Mitrofan, Bishop of North Sea and Umba (Badanin Alexey Vasilievich) Date of birth: May 27, 1953 Date of tonsure: June 11, 2000 Born May 27, 1953 in St. Petersburg. Baptized in infancy in the St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral in St. Petersburg. In 1976 he graduated from the Higher Naval Command School and, with the rank of Navy lieutenant, left for service in the Northern Fleet. Since 1979 - commander of ships of various classes. In 1995 he graduated from the Naval Academy. In 1997 he was demobilized with the rank of captain 2nd rank. Since 1998 - press secretary of Bishop Simon of Murmansk and head of the publishing house of the Murmansk diocese. Founder and first editor of the newspaper of the Murmansk diocese “Orthodox Missionary Newspaper”. In 1999 he entered the Orthodox St. Tikhon's Theological Institute (now the Orthodox St. Tikhon's University for the Humanities), from which he graduated in 2005, entering graduate school. In 2000, he received a blessing from Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) to become a monk. On June 11, 2000, Archbishop Simon of Murmansk tonsured him as a monk with the name Mitrofan in honor of St. Mitrophan, the first Patriarch of Constantinople. On June 13, 2000 he was ordained a deacon, and on June 25 of the same year - a presbyter. On March 28, 2007 he was elevated to the rank of abbot. Before being elected bishop, he was rector of the Assumption parish in the village. Varzuga, dean of the Terek district, chairman of the commission for the canonization of saints of the Murmansk diocese. In 2009, he was awarded the academic degree of Candidate of Theology for defending a dissertation prepared at the Department of History of the Russian Church of PSTGU (topic “The Life of St. Tryphon of Pechenga and the history of the Pechenga Monastery in the light of new and little-studied historical documents”). Since 2010 - member of the Writers' Union of Russia. By the decision of the Holy Synod of October 2, 2013 (journal No. 111), he was elected Bishop of North Sea and Umba. He was consecrated bishop on November 1, 2013 in the house church of the Patriarchal residence in Chisty Lane in Moscow. Hirotonisan on November 24 at the Divine Liturgy in the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit in the village. Pervomayskoye, Moscow. The services were led by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus'. By the decision of the Holy Synod of December 25, 2014 (journal No. 138), he was confirmed as the Holy Archimandrite of the Holy Trinity Trifonov of the Pechenga Monastery in the village of Luostari, Pechenga District, Murmansk Region. Education: 1976 - Higher Naval Command School. 1995 - Naval Academy. 2005 - Orthodox St. Tikhon's University for the Humanities (PhD in Theology). Diocese: North Sea Diocese (Ruling Bishop) Scientific works, publications: Word of Archimandrite Mitrofan (Badanin) upon his naming as Bishop of North Sea and Umba. The Life of St. Tryphon of Pechenga and the history of the Pechenga Monastery in the light of new and little-studied historical documents (PhD thesis). Author of 19 books and 29 articles (including in the Orthodox Encyclopedia) on the history of the Far North, theology and hagiography. In particular, the book “The Truth about Russian Mat” was written and published.
The ruling bishop of the North Sea diocese is Bishop Mitrofan (Badanin) - a former naval officer, since 2000 - a priest, rector of the Assumption parish in the village of Varzuga, on the shores of the White Sea.
Bishop Mitrofan knows and loves both the North and the fleet. Hereditary military sailor. Since 1976, service in the Northern Fleet. Since 1979, he served as a ship commander and subsequently commanded ships of various classes. In 1997, he was demobilized due to reduction with the rank of captain 2nd rank. In 2000 he took monastic vows. He considers work with the military to be the most important subject of his archpastoral ministry. We met with Bishop Mitrofan near the Danilovsky Monastery to talk about the military clergy, the bishop’s plans for managing the diocese and the current spiritual state of the army and navy.
How the fleet was destroyed
The North Sea diocese arose not as the fruit of dry administrative decisions, not out of considerations of the need to expand episcopal authority through organizational measures in the territory of the Murmansk region, but, I will say frankly, according to the obvious providence of God. Saying goodbye to me after the episcopal consecration, he said that only now is the full realization of the importance of the decision made and the urgent urgency, the extreme significance of the tasks facing the new diocese in the Arctic direction coming. Only now, having delved deeper into the problems and become acquainted with the situation on the Kola Peninsula and the Northern Fleet, His Holiness fully realizes that this was truly a strategic decision.
And this is truly so. Finally, the time has come, and the country’s leadership began to think about the special significance of the Arctic for the future fate of Russia, for maintaining its status as a world power. The Northern Fleet is once again acquiring its strategic importance, a unique role in the country’s defense capability, which has largely been lost in recent years. Before my eyes, in the 90s, on the urgent recommendations of our foreign “friends,” the capabilities of our main fleet, its strategic potential, were purposefully destroyed. I served in the Northern Fleet for twenty-six years and witnessed everything: the sinking of our unique shelters for strategic nuclear boats that were created in the rocks of the northern shores, and the close study by American delegations of our closed secret bases...
We sincerely believed then that everything would be different for us now, we were now friends all around. The Americans and I paid friendly visits to each other. I myself, together with Admiral F.N. Gromov, at that time the commander of the Northern Fleet, went to Florida, to Mayport... “Peace-friendship-sausage!” Complete euphoria, the terrible times of confrontation are over, now everyone is each other’s brothers. We naively believed in this.
But it turned out that this was a big lie, an illusion that would never come true. As a result, we destroyed the significant potential of our strategic forces, and in return we received international dictate, humiliation, and complete disregard for our opinion and our interests. We received the collapse of Yugoslavia, the tragedy of fraternal Serbia, aggressive plans to tear away from us our kindred peoples, connected with us for centuries by a common history, culture, and faith: Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Bulgaria. We saw that they were no longer our friends.
Victory in the war: in spite of
And sobering came. We again returned to the thought wisely formulated by Emperor Alexander III: “Russia has no friends in this world, but only two faithful allies - its army and navy.” Maybe that’s why there wasn’t a single war during his reign. Today we simply must seriously think about how we can regain our former power. Not the Soviet-style Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, with “proletarian hatred” and the endless search for internal and external enemies, but the power with which Russia has been strong over the past millennium - material and spiritual power.
The Russian army was considered the best army in Europe. We have lost very few wars compared to the number we have won. We remember the constant role of Russia in global world wars, when we solved the problems of saving humanity, essentially for the sake of continuing world history, restoring order and justice on a global scale. Here we can recall the terrible test - the invasion of “twelve tongues”.
We remember, of course, the last one.
Recently I spoke from Severomorsk, at a conference in the House of Officers, in front of the leadership of the army and navy educators in the northern direction. I tried to convey an important idea: our victory in the Great Patriotic War under the Bolshevik atheistic regime occurred not thanks to him, but in spite of the atheistic education that was so aggressively infiltrated into the souls of people in those years.
The basis of our army, which entered into battle with the most powerful army in the world, was the peasantry, the inhabitants of our then countless villages and hamlets. So, the whole point is that before the active start of the creation of collective farms, that is, until 1932, nothing really changed in the village after the revolution. And there is evidence of this. I spent the last thirteen and a half years in Pomeranian villages on the shores of the White Sea. I also met and talked with many ancient grandmothers, my parishioners. So they clearly testified that before the start of forced collectivization, they absolutely did not care what was happening there in the capitals, what kind of power there was now. “We,” they said, “have had churches, and still have them. As we confessed, so we confessed. They took communion and baptized children. We learned what was happening somewhere in the capitals from the newspapers. Some propagandists and lecturers came to us, people were elected to the village council, but nothing radically changed.”
And, indeed, most of those fishing villages suffered after 1932. For example, our newly glorified saints of the Trifonov-Pechenga Monastery are Hieromonk Moses and Novice Theodore. It was when the closure of churches began, the forced separation from the Church, the active offensive position of the collective farm authorities demanding work on church holidays, then the resistance of the believing people began. The Venerable Martyr Moses had a conflict with the collective farm authorities and “authorities” on Easter 1932, when they deliberately began to call on the people to urgently go to a meeting during the Easter Procession.
Until this period, the bulk of the people of Russia remained churched and were not excommunicated from the Church. And it should be recalled that it was this generation that went to war. The war was won by people who were either born before the revolution or were raised in the pre-revolutionary tradition, who knew God, confessed and received communion.
