time. Published documents provide a lot of new accurate information about the early years of the life of the future saint: his birth, training at the cathedral parochial school and the Men’s Gymnasium of Blagoveshchensk, which he managed to complete shortly before leaving for Manchuria. Also, for the first time, it becomes possible to definitely date all stages of G. N. Voznesensky’s professional path, both before he became a monk, and in subsequent years, right up to the beginning of the new World War. This includes studying at the Faculty of Law (1921), at the Russian-Chinese Polytechnic Institute (1921–1927); and serving as a Physics teacher and educator at the First Harbin Real School (1929) and as a teacher of the Law of God, already in the rank of priest, in the same School (1930); teaching the Law in the City School no. 3 (1932); his varied activities in the House of Mercy (1932–1936); and also his service as a teacher of the Law of God in the gymnasium of M. A. Oksakovskaya (1935–1938); service as a lecturer at the Faculty of Theology; and then at the Theological Institute of St. Vladimir (1935–1938). Of particular interest is the information on the possible reason for the termination of cooperation of Archimandrite Philaret and Archbishop Nestor (Anisimov), on the increased attention to him and some of his co-workers from the authorities of the Manchurian Empire, as well as on the plans of the Synod of Bishops of the Church Abroad to ordain Archimandrite Philaret to the rank of bishop in the pre-war years, and its intention to send him for missionary ministry to India, and also on his own attitude towards possible forms of government. The materials on the biographies of Archimandrite Filaret’s relatives — his brother Sergei Nikolaevich, sister Elena Nikolaevna, her husband and son, are also rather interesting.
Keywords
