Hiero-confessor Athanasius (Sakharov), Bishop of Kovrov
Archbishop Athanasius was among the last directors of
that part of the Russian Orthodox Church which, canonically remaining true to
Metropolitan Peter, Patriarchal locum tenens, separated itself from
Metropolitan Sergius and went into the catacombs. After the All-Russian
Local Church Council of 1945, the then-imprisoned Archbishop Athanasius
Sakharov and those of like mind with him recognized His Holiness Patriarch
Alexis, and entered into canonical communion with him.
The future Saint Hierarch Athanasius was born in the
pious family of Gregory Sakharov, a court counselor, on July 2, 1887, in the
village of Tsarevka in Kirsanov District, Tambov Province. At Baptism, he was
named Sergius, in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh. He spent his childhood and
youth in Vladimir. His mother managed to instill in him from early youth a love
for the Lord. Sergius’ father had died when the child was but 1,5 years old.
Matrona would often tell her son that she dreamed of his dedicating himself to
God’s service.
Sergius would eagerly attend the parish church, never
wearying of the lengthy divine services. From early childhood, he felt that he
was a servant of the Church, and would even tell his companions that he would
become a bishop. Although Sergius did not find his years of primary school
easy, he was successful in his later studies: from 1896 to 1902 in the Shuisky
religious school, and then at the Vladimir Seminary. In 1908 he enrolled in the
Moscow Theological Academy, from which he graduated in 1912 with the degree of
Candidate in Theology.
Sergius’ first teacher and spiritual instructor was
Archbishop Nikolai (Nalimov) of Vladimir. Later Bishop Fyodor (Pozdeevsky), a
noted theologian, strict ascetic, and rector of the Moscow Theological Academy,
became his teacher. On October 12, 1912, in the Church of the Protection of the
Mother of God, he tonsured Sergius into monasticism with the name Athanasius,
in honor of the Patriarch of the Imperial City. On October 14, 1912 Vladyka Fyodor
ordained Monk Athanasius a hierodeacon, and on October 17 of the same year, a
hieromonk. The very same year, Hieromonk Athanasius was assigned to teach
pastoral theology, homiletics, and liturgics at the Poltava Theological
Seminary; he held that post until 1918.
On
January 20, 1920, he was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite, and on June 27,
1921, at the Nizhegorod Monastery of the Exaltation of the Cross, was
consecrated Bishop of Kovrov, Vicar Bishop for the Diocese of
Vladimir. One year after his consecration, Vladyka was sentenced, for the
first time, to exile to the Zyryansk Region. On March 18, 1922, he was
released, but on March 30, Great Wednesday, was re-arrested. Together with
other bishops, he was charged with resisting confiscation of church valuables,
and was sentenced to one year of incarceration; on May 28, 1922 he was granted
amnesty. On July 15, 1922, he and Bishop Seraphim of Murom were arrested; on
July 25, 1922 he was released. On September 10. 1922 he was re-arrested, and
sentenced to two years’ exile to the Zyryansk Region.
On April 12, 1925, he took part in Patriarch St.
Tikhon’s funeral. He signed the Act transferring supreme ecclesiastical
authority to Metropolitan Peter (Poliansky) of Krutitsa. On September 8, 1925,
while traveling through his diocese, he was again arrested. During the period
1925 – 1933 Vladyka was arrested several times, and after being convicted,
served terms in the Solovki Islands and the Turkhan Region. In 1933 he returned
to Vladimir. Vladyka considered his difficult years of incarceration not as a
loss but as an acquisition. His periods of life at liberty were very brief, but
amazingly rich in archpastoral activity and spiritual labors. For a time after
his first terms of exile, Vladyka lived in Staraya Rus’. Then he settled in the
village of Petushki in Vladimir Province. Many of the orphaned children of the
(now glorified) Alexis and Sergius Metchev came under his direction there.
During those years, Vladyka Athanasius served the
Liturgy in the apartments of his spiritual children. While living in Petushki,
Vladyka would receive hundreds of letters; he kept up a correspondence not only
with his spiritual children, but with many of those with whom he had been
imprisoned. He would send packages to those in need of assistance and comfort.
One of the bishops with whom Vladyka corresponded was Bishop Zinovy (Mazhuga),
later a metropolitan, who once told his spiritual children, “Children, if you
only knew who lives right next to you! Be afraid of offending that person,
whether by your words or even by your facial expression! He is one of the great
ones. There are none like him left!”
The Elder’s spiritual children would relate that
Vladyka Athanasius in all of his dealings with others, he was always frank and
attentive, that he treasured even the slightest service rendered to him, and
that he always strove to express his thanks for it. He himself loved doing good
only to the glory of God. The Elder often reminded his spiritual children that
talents are a gift from God and that one must never take pride in them. Once,
in answer to the question “How can one be saved?” he answered, “The main thing
is faith. Without faith, the very best of works are not unto salvation, for at
the foundation of everything is faith. The second thing is repentance. The
third is prayer, the fourth, good works. And despair is the worst of sins.” The
Elder advised, “As soon as you are conscious of having sinned, cleanse your
soul with tears.”
The Elder’s spiritual children would relate that his
prayer was so powerful that many of the faithful would quickly be helped by his
prayers. Vladyka would hide the fact of his clairvoyance, revealing it only on
extremely rare occasions.