I talked with my father-in-law, a colonel, who served as a battalion commander throughout the war. He said unequivocally: of course, no one went into battle “for Stalin” or for the Politburo. Before the attack, they remembered the Lord and asked: “Save and preserve!” And they hoped that, as in that song: “If death, then instantaneous, if the wound is small.” This was the essence of the spiritual state of our warrior even in times of godlessness. It is clear that there was desecration, blasphemy, and atheistic propaganda. But when the question arose about life and death, the person raised in his soul the very foundations of his worldview - and they remained Orthodox.
Road to Varzuga: tonsure instead of wedding
My former place of service before being elected bishop, the village of Varzuga, is one of the very beautiful, but also poor fishing villages on the Tersky coast of the White Sea. The population is four hundred people (and this is considered a large village). Now a hieromonk has replaced me there, and a hierodeacon also serves there. It is difficult for a family priest to feed himself in those places. Secluded, prayerful places prayed for by previous generations. These are not the Soviet cities of the Kola Peninsula, built in the 1930s and 40s, but ancient settlements, with their centuries-old shrines, wooden churches, holy springs... For monastic hermitage life, this is generally the best option.
A blessing brought me to the monastic path - unexpected and initially difficult even to perceive, let alone accept. Actually, I came to the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery for a wedding blessing. For a week the elder did not give me an answer. This was surprising and, in general, uncharacteristic of him. I remember his cell attendant was surprised: “I don’t know why the priest is silent... It’s strange, for some reason he doesn’t want to give you an answer.”
During this week I lived and worked in the monastery. Now I understand that Father John probably weighed his answer in his heart and waited for Sunday to pray at the liturgy. After the liturgy, he came out and gave me an answer - that he blesses me to accept monasticism.
You can imagine what it was like for me to return to my family. But, nevertheless, the wife managed to courageously accept this blessing. We remained on very good terms. Of course, our mutual consent to the tonsure was assumed. But she did not decide to become a monk and remained in the world. I haven't decided yet.
At first, all my friends, family and children thought that I was, as they say, “out of my mind.” But now everything is different, everything in my environment has changed radically. All my loved ones became sincere believers and found what seemed to be forever lost happiness in family life. The Lord gave everything - both children and grandchildren. They understand that my decision, the acceptance of the will of God, revealed in that blessing of the elder, led, in fact, to the salvation of our then dying out race.
Surprisingly, my purely atheistic former surroundings also changed - my fellow officers, who had already fully developed as individuals in Soviet times and had lived most of their lives, also turned to God.
Everyone who came into contact with me found themselves under the beneficial influence of that decisive change to which the Lord called me, through the blessing of the truly great elder of our time, Archimandrite John Krestyankin.
Vicious circle: return to Severomorsk
This story of my journey is very instructive and reveals the secrets of that very synergy (cooperation): everything around will change if the will of God unites with the will of man, if man stops doing his own will, and recklessly and without doubt accepts His will.
I am a native St. Petersburger - all my ancestors are buried in St. Petersburg. I, like many, assumed: I would serve in the North and return. I had everything ready for this: a nice apartment and a dacha. Life was planned, but only according to my will.
But it turned out that I didn’t know anything. You live before the Lord like a funny worm, with self-conceit, with plans for many years ahead. And the Lord looks at the proud man and thinks - well, live according to your own will, make mistakes, suffer. Like everyone else does. Or ask the Lord, receive an answer, fulfill it - and you will suddenly find yourself in a different dimension, in a stream of Divine grace, breathing deeply. And it will turn out to be funny that all your buildings erected on the sand - dachas, cars, prosperity - will all crumble.
Then, when I took tonsure in 2000, it seemed that I had said goodbye to Severomorsk forever, but it turned out not. And now, he is again called to continue his polar odyssey, to devote his life to work in the North...
For twelve years I was in Severomorsk on staff work. It seemed to me that I closed this page, took monastic vows, changed my name. That man, Alexey Badanin, died. I sincerely repented of my past life - it was lived without God. And “if there is no God, then everything is permitted” - Dostoevsky brilliantly formulated this. And the fact that I didn’t swear still doesn’t mean that I didn’t sin - I sinned, and as it should, as “befits” a real officer. An officer is always a hussar!
It was necessary to decisively break away from the past life, and from the old me - not just to put on black clothes and continue to live in the same city bustle, proud and boastful of my talents and abilities, but to truly die for the past life.
Metropolitan Simon of Murmansk, my current spiritual mentor, the wisest man, whose spiritual instinct I completely trust, sent me to this distant village, into the outback, into complete solitude. There was no road there at first, and even now the only way to get to the distant neighboring villages is by helicopter. I was horrified: “What is this! There’s simply nowhere else to go!” - and only then did I understand this wisdom. And he began to work.
Time passed, I, as they say, built a nest for myself, I began to plan something again... Indeed, a lot has been achieved; in fact, the spiritual and historical center of our region has been created, where pilgrims from all over the Murmansk region are now flocking. The word Varzuga is now a brand! For a population of four hundred, we have five ancient churches that have practically already been restored, and they have seven thrones!
And suddenly, again unexpectedly, the Lord takes me from my homes, calls me to the hierarchal service and commands: “Go back to Severomorsk, correct what you did wrong there, and what others like you continue to do wrong. You know all this, these are your fellow officers in spirit and blood. And there are no former officers. Here’s a new spiritual field for you.”
And so I left everything - my Pomor parishioners, the churches, and the spiritual and educational center of our region. Thank God, I put it in good hands, I hope they won’t ruin it. Moreover, I defended Varzuga, and the entire Terek coast of the White Sea - they also transferred to my North Sea diocese.
They elevated me to a new status of bishop, and I returned to Severomorsk. Together with the fleet command and the city administration, we began to look for premises for diocesan structures: management, accounting, office, warehouses, residence. There is nothing, everything must be created. Even the naval church of St. St. Andrew the First-Called has not yet been completed - at least the domes have been installed.
We went around the city. They started offering me vacant buildings - they brought me here, here, and then they showed me another option, they said, the best. And I see in front of me the building of my department, where in the 90s I spent the last twelve years of my officer service.
So, the circle is closed. God’s providence shows me directly “in the forehead”, without options: “I am leading you, just accept it, go, endure and serve with dignity.”
“Simply patriotism” is an abstraction
Stepan Pimenov, at the risk of his life, saved and subsequently, under the threat of arrest, preserved the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God - the prayer image of the family of Alexander III. This icon was painted in memory of their miraculous salvation in 1888, when the imperial train crashed in the village of Borki, Kharkov province. Then she became a prayer image of Mikhail Alexandrovich Romanov, the beloved youngest son of Alexander III, the famous commander of the Wild Division in the First World War.
The Communists killed him in 1918 in Perm, the first of the Royal Family, because he clearly posed a threat - he had authority in all levels of society, and especially in the army, and could become a real emperor.
Mikhail Alexandrovich, together with his faithful secretary Nicholas Johnson, an Englishman by birth, Orthodox by faith, were glorified in the Russian Church Abroad.
We don't have one yet. The canonization commission, as Abbot Damascene (Orlovsky) told me, requested materials from the Church Abroad so that we could agree on the calendar, but they did not provide us with any documents justifying the decision on glorification. Maybe there was no research - it was simply a decision to glorify the entire Royal Family and their servants as martyrs.
But our approach is different; we must carefully study the documents. Until recently, we had this opportunity, but now, as you know, the archives are closed for a hundred years. So it is now difficult to resume the work of glorifying the martyrs in full. But I hope that my book “Icon of the Grand Duke” will be in demand when the Commission returns to this issue.
When sin is impossible
My book was written to some extent precisely in order to show the spiritual appearance of Mikhail Alexandrovich as one of the best representatives of that, alas, disappeared Russia. During my work, I discovered a completely different spiritual world for myself: the world of people for whom it was simply impossible to allow sin, because it is a sin. And even if politically, ideologically, and momentarily, state interests require us to make some kind of, what is now called, “compromise,” for those people this was excluded.
That is why our modern society does not understand, cannot understand the passion-bearing emperor: “He was weak, narrow-minded, a drunkard,” and what else they just can’t make up. But the fact is that he lived according to the Commandments of God and understood: if something is a sin, then it cannot be done, even if the situation requires it, the Duma, ministers, advisers and others are pushing it. And it is better to die than to commit a sin.
But in our time, such reasoning simply sounds naive. People don’t really know what sin is, what it means. Until recently, Word did not have the word “sinfulness” in its vocabulary; it only appeared in the latest edition - already a big deal.
