Вестник Екатеринбургской духовной семинарии (Jul 2022)
Archpriest Petr Ivanovich Uspensky: Hagiographer, Inspector “Plakida”, and Renovationist Bishop of Orel and Tambov
Abstract
Censor of the Tambov Diocesan Bulletin and a member of Tambov Spiritual Consistory, archpriest Petr Uspensky was also a teacher and inspector of the Vologda Seminary, and rector of some Tambov churches, who participated in the solemn glorification of St. Seraphim of Sarov and became one of the authors of his akathist. In the 1930s, he was the Renovationist bishop of Orel and Tambov, and lived out his last days “in retirement” as the cemetery church rector. To reconstruct the life path and moral image of Fr. Petr the author uses publications from pre-revolutionary periodicals, and the memoirs of Nikifor Alexandrovich Ilyinsky, a long-term assistant of inspector of the Vologda Seminary, stored in the Vologda Archive; the record of service of Archpriest Petr, and some other archival sources relating to his official activities, as well as the story of Ilariy Grigorievich Shadrin “Bursa”, specified by the writer’s diary entries and containing valuable factual data. The study aims to gradually reconstruct the biography of Petr Uspensky, whose moral portrait is clarified through various circumstances of his life. These include youth in the Tver theological schools and Saint Petersburg Theological Academy, within the brotherhood of his fellow villagers; and his inspection activities in the Vologda Seminary, which is considered in the context of seminary pedagogy of that time — the memories of teachers are supplemented by seminarians’ testimonies; and also his service in the Tambov consistory and rectorship in the Tambov Mother of God Church (with only official reports and fragmentary data available here); and, finally, his Renovationist episcopacy and life “at rest” clarified through the correspondence with N. A. Ilyinsky. Additionally, the place of Petr Uspensky among other Renovationist bishops has been established and the authorship of some hagiographic works about St. Seraphim of Sarov, St. Pitirim of Tambov, and the Tambov Icon of the Mother of God, as well as biographies of the persons mentioned in the cited sources have been clarified. The appendix contains the most interesting materials that could not be included into the main text of the article: sketches on pedagogical topics from the memoirs of N. A. Ilyinsky; Petr Uspensky’s statement about the healing of his daughter from the mantle of St. Pitirim of Tambov; and letters of Fr. Petr Uspensky to N. A. Ilyinsky.
Keywords