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War (World War
II), Vladyka was once again arrested, and was sent on foot to a camp on Onega,
in Arkhangel Province. Famine and the difficulty of the journey so weakened
Vladyka that he seriously prepared himself for death… Life in the camps on
Onega was replaced by an indefinite term of exile in Omsk Province, where
Vladyka worked as a garden night watchman in one of the communal farms. Later
he was transferred to the town of Ishim, where he subsisted on what was sent to
him by friends аnd spiritual
children.
Here are some excerpts from Vladyka’s letters to
spiritual children: “According to what was revealed to a certain person of
great spiritual life in Moscow in the years 1917 – 1918, the Prophet Elias is a
bringer of nourishment for our times, as he was a bringer of nourishment to the
widow of Zarephath. Metropolitan Kirill told me that he learned about this from
Archbishop Fyodor, with whom he shared a cell in Taganka. According to the Most
Reverend Fyodor, began to commemorate the Prophet Elias every day, and during the
famine did not experience any want. Metropolitan Kirill also began to
commemorate the Prophet, and he as well did not experience want. On July 20, he
unexpectedly received so many parcels that the crew of ruffians that brought
the parcels and of course got their abundant share of them, put up a sign
saying “Produce Warehouse” on the doors of the cell housing the Most Reverends
Kirill and Fyodor. Following
Metropolitan Kirill’s example, every day after the evening meal, I also read
the troparion to the Prophet, in a somewhat amended form, as you can see in my
“Liturgical Experiences.” I firmly believe that by the intercession of the
Prophet and Nourisher, the Lord continues to feed me, through kind people who
for me are that small measure of flour and that little vessel of oil that did
not run out for the widow throughout that entire famine, just as the Prophet
had told her. I believe that through the intercession of the Prophet, the Lord
will feed and nourish as well those who feed others in Christ’s name.”
In the winter of 1942, Bishop Athanasius was
unexpectedly transferred to Moscow. The judicial proceedings lasted half a
year. He was questioned about 30 times, usually at night. Sometimes four hours
of questioning would result in only one page of minutes, and sometimes, would
yield over 10 pages… Not once during those interrogations did Vladyka ever
betray anyone else, or ever confess to any crime himself. However, this
sentence was announced: eight years of incarceration in the notoriously cruel
Mariinsk Camps of Kemerovo Province.
Vladyka Athanasius wrote, “As to the future fate of
monasticism, it was revealed that the last of the monks would live like lay
people, but that their spiritual struggles would be equal to those of the
ancient fathers. That was said of our times. We are poor monks, we are always
in a worldly setting, we have worldly thoughts and take worldly actions.
However, the fact that in these evil days, with all our weaknesses and sins, we
are not ashamed of our Christian vocation and of our monastic rank – that
alone, I believe, will be seen as a spiritual struggle equal to that of the
ancient desert-dwelling fathers. The only thing is that, at the same time we
must also have within us two qualities: humility and love. In our hearts there
must not be even a trace of malice or enmity, even towards our enemies. Carry
the weaknesses of the weak, and do not please yourselves.”
In the summer of 1946, Vladyka was once again
transferred to Moscow for a new investigation stemming from a false accusation
made against him. Shortly thereafter, the accuser disavowed his assertions, and
His Grace was sent to the Temnikov Camps in Mordovia to serve out his term. He
was already so physically weak that he was relegated to making lapti (a type of
plaited footwear). Two years later, Vladyka was shipped to Dubrovlag, also in
Mordovia, where on account of his age and state of health, he could no longer
work.
On November 9, 1951 the 64-year-old hierarch completed
his final term in the camp tollhouses. But even then, they kept him completely
ignorant as to his future fate, and later forcibly settled him in a retirement
home in Potma, Mordovia, where the routine was not much different from that in
the camps. Finally, on March 7, 1955, Bishop Athanasius was released from the
Potma retirement home. Vladyka decided to live in the village of Petushki in
Vladimir Province.
In the late 1950s, reminiscing about the period of his
life as a Confessor, Vladyka Athanasius noted that he had spent “33 months in
diocesan service, 32 months at liberty but not in service, 76 months under
banishment, and 252 in bondage and bitter servitude.”
Saint Athanasius collected and edited texts of
services to Russian saints, and worked to formulate a Russian Typicon. As an
expert on the Divine Services of the Orthodox Church, Bishop Athanasius worked
beginning in 1955 as Director of the Liturgical Calendar Committee at the
Publication Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, and made substantial
corrections in the Menaion of the Saints.
In August 1962, Vladyka Athanasius began to prepare
his spiritual children for the fact that he would soon die. Hearing them say
that they would not be able to stand to part from him, he sternly remarked,
“How can you be so attached to a person? By so doing, we violate our love for
the Lord. After all, you are not left alone; you remain with the Lord.”
By October 26, Vladyka became so weak that he could no
longer speak, but on Friday night he quietly said for the last time, “Prayer
will save you all!” Then, on the blanket, he sketched the words “Save, O
Lord!” As he had earlier
prophesied, on October 28, 1962, Vladyka Athanasius quietly gave up his soul to
God. The Most-reverend Athanasius was interred in Vladimir, at the
Vvedensky Cemetery.
Source: http://www.stjohndc.org/en/orthodoxy-foundation/saints/hiero-confessor-athanasius-sakharov-bishop-kovrov