My great-grandfather Stepan Nikitich Pimenov was one of the now extinct people of that time. I try to be like him. Our family was included in the category of “royal servants” and, keeping the royal icon, we all lived under Article 58–10 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (anti-Soviet propaganda). After all, I was born in a wing of the Grand Duke’s palace. Our family remained to live where Stepan Nikitich lived as a manager. In 1917 he was arrested, no one saw him for two weeks, then he returned from Lubyanka completely ill.
But apparently the Mother of God saved him - the keeper of Her icon. Even during the blockade, when everyone was evacuated, he did not leave, he remained with her. And our whole family miraculously escaped repression.
My great-grandfather disappeared during the siege. We still don't know how he died. Upon returning, the family discovered that the apartment had been robbed, but the image of the Mother of God was still there. Later we handed it over to the temple.
Grandmothers said that the most terrible swear word for him was “chumicha” (ladder). If he called someone a freak, it means he is in terrible anger, there’s nowhere else to go. In my family, swearing was excluded. It was an absolute taboo, I didn’t even know these words - I heard them only in high school, when my peers began to express themselves (in the lower grades, and also in front of girls, unlike nowadays, they never swear).
Among my classmates at school and in the navy, swearing was considered daring, an indicator of worker-peasant origin - we are not some kind of “white bone, blue blood.” And many guys, even from normal families where foul language was considered indecent, upon entering the naval environment, stepped over themselves and began to operate with this vocabulary.
I did not allow this, even as the commander of the ship. Of course, I often needed to educate my subordinates and admonish them. It seemed impossible without these words. But I succeeded. My subordinates still remember this and treat me with great reverence. They are constantly looking for me, trying to meet with me. They send photographs from those times, remember their joint service, and thank you.
Everyone knew my attitude towards swearing and considered it, in a certain sense, an eccentricity - they say, the officer was “not of this world.” When they wanted to tell us that some situation was extremely tense (storm, heavy mooring, threat to the ship), then in our ship division they said: “Something was happening there that Badanin was swearing!” In fact, I didn’t swear then, but we had this saying.
How did I avoid this sin? Don't know. Maybe the Lord was preparing me to become a bishop, and a bishop should not be so desecrated - after all, he would later carry the word of God with the same lips.
North Sea Diocese: in search of people with sparkling eyes
In my diocese there are not enough people; personnel is the main issue. Those priests who exist are very good. There are pockets of parish life. But the vine is growing, but there are no shoots yet.
Each parish should become multi-clergy, because the demands for the priesthood are colossal! Now the military and I have compiled a summary table, and it turns out that, in fact, there should be a priest not only at every formation, but also on every cruiser, on every first-rank ship, on every nuclear submarine. But we cannot provide the fleet with priests even at the formation level.
But I believe: if the Lord pleases our work (and it obviously does), then everything will work out. I just need to communicate with people and carefully look at whom He sends to help me. Dioceses are being multiplied not just for ease of administration - I believe that the Lord forgives Russia for all the sins of the 20th century, and an understanding of its great tasks and special role in the world is returning to the minds of our rulers. And without the Church this cannot be realized.
Therefore, now my first job is to travel to parishes, units, ships, and meet with officers. I talk, I look into your eyes. If I see that among those present there is a person whose eyes are burning and who responds to my words, it means that this person is from the Lord, he should not be allowed to “float freely” and forgotten.
We spoke with the Fleet Commander about cultivating priests among the military. We need to talk to veterans, those who have already been demobilized. In the North, a person at forty-five years old can already retire - both not old and mature. If his heart responded to the call of the Lord, he should be sent to study at a seminary and undergo an internship.
In the past, hieromonks served on ships. If you look at the Synodics of those killed during the Japanese and First World Wars, next to the names of the ships the names of monks are written. Long hikes, long separations from family... For a white priest this is a problem.
And at naval bases and garrisons, it is quite possible for a white priest to work. The priest communicates with the officers, the mother works with their wives. Who are the parishioners? Mostly wives, of course. Maybe it would be more convenient for mother to talk to them, and if the candle maker in the candle shop also knows what to say to a person who comes into the temple, then there will certainly be a “wonderful catch.”
Whoever prays is served the same way
My diocese is not rich. The principle of division of the former diocese is quite clear. Murmansk remained populous industrial centers with city-forming enterprises: Murmansk, Kirovsk, Apatity, Monchegorsk, Olenegorsk. Our Severomorskaya got a coast with small garrisons and dying fishing villages. We just have different areas of activity. My diocese is larger (two thousand kilometers of coastline), but in terms of population it is four and a half times poorer. How to survive?..
There was such a wise man, St. Petersburg priest Vasily Ermakov. I loved serving with him, and he loved and mentored me spiritually, and I remember his advice with gratitude. He had a saying: “Whoever prays is served the same way.” Every time he entered the altar, hung with bags of gifts, he cunningly uttered this phrase. And everyone agreed.
It all depends on the intensity of our service. Today, military personnel in the North are fairly wealthy people. The President increased the salaries of both officers and contract soldiers, and all submarines switched to contract service. These are not the old sailors whose pay was three rubles (we had the same salary at school - three rubles and sixty kopecks - and goodbye, that was just enough for cigarettes).
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Status: Active Date of birth: 01/07/1976 He was tonsured: 10/28/2004 by Archbishop of Murmansk and Monchegorsk Simon (Getya) Diaconal consecration: 11/12/2004 by Archbishop of Murmansk and Monchegorsk Simon (Getya) Priestly consecration: 12/28/2004 Archbishop om Murmansk and Monchegorsk Simon (Getya ) Episcopal consecration: 05/02/2017 In the Church of the Resurrection of the Holy Intercession Stavropegic Monastery in Moscow by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' Secular education 1999 - Murmansk State Pedagogical Institute (correspondence).
2003 - North-Western Academy of Public Administration (correspondence). Spiritual education 2009 - Orthodox St. Tikhon's Humanitarian University (correspondence).
2016 - St. Petersburg Theological Academy (correspondence).
Biography
Born on January 7, 1976 in Murmansk in a family of employees. Baptized in 2002In 1993 he graduated from secondary school No. 34 in Murmansk.
In 1999 he graduated from the Murmansk State Pedagogical Institute with a degree in History. In 2003 he graduated from the North-Western Academy of Public Service.
Since September 1, 2004, he served as an altar boy at the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Murmansk.
On October 28, 2004, Archbishop Simon of Murmansk and Monchegorsk tonsured him as a monk with the name Tarasius in honor of St. Tarasius, Archbishop of Constantinople.
On November 12, 2004, Archbishop Simon of Murmansk ordained him to the rank of hierodeacon, and on December 28, 2004, to the rank of hieromonk.
From November 15, 2004 - full-time deacon, from January 8, 2005 to March 1, 2016 - full-time priest of the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Murmansk.
In 2006-2013 At the same time, he was the rector of the parish of the Church of St. App. Peter and Paul village Foggy Kola district, Murmansk region. On June 5, 2009, he was appointed second priest of the Church of St. Luke Krymsky at the Murmansk State Technical University.
In 2005-2009 Studied at the Orthodox St. Tikhon's Humanitarian University.
In 2006-2009 - head of the youth, in 2014-2015. - social departments of the Murmansk diocese. In August 2015, he was appointed head of the St. Theodoret catechetical courses.
In 2016 he graduated with a bachelor's degree from the St. Petersburg Theological Academy.
By the decision of the Holy Synod of March 9, 2017 (magazine No. 9), he was elected Bishop of Veliky Ustyug and Totem.
On March 17, 2017, Metropolitan Simon of Murmansk elevated him to the rank of archimandrite during the Liturgy in the Church of the Savior on Water in Murmansk.
He was consecrated bishop on April 8, 2017 in the Throne Hall of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Consecrated on May 2 at the Divine Liturgy in the Church of the Resurrection of the Slovushchey Stavropegial Monastery of the Intercession in Moscow. The services were led by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus'.
Bishop Mitrofan of North Sea and Umba was our guest.
Our guest talked about how he chose the path of a naval officer following his grandfather and father, why one day he decided to change his life and went into monastic solitude, and how it happened that he returned to his native Severomorsk already in the rank of bishop.
V. Emelyanov
– Hello, this is the “Bright Evening” program on radio “Vera”, in the studio of Vladimir Emelyanov. My interlocutor today is Bishop Mitrofan of North Sea and Umba. Hello, Your Eminence, good evening.
Bishop Mitrofan
- Hello.
V. Emelyanov
– We are pleased to welcome you today in the studio of radio “Vera”, in the studio of the “Bright Evening” program. You have an amazing destiny. Well, indeed, you knew such people, you received a blessing from one, but more on that a little later. In general, you are a hereditary naval officer.
Bishop Mitrofan
- Well, in general, yes.
V. EmelyanovAbout
– Could you tell me a little about your family? After all, all of you - your father, grandfather, and great-grandfather - were all naval officers.
Bishop Mitrofan
– Well, yes, but what was most clearly reflected in my destiny for me was my great-grandfather, who was close to Admiral Stepan Osipovich Makarov. It was the end of the 19th century, the formation of the ocean-going imperial fleet. Our ships went out to the ocean and displayed their flag everywhere, and were present in all important regions. And this is what my great-grandfather found, he served for 12 years under the admiral. He was not an officer, he was a non-commissioned officer, that is, he rose to the top from ordinary ordinary sailors due to his personal qualities. We once kept a photograph of Admiral Makarov as a gift with a caption that means: “To the most devoted and responsible conductor of the fleet.”
V. Emelyanov
- What is a conductor?
Bishop Mitrofan
- Conductors - it must be said that these were the people most hated by the revolutionary soldier-sailor masses. These are dedicated non-commissioned officers of the fleet, in general, those on whom the officer and commander could always rely. Well, later this is in our time, for example, a midshipman, a petty officer in the fleet. And then they were called conductors. And then, apparently, I assume so, in mockery, already in Soviet times, for some reason people began to call ticket sellers on trams there as conductors, and so on. That is, apparently, there is some kind of deep hatred and confrontation here. If we remember Eisenstein’s film “Battleship Potemkin”, then they show a scene when someone there does not agree with the officers being shot, the conductors, of course, betray their sailor friends there, and they are shot there separately . That is, this is how it all happened. That is, the conductors are those on whom the fleet relied, on whom it rested, that is, these are the most devoted people. And my great-grandfather Stepan Nikitich, he was still a very talented person, well, kind of like Kulibin. And for Admiral Makarov, who just at that moment was developing all new types of weapons for the fleet, that is, then for the first time the concept of these self-propelled mines, which were then called torpedoes, and mine weapons using electricity, was also a wonder then, galvanic elements . All this was tested on the admiral’s flagship. And my great-grandfather did just that. That is, he finalized all these scientific, new, well, breakthroughs that Admiral Makarov, thanks to his amazing talent, not only as a commander, but also as an engineer, he implemented, and we were ahead in the field of mine weapons. And Admiral Makarov, in fact, was the founder of the mine business in the Russian Imperial Navy. And I am very glad that it was my great-grandfather who was with him all this time. And later, when he was demobilized, he went precisely under the patronage of Admiral Makarov. It’s interesting that their houses were even nearby, on Mokhovaya Street, I later found out. He was involved in the introduction of electric lighting in all palaces. That is, later he even made the first wiring, I think it is still there today, in St. Isaac's Cathedral. The Holy Synod allowed him, entrusted it to him, his brigade, and for this he received a striking gold watch, which was lost during the blockade, like many other valuable, very memorable, unfortunately. Here is from the Holy Synod.
V. Emelyanov
– I wanted to touch on a topic that is somewhat painful for many in our country. And he didn’t suffer later, during Soviet times?
Bishop Mitrofan
“In Soviet times, naturally, both he and my family had to be shot. This, so to speak, was completely predetermined. Because in the end, he has this authority in St. Petersburg, and work in palaces, after all, to entrust a palace, you have to really be in order to know that a person is honest. You can’t hide everything that’s out there, just within easy reach. There, if anyone read about, say, the Yusupovs, they had vases filled to the brim with gems, which means it was just such a special chic of the palace. Well, you won’t hide everything. Therefore, trust, honesty, sobriety - these were the principles that created his name. And ultimately, Nicholas II’s brother, Mikhail Alexandrovich Romanov, took him in, and he became the manager of the palace on the Promenade des Anglais, in the outbuilding of which, in fact, my brother and I were born.
V. Emelyanov
– So I just wanted to ask how you managed to live in the palace of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.
Bishop Mitrofan
- Yes. And it was he who chose him, a person who could be entrusted with the palace and be calm that everything would work in it. Mikhail Aleksandrovich was a very technically advanced person, he filled his palace with all sorts of latest innovations, there were various elevators, there was the serving of meals, for example, there from some basement floor to the top, the table, already fully laid, went, so to speak, straight into the main hall . Well, all sorts of interesting things like that.
V. Emelyanov
- This is who was in the Yusupov Palace, he knows all this from the stories of the guides. And your great-grandfather had a direct connection to this.
Bishop Mitrofan
- Well, definitely, yes. Well, this palace on the English Embankment of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich is such a very dear point of St. Petersburg for me. And, of course, the most important thing is the history of the icon, which was kept in our family. That is, the icon of the Royal Family, painted in memory of its miraculous rescue in 1888 at the Borki station, a famous, famous Kharkov province, a case when 43 people died, and the Royal Family practically there, someone had one finger broken and nothing else. That is, this is an obvious miracle of God. And many, in honor of this event, wrote some kind of memorial gifts to the imperial family in memory. And, in particular, the icon of the Kazan Mother of God was painted. Very large, in an expensive heavy silver frame. And it became the prayer image of the Grand Duke; it was kept in his palace in the prayer room. And when the palace was being destroyed by revolutionary sailors, my great-grandfather managed to get her out of there. Because they threw everything out of the palace. It was my grandmother who told me personally how terrible it all was, how they threw absolutely everything there from the upper floors, all the precious furniture, all sorts of amazing pieces of art - all of it just crashed into the yard, these guys, belted with ribbons, were drunk. And, in particular, of course, it was important for my great-grandfather to save this icon. And then this icon was kept with us. And, as I now understand, it was the presence of this icon, my great-grandfather, that was blessed by Archpriest Nikolai Komaretsky, the last rector of the temple on Annunciation Square, which is now Labor Square, the temple that was the first to be blown up, in the year 29. Then everyone else exploded there, but this was the very first explosion. Archpriest Nikolai Komaretsky fell ill after this and died two years later, although he was still quite strong. And he told him that it means, Stepan Nikitich, keep it until better times, let it be in the house. And we kept it, although, of course, it is not a home icon at all. And this was always a big risk. Because we kept it curtained, I remember I looked behind the curtain in the kitchen. But if anyone looked, it was clear that this was a royal icon, and in general what was it doing here, why was it kept so in the family of, in general, responsible people, government officials, so to speak, working in closed institutions. And, naturally, the fear that accompanied the life of our family was constant. Naturally, my great-grandfather was arrested immediately. And we thought that was it. Well, I didn’t catch it, naturally, my grandmother said that, in fact, they said goodbye. He was gone for a week. But somehow, and I think it was precisely through the intercession of the Mother of God, he was a guardian, he was entrusted with keeping, and therefore he should not have been shot. And so, well, he returned sick, accordingly. We stood on our feet for a week, it turns out, stuffed like sardines in a barrel, in the cellars on Gorokhovaya. And he returned completely ill and did not want to ever talk about it or even remember it, he was always silent. And in this tension, when those next on the lists went to go through - 1932, 1937, naturally, we all, as my grandmother said, listened all the time to where the car stopped, to the crater, at which entrance, where they were going. This is all night long, he says.
V. Emelyanov
“I can’t imagine how it’s possible to live in this horror all the time.”
Bishop Mitrofan
– My grandmother, as a result, I found my grandmother and her sister, they were damaged, they were, in general, they lived in fear all the time. It was probably already 1986, no, earlier, probably 1970, when I, well, being still such a young man, had a so-called taxi at our house. This is a kind of stereo photographic device from the beginning of the century, which belonged to the prince, for these three-dimensional images. Well, then they all started making all sorts of plastic analogues there, already in Soviet times that’s all. But initially it was, so it looked, a very solid piece of equipment, and there were about forty paintings of these same ones rotating there on plates, and there, that means, one could see various landscapes of that now-gone world of imperial Russia. And I suddenly discovered that there was some kind of second bottom behind me. And so I unscrewed these ancient screws and opened them. And there I found a package wrapped in newspaper, exactly around the year 15-16. And inside were a stack of photographs. It turned out that these were photographs, then I read this in my memoirs, photographs that Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich took during the First World War, when he commanded the Wild Division. They were filmed there, well, as I remember now, it means that all sorts of attacks were filmed there, some artillery shelling, there was life in the trenches, some advice there, that means somewhere at Headquarters there, and so on. That is, there were about 60 of these photographs. And I said: Grandma, look what I found. Grandma looked at it like that and said: okay, put it down, I’ll look more closely later. I remember I left for school, and when I returned, I said: Grandma, is it possible, I still want to see where they are? - They are no longer there. I say: why not? - They no longer exist, I burned them. I say: how so? So, that’s it, don’t ever think about it. I say: what is it, why was it necessary? That is, these were already the Brezhnev years of stagnation; naturally, no one cared at all about all these photographs, and everyone had already published them. But she had it, she says: they will come, arrest you and won’t even ask why you did it. And that’s it, it will all end like this, forget about it forever. And I realized that she simply cannot think differently, she waits all the time, every night, so to speak, that it will still end badly. Because our family fell into the category of royal servants.
V. Emelyanov
– Yes, that’s why I asked you.
Bishop Mitrofan
– Article 58-10, and everything is clear. That’s why it’s pure that this icon was in our home, and it saved us. That is, we had to preserve it until time, well, later we, yes, transferred it to the Seraphim Church of St. Petersburg, it is now kept there, revered, and many come there to pray to it.
V. Emelyanov
– My interlocutor today is Bishop Mitrofan of North Sea and Umba. Having such a background, such relatives as your ancestors, it is obvious that you have followed in their footsteps. What was the most difficult part of your naval service? You served in the Northern Fleet.
Bishop Mitrofan
– I served in the Northern Fleet. My father is a captain of the 1st rank, a submariner. He is a participant in the war. And it was, of course, his blessing that my brother and I both followed this path. We wanted to become submariners, but he categorically said that there were no submariners, I had enough of my friends, so I couldn’t stand it anymore. Because he had a lot of friends who died. It’s just that close personal friends died during testing of new boats after the war, when our country was trying to get ahead in this matter, an arms race began. And he lost a lot of people, and he himself was repeatedly in grave danger. He told us to become surface ship officers, and my brother and I actually went and became ship commanders. The most difficult job of an officer is making decisions. That is, it would seem that in the 90s they began to say that the officer had become a dirty word - we went through all of this, I remember it exactly, I saw it in full - and like that these are slackers, it’s not clear, there’s money there they get it, but it’s not clear what they’re doing there, they’re not doing anything. The officer makes decisions, he takes responsibility and is responsible for this decision. And he does everything to make it happen. Therefore, of course, the most difficult thing in life is precisely this decision-making when the crew, well, as the British say, who is the commander - well, first after God. The crew always looks up to the commander, that is, this is a big responsibility. I have always been a commander, it just so happens that I have never been a subordinate. I started with a small ship, I just begged for this ship, a small raid minesweeper. I only served for a year after I graduated. And they believed me, seeing my persistence, and I became the commander of a small ship. And then I moved on, only changing the ship class and rank.
V. Emelyanov
– And in the end you came to...
Bishop Mitrofan
– Well, I didn’t make it as far as the big ship, but nevertheless, well, then I just went to work at the headquarters. I didn’t move any further and served in Severomorsk.
V. Emelyanov
- And this is it: I can’t live without the sea, as the sailors say? Or like pilots: I can’t do without the sky, what will I do on earth. Or in your case, on land what will I do.
Bishop Mitrofan
- I don't know. The fact is that everything depends on the extent to which a person has been at sea. Some there: I can’t live without the sea there, rock the table, I can’t live without the rock there, all sorts of sayings like that.
V. Emelyanov
- No, well, yes.
Bishop Mitrofan
– But the fact is that those who really swam and who, in general, were in trouble, and there were quite a lot of difficult moments and nervous tension, I won’t say that I’m drawn to again, so, here’s to go, I went would be there. I believe that I have done enough, I really was a commander and went to sea.
V. Emelyanov
– But these alterations, can you tell me what kind of stories they were? Or is it secret?
Bishop Mitrofan
- No, it’s not secret why. This is always associated with some, well, emergency situations that are inevitable in the crew. There are a lot of people, mistakes are made, equipment breaks down, this can happen. After all, it’s good if this happens somewhere, well, in such conditions that are not critical, but if it’s a storm, and if it’s a hurricane, and you’re generally at the limit, a little more and everything will end badly. I found this situation. In principle, I already told it, I remember someone interviewed me like that, but I can repeat it. We were on our way, I was ferrying a fairly large ship, this is a floating workshop - this is such a large ship, it was entrusted to ferry it around Scandinavia. It was necessary to leave the Barents Sea, from the Polar Sea, from the base, and enter further into the Baltic Sea, for repairs in the Polish People's Republic at that time, because the ship was built in Poland. It was to Gdynia that we had to go. And, in principle, the timing was not bad, August, the end of August, and the forecasts were normal. But, nevertheless, we found ourselves in a very difficult situation. This means that, due to its technical condition, the ship was not able to withstand the wave and wind load that fell that night. We were covered by a severe cyclone, which was supposed to pass by, but it turned 90 degrees and covered us at night. That is, we could not even hide anywhere or step aside, it happened instantly and inevitably. And, in general, a situation began when the ship was worn out by very long combat services, which means that this happened off the coast of Guinea-Bissau, which means off Mozambique, our boat bases were there, this navigational facility provided repairs. That is, the climate there is terrible, all the iron rots, the electrical wiring is all falling apart. Well, this is the tropics, the heat is terrible...
V. Emelyanov
- And still moisture.
Bishop Mitrofan
- And moisture. And it destroys everything, corrosion just eats it up. Naturally, she spent 24 years there. You can imagine what happened to the ship and all its cable routes and everything else. But, nevertheless, it was necessary to go for repairs, we went for repairs, and it means that in such a completely worn-out state we found ourselves in this mess, when the wave loads were simply so great that cracks appeared in the hull. And water began to flow into these cracks. And water began to flow into the completely destroyed braids of the 380 volt cables, and it all began to short-circuit to the housing. It started to hit 380, which means, accordingly, you grab the handle there, but you are shied away there, and it is not clear how to walk around the ship. That is, this is a situation that is growing, and I am receiving reports from everywhere, from all combat posts. And I have to, so to speak, and everyone is waiting for instructions from me...
V. Emelyanov
- Solutions.
Bishop Mitrofan
- Solutions. And I have to decide because I am the commander. This was such a moment. I see that the situation is getting worse, the rudder is failing, and the ship can no longer effectively ride the wave. And this is a disaster, because the ship fights, in principle, with any storm as long as it can face the wave with its nose. If it is covered with a log, as they say, sideways, yes, then it will tip over, it is not intended for this. And naturally, you can’t tip it over, as it were, try turning it over. And sideways - once, you’ll be picked and that’s it, and goodbye. In this matter, it is also very important whether the steering machine works and whether the engines work well, whether its stroke is sufficient. And when the steering wheel starts to shift poorly, because we were forced to switch to emergency steering because the electric one failed. And emergency control is a long, slow shifting there due to emergency systems, completely without these machine reinforcements that are given, this is purely the work of the steering wheel, who turns this very wheel of this steering wheel, and after five minutes he is already all wet and exhausted, because he You have to turn it one way, then the other. But we established a shift, changed the helmsmen there every ten minutes, they turned this very one. But, nevertheless, I see that the ship is just entering the wave and it collapses again, that is, it does not hold up. And something had to be done. And at that moment, when I realized that... Then the crew, after all, the floating workshop is not such a floating ship, it rarely goes to sea, it stays somewhere basically. The crew got seasick, and really, nothing can be done about them. Some people simply roll around in an unconscious state along the corridor, there you are, do whatever you want with him, but he is completely unaware of anything, that is, severe seasickness. We must count on those who remain. There are only a few of them left. All this needs to be calculated, who should be sent where, so that the ship continues to live. And it was in this situation then, near the Faroe Islands, that I probably turned to God for the first time. I realized that people were looking at me, but it occurred to me, and who am I looking at, that I am someone, I’m not God here. And then I had this thought that I probably need to promise something, take some kind of important vow, not a vow. But I had some thoughts that if I was saved, then I, so to speak, would not forget about it now, I would always be like something like this... So I didn’t formulate then what it was.
V. Emelyanov
– Tell me briefly, your story, did it end happily? Did you reach Gdynia without losses then?
Bishop Mitrofan
– Yes, miraculously, we survived this night without losses. We managed to assemble a team that dressed in protective clothing that could not be penetrated, these chemical kits, that is, they could touch everything. They, tied together with ropes, managed to reach the tiller compartment, where these cars were all flooded, which did not allow the steering wheel to turn. They dried everything there. We have restored combat readiness, as they say, we have restored the speed, we have restored the operation of the steering gear. And, in principle, by morning we had already emerged from this storm, and there was complete calm. It was just like, after a nightmare, suddenly such grace. And we felt that we were simply saved, the Lord had forgiven us.
V. Emelyanov
– Of course, you can listen to your sea stories and continue further, the time of the program is limited only with you. But I hope that this is not the last meeting. Both me and our listeners, I am sure, are interested in the question of how a naval officer became a bishop. Have there been any radical changes in your life? How did this happen for you? Well, you gave such a small beacon that during this storm.
Bishop Mitrofan
- Well, yes, there were, as it were, such lessons from the Lord, such lessons, and this is how the Lord extended his hand, it was important not to push it away, but to feel what was happening here. Well, it was hard not to feel when the issue of life and death was being decided, this is always very important for a person. At this moment, the right decisions are made if the person is truly human. Well, there certainly were such cases. But they may be quite personal, so I can’t fully tell you all about it. But this path was gradual. That is, I felt that my life as an officer of the workers’ and peasants’ fleet there in the Red Army was somehow incomplete. I was obviously lacking, I was missing some kind of support in life, I didn’t feel what the meaning of life was, I couldn’t find it. And this really depressed me. Well, in general, it’s like this somewhere. This path is hidden. Here we can’t say that there’s a click and everything has changed.
V. Emelyanov
– How did your loved ones react? After all, you have a family, a wife, your children. This is really true, well, if a person, a layman who has been baptized, should ideally have his life change, then entering the priesthood, well, it’s really just a different life.
Bishop Mitrofan
– Well, I was absolutely alone in this decision of mine, in these changes of mine in the late 90s, when it came. I was saying goodbye to the fleet, everything was being reduced, everything was being cut, which means that everyone was being driven out, just so as not to pay wages. Signed anyone there, that means, papers for dismissal, anyone, please. Just write and disappear immediately, because there is no money and there never will be. And everyone was dispersed, all professionals, commanders, everyone who was possible. And I found myself in this situation. And now I’m going to Diveevo, it will be 20 years since I went there. They simply told me that, you know, there is such a holy place where you can ask about your fate. Well, believers said, I was then in search of it. And I then got into my car and drove to Diveevo. And in Diveevo I prayed for three days at the relics of Seraphim of Sarov, and on the third day, in general, I received a completely concrete answer. Well, again you’ll say that it’s sea stories, and there’s not enough time.
V. Emelyanov
- No, I won’t say, because although I never aspired to the priesthood, and it’s hardly possible, but, nevertheless, I would also say that few people can believe why I came to the priesthood Church, why I was baptized. And this was also completely inexplicable, because it happened, by the way, just like that, on a click, almost in one moment.
Bishop Mitrofan
- Well, it clicked for me. But I say that, nevertheless, for this click to occur, even before this there must be a fairly long path of some such events, indications, some such thoughts of a person when he encounters something.
V. Emelyanov
– Your Eminence, I suggest that we now take a break for just a couple of minutes. Let me remind you that my interlocutor today is Bishop Mitrofan of North Sea and Umba. And today we are talking about his maritime ministry - this was in the first part of the program, in the second part of the program we will already talk about his service in the Church. Moreover, there are also very interesting meetings, events, and so on. Wait, we'll be back in just a minute.
V. Emelyanov
– We continue our “Bright Evening” on Radio Vera. In the studio are Vladimir Emelyanov and my interlocutor today, Bishop of North Sea and Umba Mitrofan. In the first part of the program, we talked about the Vladyka’s naval service, because he is from an old family of naval officers, even those who served the royal fleet. And we ended our previous part with the fact that, due to various circumstances, life, spiritual quests, the bishop came to the Church simply as a priest. You were blessed by Archimandrite John Krestyankin, an elder I deeply revered. Unfortunately, I did not find him alive, and then, in general, even at the time when he passed away, Christ was not yet in my life. That is, He was, but I was on my own, and everything else was on its own. Although I never allowed myself any liberties, no giggles and so on, but that’s not the point. How did you meet him, Archimandrite John Krestyankin?
Bishop Mitrofan
- Well, I got to know him quite well; it was perhaps daring that I met him. It was just the way the Lord wanted me to hear his wisdom. And it happened in a very funny way too. My son studied flute at a music school. This means that his teacher, who was teaching him, suddenly says: I’m sorry, I’m saying goodbye to you, I won’t be here anymore. I say: what is it like, you are leaving Severomorsk, and what happened? And I was blessed to live at the monastery. I say: what kind of word is this, blessed, and who blessed? I am selling my apartment and moving to Pechory. I say: here you go, how is this possible? She says: yes, yes, the elder blessed me. It was the first time I heard the word “elder”, “blessed”. I say: what is this? And he says: you too, go and be blessed. I say: what is there to be blessed for, to leave here or what? She says: whatever he says. Be blessed for life. And this sunk into my soul. I think maybe I really need to find out something. And I went there. I went and took my son with me. We arrived, went there to the cell attendant, I remember Tatyana there. She says: no, the priest is seriously ill, we practically don’t know what will happen, he doesn’t accept anyone. But, he says, you will write notes then. Let me give it to him, he will give the answer through me. I say: okay, everything is great. Well, indeed, we watched as they endlessly ran around with injections. That is, there was just a moment then, we thought that everything was already done.
V. Emelyanov
- Yes, there was a crisis there.
Bishop Mitrofan
– Yes, there was a crisis, then the Lord extended his years, and he got up again. And then there was a moment of complete, which means, despair for everyone, everyone said goodbye. And we wrote. I wrote what I wrote, I wrote that I ask for blessings for the wedding, that my wife and I live, I wrote some circumstances of life. We try to help the church there, this, that, all such everyday matters, so bless us for the wedding. And we gave these notes. She said: well, come tomorrow at this time, I will tell you the answer. Well, it turned out that the next day we came, she said: he read it and didn’t say anything. I say: so what now? She says: well, she’ll tell you tomorrow. We spent a week there. He was silent and did not answer. And then suddenly I got up on Sunday and went to the liturgy. It was the feast of Cornelius the Pechersk martyr, he decided to get up. There was a commotion there - the priest stood up, which means everyone was there, these thousands of people rushed after him, they began to guard him in every possible way. He prayed, then they took him back at a run, and again they ran to give injections. And after that we approached him, and after the liturgy he gave an answer. He gave me the answer that I either take monasticism, that is, or live alone. But to return to his first wife. But it was complete... My wife and I first broke up a long time ago, and had absolutely no plans, and I didn’t even know where she was. “He says, this is what you need,” this Tatyana said, “forgive me, I’m just a repeater, I understand that I’m telling you things that will now be very... I say: well, very much, and what should I do now? Well, that's what he said. You either return to your first wife or you must separate from that wife. Well, in short, the conversation started. That's how it was. But I had little idea how I would tell my wife this when I returned. She blessed us so that we could get permission to get married there. And I’ll come and say that this is our lot. It was, of course, a disaster. You can imagine how a woman would react to this. Even if there is some kind of faith there, it’s still difficult to contain. But, thank God, we still made this decision. We divorced. I, however, went to my first wife. I actually found her, we met. This, of course, was when I suggested to her that let’s go back together, it was a shock, of course. But it was very important. It was important for us to meet because peace in my heart is necessary for my further ministry. I have to reconcile with everyone, it shouldn’t be what people do when they get divorced.
V. Emelyanov
- Oh, yes, it happens in different ways.
Bishop Mitrofan
“And that’s why all this was necessary.” And she really accepted it, she was very glad that I acted like this, that we met like that. We forgave each other everything. And we communicate very well now. We have grandchildren, children, everything and everything is wonderful there. It was necessary, that is, there was wisdom in all of this. This was the only way to resolve these issues. Well, yes, of course, we broke up. And my bishop gave us a blessing to both accept monasticism. And it was even assumed that in this case we could live like brother and sister, take on the care of Severomorsk there, everyone knew us.
V. Emelyanov
- Yes, and run the household together...
Bishop Mitrofan
- Lead this way, yes, but live, accordingly, in purity. But my wife didn’t dare, she said: I’m not ready, I can’t, I just can’t stand it. No, later, later. In general, in short, I accepted monasticism alone.
V. Emelyanov
– It so happened that when you accepted the priesthood, a terrible tragedy occurred in our country, about which you will later write a book. I mean the Kursk submarine. Now quite a lot of time has passed. For some reason, television didn’t really remember it either. Did you experience this in any particular way?
Bishop Mitrofan
– I returned to this topic ten years later. And my book is dedicated to the tenth anniversary. During these ten years, well, due to the fact that I was already a monk, I remained in such prayerful solitude. My bishop very wisely sent me to very distant lands, where there was no road there, these are ancient Pomeranian villages. That is, I could do what a monk should do even in a parish, that is, prayer. And in these ten years, over these ten years, a certain awareness came, an understanding of the essence of what happened.
V. Emelyanov
– And what really happened?
Bishop Mitrofan
-What happened? I didn’t touch on any technical or other problems, it doesn’t matter at all. What difference does it make how the Lord decided to take this best crew. The Lord always takes the best for sacrifice. It was a sacrifice, yes. And I don’t care, who’s to blame, what – but it doesn’t matter at all. Why was this given? And when, 10 years later, I met with people there, I asked, what were you doing in August 2000? Everyone said the same words: we sat in front of the TV and cried. That's what it was for. Well, it was impossible to finally bring our country into the state of a normal nation. The nation is united by grief.
V. Emelyanov
– Do you now think that we are a normal nation?
Bishop Mitrofan
– I believe that now we are a different nation, not the same as in the 90s. Did you see the 90s?
V. Emelyanov
– I caught the 90s, yes.
Bishop Mitrofan
– Everything is for sale, when everything is mocking, everything can be sold: history, names, laugh at everything. Officers are a dirty word, veterans – it’s better not to wear medals there. And all the rest.
V. Emelyanov
– By the way, this is a mystery to me to this day. In general, I remember from my childhood, firstly, my grandfather was a professional military man who went through the war and returned from the war. I remember that in my childhood there were quite a lot of people in military uniform on the streets.
Bishop Mitrofan
V. Emelyanov
– The child, in general, me specifically, had something of an average attitude towards the military, it’s not like the police, but you can also get hit on the head for smoking a cigarette in the back alley. An officer could easily come up and just slap him on the head. Now for some reason there are not many people in uniform on the streets...
Bishop Mitrofan
V. Emelyanov
– Is this still going on?
Bishop Mitrofan
- Absolutely right. Do you see a lot of priests walking down the street in uniform? I don't see them either. This is also an echo.
V. Emelyanov
– Hieromonk Dimitry Leonov came recently; he takes care of the “Mozhaisk bush,” as he calls it, correctional institutions. He was just coming to us here for a program and told how some person in the transport sat opposite him and made faces at him, for example, made faces.
Bishop Mitrofan
- Well, this is inevitable, he gets sick at the sight of the cross, of course, we all go through this. The cross has a heavy impact on people who are spiritually damaged.
V. Emelyanov
– Well, you know, it seems to me that the fact that society has now begun to treat the Church rather aggressively also played a role here. Suddenly such a change occurred. At first, on the contrary, everyone rushed straight into such an emotional spiritual upsurge, rather to the temple, to celebrate all the holidays, but now the rhetoric has changed. It is felt, by the way, from the media, it is heard from people who are really quite sardonic about it. That is, it’s not even just a question of, well, listen, you’re a believer, you’re an unbeliever. I'm not a believer, but I respect your choice, and it's your choice, after all. And this rhetoric has changed. And do you think this is temporary in general, will it somehow change?
Bishop Mitrofan
- No, that won't change. This is fine. This means, as Tertullian said, the Church, if it is not persecuted, then it is not Christ’s. We all want there to be a symphony, Byzantium, so that again - we went through all this euphoria, it all ended in 1917. And our new martyrs are not so dear to us because they were absolutely wonderful people before during the revolution. Everyone was damaged, everyone. Another thing is that they redeemed with blood. The Lord allowed someone to atone for their sin with blood, and they are now new martyrs. And we now live at the expense of their blood, not according to our own merits. Therefore, as for the Church, which is experiencing these attacks, these are the words of the Lord: “I was persecuted, and you will be persecuted.” But of course, this is a must. Why, because the world cannot accept the Church, cannot accept holiness - these are foreign, completely alien worlds. And I must say that the current situation with Russia, when suddenly we are absolutely hated by everyone, it is simply not clear what is happening. Well, what have we actually done to you to make you all go crazy around the world? These are also roots, because we have Orthodoxy. Catholicism is dying out. I’ve been talking to them in Italy, in Milan for ten years now at conferences, and we’ve been discussing all this with Catholics. They no longer pose the same danger to the world, to the forces of evil, that Orthodoxy, orthodoxy, that is, the preserved apostolic faith, represents. And therefore, the rejection of Russia, it is largely provoked by the development of Orthodoxy in Russia.
V. Emelyanov
- You think?
Bishop Mitrofan
- I think yes.
V. Emelyanov
– But it seems to me that this is a purely personalized matter.
Bishop Mitrofan
- Yes, at least personalized. What do you think, do our people have a cool attitude towards Orthodoxy?
V. Emelyanov
- No, I don’t know how they relate, I don’t know them. I don't know these people.
Bishop Mitrofan
- I know. Let me tell you. I just returned recently from the main Russian naval parade. It was a grand event, right?
V. Emelyanov
- I have never been.
Bishop Mitrofan
- No, well, there was a broadcast, the main naval parade, which took place on the Neva in Kronstadt. You've probably seen reports about this, how it all happened.
V. Emelyanov
– Well, reports and television pictures are one thing, another thing...
Bishop Mitrofan
– That’s great, Channel One tried very hard to make it, to direct it.
V. Emelyanov
– In general, they direct everything very diligently.
Bishop Mitrofan
- Yes, it was a level. But this is not what pleased and shocked me at all. I was in the stands and saw everything that was happening, which means that according to the plan, this was their event. After the entire parade was completed, our Supreme Commander, together with the Commander-in-Chief and all the guests, had to leave for a reception at the Admiralty. But our supreme one asks: where is the patriarch? They tell him: he’s in Kronstadt, the relics of Theodore Ushakov have arrived there. He says: why aren’t we there? Well, that’s how it was generally planned: there’s a service, here we have a parade. He says, let us go, they will wait for us here, but we will still go there. And our president went there to pray at the relics of the famous fleet admiral. This is not according to protocol at all, a violation. And after that he returned with His Holiness, and we talked. And, probably, the most vivid impression that His Holiness shared was that when in this Kronstadt Cathedral, thousands of sailors stood there at the liturgy, in white clothes, the uniform was prepared for this holiday for everyone, for the first time, by the way. And when the deacon came out to sing the “Our Father,” and when all the thousands of young throats thundered out the “Our Father” in unison and sang as the “Our Father” had never been heard anywhere in their life, this was probably a sign of the times. Because it turns out that in addition to the fact that it was officially ordered to learn the hymn, it turned out that the main prayer “Our Father” was also learned. And I think that's right. Probably everyone who has ever been in a difficult situation has struggled with what prayer to say, what prayer to say, just to “save and preserve.” And therefore, if a military man has our original Russian Orthodox prayer at the ready, I think this is very important. These are the impressions.
V. Emelyanov
– Let me remind you that my interlocutor today is Bishop Mitrofan of North Sea and Umba. Vladyka, please tell me, but in general, by and large, it turns out that the circle is closed. You started serving in the Northern Fleet, now you head the North Sea diocese. She didn't appear very long ago, right?
Bishop Mitrofan
- Well, yes, it will be four years.
V. Emelyanov
- Just everything.
Bishop Mitrofan
– The fact is that I said goodbye when, in 1997, I, in general, said goodbye and had no intention of returning at all. You once asked me in previous questions about the longing for the sea, you want to be there again. No, I don’t want to, I said goodbye, that’s enough. I wanted to pray, I wanted to discover for myself the other side of this existence, which I was deprived of. I've been bossed around to my heart's content. That’s why, in my current administrative practice, by the way, I don’t like to command.
V. Emelyanov
“But you have to, you’re supposed to.”
Bishop Mitrofan
- I'm supposed to. But still, I avoid it. Because some, having not been in command at one time, they think that now they need to command, and so pretend to be a big boss and, therefore, shout...
V. Emelyanov
- How do you manage without commanding? And in general, something like this, please forgive me for my frankness, but I have a hard time believing that a bishop and a former naval officer would somehow not command at all. Well, it seems to me, on the contrary, that, in theory, under the leadership of such a bishop, there should be an iron army order.
Bishop Mitrofan
“I think the person I’m facing already feels that I can command, and that’s enough.” He doesn’t bring our conversation or our whatever confrontation to this point.
V. Emelyanov
- Doesn't provoke.
Bishop Mitrofan
- Doesn't provoke. He understands that I’m probably right in certain matters. And if I'm wrong, then of course I will apologize. Therefore, we paused at something, we said something before about command. Oh, about the fact that I left the Navy.
V. Emelyanov
- That you don’t like to command, that you left the fleet, that you took command.
Bishop Mitrofan
- I gave orders. Therefore, I was not going to return to the fleet and, thank God, I spent 13 years in solitude, in an ancient Pomeranian village among ordinary people, Pomors, fishermen. And there I found myself, so to speak, great consolation, peace of mind. But the Lord wished that everything that I had gained during this time of some kind of prayerful solitude, contemplation of God, silence, that I managed to achieve there, so that I would now share it, would return back with my half-blooded friends, the officers. And His Holiness the Patriarch, as they say, called me from there again, from that worldly non-existence and, therefore, sent me specifically to work in this area. This is the diocese of the northern seas, the Barents and White Seas. I have the coast. The previous Murmansk diocese was divided in such a way that the industrial part remained with the current metropolitan, and I was given the entire coast, all the bases, all these remote garrisons, all our strategic forces.
V. Emelyanov
– Tell me, please, is it difficult for people to live there now?
Bishop Mitrofan
- Well, officers and employees of the fleet, they live quite comfortably. Still, the shock that our president experienced when visiting Vidyayev after the death of the Kursk, you say that television there now does not remember, somehow no one really remembers all this anymore...
V. Emelyanov
- No, they remember, but it’s all a little bit like that, you know...
Bishop Mitrofan
– I must say that there was some sort of trauma here, probably a spiritual trauma, I think so. When I raised this issue and talked about it when I was ten years old, it’s just very difficult for some people to return their thoughts to it again. Hard. We are very honored in the navy, here we are now on August 12, this is definitely a holiday of some kind and some kind of unity - all the residents of the garrison gather with their children, veterans gather. And the most important thing is that this is not some kind of Soviet rally, that means how it happened...
V. Emelyanov
– Now it is accepted again.
Bishop Mitrofan
- Yes. and we managed to melt this matter down. After all, we had four icons written in honor of these submariner guys. Four icons, where all 118 people around the perimeter in white robes are depicted, their faces. These are not icons for them, they are without halos, they are not saints at all, they are like around the perimeter, like on a frame, but this was very important. There is an icon of the Savior, the Mother of God of Kursk, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, St. Andrew the First-Called - these are four icons, and the crew was divided into these four icons. And now these icons, they are what this commemoration, this rally is taking place. That is, the rally is no longer a rally, because then a memorial service is held at these icons. The crews of the boats that are still alive now march past these icons and salute them, these guys. And it is very harmonious when the church understanding, the religious one, merges with the naval traditions, which have already been established. Here we are now, our diocese is doing just this, so that these two extremely conservative organizations - the Church and the navy, they are very protective of their traditions. The army is different, the navy has its own language, its own terms, its own procedures.
V. Emelyanov
- This is good?
Bishop Mitrofan
– Well, of course, this is the backbone, this is orthodoxy. The state is based on this, this is what the West is losing. What our president is talking about...
V. Emelyanov
- I'm talking about the fleet.
Bishop Mitrofan
- Well, the fleet, yes, of course, good. Naturally, this is great. And therefore, the interpenetration of these two organizations, carefully protecting their territory, is not an easy job. Here we need to move both one and the other, and not just resist: it’s customary for us to do this, so we’ll do it this way. And so we find this connection. You see, it is very important that new traditions are born in our country, which weigh heavily on our hearts. And here we are celebrating August 12th, which really weighs on our hearts. People just happily come up to the icons and kiss them, which means they are there. Not only carnations should be laid there at the monument. Well, okay, that's right, there's nothing wrong with that. But there must be a religious, spiritual component to it, and it is woven in, and everything seems very logical. And no one here says: again these churchmen have come here in large numbers, what are they telling us here? Everyone accepts everything with their souls. Or another example, let's say. Procession of the cross in honor of St. Andrew the First-Called in Severomorsk. Here we are preserving this tradition. This is when there is a religious procession, it doesn’t mean that grandmothers are walking, it means that some incomprehensible words are being sung there with banners. And this is the unity of the entire city. That is, this is not only a church choir, so to speak, this is a naval orchestra performing our favorite melodies, these are officers carrying the ark with relics, in full regalia. These are banners and naval banners at the same time. And all this together. The commander is coming, the administration is coming, I’m coming, everyone else is coming. And everything takes turns. This is a mobile bell tower, immediately the ringing began, then the orchestra struck up. Then the ringing again. And now it turns out that all this in our lives is in demand and lives on. And not at all two different, strange organizations that do not understand each other. This is our task now, this is what we are talking about. Like the institution of the military clergy, which is now being revived, so that it is really accepted not just as a directive, like the priest will come, everyone will listen to what he has to say. No, he will be absolutely in demand. How in demand was our Archpriest Sergius Sherfetdinov, who went with an aircraft carrier strike group to the shores of Syria for the war, during the four months of the campaign. This is the first time since 1917, when the clergy was abolished, for the first time in war. We went there for training and visits - that was easy, but it was our first time going to war.
V. Emelyanov
– Not everyone will go there.
Bishop Mitrofan
“A hundred years passed before the Lord came, and so he spent four months there.” It was hard for him. But he did a tremendous job there, and everyone understood it. And when they summed it up in Severomorsk, when everyone gathered, sighed, wiped the sweat from their foreheads, it’s still four months, forgive me, planes take off and land day and night, day and night. Just imagine - 1,800 bombing missions, this is a completely unprecedented load. We have never fought in naval aviation, we don’t have this experience. Aircraft carriers are America.
V. Emelyanov
“Yes, I think that here, among us civilians, few people can imagine what it’s like.”
Bishop Mitrofan
- Yes, it’s impossible to imagine how to sit on this patch there. And when the results were summed up and it turned out that we had no casualties, this could not have happened. Six thousand people took part, four months of hard work and nothing happened, nothing happened, nothing died, nothing happened. This does not happen, there is a mandatory percentage included. It is laid down according to the documents, according to the directives. In Soviet times, during such exercises, during exercises, up to four percent was pledged - wow. And we have none. And everyone looked at each other after that, listen, they say, it’s an amazing trip, why is it suddenly so great? And it became clear to everyone, but because they approached it differently.
V. Emelyanov
– And in your opinion, will we soon have a full-fledged institution of military clergy?
Bishop Mitrofan
– Well, it is fully formed. After all, the institute of military clergy...
V. Emelyanov
– Will it soon form entirely, so that yes, that’s it? We have such an institution.
Bishop Mitrofan
- So we have such an institution. I’m saying that this is not a priest who came, who was called and told: come today, not tomorrow. This is the staff of the Ministry of Defense.
V. Emelyanov
- Oh, that's it!
Bishop Mitrofan
– This is the position: assistant to the commander of the unit for work with believers. Assistant unit commander. Can you imagine the priest taking over? This is a very respected and responsible person. He, of course, does not command there and does not stand at attention, but he has authority, he is the assistant commander. He is not just the eldest who was sent to. Therefore, this is truly a unique decision. And this level of interaction and mutual understanding that exists now, His Holiness quite rightly said, when he was seventy years old, when the two presidents were present, remember, Lukashenko, and he said that this level did not exist in pre-revolutionary Russia.
V. Emelyanov
“Vladyka, I can talk to you for an infinitely long time.” Your story is very interesting both about your naval everyday life, and now about the everyday life of the diocese. Our time, unfortunately, has come to an end. To be honest, I would like to talk with you for another hour, because your stories are very interesting. Thank you very much. It is a great honor and great joy for me to meet you, please come and see us again. In general, this is a very good topic for a separate conversation - the military clergy.
Bishop Mitrofan
- Undoubtedly.
V. Emelyanov
– Just to trace, yes, from the pre-revolutionary 17th year, to talk about political instructors, because this is also a kind of replacement, yes, in the language of psychology, and that this is being revived today. You and I will need to make such a transfer. Thank you.
Bishop Mitrofan
- Thank you. God bless.
V. Emelyanov
- Thank you. Dear friends, I remind you that my interlocutor today was Bishop Mitrofan of North Sea and Umba. I thank you for your attention. The program was conducted by Vladimir Emelyanov. I say goodbye to you, see you again. Goodbye.
